1/3/23 Board Meeting

001All righty. Good evening everybody. Um, if you don't mind standing with us, we'll go ahead and do the pledge of allegiance and then we have a brief moment of silence for us to gather our thoughts and and then we will start our meeting. So, Director Jones, if you can kick us off. All righty. Thank you very much. Um, so for this evening, you will see that we have a nice new timer clock here that's rather large. So, we are trying to get ourselves uh more streamlined and organized here so that when we do have presentations, um the board can help stay on track, the presenter can help stay on track. Um we know a lot of times you get into your information and we want to hear that information, but we also want to make

002sure that we're keeping our meetings uh timely as well. So, um so for those of you that will be presenting this evening, you will have the clock here for all of us to uh keep ourselves on track. and director Jones is the uh the arbiter of the clock. So um so we will go ahead and get started. Uh number one, board appreciation month recognition. All right. So um it is board appreciation month and I have a uh recognition uh resolution that I want to read off real quick. So it says um every January the Mesa County School District 51 administration staff, parents, and students recognize our board of education members during schoolboard recognition month. Serving on the board of education is an honorable, selfless service involving countless hours, participating in meetings, communicating with constituents, reviewing

003proposals, and making tough decisions, all in the best interest of our students and families. Schoolboard members are elected to sit uh in trust for their communities and are charged with meeting the community's expectations for the public education of their students. Board members receive no pay for their service. Um, so deciding to serve on a school board truly takes an innate belief that making a difference in the lives of children is worth the public scrutiny that may come with the title. Schoolboard members are entrusted with some of our community's most prized possessions, our children, and our money. Uh, they are accountable to the community for operating schools that support student achievement. They're responsible for being good stewards of tax dollars, providing a clear and shared vision of our school's public education, setting high standards, and requiring

004effective and efficient district operations. We are proud of the work of our school board uh and the work they do and their commitment to the continuous education and training on issues related to student achievement. The elected school board members deserve recognition and thanks for their countless hours of service to public education and the children of Mesa County. I urge our community to join me in recognizing the dedication and hard work of our local schoolboard members and their commitment to sharing the district's vision to engage, equip, and empower each and every student each and every day. So on behalf of our staff, students, and parents, I hereby declare our appreciation to the Mesa County Valley School District 51 school board members and proclaim the month of January 2023 to be school board recognition month. Thank you.

005[Applause] Thank And and I'll just say on behalf of, you know, senior leadership and and all the folks that get to interact with y'all um a lot more often than maybe maybe others, uh we do appreciate all that y'all do and uh putting our students first and for helping us lead um the school district. And um yeah, it's just been a it's been a really good experience. And so I appreciate y'all's leadership through all this. We gave everybody a nice little gift because as we said earlier, you don't get paid, but um we can pay you in candy. So um there's a gift for y'all there and Bridget uh helped get that for us. So, appreciate Bridget for doing that. Um, and then we'll we'll maybe recognize y'all again in a couple weeks uh with

006something else. So, but thank you'all. Thanks, Dr. Hill. All right, we now have our United Way campaign drawings. Need our drum roll. All right, we'll give it a run. All right, I echo Dr. Hill's sentiments. you guys. Thank you so much for your service. Um, it helps so much to have people who are dedicated like you that care about the kids and care about our staff and the community. Thank you very much. My name is Corey Hayy. I'm the principal at Appleton Elementary, the famous bookworms and I'm co-chair of the District 51 United Way pledge campaign. To my left here is Angela Christensen. She is the D51 Foundation executive director and she's gonna help me with the presentation a little bit tonight. Okay, so the D-51 United Way pledge campaign is an exciting annual event

007where D51 employees partner with the United Way of Mesa County to help fund 42 programs and 27 local nonprofit agencies. These programs serve about 50,000 people in Mesa County and address a variety of social problems focused on health, education, and self-reliance. Our D51 employees are the largest yearly organization donor to the pledge drive and have given somewhere in the neighborhood of $1.3 million in donations since the partnership began. That's your custodians, your cafeteria staff, your coaches, your administrators, your teachers, your grounds and maintenance, and every other D51 department is represented in do donating some of their hard-earned uh money to United Way of Mesa County. They do this because they know it positively impacts the kids and the families that go to our schools. But before I get to all the good news about this

008year's results and what a great partnership it is, I'd like to recognize several people who made this partnership possible. Um Jessica Newman, she's my co-coordinator for several years and she's the West Middle School assistant principal. April Hart, our D51 office of volunteers and community partnerships is behind the scenes organizer. April does an amazing job of taking care of a lot of details. A lot of details. Z Miracle is here tonight. He's right here. He's the United Way of Mesa County Executive Director. And with him is his administrative and donor manager here at Clark. They do such an amazing job for our county and for the people here. It it just it's just incredible. You probably can't measure um just in dollars what what they do for everyone. Um and then obviously Dr. Dr. Angela Christensen

009is here too and she helps with this a lot and she's going to give some words here in just a moment. And we couldn't do this drive without the D-51 building coordinators. There's 52 of them that run each building uh their program and we couldn't do it without them. They put in a lot of time and effort and so it's a big project. It really is. It takes in a lot of people to do this and make it go well. So, all right. Here's the good news. 63 more D-51 employees supported the pledge drive than last year. So, we increased our number. That equals 843 generous D51 employees who donated 74,381.50 back into the community. That is amazing. So, I'm I'm just going to say thank you for that. And I'm going to turn it

010over to Angela for a little bit. Okay. Thank you so much, Corey. I want to just begin by thanking all the staff members who have designated their United Way donation specifically to the D51 Foundation. That's one of the options that they have. And to celebrate this, um it's just it has made such a substantial difference. We have received the foundation this year in particular has received over $9,000 of their funds of the total amount and that is a big deal and it will go a long way to help fund our mission and part of our mission is to raise funds for academic growth and achievement and to promote outreach to benefit kids and the community. I definitely want to take a moment though right now to highlight the work that Corey Hayy has done for

011years and your years and his partner um Jessica Newman. Without their enthusiasm and I see them at the staff meetings and without their enthusiasm and motivation, we would not see this. And so I'd just like to take a moment to recognize Corey and Jessica. It's been my pleasure to work with the United Way. And one thing I'd just like to highlight for a moment is something that um we've been really promoting throughout the school district and that is the Mesa County Imagination Library. Some of you might be familiar with this with Dolly Parton and her Dollywood Foundation, but it is um a really wonderful opportunity for any child in Mesa County from the ages of zero to five to register to receive a book every single month. There are no um no strings attached, no

012income requirements, nothing like that. All that families need to do is go to imagination library.com and that is run through our Mesa County United Way. So if you haven't heard about that, I would really encourage you to do that and it's a joy to be able to celebrate that and that partnership and you'll see more of that coming from the foundation. All right, that is really good news and to have a reading connection this year to Dolly Part and then with our school district. I mean that's that is part of the reasons why I think the number increased in number of employees participating as well. So we have some awards to give out. Every year we recognize the schools that had the highest increase in staff participation and this year the highest and these folks

013get a plaque by the way a traveling plaque they get to have in their school for a year. So the elementary school that had the highest increase was do Rios with an 80% increase in participation. So, congratulations Rios. The middle schools, uh, Wilcliffe Middle School had a 27% increase. That's pretty exciting. And the high school was Valley High School. They had over 42% more employees participate this year than in the year prior. So, that's great. And the office building that had the biggest increase was the Emerson building with 16 and a half more percent of folks participating. All right. And now we get to do some drawings. You guys got to help us out with this part. It's always a fun part of the year. So what we do here is Angela was helping out

014here. So, what we're going to do is we're going to um for every person that donated in and that is a classified employee that donated $5 per pay period, we choose six of the staff members from the classified ranks that donated this and we will have you read their name off if you would like and those folks win a day off, free day off of work. How about that? So, these classified folks work really hard and then they donate on top of that. So, we're going to reward them for All right, we need six of those picked and we'll collect those once you're done. We'll collect those so that Bridget has a a good record of everybody. All right, if you guys don't mind reading off who you have, that'd be great. In admin, I

015have Denise Cording Leard. All right, great. At Central High School, I have Daniel Monkey. All right, Daniel. Um, at BTK, Eva Gi. From Thunder Mountain, Candy Fowler. And from Central High School, Anne Bricker. Right. And from West Middle School, Kathy Cypes. All right. Good. Okay, now you get to help out. you're choosing right now are six certified staff members. These folks had to donate at least $10 per pay period and we choose six of them as well. Go ahead. Shel Brittany Wilms right Shel at Mesa View. Cynthia Valdez Thunder Mountain. Len Bordon from Fra 89. Ruth McKe from Appleton Elementary. Wendy Mcome. Yes. [Applause] And from the Compass Building, Elaine Butuda. All right. All right. We appreciate all those certified staff members donating. And now there are three administrative just three administrative folks. These folks

016had to uh dedicate $20 per pay period. We choose three of them to have a day off as well. All right. Okay. From Central, Lance Seline. All right. Lance from Compass, Katherine Evil. Oh, yeah. Great. Did that work? Kathy's retired. All right. Okay. All right. You know what we're gonna do? We're gonna choose another one there, too. That's what we're gonna do there. So, all right. Let's try one more there. Even on the way out, Kathy was donating. Look at that. No, there supposed to be three. Supposed to be three. But we're going to do four because Kathy's so from Chipa, we have Jamie Cairo. Jamie, Appleton, Cory. Non honestly, you got to redo that. I am not kidding. Not kidding. I have him pick a different Have him pick a different That's not right.

017That What are the odds? Rigged. Oh, pick a different one. Emerson. Jennifer Marsh. [Laughter] Pick another one. Oh, I love it. That's great. That is fantastic. Hey, well, the awards aren't done yet. We have some United or excuse me, some D-51 Foundation awards as well. Yeah. And I just quickly want to highlight we are in the midst of our White Ice Celebration season. We'll be having our 11th White Ice Celebration and I'm very pleased. I'm This is the first showing of our poster for White Ice and as you can see there are a lot of sponsors and we have increased sponsorship every year. this year is by about a remarkable over 20% increase from last year, which in my mind just really highlights the wonderful things that are happening in our school district and our

018businesses are taking notice and it's just fantastic. Um, our event will be on Saturday, February 4th at 7 o'clock. And so one of the ways that we um help encourage our staff members to attend is by offering different incentives for their participation in um noting the foundation for their United Way designation. So for the building that raises the most money for the D51 Foundation, they will receive six white ice tickets and that is BTK. All right, BTK. For the building with the highest number of foundation donors, they will receive six tickets. And that is Palisade High School. All right. Palade. And we have two folks that will be drawn from all of the donors to receive two tickets to the White Ice. So, I'm gonna pass those around. Okay. Right over here. from Rocky Mountain,

019Tyler Jones. All right. From Grand Junction High School, Christine Spalain. All right. Good. Well, we just want to thank you guys again for your service um and recognizing you guys just have done such a good job supporting the school district and supporting United Way. Um this is a great partnership. It helps our entire community, helps our kids. This is a great thing that we do every year. And so we just appreciate you guys and we appreciate Zeb and Kira. Thank you very much. And uh have a happy 2023. All right. Well, thank you very much. Um, that was kind of fun. Changes things up a little bit for the board to draw some names. All right. We have our Grand Junction High School construction update. Come on down. I know we left you two by

020yourself. It's all right. You, Micah, you got this. They're coming. All right. I believe this is the last slide. Actually, I need to Yeah, the clock started. How can I control it here? Perfect. Great. Thank you. Um, well, it's good to see you all. I believe I've met most of you, but my name is Micah Adams. I'm a project manager for dynamic program management or the owners rep on the project. Uh with me I've got Peter Eisenogle with the BLE group the architect and uh Mark Liten uh project manager with FCI. So we'll hop into it. Um as far as overall schedule goes, there's no update. Everything's tracking well. Um, as far as budget goes, uh, we've got about 130 million committed out of the $144 million budget, uh, with about 23 million expended, um,

021through the end of November. Uh, we're just starting to get invoices and pay applications for the month of December. Um, so that that will be going up here soon. As far as um percentage complete uh number of days were about 25% complete and budget about 16% like I said that will be increasing again here soon and uh that lag lag is pretty typical in a construction project that will that the lag between the number of days completed and the project budget completed. So, uh, we expect that, um, budget number to start catching up as things ramp up on site. Uh, so here's a couple interesting construction metrics we've got for you. Um, you know, right now we're hitting about 92 people on site per day. Uh, which is pretty exciting. Uh, when we worked on

022Orchard Mesa Middle School at the peak, we had about 150 people on site. And so 92 people on site each day this early on in the project kind of gives you a picture for what we expect down the road. There's been about 60,000 square feet of uh concrete floor slabs poured already. About 316 uh construction material test reports. about 35,000 concrete masonry unit blocks laid and about 405 tons of steel placed uh as of last week. So move things are moving along really well. things that were recently completed. Uh bid package six, that's uh for the 700 building and the existing gym remodels. That design was completed and has been sent out to subcontractors for finalized pricing. Uh and the walls and roof structure for the gym have been uh completed. They're going through and

023detailing now. and the slabs for pretty much the entire classroom wing have been poured. So, in progress, uh we're just finalizing some design for the uh soccer fields, tennis courts, um as well as the furniture. Uh constructionwise, as you can see in that picture, we've got the structural steel going on for the classroom wing, starting on the west half, then we'll move to the east half next. Um but it's really exciting to go out and just see that structure um in place. I don't know if you have driven by recently or not, but I suggest you do. Uh as we've also got uh you know ongoing utility installations uh underground upcoming uh we're doing more uh furniture design meetings. Actually this last week we just had an abatement walkthrough. Uh there will be some asbesus

024abatement in the existing high school summer 23. Uh so we'll be selecting a contractor to do that work here shortly. Uh we expect the pricing for bid package six to come back mid January and uh we've got ongoing uh utility work in the alley there east of the project. Here's just a couple more pictures of progress. Uh you can see masonry installation. um you know preparation for concrete there in the building, the structural steel as uh as well as the basement there in the auditorium coming together. That's the update that we have at this time. Do you have any questions? All right. Thanks, guys. or so far. Not. It was fun to walk around today. You can probably still see mud stains on my pants, but if you can see my boots, they're pretty muddy.

025It's It's muddy out there. They're still moving um along pretty well. It's slowed them down a little bit here lately, but nothing that's um nothing that's an issue. So, just on that original slide you had up there that had the 144.5, I just think it's important to remember that the ask that we had for the community was actually only 115 um because of the savings from previous bonds um that we put towards this and then the $10 million best grant that the district got. So, we're getting $144.5 million state-of-the-art high school and we only had to ask for 150 million from the taxpayers. So, I just don't want to lose sight of that. Yeah, that's a great point. Thanks, Brian. That's awesome. Thank you, guys. All right. Now, we'll move to our uh K12 early

026release presentation. There was a little extra time on the table there. Yes, Jeremiah. There are three of us. Um, I did tell Danny this. Don't hit I'm not. Oh, yeah. I'm queuing it up. I said, "Danny, they've got a timer." He said, "God, I would have liked to have known. I shouldn't need to know that up front." Hello. Happy New Year. I'm Jennifer Marsh. I think we all know each other. And I've got Danny. Danny Medbed, uh, director of professional learning. And we have a building principal with us this evening as well. Jeremiah, you want to introduce Jeremiah Johnston for the middle school. So we want to talk about early release. Um early release right now is as you know at our elementaryaries and it's our Friday and we would like to um start exploring

027actually we've started to explore. We want to fill you guys in a little bit and we still have some other additional steps that we need to go through to identify if this is a a viable option or not to have a universal early release in our in our district. So that would be at all three levels, elementary, middle, and high. Um so the early release we would um make sure that we would envision that every school would be following these aims and we've talked about I've been in front of you guys and we've talked a number of times about our aims and those are essentially our academic and our and our cultural um goals our aim one and aim two that every building has and how would we ensure that these goals not only for

028the district and our strategic plan goals but also those building goals And this would opp provide that opportunity for and I'm sorry I've got a hair that keeps sticking in my eye that would provide opportunity for our our each of our buildings to be able to focus on these goals. So this is something um read a book and we've been um using this book a lot at um our instructional level and bringing it to our buildings. It isn't the changes that will do you in, it's the transitions and how are we managing transitions. So just to say that we're going to decide to make the change. Change you can talk about but how do you manage what the transition looks like when you make that change? And in that book there are four essential um

029components to managing your transition. And that is what is the purpose? Why did you make the change? What the picture? What would it look like? What would the outcomes look like? Then a plan. Lay out a plan step by step so everybody knows and understands what it looks. Why are we doing this? What does it look like? What is the plan to get there? And then player, what does each individual from parents to students to teachers and at each level, what does each player, what is their role and what it would look like tonight? We're going to talk about most or we're going to talk about purpose and we're going to start laying out some pictures because we have some next steps. So why? What's our rationale? Why? What is we'll we're going to talk

030about the purpose of early release, but why are we moving forward in talking to you and talking to other building principles um to make sure that we're grounded. We have a good rationale to why. Um obviously we need a deeper ongoing focus on student academic and social emotional success especially in our achievement group gap our gaps that were we know were those those groups that have the largest gaps that ongoing and in-depth time to collaborate without pulling people um staff out of buildings. It's hard. one it's hard teachers don't want to leave their students and the other we it's hard to find our subs and make sure that we're focusing on all of our students but especially our students that are struggling and um ensuring that they're meeting those their potential the opportunity for robust

031learning opportunities and those business and community connections both with staff and with students some of our old older students and that way to ensure that MTSS or those multi-tered support system giving our teachers the opportunity to collaborate, come together, what are the strategies that they need to be using and how are they using data to inform. So everything is always going to be data informed and so how providing that time to meet the needs of our students. I'm going to go through the next slides pretty quick because I see our time is ticking. But and as I would hope you would expect that we would talk about there's got to be an alignment to the strategic plan. And so of course it does with our prepared and supported staff and our prepared and supported students.

032Um, this is data that I've already been and um, shared with you guys, but I just want to remind you that we have we've got some growth and we want to continue to maintain and sustain that growth. And in proficiency, your proficiency or growth precedes proficiency. Of course, you see we do have some um that we've we keep growing and going upwards. We want this time to allow and to continue for that growth. And so, oh, go ahead. And I was just going to say, and I will be coming back towards the end of the month with our middle of the year data. So, but this is data you guys have already seen. And so, uh, while our district-wide strategy is working, um, we showed you this back in our professional learning update in October.

033We know that our strategy is not being effective for some of our groups of kids. The good news is we know which groups of kids those are. Those are our students from poverty. Those are our multilingual learners, and especially our students with disabilities. As you can see here, this is reading that purple line, 50th percentile, that's a year's growth in a year's time. And we, as well as all of our comparison districts are falling short of that mark. Um, that's a big part of the why behind this early release is these groups of learners. Similar for math, we're not hitting that year's growth for really any of these gap groups. And so, these groups make up a big part of the rationale for early release. You've heard uh concerns expressed to you around attendance and

034student engagement as a board at times. So, we wanted to just share kind of a a middle of the year where we're at, our leaders will see this data on Friday. Starting with attendance, when we think of those uh diverse groups of kids that aren't being as successful academically. This is our students with disabilities on the left, you can see back two years ago, we were at an 85% attendance rate for that group of learners. We're now down over 2% under 83. Uh our students from poverty, similar trend. We've dropped over a percentage there. and our multilingual learners we've dropped. Um let's continue with this thread. Uh here's student engagement. Uh as we think about behavior, behavior in our schools, we hear the stories. The numbers actually tell the truth, too. Uh at this same

035point last year, we had 705 uh ex exclusionary discipline referrals. That's inschool suspensions. We're up 772. 881 last year. This one's a little shocking. We're at,52. So 400 more out of school suspensions. Um our some of our students have needs and it's important the only way we can respond to that problem is by knowing which learners they are. Um unfortunately the same groups of our learners that are struggling with academic proficiency are also having behavior challenges. And so you see here here's our students with disabilities. Generally you want to have that percentage of group match the number. So if 17% of our students have a disability, then 17% should be showing up with discipline referrals. Right now that's 42% of our discipline referrals are students with disabilities. Um and that was uh in school as

036well out of school suspension there. Um and our number is holding pretty steady for the last two years. You can see our students uh from poverty economic challenges similar trend. they make up 33 or 32% and they're representing over half of our discipline challenges. Um, these aren't these are trends that have existed for some time. You can see right here, here's our students with disabilities who also have an economic challenge. They make up less than 10% of our population. They make up 25% of our discipline referrals right now. And so, uh, this just goes to say, you got to know that there's a challenge so you can respond to it. These are the groups of kids that need additional support from us. Uh here's a little good news for you. As a learning system overall,

037if you look at the far right, 22 23, the green arrows, we are seeing a trend up with student engagement with attendance districtwide. Um so as you saw that data before, those groups of learners that make up 20 to 30% of our district are carrying a disproportionate amount of um the engagement challenges. And so another piece, and I apologize for the formatting. I think it changed when we moved over to PowerPoint. Uh it it wasn't that way in the Google slide, but um 504s and students with uh disabilities. So we actually have um more litigation related to 504s, that's American Disability Act, than we have with special education currently. And as we've talked with um Patty Burden has been studying this, uh there's really four big areas. Number one, our staff are illquipped. They don't

038know how accommodations are determined. They they don't really know how to develop the plans, how to monitor the plans, nor is their time. And so 504s has kind of been a off the radar thing that's becoming more forefront. And that's a group that we believe early release would impact as well. And then lastly, uh if you see here, um this is it's always good to compare yourself to other districts. And so what we have right here is comparison to other large districts across the state. Um and you'll see here that almost all of them have some form of early release. Uh Josh uh one of the consultants we work with for learning communities has said early release would be a major game changer. Uh something to note though is that there's big variability in the

039frequency in the format. There's not like a common early release format. Uh many of the smaller to medium districts do run a 4-day week that has a large amount of professional learning in there. We're not advocating for that, but it's kind of a form of an early release. And then high performing networks and groups of schools and districts tend to have this structure as a a key part of what they do. Um so as we close this part and we think about um why we think an early release is important. So obviously as we know that moral obligation to do our best to serve and support our most impacted learners, that legal obligation to serve these um groups and that fiscal responsibility to do well and avoid litigation, but here's that opportunity for our teachers

040to come together and work together. they're the experts and giving them that time um during their work week to be able to meet the needs and the challenges that the data is just sharing where we've got issues. Now, let's dig in and what do we need to do as um a learning community to meet those challenges. Um, so we want to study this concept or this idea of a D-51 K12 um, weekly Friday early release. Um, we do want to keep it in line with elementary. We've gotten as being part of the calendar committee um, we've gotten a large amount of input and feedback that parents like that Friday. So, we would not want to change that when we went universal. Um, so that would include our middle schools and our high schools and it

041would be on that Friday. So, we need to develop that shared vision and outcomes in alignment with our strategic um plan priorities. Studying and developing models and designs that balance the school context and the district strategic plan priorities because we know not every building has the same context. And so while we all have the same large global um goals, each one of our buildings need to be afforded that time and opportunity to meet them as their context and what their data says. Considering um the logistical elements and implementations, my word, it's if I've been on vacation, um implications of moving to a systemwide early release. This is something that um our our families, our entire community, so our teachers, our students, and our f families would need to know and understand. And what are those

042um what are the expectations for asking our community to to release all students K12 um early on Friday afternoon. So here again you have back to our strategic plan with our um our vision on the bottom engage equip and empower each and every student each and every day which has our in the middle. We've talked about this so much and we always keep our that graduate profile in focus in line. Why do we do what we do? So that our students leave our organization or our system prepared and ready for the next step. So, how does this go with early release? How might a systemwide early release advance our strategic plan priorities and students realization of the graduate profile in unique ways based on each school's context. And so with that, we um as we

043laid this plan out, um here we go. Yeah, we're working off of a different deck, so the deck's got switched. So, we hear that. They hear that. They do. Go ahead. Go ahead, boss. Um, so getting clear those must have elements. This is not in place of master schedule, common plan, learning, community time that buildings have already built in their master schedules. Each school must have an explicit MTSS focus that process and those protocols as one reoccurring element. The LC planning time, the learning learning community planning time needs to be guided and outcomebased. Um again, you can't have um data informed without having what are those outcomes and how how do we know we're making a difference? and those monthly and weekly um those cadence online outlines shared with site directors in our professional learning

044office. So it can't be a given that every oh yeah where everybody's doing it and this is nope. What are your artifacts that are supporting when you're meeting what you're talking about and what are the roles? What is everybody during do doing during this time? So, as we look at some of those nuts and bolts, um it's important that we think about what is effective professional learning. Going to a conference one time won't actually change anything. Effective professional learning is going to focus on where do we want to be with our students? Is it regular and ongoing? Is it relevant to an educator's practice? Is there some choice in there? Does it involve individual feedback so I can get better? And then, am I collaborating with peers? And so as we think of those nuts

045and bolts, we wanted to name that our MTSS group for one of the groups in whole is actually a group that has struggled to have those elements. There's a lot of different reasons. Patty Verden gave an update in December about this. Um what you can see here is really the desired outcome on the right side is that these departments are our student behavior department would like to see more of a focus on ongoing learning communities. They'd like to see a more systemic use of some of the great tools and platforms that we pay for and have. Um they'd like us to create space for our general education and special education collaboration. Generally, that doesn't happen the way that master schedules work. Um and there's a similar trend with our gifted and talented learners as well

046as our um our multilingual learners. And so student services is actually one of the biggest groups and those are the groups that we looked at at the beginning that would benefit from an early release. Okay. And so as we get ready to close, we actually wanted to look at what is it specifically that an early release would look like if we block this time. This was a prototype that we shared with school leaders. And you can see right here um that week one and week three would be a focus on school culture. Really that student behavior um element that we talked about. What are those practices and strategies to respond to some of these concerning behaviors? You'll see that the bottom pink in week two and four is called the kid talk. And that's where

047we sit down and we say, "Hey, how is Danny doing? He's really flared up. He was out of school suspension last week." It's a collective intervention that we can put in place for him. Do we need to bring in somebody from the district level to help coach into some of these skills? Weeks two and weeks four are a place for those ongoing data meetings to take place um where we can calibrate. And so um Jeremiah was actually going to share a little bit that was just a prototype. It's been exciting to see our school leaders take this idea back um to their buildings. Can you share a little Jeremiah about what this might be for Pruda? Yeah. Well, thanks for letting me be here tonight and I want to echo Dr. Hill and Mr. and

048just saying thank you for all you do. We feel you at the site level, your guidance and support. So, thank you. Um, being lucky enough to be part of this committee, um, has allowed me to be able to frontload some of the concepts for our ILT in the building. And one of the the things that comes up in education, as we all know, is money. But I think if you asked educators, maybe the most important currency is time. And so when we're having these conversations, creating this time, when we're having those conversations with our ILT, you can just see their faces light up like, "Hey, we could do this during that time and have time to to put general education teachers together in the same room with special education teachers on a regular basis to

049have these talks like uh Dr. Medv was talking about um taking time for staff wellness, continuing these ongoing data meetings. um and our our staff really kind of took to it and was excited in these initial um conversations. One of the things of note um that I tweaked a little bit on on mine was uh the hour and 45 minute template taking 60 minutes and then taking 45 minutes. Just one thing from the site level to con consider is it's really not an hour and 45 minutes. once you get kids out of the building, once people finish up their afterchool duties, once you get staff back in the building and they take care of their needs and you get everybody in the same place. So that's just a consideration from the site level that I

050would offer. Um, but yeah, just the ability to have these deep, rich, ongoing, regular conversations instead of feeling out uh feeling like they get chunked out four times a year or quarterly or something like that. I think just the regularity in a system like this would be really advantageous and exciting for us at the site level. So we're pretty much at our end with questions. Just want to give you a timeline. Uh we've been working on this since October or November. We are now at the engaging the board in the community level and schools continue to refine what a possible plan would be. January through May is really site leadership teams beginning to develop logistics and PL plans in the event that we can move forward. Um these are some important work groups to be

051aware of. Uh in particular, we've been pulling leaders, all of our secondary leaders by level to think about what would we do with that time. But the blue is what are the operational considerations? What does this mean for transportation, nutrition, etc. And then are there policy considerations, whether that's color, department of ed, full-time funding, minutes, um our association agreement, master schedules, uh we have a court order with the office of civil rights for our language learners. So, all of those things need to be considered as we take this more seriously. Um, so in closing, look, Danny, we're doing good on time. We got a minute left. Um, what are our next steps? We met with just our principal. I should say just our principles, but our secondary leaders to make sure this is something that

052they wanted and they could actually picture it in their mind. Those where the prototypes came from. So, what are our next steps? We we've talked to all of our principles, but we want them to continue to refine their school specific, we're calling them prototypes, what their schedule would look like to ensure that all the required elements are in the plan. Um the next leadership study group meeting, we're going to meet again in January 20th um from 2 to 4. We keep meeting on Fridays during early release time. principles to potentially share these plans with their school accountability um groups to make sure that their Sachs or their school accountability committees have some input and ideas and and thoughts. Again, it's engaging our our community and our parents um to provide that rationale for the school

053context and get that parent input early release um senior leadership decision. We're hoping by the 1 of February and then continue to work um with our these work groups so that we can create that action or if you remember at the beginning um what's the plan? What would the plan look like and how would we enroll it or unveil it or roll it out so that all of our players know and understand what their job role or responsibility is within their school or within the district. Good. Thank you for that. Yeah, every time I hear, you know, it's I like that we're addressing the fact that just taking your bullets that there isn't really time for special education learning community meetings and um data meetings that need to monitor the 504s. Like, yes. And then,

054you know, specialists engaging in the learning community and that we don't really have a a way that we're doing those things right now. So, all of those things make a lot of sense. Like, yes, we we have to do those things. So, how do we find a way to do these things? This seems to be a solution. We did have one question when we were looking, you know, you compared the school districts and said, well, the school districts do these and the ones that do well do these. And so, I was just like glancing at them. I I mean I believe that there's value in creating time for these teams to you know do better by these students and you know reduce our legal exposure by doing better by the students. Um but it seems

055to be the you know like pter does the best always and they don't have it. Um Thompson has it weekly and they're doing the worst of our just comparables. And so I believe that this time is important, but when you when you look at this, I'm just, you know, I think that the quality comes from again, not the quantity of time, but the quality of time. Yeah. And so I I think that as we move forward really knowing, believing in the process and making sure that we're putting steps in place that we're not again pulling at Thompson and just having all that time and not meeting our needs. You know, I want to make sure that we're we feel really dedicated and good about what we're doing. And it it sounds like that's in place,

056but that just that just blocks me a little. I I think blocking the time we there's only so much we can do as a district level and that's why this has been a partnership of district providing guidance and direction based on evidence and then school leadership teams really fleshing it out with their their site directors saying do we have a high quality plan? Um there's a number of high achieving districts in there but in general it really does come down to each site leadership team and how they use that time. So we have to create the conditions for that and the our site leaders um you guys really talked about that on how do we ensure that we're keeping that time um sacred as it was being created or meant to do and because sometimes

057um it's a good intention but doesn't already go through and they were really thoughtful and talking to each other on how they need to make sure that they're following those expectations and helping um their student or I'm sorry their students their their teachers meet these expectations of of time management as well. I don't know if you said it very well. So, how does the board hold that or the district hold the sites accountable? Is it through our leaders? Because um you know, if this is something that you know the board that well that we the district that we move forward with, it's one like I agree with what Dr. Schultz is saying. It's great if we if we grant the time, but if two years from now, all of a sudden that time is not

058used for what we wanted it for and we're kind of back to square one. It's almost like we took two steps forward only to take one step back. So, I guess what is that part of what you're going to flush out here in the next few months is like is to make sure that this stays consistent and on track and um you get some good momentum uh moving forward with something like this or is that going to be up to principles? You know, I guess I just want to know that our families know that we're going to hold the time accountable uh for the trip because I think it's great, but I just want I just want there to be assurances that we are going to do what we're Yeah. And I think that's very

059important. I think it goes back to um time being that commodity. Um it's money too, right? And so making sure no do I think it's all going to be sight. No, it's got to be my responsibility. It's got to be part of professional learning. And then um the other side of the house too with student services and how what is the plan that we put it? So it's everybody ensuring that we're meeting those expectations with their time. Yeah, of course. our site directors. I would ask them as who I support them that when they're in their buildings and they're with their site leaders, they meet with each one of their site leaders um different times different times during the month. you know, is that one of the things they they all have playbooks and what

060do they talk about um or ensuring that in their playbook there is an opportunity that they make time that I'm not only am I going to come in and meet with Jeremiah about early release, I want to see what the agenda was, what was going on. And so site directors, of course, that could be a part of it, but it's got to be part of my responsibility. It's got to be part of curriculum and um professional learning and student services and how are we supporting and what data are we collecting to ensure that um the the time is being used as designed and then how are we as a district supporting our schools in order to meet the needs of their staff and their students. I'd really like to know how uh you're going to

061gauge that time like what data are you going to collect and how are you going to I mean not that we need to get into the weeds. I'm just more curious because I'd like to know how you're going to then moni like monitor the the the outcome year-over-year. Um I I mean you guys do a really good job of that now with other things. So I imagine that you have a plan for it, but I think that's you know I think that would be helpful to know like are we on the right trajectory by doing this? Um because we obviously want to see better student outcomes for those particular groups for sure. Well, and as I say, you have 25 examples right now. So, with the elementary schools doing it, how I guess maybe I

062don't know if you want to talk about it now or how are you monitoring to make sure or how do you set up early release time for elementary schools and then how are we actually monitoring whether that's effective because I think we could probably build off of that. Yeah, so so elementary does give us a grade proof point on what we call curriculum based professional learning. We also want to view this as slightly differently. This is actually more robust than the elementary approach where at elementary the school directs one day per month and then the district directs one for example our focus on early literacy and our partnership with strive literacy consultants. So I think that element of what is what is our key driving professional learning for the year would be in there from

063elementary but especially at secondary where we see these behaviors cropping up and you saw the the data. The biggest gap we have right now is time for teams to meet let's say a whole sixth grade team to say who are the top five learners who are just not getting it academically. That's what we call kid talks and they really if you were to check consistently happening they're probably less than 20% of the time. We just don't have the space in our master schedule. So, so out of the four Fridays that elementaryaries have right now, two of those are are planned. They're set aside for plan where our teachers have that opportunity, that individual time to use what they need to focus on on their focus. This is when Danny says more robust. This is that

064defined autonomy. Here are the things that you need to be talking about and here are the tools that you can be. Um, and so we do have a prototype in elementary, but the district only has one Friday a month. Yeah. So, and and I guess the the last metric, this is not new work. This is an extension of the work that's been underway for three years or so. So, when schools set plan, do study act goals tied to learning communities, this is to build on and go deeper. Which kids didn't get it? Did we meet? Right. And so, this would be a this would strengthen what exists, I I guess I would just add um an example from our site level because of our loss in FTE this past year. We had to create a

065brand new master schedule to create flexibility in classes which caused us to have to decor. Um we used to have cores where we would have kid talks, radar meetings. The counselor would be in there every Wednesday with a different core talking about kids, putting together a list, putting together an intervention plan. That's gone away now because we don't have that common core time. We don't have common grade level time. So all those talks are having to take place outside of their normal school day either before school or after school. That's just a site example. And the other thing is many times when um when I was a middle school building principal, the time that our when we talk about our general ed and our special ed teachers having opportunity during the day to collaborate, it

066was many times that our students used their um receive their special specialized instruction when the uh general ed teachers were on plan. And so this now provides that opportunity. So they were both busy at there was no time during the day that they could meet and collaborate and this provides that time. To hone in a little bit on what Dr. Hill was asking, what how are we tracking the success in elementary schools? So that's each sites um so that it's really twofold. Our focus this year, there's a a district-wide focus each year and then each school leadership team comes together six times a year. That's what our Nick convenings are to really say, "Okay, where do we want to go quarter one? Great. Let's plan it. Now, let's roll it out." And so the site

067directors meet as much as weekly or four times a month or once a month. So bi-weekly, every week or once a month, and they really say, "How are you doing actually implementing? Let's go walk classrooms. Let's watch your district Friday." And so that follows a sequence. This year it's been around the science of reading and getting us ready for the adoption of our new HMH resource, right? And so we kind of create content by quarter that each school leadership team because we're sharing leadership like Jeremiah talks about that they then go implement and then we see that evidenced in school walkthroughs. Okay. So the evidence that we're tracking is just we're we're seeing it in action that maybe there's not a data collection component right now. So well that's what I say going back to

068our this first slide is each school is expected and we monitor this data the academics and that cultural and cultural culture data which their belonging panorama and we look at that as a whole big picture. Then we bring it together during um leadershipmies and level meetings and we just start going down down down deeper looking at um the context. Each building has their own building data to look at and then peeling away the different layers and their students. So we go big data and then we provide that opportunity and leadership academy and level meetings to guide them and give them the time to look at their data together and then they go back to their sites and start working with their building um teams. And then we also have those um Nick weeks next month

069uh this month already um that they come together and they create their goals based on their data. Okay. So presumably the the kind of the difference the the way we can kind of tell how each different school is doing is based on kind of comparing them together and they're doing that actively and then they're like okay here you know because every curriculum is the same whatever so we can kind of control for what are the variables and and we look at the same pieces of data every single time so we don't mess up we don't dirty our data by looking at different data points. there's still like 20 compounding factor like how you know how are we dealing with academics you know so many different ways so um but because of the differences between schools

070we can be like okay we think like you are a shining star of this thing yes and and other people can be like oh how are you doing that learning community really I I think too what you you concretely is we do need to be accountable and what you'd be able to pull is right here so for example the pink row on the bottom where it says MTSS talks. Each principal, school leadership team, site director can sit down with student services and say, "How many synergy referrals did you have for students who are having like some high-flying challenging behavior?" Great. Give me the list of those 10 sixth graders. Who are we going to kid talk on week two? Who are we going to talk about and come up with proactive strength-based interventions? Who are

071we going to come up on week four? And so that's concrete data around, you know, really flagging getting down to who are the kids, what are the gaps they have, what are we going to do about it, and that all lives concretely in synergy. Problem is, we don't have the space or time to train on it and to have people load it. So this would give you the space to actually work the plan that we have set out. And then presumably it'd be the um site director's job to be tracking who's doing who is tracking these things and who's following up and what they're doing about it and making sure that that account I I think the site director would be in charge of maybe gathering that data. It's ILT. We meet once a week

072and we review that data and then we identify oh it looks like we need to ensure that do they have are they using these tools? No. Do they know the tools exist? Do they or do they not know how to use them? So why aren't they they being a building, a leader, a site, why aren't they doing it? Maybe they didn't know about it or we hadn't had the opportunity to train. So what can we as district leadership do in service to ensure that we're giving them the support that they need to support the people, our students. So we're in charge of supporting the people and they're in charge of supporting the the people, the most important people. Okay, I have just a couple of things. Um, I just want to echo again the accountability

073piece. Um, what's the value in I I hesitate a little bit about just we're going to go to an early release forever. Is there a point where we say we kind of have the work done or enough of the people we we've done this now and I I hesitate a little bit that it's going to be difficult to pull that back should we ever need to do that should we find that you know the data shows that now it's kind it's kind of done and we're we're our outcomes are have increased and and everything's looking really good. Do we continue that because we've now it's just the way we do it here or are we going to stay really solid with making sure that that accountability and that time is really well spent. Um I

074I'll leave that out there. Um and then the other thing is making sure that doing this is of value to every student. I know we have a specific group of students that it would be really beneficial to get everybody on the same page and and have that learning for our staff so that they can do their job better, easier, and have a better outcome for students. I just want to make sure that it's it's also not going to pull away from students. They're going to have less time in the classroom. um how how do we make sure that we don't end up with an addition that we create a new problem because we've now reduced that that time and I think that's really fair. I think that this these are days. When you add up

075all of these minutes on the 30 32 Fridays, it it equates to days, these hours, these minutes, and these hours. And we have got to ensure that um we're we're using every minute that we have wisely. We also know that we have doubled down frankly on these learning community opportunities with our nicks and pulling our teams together. And we have seen um not only anecdotally, I mean you can talk about nicks and having that time that you get to spend with your teachers during the day, not for an hour after school when everybody can make it. We're seeing our data improve. And then I don't remember whether you said it. Um, but we found things that that don't necessarily work. Maybe it's just going to a conference for a day or or those kinds of

076things. So, are we going to be really actively pulling back and reducing the things that we're spending time on, but really we're not getting the the bang for our buck um on those things. What are we going to get rid of in place of this? So, to speak to that and And to give confidence to you all in our community, we really don't invest at a district-wide strategy in the things that we know don't work. Like we don't send folks to conferences generally because it's usually a one- hit wonder. There wasn't feedback following up. So, this is sort of the natural overflow of we've built knowledge and awareness. I I think a big a big idea here. Your question about like, well, is this going to go away someday? I I would actually say is

077high- performing schools, individual schools, learning systems, districts, they have this and they go from good to great. And the big shift from good to great is not did I teach it? Did I did I teach did I cover all my content in eighth grade social studies, but is it did my learners learn it? And those that did learn it, how do I extend, right? So that every kid, it is every kid. And for those who didn't learn it, so in that ongoing data meeting, I'm actually going to start designing two lessons. these 30% of my learners got it. Here's my extension. These 70% need a little more dose. Here's what I'm going to do for them. And so it actually every time we work this cycle, which when we're working in isolation as educators, we

078don't get to this cycle. We're usually just surviving, covering what we're supposed to cover. When we make space to work this cycle, you rise tide for all ships. And that's really where this has taken us. I think that's spot on. To K's point, Hter. Uhuh. Are our our school that we aspire to reach those kinds of outcomes? Um they're they're not doing this. And so is it, you know, why is that? Have we reached out to that particular district and said, you know, you guys aren't what are you doing and what what are the different what are some of the differences because their outcomes are pretty impressive. But one question I have for that is we'd have to equally compare our our ELLL learners and our other learners to see they pro I'm going to

079take a guess here but they probably don't have the same amount as we do. Very different demographics. Yeah. And so I mean I think you you know it's it's a valid question. I just think we have to make sure we're comparing apples to apples and they may not necessarily need it right now because they their demographic doesn't necessarily need it. And if it's demographic, I I mean I understand. Yeah. But it would be good. I think it's I think it's worthwhile difference. But if if it isn't just that, right? you know, is it that they've they did that for a period of time and then they found that the work was sort of done and they didn't need to continue that anymore or is it just a a demographic issue that that's so different from

080ours that we really can't compare it to? I think we need to look into again it's time and money. So, we we know that they have more mills and so what are the resources that they that they have in play and and what does their professional learning look like? Do they have whole days? So I I appreciate that um President Heitz and that yes and their demographics are different. How many days do they have an entire year and then how are they using they have more money and how are they using that money to improve their student outcomes. I I would just add in that list too, Academy, Boulder, um Jefferson County, there's a number of even more affluent and high performing districts than Pter that do have this. But I would say that you'd

081go survey those and you'd have 20 different versions in each of those districts. It's going to come down to what each school leadership team does to make the most of that time and what do we do to support those school leadership teams. I just want to let the board know that we're 35 minutes for this topic. Um don't worry, you're doing great. You guys are doing And then I think one basic question that's probably burning for just our parents is obviously with secondary learners getting out at the same time as our elementary learners that might actually help support families who are struggling. I mean I know we're talking about time for our teachers, but h what are you guys seeing that how will this how will having middle school and high school out maybe help

082our parents of those younger kids? Yeah. Yes. And then that dovtales perfectly with what Dr. Hill was just asking and we need to get input from our parents. So, not only do we want our individual schools to meet with their sachs, their school accountability committee and their teams, but what would input from our parents as in our community as a whole look like? And we need to get that as well. Perfect. Question. Sorry, it's a little This isn't our fault though, right? No, no, no. Your your time is good. Bill's now keeping the talked really fast. I have a lot of questions. You're good. So I you know this is we're thinking ahead. That's great. Thank you. So our in school or our out of school suspension still like double like what are we doing

083right now? And that's a very fair question and and we've got to bring our our um those kid talks. Of course, we know that the the the statistics are high across the the state and the nation, but that's that's that's just a re that's not an excuse. So, what are we doing now to ensure that our teachers have the skills and the strategies that they need to meet the the the challenges that our students are having right now. and and we're working on on that. Yes. I just want to say I misspoke. It definitely did not double. I just knew it was a double. It was Anyways, it was it was a little it was an increase. It's increased, but it's not did not double. I take it back. I guess I would just offer

084from the site level. We are seeing kids come back so disregulated from the last two and a half years. We feel like we're still playing catchup for kids to be able to function in that school environment because some of them have been out of school for half a year, year and a half, two years, and we're just getting them like retrained. That's just an example I would get from the site levels. Just a couple followup points because I I really appreciate Angela and Andrea and Car's points. Is there is there and and you mentioned earlier there's still a lot of factors and cons things need to be considered before this ever would fly. You mentioned those earlier a whole laundry list transportation so is is there ever a thought about would it would something like

085this have to be rolled out to every school all at once? I I guess I look at talent, you know, I know Jeremiah is a talented leader and and could utilize that time, right? We're trying to be prescriptive to everybody and maybe everybody doesn't need that prescription right now. I I'm certainly an advocate because I've been in a The more time the better. Our teachers are and staffs are are craving that time to to meet together. And as you mentioned at your school, because of lack of resources, you're not able to do some of the things you were able to do before. Um, but but that's something I wonder if we don't self-destruct sometimes because we're laying something on some sites that just don't have the talent and leadership at this point. Maybe they'll grow

086into that to handle this type of endeavor. And and would it also benefit you have some pilot type things going on? Does that make sense what I'm getting at? I think so. Um, well, I'll tell you what's going through my mind when I hear you ask these that question. Um, what was the question I asked? So, you're asking does everybody need it? Right. No, not does everybody need it. I think everybody does need time. I think does everybody need it at the same time? Does everybody need a school like Fra Middle, they're ready. They've got the leadership, the team. I I would have to imagine not every school is is ready for that. We wish they were, but you know, because of various reasons, they may not be ready. And um you know what I'm

087saying? And you'd hate to have have a whole thing self destruct because we have we have enclaves that are not ready for this, right? Others that are and and you're saying on leadership specifically. Yeah. Because it's all about leadership. You mentioned that earlier. If you have that site director that knows where there obviously we have site directors who are making do and having great results without this. So one could say well does like you know do they need it? Sure they do because you can go from great to even good to great good to great great to even greatest right but so that's just something that can you know I just see historically from a broader picture we we we we roll out things for everybody and and sometimes it's just not ready for them.

088They just you know not everyone learns to ride their bicycle at the same time or learn to talk at the same time. So that that's a that's a leadership issue that I know you know Dr. Hill and the administration is looking you know putting the best people in the right site for for their communities. That was just well and would we pull back individual schools if we weren't seeing the outcomes that we're looking for and the the increases that we're looking for based on So I'm going to it does make sense. I just I don't know that you're ever going to find a situation where a school and I could be wrong is going to say we don't need that time now. Like we've we've figured out everything all the supports we need for our

089kids. You got new kids coming in every every year, right? So you're always going to have So if you're using it for MTSS time, like you're always going to have students that have uh needs outside of what the regular classroom may be providing. So I don't know that you would ever have a time where you'd say we've we've met the goal and we could pull it back. Um, I think you could always find a way to use that time wisely. Again, it comes back down to are you actually using that time wisely and is it actually beneficial? I think if you were going to pull it back, it would be maybe a year or two down the road, we say, are we seeing good results from this? Are we seeing data that's showing that it's

090beneficial? And if it's not, then this was an experiment that we tried that didn't work out. Um, I bet if we asked the elementary schools, I don't know that any of them would say, "Please give us we don't want early release anymore." I think they all are using it. I bet we'd hear the same thing from from secondary, too. It's I think it's just more about is it effective use of time and maybe we pull back because of that down the road. And you're right, it is hard to give something and then take it back. Um but we won't know unless we try it. Um so I I I think that could be beneficial. And then the um you know the question of do you roll it out at some and not others. Um, I

091would say from a logistic standpoint, and I've talked to superintendents from other districts who did um maybe they didn't do some schools and not others, but they did like first and third Friday. And as soon as you start putting too much variability on things like this, it creates confusion for the community. Uh, it creates other issues like transportation issues. So, this school does get out early, but this one doesn't. I don't know that that's going to be enough of a a factor to not say that we needed this across the board. I think it gets back to are we actually making sure that the leadership in the building is using the time wisely and that we're supporting them uh in the way that we need to to make sure that they know how to use

092that time wisely. Um and then Dr. Hill, I would add it, mobility. We have so many of our students that go from one school to another and not having that consistency for the community and for our students. And it's an infinite journey, you know. um you're never going to have the same story this year isn't going to be the same story next year, let alone the next month or the next. So, how do we ensure that we've got that uniformity to ensure we're meeting the needs of all of our students, which includes Great points. And and again, I want to reiterate, I I think time is needed and then some. I guess maybe my broader message is let if we roll it out, let's let's try to make and I know you will. That's rhetorical,

093but to make sure everyone can be successful and and and that's the biggest thing. You're right. You have places right now ready to fly with it. You have other places that sites that don't. That gets back to that building site leader that can make this happen. And it it goes back on our principles. That's why we pulled them. They have to build that consensus and what do their teachers think? what are their what might that look like? That's where those prototypes come in. And we don't expect them to create their own prototypes. We expect them to work with their leadership um committees in in their buildings. So, here's an opportunity. What's it going to look like? How can we support you? Well, one thing, you know, and this whole discussion made me think back, give

094me the 2017 bond bill, and we put a 10-year sunset. You know, the whole idea behind that was the accountability that we're going to use these funds and resources the way our community wants them to be used. And I I think we're doing that. We'll show that is when we go at some point in time to the community again. It's the same thing what everyone here has been saying is that we we we provide this time the community will right this Friday afternoon for our our secondary schools that there's an accountability there that show us it's making the difference you're saying it will because if three four five years from now it's we're we're not seeing that and again you can't just draw a direct correlation between we do this and all of a sudden

095all the all the ills will go away that's not going to happen uh but it can help right lessen the load on people and make them more effective so yes and we have researched that supports that. There's so much research out there that says that efficacy that when our teachers come together to identify those problems, look at their data, have the tools and strategies and the opportunity to learn from each other, there's a direct correlation to student outcomes. It's great. So, we'll be back. Yes. Thank you. We're interested in the information over there. I think it broke. We should have uh we should have timed ourselves. Yeah. We're on the third. All right, we need to take a a 10-minute uh break real quick. So, we'll be right back. All righty. I'll call kind of

096our board members back if possible. It's 6:30. All good. I know. You're good. I love how we just love to connect. Um, it's great. All righty. So, we are um gonna move on to Juniper Ridge uh certificate of participation request. So, those of you that are presenting this evening, come on up. Uh if you need to add some more chairs up there, go right ahead. Yep. And I know all of you, but uh if you guys could also just introduce yourselves for the rest of the board and any of our community members that are listening. Okay. Hi, I'm Kathy Stton and I'm the finance um yeah the f the she's the treasurer treasure stewarts the treasurer of the board for um Juniper Ridge school. Oh, I'm Elaine Courier Griggs. I'm uh the chair of the

097board. I'm Elen Hammerfield. I'm the school finance officer at Juniper Ridge Community School. So, thank you for letting us come before you today. Um, Juniper Ridge Community School is a charter school that is on its we on our 10th year or 10th. Yeah, 10th year. So, we've been around a while, which is good. Um, we came to you guys a number of years ago because we needed to expand our building. We were we started out um the same place that uh Caprock started out originally on 24 and a half road and outgrew that space fairly quickly and we came to you and got certificates of participation in order to build our our main campus. So we have a nice campus now that stretches between seventh street and first street just north of Patterson and it's

098been a wonderful campus but we had originally planned on three phases of that campus and we so we've now maximized all the space that we have and we've completely run out of space to put anybody else. We are now um is serving children from kindergarten. We have three kindergartens and then we have we're double tracking first through 8th grades. So we're now completely filled with all of those. Um our uh our enrollment has increased every year. We're sitting at 14 418 students right now. So, uh, we need to build some more extra buildings and we have kicked around a number of ideas of how to do that. But the fact of the matter is that because of the certificate of our of participation that we signed originally with you guys, we don't actually own our

099land. So, we have no way of financing any other kind of building without coming back to you guys and doing an amendment of that certificate of participation. So, we can't just go to the bank and borrow money. So, when we originally spoke to the finance people at the district, they said, "You you need to come before the board and ask for an amendment of that COP." So, we're asking for an additional $3 million. And with that, what we would like to do is um we want to add an addition to our main building that would give us 10 classrooms. and that would put first through fifth grade in the main building along with our administrative and our kindergartens. Um we we have an eightplex uh that we all have all our grades in right now.

100So we have um an eightplex that houses what first or fifth I think right now and then we have six other twolex modular buildings. We would like to remove those. We own three of those buildings. We leased the other three of those buildings. The leases on those are really running up to high numbers and that are not financially sound to continue those leases. So, we would like to eliminate those leases by doing an addition to the main building. So, the nice thing with with our main addition being an addition to the main building is that we cut down the number of entrances and it becomes much safer uh environment for the students. There are fewer ingress and egress points that we have to cover for security purposes. And um we also purchased an 8plex modular

101building that we uh need to get refurbished and established on the back of the land that will also fill some other um purposes such as a library, special ed rooms, other special classes. And then we also would like to build two stick built buildings of 1500 square feet each 1,800 square feet each. Um that would be our art art studio and our wood shop. So we've submitted quite a bit of financial information. I don't know if you've gotten packets on that and if you've already gone through all that. Uh but you know the the the gist of it is that the total cost will come to about $3.2 million. We're putting in you know as much money as we can but we'd like you to fund that three million through debt. We can service the

102debt adequately without going beyond the 20% limit. So we're allowed, you know, our debt service needs to be 20% or less of our expenditures. We've shown on the paperwork that we submitted that we would fall below that level. So, we try to be extremely conservative. Um, we're very careful with our money. Lynn, when she submits numbers to the district, she's very conservative in those numbers. So, you know, we're we're not uh being indulgent there. We're not going for big ticket items. We're just remaining as, you know, as simplified as we can to offer this Um, do you want to go through any uh I guess the the square footage on the addition to the building is 7,5 and then the buildings are the separate ones. Right. I had a question. I don't know if we're

103missing a page. Um, final project cost. It seems like So, it says sub total 2.7 million and it seems like that maybe is a subtotal of stuff that wasn't detailed above. I can't see any detail about 2.7. Okay. So this specifically yeah 2.7 is the the actual construction of those spaces and then we have other um expenses that are in that get us over to the $3 million. There's do we have the bid for that 2.7 or do we have any more detail about that 2.7? Right. Well we have to redo all the locks we're putting in cameras 2.7. The 2.7 was to finish refurbishing the aplex. We started this building project using a large amount of our SR3 money and you know we all know where construction is right now. So we ra rapidly

104ran out of that and then we added the aplex and then of course the addition to the building. The 2.7 was the amount that our contractor Mes Constructions RGC they said they could finish it and do the other two pieces on it for that amount is the 2.7. So that number came from our contractor. So we have that bid package. Then we have like the documentation of like the itemized. It's a it's a cost plus contract, right? So all of that would be in they said that that was the number that they gave us. They they had broken it out previously and then when we made changes they said okay this is what we can get you and that was the number they brought to the building committee and do we so do we have

105that like bid package them? I don't have that complete package from them. They were going to get that to us. We don't have it yet. Okay. So is the 2.7 just it's like flexible still if we don't have the bid back from them? I don't really believe that it's flexible. They were pretty firm on that number, but we did put in some contingency amount as well. And if you notice, the amount of the 2.8 is what it comes to, and we're asking for three. So, we're still allowing for some contingency in there as well. Okay. I would love to see. So if they if they gave you a a bid and there's a contract they have they finalized the the contract method with you guys that means that there's documentation from them saying part of

106our packet had the the construction contract we have which is the cost plus. So okay okay so it doesn't seem like interesting. Okay. So, I'm just trying to wrap my head around what this would mean if if if as a client I was like, I want you to build me this chair, you know, just whatever example. Um, and somebody said, "Okay, well, the chair is going to cost you $12." You know, they would have they would have to say like the bolts would be this much and the wheels would be this much. Um, and so that would all have to be detailed for them to come up with the dollar amount. Um, and so I'm wondering if Mavs did that ever. And you maybe we just haven't seen it or I believe they've done it.

107We just have not seen it. Okay. Yeah. So let's see that. [Music] Are we are we tied to Maze or did you shop it around to see if maybe somebody else or We moved into Mavs when we were discussing how we were going to expand it and then with the the addition to the building originally, yeah, we were getting bids from different general contractors and then we contracted with Maves to refurbish the aplex and then before it was two 1,800 foot buildings, it was two quanzets and then we modified it and then when we were talking about how we still are not going to have enough room. Um, we just kind of moved into Maves as far as having them do the addition. So, possibility that somebody else might be able to come in and

108say, "Hey, for 1.8 million, you know, that or you two." Well, there is that possibility, but we we sent out requests for bids and we got no response from the really large builders like SCI and PNCI and those kind of guys because the project's just too small for some of those construction companies to want to deal. Do we have competitive bid um requirements for our money? Yeah. So, that maybe would have to be something we would have to or look into. Okay. I mean, we I don't know. I'm not saying I'm not the final word. I'm just saying that that's you know, we have to follow the law and our Right. Yeah. Yeah. Because the one thing that that has happened is we started out with trying to just expand and so we bought the

109ALEX the Apex and said, "Well, we'll refurbish it." And then you know the the bids started coming in and all of a sudden bids started just accelerating. This the construction atmosphere for the past year has been unbelievably volatile and I'm sure you ran into that with the high school project. I'm sure that your your beards just started growing. And um so we you know we started out with the quite huts for those two separate buildings thinking that would be the least expensive option. But as we got into it more and more we found out there were more engineering requirements and then we got to the point of pouring the pads and they're saying, "Oh wait, we need to do this and that and several other things." And all of a sudden the costs were so

110high and we were starting to work with at that point. They said, you know, we can go up to build and build for less per square footage than we can do this. I have I have a couple questions. Where one, where did we get the money? Where did you get the money for the quanet huts? Okay. So, there might be some requirements tied to that as well. Whose project? Who's managing this project for you? So, there. Okay. And do you have an owner's rep for it? Um, okay. Okay. probably they probably don't have an owner's rep for this small of a project. They we had an owners they had an owner's rep when they built the larger school facility. So, and I and we'll have to double check, but charter schools may have a little

111bit of a nuance there with um how they do their RFPs because they're basically just asking us for the loan and then the onus is really on them to make sure they're getting the best bang for the buck, which I know we're lending them the money. Um, but it is hard to find a contractor that will do a $3 million project um, in town. We had they had that challenge the first time they built the larger school portion, but we need to probably get clarity on that if if they have to do a certain RFP and get certain bids. Um, we'll get clarity for you guys on that and if that's the route they need to go. Um, I don't know if that's in our our requirements for our charters with or in our certificate

112of participation. Do we have a I'll have to look at a pol if that's our policy requires um an RFP. Other questions? So you guys did so you you were working with Maves um on your Quanet HUDs and they basically told you you could spend less money with the alternative um at the when you so you did your RFP prior to that, right? When you were looking to see who would help you put your Quanet huts together. Okay. And so so you've somewhat done the process just not for kind of the project you now have before you. The project just kept it. So went back and said, "Okay, now we have a clearly defined new project. Let's send it out for ours, you know, and maybe should Well, and your first pro, how much was

113your first project you guys were trying to anticipate with the quanet huts for just the quanet? Well, what were you what was a few hundred thousand? First project was refurbishing the apex and the two Quanza huts. Okay. And that's we did, you know, go out and try to get bids from different contractors with that and and got a lot of thanks but no thanks. Sure. But what was our original budget on that? Pretty low, right? It was a sm much much smaller project for especially a commercial builder who understands how to build for schools and all the the requirements that are needed for that. Correct. It's not like you guys can just get anybody to come and and build for you. Right. We we had a hard time getting anybody to reply for. Okay. Can

114I Sorry. No, go ahead. Yeah. I'm just trying to I'm just trying to figure this out. So, but for that project, so you had the project, you had the money, you had the materials, you had the contractor, and then costs just started escalating, and so you you stopped that project, right? And then and then you and then we came back together with this much larger scope of a project. Correct. Right. Can you walk me through that? We really when we really looked at what are we getting? Um we saw that we we were just trying to incrementally add some space here and some space there. So we had the the two quonets that would serve our specials. So for our wood shop and our art studio and then the aplex would give us additional space.

115But then when the numbers started to go up and we realized we're going to have to borrow in order to fund this project, we need to look at in its entirety what does this campus need to look like? Because if we add a little here and a little there, we're always still short on space. So we we took a larger we back took a much more macro look at this project and said ultimately for full capacity for the school to really operate and it's best by these kids. What what space do we need? We didn't have a library. We weren't even looking at adding a library at that point. So, and and then the special ed requirements were not really being taken into consideration at that point. So, when we really stepped back and names

116helped us do that, they said, "Let's take a real look at what all of the opportunities are and how you can best meet those opportunities." So, because originally we were, you know, to get rid of some of the quant or some of the modular spaces and keep others. And so it was beginning to to break up the flow of the campus. And that's when when our GC said, you know, you could stick build this for a lower cost per square foot. If you simply do an addition onto that building and and we thought that's a really good idea since we own this, we're already going to have to refurbish it anyway. include that in that that 8lex will give us a lot of flexibility to add that library to add those bed spaces to add

117some uh potential offices for people who still need offices and things like that. So this will really get us to the final point of what we need in order to fulfill that campus at its maximum capacity. That's correct. No, you're doing well. That's correct. Yes, well the cost overflows for her position at that time. And I only ask you're you're I'm Kathleen Mum the head of school. Hi. Thank you. Um so you're correct in that but when that master plan was developed um there wasn't really the forethought of how programming would grow and what we would look like at you know max capacity because we're actually well 460 is our we were every seat was filled you know um so there really wasn't that forethought and when you go back and look at that initial

118three phase plan it actually does not suit the needs of the programming that's developed right now it also phase I have to remember phase two or three actually would destruct our current playground that we spend $100,000 on. And so to me, that's just why would we throw away money and get rid of our program? So, it really just doesn't um I think the forethought of how the school would grow and progress over the years, you know, obviously no one can see the future, but I don't think that was really thought through and programming has changed. I think with this um this project, we're really set and looking good for the foreseeable future without doing another build. Yeah. Yeah, you're right. Absolutely. for a little more. Yeah, the microphone really just helps the community. You're you're

119fine. They can hear you. Okay. Um, good. Great. I lost what I was gonna say. I think part of um the change in the the scope of the project too was when we had an initial meeting um you know with the district with Mel and Dr. Hill and uh Clint was there. Um it was that if you're if we're going to ask to amend this COP, let's do it and do it the project right instead of asking for a little bit now and then in three years having to come back to the board and say, "Hi, we're here again because out of additional space. So really just looking big picture and doing that, you know, that one time amendment versus trailing it out over the years. Do you recollect did Chamberlain give you some estimated

120costs at the time on phase two and three? Now granted, I know those costs would be different in today's world, but do you remember what two and three? Each phase was going to be another seven to 7.5 million. And so now you're basically saying you can complete your project for about three. Yes. Is that kind of what I'm is that what I'm hearing is that you guys could be really sitting. Okay. And then also I guess you said you have your leases coming up on the modulars. So that also would help offset or be able to as payment towards the other 3 million coop that you're requesting. That's correct. which you would feel would be better money spent um putting towards a building you you would own rather than renting. Right. Okay. Okay. Right. So

121the budget that we submitted, we're looking at our our sources of funding and some of it would be the coops, some of it is our own savings, some of it is used from our contingency, and some of it is contingent on trying to sell a couple of smaller parcels that are quite a ways from the school itself that we will not be able to use in the future anyway. So we're we're looking at ways to make it a cohesive campus and, you know, go ahead and make the that we can get from those out pieces of property and put it into the actual school campus. So, you know, we've explored a lot of options on how to fund this and we're trying to fund as much of it as we can ourselves and rely as

122little on debt as possible. And then I did see in the packet that um at least with the Maves proposal, you guys did include a lot of um I think estimates for looks like some technology equipment and other things that is all pieced out. But I think um and do so does Maves have their own architect then or they do their own in-house stuff. So you don't need to then hire Chamberlain or anybody else to do that again. Okay. All right. Um Okay. Well, I guess I think the only thing we need to know is if there's a requirement on the RFP piece is that I think that's something the board we need to know if they're required to put out for more bids just for competitive if that's does a thanks no thanks count

123as a bid. Um well it's a response. Yeah. Yeah. if I mean if you guys put it out and if you we just need I guess the board just needs to know what what responses you did get whether it was and if it is a no we just need to know that if if you only got one contractor that came back willing to do it then that's I think that's just what the board needs to know um right but we can have Melanie just make sure that on our end we're just making sure we're following the process correctly for you Exactly. Okay. We'll we'll double check to make sure that we've covered all of our bases and you know, if the district wants us to go back and try to get more RFPs, we can

124send it out again. We'd be happy to do that and see what we get. Well, and this is a this is a much larger and different scope of work, right, than before. I don't think I understood what that previous dollar amount was, but it's it's it's much larger. That's true. It just kept growing because one, the the construction cost just kept increasing. But then, you know, as we really looked at the scope of the work, it's like, well, are we doing ourselves a favor by doing a peace meal and how would we fund any further exploration? So, we said, if we've got to go and get borrowing anyway, let's look at the entire campus and see what we actually need. I think part of the problem too was bringing the Quanza Huts up to code

125and all the fulfilling all the regulations and that was just not uh feasible to to do that and and so as as those things started creeping up and creeping into it um were advised well that was part of the evolution too because when we first looked at the quanets that was the least expensive option right and it It was projected to be relatively inexpensive, but by the time we got done, it had about tripled in cost and and they were things that we had no way of knowing to even anticipate that. So, um, you know, in in even the the refurbishment of the Apex that we bought, we got it very inexpensively, but then the refurbishment began to grow and grow and grow because we uncovered other unforeseen things like um mold damage in there,

126you know, and so it's like, oh, we got to stop and take care of that issue. And then, you know, it it's just amazing. So not only the the costs increased but the scope of what we had to do kept increasing. And so that's why when Maze really took a good independent objective look at it they said why are we doing it this way? Let's let's step back and make a whole new plan that makes more sense. And that's why the old the old plan it didn't make a lot of sense and it would have been a tremendous amount more money you know because costs are so high right now and the cost of of lending is relatively high these days too. We wanted to keep that as low as we could while still accomplishing

127and getting the the space that they need with the esser dollars. So did the esser dollars come to D51 are there um just trying to figure out the change in the scope of work and I wonder if the change in the scope of work If if if the ESSER funds were given to us with with you know this we're going to do this project and now we're like oh we're not going to do that. Do we know the implications of that? We're still doing we're still doing the same project that we started with the money. Oh the quanza has the money purchased the quanets and the alex and the aplex did the site work and for the refurbishment of the aplex. So that that piece of it where the er funds were being directed has

128really not changed. What's really changed is adding the stick built building additional to the main building and that was never part of the funds request. So with the quets we're going to turn around and sell those. We cannot just return them. the manufacturer of those will not take them back and we probably are not going to be able to sell them for all of what we put into purchasing them. So, we're we're asking for permission because those were bought with us or funds. D51 has asked us to make sure that we run it through CDE that we've got permission to sell that at less than what we originally paid for. They're still working on that. They they come back They've asked questions and we've responded to them. So, Melanie has some info. Yep. Come on

129up. Aware still need to have a meeting. He's actually We're still working. Thank you. All right. Well, sounds good. So, I guess um we'll just uh I think you guys are looking for the board to vote on this in a couple of weeks. So, hopefully we can have a little bit more information in the next couple of weeks that'll be forthcoming. So, yeah. And I think in the meantime, just a reminder that if you all have questions for Mel and her team about what this means for the district and I mean, this is borrowing on our credit and so what implications come with that that Mel and her team are available for board questions as well. All right, sounds great. Anything else that you guys want to add or I just want to make sure

130that if we're going to vote on this in a couple weeks, that's a it's a lot of I'm just not sure that the timeline I'm just we have it earmarked. We have it earmarked on the agenda, but obviously if we don't have all the information, we can't take a vote. Okay. Yeah. Okay. I'm just just kind of giving ourselves a a deadline, so to speak, but if if if we don't have it, then we'll have to wait. Okay. Yes. Is there a deadline for the CO? We we can just do that whenever we want to. Okay. All right. Okay. You guys are probably wanting to do your project this summer. Is that kind of what you're would like to see? Okay. Trying to get there. Okay. All right. Well, thank you very much for your

131presentation. Thank you for coming. Thank you. Thank you. And we'll get some we'll get information and get back to you guys, too. I guess if we have Mel here, does the board want to ask what the implications are for additional COP money? We might as well. The public might be wondering. Yeah. So, Mel, if you could come up. I I think my recommendation would be hopefully that we would have some time to do two twoin ones that way we can really go through the financial piece. Um I have taken a look at their proposal but obviously without some of that bid information. Um I think the drawings were we need some better drawings. We've requested those as well. So there's some pieces that are still outstanding that we need to research. Obviously, we're vetting this

132with RBC, who was involved in issuing our initial cops. The COP process is isn't a short one. Um, it's a pretty involved, intensive process of taking out credit on the district's um credit. There's some board policies that I sent you guys as well. Um, this would be debt that we would be securing for them for 20 or 25 year term. So, yep. So what RBC has told us is maybe five and a half% which is considerably higher of course than in 2018 when we took them out but that's a pass through to them right doesn't Juniper Ridge pays that it we we withhold it from their payments so we do we are the first yeah it would be we would need to put up one of our buildings as collateral we already did that for

133their existing building I think it's actually this building that we're sitting in right now that was collateralized for it we did um cops Mesa Valley at the same time as well. One of them was Orchard Mesa Middle School and one of them was this building that was collateralized. So we would need to do the same thing for this amendment as well. So in looking long term as far as needs go um have they worked with a demographer or anything like that? I wonder to make is their program going to need to grow that much? I would defer you guys on that. Sorry to talk like you weren't in the room. I I mean I'm just wondering are you sure you need that looking into the future? Have you Have you They're there now, but where

134will they be in two years? Because you're going to be paying this on this for 25 years. We need to look maybe a little bit further into the future to say, I understand what the needs are right now, but are those needs going to diminish and decrease over the next several years? And if that's the case, that would make it very difficult for you to meet the requirements of that kind of a loan. You can come you can come back up. Yeah. Sorry, it's kind of coming to me just if we're wondering it. So is the public and so we need to be I don't just to answer your question I don't see those needs for space diminishing. A lot of it is right now we have people on top of people crammed in I

135mean I have one building that has nine people working out of that space for special education intervention. So, it's it's that we have no space, but our like our special education services aren't going to go away or our intervention teams, our behavior coaches, those things are not going to go away. Go away. But I'm just curious as we we look into the future um with the demographer that the district uses, we're seeing that there's most likely going to be a fairly significant decline in in students, right? So, I it would reason to me that that would affect our charter schools as well. It's not just district because it's our community. Has your enrollment declined? Our enrollment has been increasing every year. Um and I think this is more I understand what you're saying based on

136enrollment. I'm trying to think how to explain what's in my head. Um shoot it out there and it'll probably come together. So we're we're creating So for instance, my Spanish teacher is rolling around with a cart from classroom to classroom. Our Spanish program isn't going to go away. So we're creating a classroom space for her. Our curriculum is seated in a lot of our specials and arts and those types of classes. Um those people don't have classrooms to teach out of. They're traveling. You know, I have an art teacher who's crammed in in this tiny place trying to do ceramics and and things like that. So from a programming, those are programs that per our charter, we wouldn't be cutting out. They would still stay intact, you know, unless the worst case scenario in enrollment

137would happen, but they would stay intact. I don't know if that helps at all or let's just say you guys lose a hundred students, which would be a lot for a charter school. Absolutely. I mean, districtwide, what we're down 1200 overall the last couple of years and 480 something this last year. So Okay. So, but so a hundred's a lot for the charter school. Um, would you still feel at that number you'd still need the space at right now? Yeah. Okay. So, I think that's just kind of I mean, and I know we're all speculating because we don't know what enrollment numbers are going to be. We're all trying to, you know, work with the demographer, but I think my concern from the charter school standpoint is to make sure that they can keep paying

138Yeah. on right and they have the enrollment to make sure that they can pay for forward the loan or what what you're asking for, right? That's a I mean that's a 20 25 years is a pretty long term, right? So I'm just going to put it out there. I think some of the considerations are that the property and the building do belong to the district. So if there was any reason that something happened with Junifer, not saying that it is worse, but yeah, blowing it up, right? worst case scenario here. Um, we would be responsible for making those payments and we would also have the building. So, I would say that financially one consideration or one question I would have is if we add $3 million in debt to this building, are we adding $3

139million in value as well? So, that would be one thing that I would hope that we might have an answer to as part of this process just for that worst case scenario. When you guys are meeting with Clint and I know you guys mentioned your extra land I think we need to maybe look because the district o, you know, is joint tenants or, you know, owns that with you all that maybe we see how that could maybe create some asurances or or buffers too that helps because if this is helping you guys get to the completion of your project, I know, you know, maybe maybe there's some some safety net there for the district as well. I mean, just maybe let's explore those things. If you guys can talk with Clint and maybe let him

140know what your guys's, you know, plans are if you sold that land, right? What you were looking to do with those funds. Um because the district would have to sign off on the sale of those pieces of property as well. So, right, let's just maybe make sure we're looking at all the options. So then the board knows kind of what what you guys are all putting your skin in the game and then we know what the district's skin in the game is with. Um your enrollment now is what 4 418 by per October count but so with the additional space what what will that accommodate what it's going to give classrooms to my my special subject teachers Spanish art um m yeah we have a music room handwork those types of extra you know specials

141classrooms also our special education teachers it'll allow them to each have classrooms. Allow a library to go in our reading um two spaces for our reading interventionists. We have two reading interventionists, a classroom for our math interventionist so that people have adequate space to meet with children. So stay at 418 but just more space for that four those 418. Yeah. I mean, we have the potential if you know what I'm getting at will brought that up is is so what you're saying is it will better accommodate the the enrollment you have now. Correct. So, do you have a vision for where do you cap your numbers for your programs? Is is there a we don't want to grow more than 600 or Well, we're we're capped by our charter at 460. That's our maximum capacity

142being three three rounds of kindergarten at 20 per class and then 25 on the two rounds first through eight. So we're actually we're naturally capped. Sure. And this space will um even if we went all the way up to that 460. This will accommodate everything. Okay. In those terms in terms of needs. Do you still have people on waiting lists for like Kinder and I'm guessing if the Montasauri ended up those are feeders kind of feeder opportunities for you all right? We have people still on waiting list and then I mean right now is our sort of our transition mode because we go from waiting list and we'll kick off open enrollment you know here in January starting to open that up for next year. So can I ask so who owns the land? I'm

143confused about the land ownership of the land that you're thinking of selling. The district actually owns it per the original COP. So, does that fit in with like all of our longrange planning for, you know, like I'm surprised to hear that like they're that like the it's the sale of our land? Well, the COP, think of it as like a lease to purchase. So they went and acquired the property originally and then when um at the time Juniper could not go out to the bond market like the district can. So they came to the district to basically say can you borrow money on our behalf once it's paid for and Melanie correct me if I'm wrong. Um they then own it. So we're Yeah. So we're again the owner they my understanding though is that

144both the district and Juniper would need to sign on anything together right for sale or is it just a district now? Um I'm not sure. I would have maybe we can get clear. The cop I think might have changed that because Juniper deeded Juniper deeded the ownership of the land that they had at the time to the district or joint or jointly deeded it. So I guess we could kind of get clarity on and that's where a lot of these intricacies we rely really heavily on our bond council just to make sure that we are following everything of Kim Crawford Crawford. So yeah but the best way to think of it is is they're leasing it with the the whole intent is once they're done with the payments they Juniper would own the property. And

145that's what a cop is, just for anybody that's curious and listening to you, is that a a bond obviously is a voter approved way to get capital funding outside of a voter approval. COP are really the only mechanism available to school districts because it is like a lease to buy option. So that's like when we talk about putting a building up that we're collateralizing it is that we're leasing that building and we're holding giving the bank essentially one of our buildings in place of that until the time that we pay it off. And so every cop works that way. Um like this building right here was paid before with coops as well. And so of the existing coops that the district has, one is for this building, one is for Juniper Ridg's current building, and

146one is for um Mesa Valley Community School when they purchased and renovated their current building. And so those are the three that are out there. And that's what's guided by that policy that I sent you all of that that those payments on any of our coops cumulatively can't exceed 1% of our general fund revenues. And so that's kind of our limit to make sure that we're protecting our credit. um rating as well and not putting too much debt on it. Yeah. And the challenge with charter schools is they don't typically get to participate in any bond the district puts out because we obviously have a number of other facilities that and they can though. Well, no that I'm saying they can. It's Independence Academy. Independence Academy was on our 2018 bond. So, they did have

147some projects back in 2017 bond um back in that one. The other two charters didn't. And I don't know how that all came about, but they were given that opportunity. So that would be another thing that is available for the future as well. Sure. One other question and now I forgot it, but I don't know. I think if you can get the project done for 3 million versus another 14 and it was probably be more 20 nowadays. Um yeah, but let us get some more information just make sure that you know we're also being the good fiduciary for for the district. But um see what what that can help you all with too. Any other questions? Thanks Melanie. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Juniper Ridge board and staff. All righty. So now we have

148um the Grand Junction High Schoolbased Health Center discussion for the board. So um do we have board members that would like to bring up any questions or Dr. Hill, did you have anything that you needed to No off with first to kick it off? I mean there were so um kind of two things at once. One, we've had some questions from the board about uh potentially a schoolbased health center going into Grand Junction. remember we have one at Central High School right now that opened I think it was 2019 2018 2019 I can't remember. Um and then so there's there's those questions. Um Clint and Bridget went back and found a lot of documentation from previous board meetings. Um there's a resolution the the work that was done around um the community uh survey that

149was done on whether or not there was a need for um schoolbased health centers. So all that was sent to the board. Um, so that's one piece. And then the other piece is that Mirlac, who's actually um here tonight, if there's any questions from the board, um they have a timeline um for writing a grant. And um and if I mess up what I'm saying, y'all can correct me, but it's a um it's a planning grant uh that they would use for if they were awarded those dollars, they would use it over the next year to plan out potentially opening a um schoolbased health center in the new Grand Junction High School. And then they would need that planning grant dollars to do that work. And if they were going to go for future grants

150to fund that building or the operations of that building, they kind of need that first step to happen. And I I believe the deadline is the 27th of January. So they're looking for some direction as well on whether or not um we're going to utilize a a space within the new high school for the schoolbased health center. So that's kind of where we're at right now. Um and I like I said, they're here if they have any questions from the board on on their part of it. Great. Thanks. And the reason I added this to the agenda was because since this conversation took place, I think starting in 2017 and kind of transpired and then COVID hit in the middle of it. Um I think it's worth the public um being able to weigh in

151and the board being able to have a conversation around it because one thing we don't want to do is um I guess make assumptions and put something in a school and then the community is either for or against it. And so it really ends up coming down to the board being able to have a discussion um and potentially a vote on it. Um so I just so board members know why it was added to the agenda just so that it's transparent with our public um about a potential clinic in the Grand High School. So I don't if any board members would like to be able to weigh in and I know we got some additional information here as well. I would just start that out that um I have concerns about uh the principle we're

152moving from uh with adding in an outside organization into the middle of one of our schools. Um we don't have any control over that. Um we don't have any control over how things work within that facility. And I just I I worry that we're not staying in our lane. That our focus needs to be on on uh students and outcomes and making sure that uh that that happens first. So that that's I'll start with that. Are you saying that stemming from our uh interactions around the Orchard Mesa pool? I some somewhat I I think there's I think there are a lot of things I think we've been um there there have been several things that have been surfacing regarding you know what what business is the school district in. We've pretty much identified that we

153are not in the pool business. Did never want to be in the pool business. Should have never been in the pool business but somehow we find ourselves in the pool business. And there have been all kinds of of issues that have arisen around that. So coming back to you is it is it sort of unrealistic to think that we can literally provide and do everything within the district? Um, and I and I worry about again, you know, I was uh talking about this this earlier that it's a little bit like you own a business and you're responsible for everything that happens under that roof. Whether you really are or not, perception with the public is that you are responsible and you are in agreement with everything that goes on under your roof. When you bring

154someone else in, an outside entity in and put them their organization under your roof, I think it insinuates a lot of a lot of um a lot of things that maybe we don't have any control over. I think for me I mean when we talk about standing in our lanes I mean I know our lane is our children our kids that are are going to the schools and um I mean evidence was earlier presentation where we have 1100 expulsions and ISS or more of a a mental thing that we should be able to utilize those for more behavior for for more mental stuff. So, if we can get some more counselors in there or some, you know, some mental u help in there, I think that'd be better used than almost, you know, I'm not

155saying the medical is not necessary, but I think it would be possible if we could figure out a way to have more counselors in that area. It would, I mean, I'm not saying it would change the world, but it would definitely help, you know, the 1100 expulsions or suspensions we have in a little less than four months. So, that's the main thing for me is making sure our kids are safe and they're mentally prepared and ready to go. So, trying to figure out how to fix that. would be a big ask for me. So, I' I'd agree, Will. Um during that presentation, I was pretty stunned at the number of mental health professionals that we have within the district. If we have more mental health professionals under the the under district control, truly our employees,

156we have much more control over how those services and what services are are used. Well, I think even in Central um when I've visited Central and they talked about the the council there who's highly spoke of and as many uh meetings that he has a day and as many kids as he's touched, I I just think if we could multiply that, how many different kids we could reach and how many, you know, potential, you know, just lives we touch out there. So, I mean, anywhere. Yeah. I think what I would like to see and I and I think if I remember from the December presentation that Marilyn did I think the two main services that are utilized at the Warrior Clinic are mental health and dental. Is that sound about right? I don't know any

157like medical we have this in front of us. It says so if you average if you kind of like try to ignore the COVID if you double this year's you know it looks like we're between like 600 and 800 medical visits per year and then behavioral health like 400 to 900 and then dental is like yeah 40 to 70. Okay. Um so yeah about equivalent medical and behavioral you know about you know sub a thousand 100 to a thousand or 500 to a thousand of each that were you know meeting the those medical needs and behavioral health needs in this one inhouse. You guys can come up if you want to. Would you guys like to? Anybody? We have a question for Well, I mean I just I guess my question would be how do

158you feel? I mean, we do have the Marilite clinic at Central, but how do you feel it being at junction would better help that community? I mean, what's what's what's the difference between having one having two? How would that benefit? How do you feel having a second one in junction would benefit even better than just having the one at Can we K we have you come up just so that the public can hear you because they won't be able to hear you if you're not on a mic. Thank you so much. They are leaving you on your own. I don't know. I don't know. Maybe need new friends. Mine is a lonely job. So that's the way it's supposed to. They all are. Yes. I would say one of the most important if there's a

159magic bullet in health care in ambulatory healthcare it's access. It's where the clinic is positioned is number one and especially so for children. So if you tell a kid you've got to take a bus and get to the other place and you're presenting with an issue the chances are the kid won't land up at the other end. You know we've all all been kids. We all brought up kids or are associated with kids. for access at a point of care is one of the most essential things for timely care. So I would answer your question sorry in a long-winded way which is that access and a location is very very key and the familiarity that that access creates. Kids tend to go and go into a place and test it out. may not come up

160with a presenting problem, test it out a second time, but once they get familiar with the place, they begin to trust the people who work there, the chances are they will access the care. I um I'll say I definitely agree that mental health is a huge issue and I want to support our students as much as we can and I think it's incredible that they're servicing you know 400 to 900 visits a year and that's grant funded and it's in school and available to them you know and I if I could just throw this out. I I think Will what you're saying is absolutely right, but I don't think it has to be either or. You know, what you're saying is is a need we have in our system that our system can address. And

161I go back to and again my memory is not always great when we had for our pre previous board whenever that was years a couple years ago we had um the re the rationale and the thinking behind a having clinic in a school and then why central and why junction and I don't remember all the reason now forgive me but there were compelling reasons why it made sense to to our board at that time. We're different makeup now and the community is different and all those things. You know, I I I would suggest that uh we we don't hastily make a decision one way or the other, right? We we we made a purpose intent to add to Grand Junction High School space available because that's the my understanding has always been the district obligation

162is really to provide a space. Other than that, we don't run the operation. We don't have financial being we're just giving the space and probably some custodial help my guess is is I don't know if we need to start from square one and go back to the rationale why health clinics forget in Mason County but because these are these uh are available in school districts around the state correct the country country that's right so it's it's nothing you know new that we're doing we picked up on good practice practices that have been done and and we're seeing benefits out at central and uh so the question is okay is this something that would benefit junction palisade you know but maybe we we need to hear in our public as well to to revisit the rationale

163and the thinking behind the concept of these clinics and why the benefit we have we have data on the benefit to our kids central And when we talk about lanes and and I I hear what you're saying because that that's been something we want I guess after hearing all that my guess is like the previous board we would come to the same conclusion that our lane is the benefit of our kids and their health and well-being and if they're healthy and well-being then we might minimize some of the other issues that we've been presented with today. You know the behavior issues and things like that. I think trying to get at root causes and not just symptoms. But again, is that what we should be doing or is that that's something that that that parents

164and students should be in charge of to make this decision. I fear that having it right in the building, it is a it is um it's a it's a way that the district says we approve of everything that's happening within the way that a different entity would do it. Whether it's Marilac or anybody else is irrelevant. It's just that there's an outside entity that is completely in charge of providing all of that. When it's housed within our building, it gives at least um an assumption that we're saying we know what's happening, we know how it's happening, we trust it, you should do this. And I think it takes away and I I mean I'm hearing this from parents that it takes away um their autonomy to be able to make that choice outside sure the

165school building and I think especially when it comes to more in-depth mental health things that that we're just are we staying in our lane by doing that. Now, an an option that was kind of discussed at one point was close proximity, but not housed under the same roof. So, really close proximity where kids wouldn't have to go take a bus and go across town and, you know, go through a bunch of hoops to get to get there if that was their choice of facilities. Um, but not being under our roof. So, that that assumption that the school district sanctions everything that's happening within something that we have no control over and we don't really know. Sure. And in all I'm suggesting I'm not dismissing any of that. I mean there are concern legitimate concerns people

166have and and as you said assumptions people are making and and and sometimes not all the information they need to have is what I'm suggesting is we we come back forgive me and and go back through that process again and once we hear all the information we hear from the stakeholders and we can ask the questions then this board can decide this is our lane or it's not our lane that's all I'm saying just like we did with the pool you know let's find out all the facts and the information. This is a benefit to our kids. And that seems to align directly with a planning grant, right? Yeah. That that's all I'm saying is we did that a number of years ago. It may be well, it is time to and maybe or past

167time hopefully not to to revisit that and the thinking and and and we can ask those questions that maybe we didn't ask back then and because they're different questions today than three, four years ago. I will say that that based on where we are in construction at GR on the Grand Junction High School project, we have to move quickly. We don't have another month or another two months or or time to make that to make that final decision later. Excuse me. Can it can the clinic be put in later if we just kind of infrastructure was was in that requirement? Well, and that was my understanding and our understanding with the Grand Junction High Plan, the the the building design was to have the space just like it's central. There was no predetermined space for

168that. That was created after we'd say, "Hey, there's a need there. Let's find the space and the district did. We tried to be proactive with the design of the new school to provide the space and and so the space is still going to be there. um which that could be used if the board decides not to bring the clinic, it could be used for something different, right? And that'll be a consider other uses would like. That's right. And so th those are things that we need to, you know, bring all those factors to the table so then we can as a board make a decision on what we feel now would be the best decision going forward just as we did three, four years ago. Right. But can Marillech I mean do you guys have

169to have a commitment of that space and us to decide in order to get your grant or because what if the board decides to not move forward with it then you just sit on the grant or I mean how does that work? From the sounds of it, it sounds like what I'm hearing is you want a needs assessment repeated. The needs assessment was done the last time and funnily enough the first choice was Grand Junction High School and we and the uh community committee that we were planning with which in turn the district of course was that there was no space. We did visit the school physically and then they said central was second in line as the results of the needs assessment as a high need for a health center and we went there

170and the space worked out a little better. So that's how we landed. But I'm hearing you'd like a needs assessment conducted one more time. Well, it sounds like there's questions that have risen over six months so forth about is there the need, right? And if there is, we need to make that present that to the community, to the school community, to the broader community, to our board so we can go ahead move forward just like we did with that. I think it's only fair to our community because I think the I mean for lack of better terms the political climate over the last couple of years has created a lot of concern for parents um with what is happening with their kids inside the school building. I mean, there's things happening in school clinics in

171California that um as a parent, I would I mean, I just don't agree with because it's it's I I think as a parent, I'm the one who needs to make those decisions for my child. I just don't want us getting to that place. Not saying that we would, but once the toothpaste is out of the tube, it's really hard to put it back in. And so, I'm with you, Doug. I'd rather cut twice or excuse me, measure twice, cut once on this um and let our and let our community weigh in again on what they feel because I feel if we just put one in. I just feel like the the conversation has changed enough over the last few years that it's something worth bringing the stakeholders along in the conversation. Well said. But I

172also don't want I don't I also want the board to be aware that if if we choose to not have the clinic in there, we do need to be mindful of an alternative. It can't I don't want it to be a zero sum. It's just like, well, we don't have the clinic and that's it. We still need to figure out something that would provide mental health services and or other options for our students. Again, like Director Lima said, maybe it's not right under our roof. Um, you know, and we can talk with uh maybe the county. You know, I know Commissioner Roland's doing a bunch of stuff with mental health. I personally would like to see more mental health services at our elementary and middle school levels so that then we mitigate issues as our

173kids get into high school because those kids need to start learning at a younger age how to self-regulate, where to go find help and services. So I I guess if if it's not something we do at Junction, what are we as a district willing to look at that could provide broader services or even if we do decide to have it at Junction, I still think we need to look at what are ways that we could still get to more students to help provide that support for them. So, I know it's it's probably two different conversations, but I just I also don't want us to look at like, well, it's just a no on the if that's the way the board goes, it's just a no on the clinic, but no alternative. Like, we need I

174want us to be thinking about something that still supports our students and staff and our families. I just also want to keep at the forethought that we got to keep parents involved in what's going on with their students when our students are at at schools. And I know per Colorado law at age 12 there's a lot of things that change um but we need to do everything we can to make sure our parents are still involved in every aspect of those decisions uh with their students. So I have to ask a question. Um there there's a line here on the the report that we have here on the stats that we have. Um year two uh 619 COVID tests or vax co vaccines. Yes. Parental consent. Yes. And I hope you hear I total agreement

175in everything you said because the landscape has changed right in our community as it has across the needs are still there right there's still needs there always have been there always will be and so we're we're looking at maybe starting from from ground zero so to speak and and you know do the needs assessment or maybe it's a quicker version I'm not sure the time I don't want us to rush into some I I I certainly want our decision to to reflect um what what the what our needs are for our students and that we bring our community along because if the worst thing we can do is go ahead with something that doesn't have the support. We're just setting up Marillac and the school and the district for failure if we don't bring people

176along to see here are the needs here here's a way we feel we can meet the needs or not and and make the an informed decision and and you're right to base it on what we decided three four years ago it's changed now and so I think to revisit that is is a good idea so one of the other things that that I asked about is Um, we have a property right across the street, right AC across on the other side of Fifth Street. And would that be a possibility where it's not it's not under our roof, but yet it would be extremely close access and safe access. Very. Yeah, of course. I mean, it would be walk across Fifth Street, which is Yeah, they walk across. So, and is the question whether or not

177Mirillac would be open to that or is the question whether or not that building can meet the needs of the clinic because I that's I don't know that they can answer that. I don't know if Clint or or somebody else can answer whether or not that's a viable building. It might not be, but the property is still there. And I don't know what kind of, you know, I don't know what other access you may have to be able to um or if if the district would even participate if we continue to own the the property. Would we possibly participate in whatever it would take to um either refurb part of that building? It wouldn't be the whole thing, but either refer part of that building or put something else there to house the clinic. So,

178but that would still be a dis that would still be We'd just rent them the space essentially. So, but and that feels different than So, school property, school building, it feels different on that side of Fifth Street. Yeah. Because it's still separate. There's still a separation. It's not part of the school. It's really not even part of the campus. It's really just very close access across the street. But it still is part of you know what I would suggest? We're talking about step 20. Yeah. And I'm thinking about step one. And step one is let's bring the information forward because we may decide not even to get to step five, right? Let alone step 20 of refurbishing properties. That may be, hey, yeah, everything looks great. We still have some uh uncomfortable feelings perhaps with

179using the the new high school, but we see the need, you know, but that's way down the road. What I'm suggesting is that we bring everybody up at the same pace, same speed, so we all get the same information at the same time. we can all be there to ask the questions as opposed to what what's happened over time is people get you know information and it's you know it's it's from different sources and they hear different things and so we want to bring everybody back about maybe why we're why we have a clinic to begin with and how is it working and what does it mean for junction because what happens in central may not have any bearing on junction you know it's one as I try to suggest with with the professional development

180early release, not one sizefits all, right? And and maybe in this case it will, maybe it won't. But if we bring everybody along, then I think we can make an informed decision and whatever that is, we can hopefully then bring our community along with that because obviously no matter what we decide there's going to be naysayers. Um and so if we have naysayers on both side, then we're right in the middle. Yeah. I agree and I it gives us gives our community time to come and give the board input as well. Exactly. So what kind of time though do we have based on the grants that you need to consider and based on where we are with construction? I would say Mar has absolutely no objections to doing a needs assessment with the the school

181district. Maybe the time has come for us to do it and revisit it. May show us same results. It may not. It may show is different and as uh it was mentioned here it could be in an elementary school instead of a high school. We are very open to that concept. Whatever helps the kids get ahead to where they need to go is our mission along with yours. So we have no objections to that and definitely the space and everything we can talk about later because everything hinges on the need. That's right. What is a need telling you? Right. And so but we need to be able to apply for that grant for the uh to conduct the needs assessment. It's a planning grant that you apply to the state and it happens only once

182in so many years and that's it and then the window closes and and it's very difficult sometimes to find grants for very specific things and here's the opportunity. It's right in front of us. So I would say that we have no objection. Happy to go for the grant and conduct the needs assessment on a communitywide basis, not done by Marillac alone. That's not how we approached it the first time. That's not how we will approach it uh next time. So it'll be very community- based. That would be great. And I know this is step 20, but if there was um if if maybe it doesn't if there's a mobile access piece to it, you know, maybe we could start, you know, then then it can we can be all over the community and on the

183weekends it can be really accessible to, you know, people who need it. So, um anyways, that's step 20. So, if you guys if the if you need to apply for the grant for your needs analysis, I think that's something the board is sounds like that would be helpful for us and I think it'd be good to just kind of reassess and bring the community along. Um I just need to alert you Brandon that we need a support letter for that. Micah district, how are we with with this with the construction? I know we needed to know about this like last month. So because you guys are at the Wait. Yeah. So what would the extra costs be? What are what are we not doing by leaving it as a as a basically a blank slate?

184Plumbing, electrical. What are we talking about? What if you just let What if you just still designed it with with the idea of the clinic there so everything would be basically plumbed and ready to go, but if if it's not used, then you're not cutting into walls and doing things later. You don't install the sinks. Is that is that a possibility? But with the infrastructure in place in case it goes one way or the other, which could be the case anyway. So when I I wasn't aware, what does that mean? That the plumbing has been changed. What does that mean? So, how did I'm curious how that happened because didn't I mean the last I'm surprised that that decision was made because last I knew I mean we you know we passed the board resolution

185to say we're moving forward with the clinic in 2018 or whenever that was um I didn't know that that the plan had already changed and that and that we were incuring cost due to changing the plan. It's an adult on the list, Carrie. It's it it wasn't a an absolute going into it. It was part of the that alternate stuff. It was still the the final decision still had to be made. So, it was never which we're just kind of here, right? I don't know that the community got to hear everything. So, just to recap, there's been some plumbing changes from the original plan with the clinic minimizing some of the the water. Um, but that was not a for sure plan on or set on the plan. It was an ad alternate. Is that

186correct? I'm just trying to reiterate for the public to hear. It was on the ad alternate list. Okay. But how did the if if it wasn't the original design, we just changed it to minimize the plumbing. So, a change occurred to minimize the plumbing plumbing away from the clinic. So, that's in conflict. It came down to making the letting the committee make the decision or bringing it back to the board. And I thought it was a big enough decision that it should be brought back to the board. Well, and the board not ready to make a decision right now. So, I think you guys I mean, they're just going to have to proceed with what they have because I'm not I mean, we need more information before we say whether there's a a clinic there

187or not. I think I definitely want to know the cost difference between moving forward without it and then having to add it back in later right or whatever that that's your responsibility right they they build out we provide the walls and then they so what happened at central Did you guys need more water than at that time or did we the district put together the amount of uh utilities that you needed? Okay. I I just put it this way. Anything that can be moved is Marlax's responsibility. So anything that's fixed and bolted in is came from the district. Okay. The previous project and the district applied for a grant to the Colorado Health Foundation for those capital. Okay. at Central. At Central, they had all the case, everything. So, we moved in and brought everything

188with us to set up. Okay. So, that could be a potential possibility down the road if if there's going to need extra funds to bring water or other utilities to that space. Wait, I just want to recap so I know what we're doing on the district. So, the board, I know we're not voting, but y'all are comfortable with me writing a letter of support for them to apply for a planning grant. The planning grant, this is part of the planning grant is doing a needs assessment like that is that's always been a part of the planning grant. So, y'all would need to do that anyways. And then do you have an idea of like in the past, how long did that take um before you'd be able to bring some of that data back? Is

189that six months? Is it three months? Do you remember how long it took last January? Okay. But the clock starts the contract July 1. Now July services needs assessment. Sounds like that's the problem that we face ourselves with right now. You guys are up against the wall for the I guess Brian's question was if I got it right is will the planning grant pay for the needs assessment? Yes, that's his question. I think and that's doing that how what kind of commitment do you have to have from the district to apply for that grant application based on what we did in 2019 and it looks very similar because it's a partnership collaboration it talks about that the district or whoever that partner is yes committed considering it, not committed to it. Right? That's a whole

190separate operations. This is what's called planning to operations. This first step is just what you said. We're we're asking to do the needs assessment and bring it back to us and then um you can gather other information from central wherever to help us make that decision. But what we're all talking about I think And so help me understand how that how that works exactly. I want to make sure um I mean there have been needs assessments done that not in this particular realm but they can become very skewed. they can they can not be very honest and give us a true honest view of this community and what they want. Um so you know who are we who are we asking and how do we make sure that that's done in a very very fair

191unbiased approach. So participate in it to make sure that I think it was a third party for us on our behalf around the table at that time and our local foundation here foundation. But they all parents students. They We do have we have I think what director things are very different. I hear you correctly. which director is asking which we all are is that whatever vendor we choose to do this survey we want to have confidence we want the public to have confidence that it's legit right it's it's not some right we want to and so that's that's where we're coming from you want the same thing right we want information that everyone's not going to run and go crazy and we have we are a fedally qualified health center regulated by the fed so

192we have procurement rules we Okay. Right. And we definitely collectively as partners choose a vendor we have say has the experience, the skills, a track record, good references and is able to give a very objective view to us with what we're looking for. Sounds good. Thanks for helping us out questions. We appreciate Thanks for what you do and congratulations on your c celebratory month. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Well, thank you board for your input. Um I think it's just I think it's always good to just uh revisit things um especially if things there's enough questions or concern. Uh we either way um and and bring our community along with it because I I think we're um I think the district's done a really good job in in making strides to

193bring the community along both with Grand Junction High School and other things. And um I think it's just prudent of us to continue to do that in in some of the in these decisions so that the community one can understand it and buy into it or or or just express whatever um pros or cons that they they feel about it. So um so thank you for discussing that. Um so policy first reading um we just have the school year school calendar um some cleanup on uh some of these policies. Um so uh this tonight's just the first reading. So if you have any questions on those um you can reach out to um Jennifer Marsh or Tammy Erent if uh you guys have any questions. Carrie, was there any I don't think there's anything really

194big that came out of the policy committee on any of these to let the board know about. So, um uh but then we'll vote on these in a couple of weeks. So, um and then last but not least, um is there any open board discussion? Anything anybody wants to share? Yeah, if I could bring something up and this is for me. I I can't speak for Will or Carrier Angela, but you know, I've been reading in a paper lately about the pool business and and I certainly have appreciated President Heights's working through that and her comments and working with the other entities, but sometimes the implication is in the paper that that uh Andrea is doing this all kind of on rogue, right? that the rest of us aren't there. And and I and I

195want the public to understand who's ever listening is that um you know, President Heights is in a really good job representing the how our board feels about the pool. And so when the paper quotes it, it looks like it's she's doing her own thing. And I we know you aren't, but I want the public to understand that how this board operates and our district operates is that you you're we've had discussions and talks and meetings that you're representing what we all feel. And so, um, I think you've done a really good job with that and I just, uh, hope our media folks understand that, uh, because sometimes it's like they're you're getting some darts thrown at you that, uh, I don't think have been necessarily fair. The dart comes and we should all get the

196dart and you've done a good job representing. Does that make sense? Well, I appreciate that. Um, yeah, I've I've made sure that uh every step of the way. I mean, I know we say this a lot just to each other, but we're re we really are a team and I, you know, if there is something especially as big as the pool and and I appreciate you guys your confidence in me as I've moved forward, but I have very much made sure that whatever has been said is something I know that each one of the board members is um on board with um and that we've been comfortable with uh you know, in in being a unified front. So, I I do appreciate that. I don't I'll take the darts uh for for everybody else. Um

197but I I do appreciate that because I think we've really done a lot of work together to make sure that we all are on the same page. And I know that we do spend a lot of time discussing things whether it's here or in executive session to make sure that as a board we um each person feels heard and each person has been able to express their concerns. um and that I don't I want to make sure that I I do represent, you know, all of us and not not going rogue. So, I'd imagine, you know, I I do appreciate that because it it does it does read a little like um three people from the community sort of went off and started having conversations and that and that was not the case. We we

198really actually all trying to get on the same page so we could move this forward for our community um in in what we ultimately need to do. So, thank you. Any other open board discussion, comments, or any agenda items that anybody needs? We still have two more hours to Well, Bridget Bridget could Bridget can fill it up. Don't we have to pick some dates for something? Yeah, we need to see if we can narrow down dates for the next the we need two community meetings to receive feedback from the charter school application for Mesa Valley Community School. One of those will be the board coffee on February 4th, I believe, but I gave you uh sent out dates for the other ones. And we don't need all board members there, but the dates I submitted

199to you guys were the dates that the Harry Butler rooms available. So, I really need to, you know, I've heard from two board members and that's all, but we really need to see what other dates might work for you guys. for the coffee. So, it's just Yeah. Yeah. We just need And then we're we're doing the next and Carrie, I believe, are Mr. Levenson, Dr. Schulties are doing the coffee. Can that be combined with and that's on the fourth, but we need two separate community meetings. Well, there was a Can't the coffee be a community meeting? So, are we going to go with the one on the first? You guys said you guys I could do Yeah. Was that a w Monday or a Wednesday? Uh, it's a Wednesday or Yeah. February 1st or Tuesday

200is fine. Yes. Um, is it Wednesday? Yeah, I'm I'm still good with that. If Director Jones is and we can just do like what Dr. Schulty's and Director Lima did last time, you guys met a small group for what, an hour or so, and we can have public comment then and then I think we had the majority of people come comment at the board coffee that director Jones and I attended when it was uh wildflower. So, do those work? So, we'll it'll just be within the same week, right? February 1st and February 4th, we'll have the two open meetings for Mesa Valley. Just public comment. Okay. What we'll need though is to be sure those members that are getting the feedback share at the meet that next meeting on what is it February 8th or

201something we have our next work session. So okay. And do you wish to start it at five or six? Five is five. Okay. Yep. That's good. Yep. people can come right from work. We'll make sure that we hang out in case people can't get here until 5:30. So, so this sounds like a silly question, but the clock the giant one over there in the corner, we don't want to mount it until y'all feel like it's a good ad to the board meeting. So, I don't between you having to work it tonight, is that something that the board would like to see in future meetings or if not, we don't want to have them run power and all that. I like it. Do we have to mount it? Well, the I think the issue is that

202it's it's kind of out of the way. I don't know how well they could have seen it and then um we'd have we'd have to find a place every meeting because our meetings are set up differently. So, we could put it we can put it right there next to you if you want. I mean, I think if you Dr. Hill, I could always leave a table up there when the podium's back here at our business meetings as long as folks can see it. That's me. Will that work? Yeah. I mean, I think the one school board meeting that I saw this at from the other district, it was kind of right up on their dis so that it was really there. So, we I Oh, maybe don't mount it yet until we Yeah. kind of.

203It sounds like y'all are okay with trying to use it in two weeks from now again. I don't know. How did Were it helpful to the presenters to kind of see it? Okay. Was it because it was 35 minutes? We we secretly added five minutes to your presentation. Well, a chain and put it right here. Is he gonna Who is Yes. Those are for all of us that grew up in the 90s. We know exactly what you're talking about, Will. All right. Well, thank you, board. Appreciate your time tonight and thank you for everybody. I hope the 5:00 time was helpful for our staff and our community. Um, and we're out of here just a little after 8. So, all right. Thank you everybody. Have a good evening and happy new year.