001e e e to the November 19th board meeting I would like to call the meeting to order and ask that you join me in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge of ALG to the of the United States of America and to the repblic for it stands one nation under God indis andice so mov second sorry John Christenson y chryst Luca Kathy Howen an O AJ Wilson y motion carried he first items we have are donations um the first item is a donation to West J good evening ma'am uh I'd like to present a donation of ,000 from the sanzel Electric Association uh we requested this donation to build a jrtc obstacle course but it's not just for jrtc it's going to be for schoolwide use it's going to be built on the upper fields and
002the cool thing about it is it's a joint project with our geometry and construction class um they're they were the ones that I gave them kind of the ideas and they are designing and they're going to build the the actual uh obstacle course so it's kind of a school project so it's a really neat project so I'd like to thank Mr dietro for his help in getting it approved through the safety and everything as well very nice so thank you great thank you I know it sorry it crashed so I'm trying to restart okay um we have a donation to Desert Sage Elementary Mr thank you everyone thank you for uh space on the agenda we have a a donation for $1,000 from Victor Quintana he's a coach of one of our volleyball groups that
003comes and uses the gym as a community space for the school um as of right now the plan is to put some paint on the walls down that hallway to paint a mural going into the cafeteria by the music room and down the hallway towards the PE space towards the gym thank you thank you okay next up we have a a couple donations um to Ry High School Mr ad hi good evening have three donations tonight first donation of $600 to Ry high school basketball from Becker pit LLC the second one I have a donation of $500 from native Lumber LLC to the volleyball team and then the third one is a donation of $500 to the Ry High School ban from Highline Services LLC so quite a bit of expenses uh big thanks to
004Mr John Christensen for his donation going to the girls volleyball state expenses and then uh Mr Clinton for his donation to the r high school basketball it's going to go to pay for some hotels and then Highline services that is going to go for buying some instruments and equipment for a band program so big thank you for those three donors thank you thank you I have a motion get presented so moved I second John Christensen y Chris deuca Kathy Helen hi an o y AJ Wilson y motion carried okay next up is open for we have any comments this evening we do Madam president um for those of you who have not spoke you'll have three minutes and the timer will be on the screen and then I'll give you a 30 second warning and
005then um we'll move on to the next speaker so M uh up first we have Miss Stephanie Williams I said that right this time right oh the time will start when you start speaking I left that part out sorry all right thank you so good evening um thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight about Trails first it is essential to clarify that the trails curriculum is not intended to replace therapy or the professional relationships that are School based therapists and psychologists provide through tier three interventions Trails is a tier one program designed to support all students by teaching them to recognize their own thought patterns and behaviors and introducing tools they can choose from to make positive changes it is about prevention and skill building not treatment that said the importance of trails is
006Amplified by the challenges we face in Staffing tier 3 mental health positions I have advocated for additional resources since joining District 70 last year and the district has approved those resources however those positions have not been filled due to a lack of qualified applicants Trails helps fill a crucial Gap by offering Universal support to students in the absence of sufficient access to higher level interventions in addition to supporting students Trails provides exceptional resources for families and staff I recently attended a Trails training on suicide prevention for families and caregivers and I was genuinely impressed by this presentation the quality of resources provided and the access to follow-up care if needed this was far more comprehensive than anything I have participated in before looking ahead I'm excited to join self training fora being offer TRS is
007another example of how thisam goes beyond theom to support thead School community in my two decades as an educator I've never had access to a program as well done and inclusive as Trails for seal it empowers students equips families and support staff in meaningful ways to prohibit or restrict access to the this curriculum in response to the loudest voices in opposition will be shortsighted and contrary to the mission of supporting the students staff and families of District 70 I urge you to support Trails as part of our District's comprehensive approach to addressing mental health and to allow our school staff to develop strategies and systems for implementing the curriculum in ways that it makes sense for our students it is an invaluable tool in creating healthier stronger community and it deserves our support thank you
008for your time and commitment thank you next we have Miss Allison Ballas um Miss uh Miss Lindsay's coming up with me and I am probably more than three minutes tonight so she's going to pick up where I left off well everybody has three minutes so I know so you're going to do three minutes and then she's going to do three minutes I it might be two and a half okay well if we have more then yeah you guys can each speak yeah thank you okay so thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight let me Begin by thanking the public voters and the members of the board who fully supported our M Levy override it is clear that those members of the board Administration and staff of District 70 who gave out of their own
009pockets and support understand that the goal of the MLL was to continue the quality public education in District 70 on the other hand I would like to quote an email I received from a member of the community prior to the the election this individual is a citizen and it wrote this as a citizen not as an officer of a political party the individual in part wrote I am writing to ask you to vote no on the middle of the override it's a permanent tax increase different from a bond that is um expires after it's being being paid for today at their meeting we heard from the head of the union advocating for a yes vote this tax is partially for school repairs and upgrades two of the school board members who strongly Advocate a no
010vote claim there is enough money in the reserves to pay for the school repairs that are needed will it squeeze the reserve fund probably what is the reserve fund but not for emergencies our speaker said the bond approved several years ago was not enough to pay for the current repairs and upgrades to the school a big part of the tax increase is to go to teacher salaries and she goes uh on to say as a former teacher she sympathized with what's being introduced this year to be taught in the schools is not something I can support now or in the future a new 700,000 Dei curriculum called Trails has been donated and from there this person goes on to get into the Weeds about Trails but I'm not here to speak about that tonight I
011believe there are many others here to speak on that topic but I find it shocking that two members of this elected Board of Education would spew such falsehoods to the public and discourage this message from P this this measure from passing the mil Levy's sole purpose was to guarantee safety quality programming and yes Recruitment and Retention of our dedicated employees the M Levy failed by roughly 1,800 votes I ask you on the board who chose not to support the mllo to explain to me and the public why is the elected advocates for district 70 who ran on transpar parency would hide herself behind partisan lines and badmouth something that she is in part responsible for making sure functions and is fiscally sound as Schoolboard members it's your duty to know and oversee public funds it
012is your job to ensure that the children of District 70 have the best public education they can possibly have now and in the future instead of these members of the board who have the knowledge of the budget the lacking of funding District 70 receives the conditions of our buildings and the quality education programming and the expertise of our Educators lifting up concerns and Praises she allowed the roof to cave in on this ballot measure and our fiscal stability and District 70 I wonder what her plan is to replenish the reserve funds once this emergency is fixed I wonder where she thinks the money will come from for the next emergency time maybe she thinks it'll rain down through our leaky roofs I can take it to the Press or perhaps ride up out of the
013Lost sewage at various locations one can pray can't she rude how rude you're not going to be allowed to come back and speak if that's the way it's going to be that's fine but we don't do that we have rules so M sodnik would you like to pick up from there or okay next we have Sharon scy okay um to the to the board and to our superintendent Reigns and to the staff I'm here tonight to speak about Trails um I was uh going over your uh mission statement for uh District 70 and I really appreciate what that says basically the headline on it says it's the whole purpose for education is to educate each student to achieve his or her full academic potential okay and so over the years I've watched education degrade and
014go away from the basics that children really need to function in the society that they will graduate into to be productive members taxpayers and uh family members and so I wanted to commend you on that one of the things in the mission statement was that we are a partnership and I noticed that sometimes the language has changed uh we also hear that uh taxpayers are stakeholders or we're in a partnership I do agree that we're in a partnership but parents are the Arbiters of their children's education okay Arbiter means they are the first and foremost authority of training their children I've watched the nation struggle with some really sticky uh situations that we here in PLO are dealing with with trails and I I feel like that when we wander off the off the trail
015of basic education and open the door of emotional solving of family problems uh that is taken away from the teach from the parents from the students and from the children now are there problems yes there are problems but I do not believe that the classroom is to deal with these emotional problems or whatever these things are I would like to look outside of the school system and find remedies yes there are real real problems but I don't think that our teachers have time to teach the basics and deal with these kinds of stressful situations that deprive the other students of a good basic education it deprives the taxpayer who who fund I'm a grandparent I have four grandchildren in school right now and I want them to get the very best academic education that they
016can get now if they don't I I feel you're going to see the homeschooling movement grow you're going to see private education grow and you're going to see a diminishing in the school system because this thing is just it's taken on too many things that's watering down your purpose and so I appreciate like what your uh your mission statement is a good sound academic basic education and I applaud the the uh teachers in the classroom that are dealing with such difficult problems behavioral problems that's not the place to deal with those kinds of things so I ask the board tonight please uh be considered of the parent the taxpayer and the child and do the right thing so if if we need to go to other things we can in other places and I go
017[Applause] says what's the subject it okay are the other ones all Trails there was only three or four Trails I don't know how many you have two I don't me to no it's fine have one right here how many so this makes four so that keeps us on WE let's go ahead and put that to it depends if they're for or against though yeah because they have to combine it together so if you have some that are against and some that are for we've only got let's just roll we only got four open forms left so okay I'm good with if everybody's good with it we'll just finish up I'm good with it okay perfect Miss Hannah Miguel I have a few thoughts inspired by what has been shared said and shared by many here
018tonight in places other than Schoolboard meetings as I sit and see you all with your concerns and assumptions about what is or isn't included in the trails curriculum having read many of your emails to from the board on this topic I submitted aora for those having read many of your opinions and theories on social media and a few personal conversations as well I just wanted to remind you all that we are talking about a curriculum for a public school public means space shared with everyone else people of all colors shapes backgrounds and beliefs those we like those we don't those we relate to and those who couldn't be more different you know when my kids ask me questions that I'm not well versed in we look it up together why is the sky blue and
019not green what is school like in Japan what exactly is quantum physics this holds especially true for things that could be more difficult or delicate to address for example we are not a religious family we teach our kids our family morals and values but when they ask me about religion I encourage them to learn about it I tell them to read the religious texts attend a service ask questions and have debates with those willing to engage I'll share my own knowledge and experiences as well if they'd like I encourage them to come to their own conclusions even if they don't perfectly align with mine I'm not afraid of my kids being exposed to ideas that aren't what we taught at home I know I've taught my kids kindness and respect I know they've learned critical
020thinking skills and that we fostered fostered curiosity and we've taught them that it's okay to be wrong to grow and to change and I know that I want them to be part of public spaces to rec recognize and celebrate diversity of all kinds and to feel confident challenging narrow-minded thinking in others but especially in themselves I wish everyone in this room could do the same for themselves and their children instead of shielding them by demanding that all references to things they don't understand or aren't comfortable with be removed from curriculums why can't we encourage learning if you are confident in what you've taught your child your children at home will a link to a hotline or a mention that some people use a different pronoun really sh shatter their world and undo everything you've taught
021and is that fear worth removing validation recognition and resources for those students who don't fit your version of what's acceptable public school is for everyone and our curriculum should be as [Applause] well next up is Miss Ellen Mao sorry I'm trying to stop it so I can reset it okay good evening members of the board and superintendent rain thank you for this opportunity to speak I want to express my concerns regarding a Facebook post shared widely by District 70 staff members including administrators calling for prayer warriors to take part in a Jericho walk for the district schools while the post language attempt to create some distance between this event and the board by stating that it's not a sponsored activity it Bears mentioning that if a board member is inviting people to this event and
022publicly participating in it then that does constitute an endorsement of the event the event involves a group of so-called prayer warriors gathering at District 70 school campuses on December 7th and walking around the school buildings while praying and singing praises the post suggests that the event's purpose is to conjure safety and Goodwill for the district students and wisdom and guidance for the staff and school board members the post also invites public participation on behalf of board member AJ Wilson in the organization of forging PLO a group notorious for its Global goal of quote unifying PLO with a Biblical world view end quote now I have many issues with this but here are the most relevant there is no way a district 70 board member should be sponsoring fundamentalist religious events at our schools this violates
023both policy and best practice it is also problematic for District 70 administrators to be so publicly In Cahoots with a religious fundamentalist organization and to be sharing their events on Facebook these actions legitimize an organization that actively seeks to subvert public education and lastly had members of this board not so publicly spoken out against the mil Levy override we as a school district would not be in such a position where we have to resort to religious chanting coordinated on Facebook to drum up the wisdom and resources to deliver a high quality education in closing I offer this quo Christian Academy Trinity Lutheran School the world of Faith Christian Academy Center St Tes Catholic School St John Newman Catholic School these are all parochial schools with whom I'd like to encourage AJ Wilson and forging publo
024to look into to get involved with and to find ways to fulfill their divinely inspired mission of spreading Christianity to the masses but Pueblo School District number 70 it's a public school district our vocation is in fact education not religion I hope that board member Wilson and the rest of the prayer warriors are soon granted the wisdom to understand the difference thank [Applause] you next up is Mich Shannon inserto see that right yeah inserto so I'm not as well prepared as everybody else in this room um I have children at Desert Sage Elementary who are in the ESS program sorry it's been a long day for me um and I have a kid who balls every time she has to go to school because there's not enough ESS help in her classroom there are 56
025students in the ESS program at Desert Sage Elementary there are two teachers and four parapros some of them are assigned to a specific child and with them all day long I don't think that's fair my child is in a math group that has 15 children in it for 30 minutes that's 2 minutes per child who does that help certainly not my kid and certainly not the rest of the children in that classroom how do you expect them to get the proper education that they need when they can't even get the help that they are legally bound to I am so frustrated and tired of having to show up again and again and again to schools in order for my children to get what they need when I pay taxes for my children to get what
026they need I participate in their IEPs I'm there I'm trying to help teachers as best I can to move them forward I'm trying to tutor them at home paying other tutors to help them so that all of this responsibility doesn't fall on two teachers I was told today that there was a woman who applied for a position there at Desert Sage but was turned down because she didn't pass a specific test by one point who does that help why can't we have parapros in there that are overseen by these teachers we're talking about basic math and basic reading I've had about 48 hours to look up the information that I needed did before I could come here tonight and when I looked it up I saw that only 23% of kids at paa West High
027School are proficient in Reading how is that even possible 56% of them are proficient in math that starts at the elementary age why are we not putting more focus on kids getting what they need in the classroom why are we not focusing on retaining our teachers getting qualified people and then if we can't get those qualified people people to support that qualified staff so that information can trickle down to our children I don't understand what we're doing and I don't think it's okay I do plan on coming back after I have had some more time to research more of this because I don't feel like I'm fully vers in it but I do feel like it's something that needs to be addressed because these children you are legally bound to give them what they are
028supposed to get my kid is not getting what she needs and I'll be damned if she's going to go on and be an adult who can barely read and can barely do math because this School District refuses to give her the help that she is legally bound to thank [Applause] you last we have Miss bana Rodriguez um good evening Board of administration thank you for your time tonight my name is Brianna ger Rodriguez I am a parent of two District 70 students I'm here tonight to express my support for the trails curriculum as a Chana indigenous wom we I want to um recognize that we are currently on the lands of my ancestors of the Apache people as well as the cheyan and you and kamanchi people um and again I want to express my
029support for this curriculum because in news of this curriculum it was nice to hear that some sort of of diversity some sort of um mental emotional awareness is going to be introduced in our children's curriculum at schools I'm also not well prepared tonight I rushed over here after getting my kids' dinner ready I don't know if I could top off these two wonderful ladies um very well put together speeches but I want to shed a little bit of cultural Awareness on everyone in attendance tonight again as an indigenous woman I recognize that we on these lands are full of diversity of people of all backgrounds of folks of all walks of life again in a public school setting we cannot we cannot just expect our children our curriculums to fit into a box it's not
030how it works yes our educators are there to educate on subjects I understand that but it would be arrogant to believe that kids are not walking into our school buildings with the weight of what they're going through at home with the weight of what their life experience may be as a person of color as a person of who is just different whether it be in who they love and or what they believe in it's a public school and so this Trails curriculum from my understanding this is actually my first um attending I'm attending my first um Schoolboard meeting tonight so I'm new to the politics to this all but for my understanding this curriculum it sounds wonderful in giving our Educators even the smallest tools on how to help our students with their emotional well-beings
031I don't think that our school curriculums have enough diversity in them as it is and so I would really love for the school board members to pass this curriculum to support this curriculum is not something woke it's we're all human we all experience life differently and we need to give our teachers the tools to help support our students in what they're navigating in their personal life so thank you [Applause] all that concludes our open form speakers M president all right we're going to move on to presentation so our first presentation is of a lesson on mindfulness um from the trails curriculum and we have Mrs Ry so the board the board asked me to do a presentation from Trails because um one teachers want to see the presentation of trails they want to see how
032it's implemented and two uh they want to see how it is implemented and some of the um I guess content that might be introduced to your children and so I've been doing uh Trails lessons to our principles at every single principal meeting and I have to say that I feel like they think it's valuable because it's not just touching on the social emotional um curriculum for kids it also touches us as adults socially and emotionally and it helps us to be um better people as well so the first thing that we do go ahead and do start that slide from the beginning te go to the next one so today what we'll do is we're going to do a mindful check-in that's one of the first things that they ask the kids to do is
033we're going to do do a mindful check-in and so if you want to participate you're welcome to participate I do ask if you put your name on it and you actually do want me to check on you later because you're not okay that you put your phone number on it and I'll call you because I want to make sure you're okay I if if you know me very well like I will call you I will make sure that you're okay uh all of my principles are two a month ago we had a principal meeting and there were several that were they had a rough week and I I made sure every one of them I made a phone call to to make sure that they were okay because it matters and you matter so if
034you want to participate Bob and I will give you a mindful checkin it takes a few minutes because you're going to look at you don't have to I mean it's just it's voluntary you want to like I'll get this side so we're going to take a few minutes you you can fill out this form it's a checkin sheet it has multiple feelings that you could be experiencing right now you could be experiencing more than one feeling right now for instance right now I'm nervous so that's one of my feelings how how intensively am I feeling that probably about a six because it's making me sweat you know I'm hot those are feelings um I'm feeling excited I'm excited because I'm glad that we have so many people here tonight um people have asked for the
035um YouTube uh link as well so I know that we have people at home watching this and we want our community to be involved we want our community to be a part of our lives and to give us their thoughts and their opinions so take a few minutes you don't have to have three feelings but you could have up to three feelings and then rate each one of those you know like I'm an eight or a nine and tell me why you're an eight or a nine the one I chose to do was uh middle school high school the elementary has a few less pictures on it but it still has some different emotions on it that Elementary can choose so while you're filling that out what we're going to talk about is mindfulness today
036and mindfulness means a couple different things um we're also going to explore judging versus describing and we're going to do a couple different activities go ahead and go to the next slide so when you think about mindfulness and since we're Dowing the class I I need some interaction here so mindfulness what are some things that you think of hear the Mind Che how do I feel anyone else yes deep breath okay being present yes that's a great one anyone else think of something active listening absolutely go ahead and click the next one and you you all received several of those got them correctly we are observing the present being purposeful with our attention um focusing on what's Happening inside of us and all around us and then turn to be non-judgmental and kind about what
037we observe so when we are listening to actually he we're thinking not judgmentally we're thinking I'm listening for the facts I know that I personally struggle with mindfulness um and you can probably relate to this how many of you have driven to a location and then you get there and you're like I passed six or seven mile markers that I even remember passing because my mind was somewhere else or someone is talking to you and you go to the Disneyland in your head and you are thinking about 50 other things that you need to actually accomplish and the worst one I am I'm terrible about sitting at the dinner table with my family and answering emails and texts and is that fair is that fair to my family am I being mindful am I being
038present am I being for my people so go ahead and play when it hits the you're suppos middle school can be really hard sometimes one of my biggest stresses is the homework at school sometimes you get piles and piles and piles you get projects and more projects projects plus homework like I need to get it done I'll be doing my homework and then the phone rings you want to answer it you want to look at it but at the same time don't there's so many things you can do on a phone I use social media Twitter Instagram I text my friends I watch YouTube Etc there've been stupid arguments over text messages sometimes I'm not sure what they're going to say how they're going to say it what should I say back to them when
039I hit send my fingers all trembling cuz I'm like is this the right thing to say should I say something else should I just send it no send it no press send it's done now I'm got to wait for the response as a seventh grade girl the popular kids might say you should do your hair like this you should wear this kind of makeup you should do just things like that to get girls be like worried about what people think and it's a lot of pressure to not be wearing makeup so you never know if you're like as pretty as the people who are wearing makeup my friends were getting bullied a lot because of the eighth graders and the seventh graders seeing that they were the best sometimes people aren't nice to you and
040that's how it is in the real world but gets to me a lot it just makes me upset I think people are afraid people are going to be talking about them like if you feel embarrassed or if you made a mistake or something then I just feel very trapped it feels awful so I try to do everything perfect my schedule is tense busy and really tiring because I actually cram a lot of things into one day I have due dates I have school I have activities with band if clutters in my mind and I think how am I going to deal with this I kind of just start to like shut down well my stomach always feels like very not I think my brain's like on overdrive there's a bunch of papers just flying through
041my brain and there's people running around and there's a fire in there I get a lot of anxiety when I have a lot of pressure put on me pressure expectation it's a lot to take in when you know it's on you [Music] you can begin by closing your eyes getting in a posture where your back is straight steady like a mountain but your muscles are soft and relaxed and then go ahead and bring your hand up to your chest placing it over your heart or on your chest wherever it feels comfortable and then just feel your body breathe just noticing as you inhale the rising of your chest as you exhale the falling of your [Music] chest just staying with this gentle rhythm of your breathing you might have some thoughts that come in that
042you become distracted that's okay that's the nature of the mind we just gently redirect our attention and come back to feeling our hand on our stomach as we breathe when you're ready you can put your hands down and open your eyes when we bring our attention and we concentrate on feeling or breathing it can help to calm down that storm that we might be feeling that sense of overwhelm or frustration or upset CU one thing that happens is that we can get stuck thinking that whatever we're thinking feeling or feeling physically won't change especially if it's unpleasant but actually the more attention kind attention that we give to it the more that it will start to release so mindfulness gives us this Choice it gives us this freedom to choose how to respond as opposed
043to react right away does that make sense [Music] when you listen to your heart and like you hear the sound it it really calms you down and you feel really loose and free I do get a lot of stress and I take on a lot of things and to be able to allow myself to relax and see things clearly is definitely a huge thing that I need to work on some of my friends they don't take tests very well and I know that meditating would help them relax more and it will help them to do better I think using using those practices in the future to try and calm yourself will really help and relieve a lot of the stress that Middle School brings so that's just one way in which we can be mindful
044that's one way that we can give kids tools to relax whenever they are becoming anxiety ridden or they have um too much pressure going on at one time and I know that people think that kids have all these tools in their tool but they don't your kid may have that tool in their tool box and you may have taught your kid how to do that but they may be sitting next to two or three people all around them that do not have those same tools and are not necessarily taught those tools and so that's why I think it's so important that we are giving this opportunity to these kids to get these tools in their toolbox to actually take care of their own mental health and to relax whenever they start to become agitated and
045another activity that is on this particular lesson is it asks what is the difference between a description and a judgment so when we're describing something that's a judgment it's usually an opinion and it could be either positive or it could be a negative opinion but listening to here and we're only looking for the descriptions that are factual that's what we're really looking to hear we're looking to hear the factual descriptions whenever people are talking so that we can make a good decision not just our judgment not just our opinion so we're going to be listening to five different sounds and you need to write on your paper facts describe these sounds with facts not judgment but I also want you to think about how you feel while these sounds are [Music] playing that was easy
046[Music] what [Music] so to me this lesson actually transfers over into writing assignments too how are we listening to with backs rather than opinion so when I hear I hear teachers say well what does this have to do with what I do in the classroom this certainly has a lot to do with what you do in the classroom and these are the types of videos that you probably would show to differentiate between judgment and description so when I'm hearing that first sound give me some facts about what you heard with the first sound participation which one the dog high pitch ches correct what else any other facts that you could tell me about that instrumental instrumental the second sound stress is that a judgment or is that a fact Jud um third sound the fourth
047sound and then the sound and these are all sounds that dogs love so the YouTube is the sounds that dogs love and there are five more of those sounds now tell me what was difficult about this activity had some difficulty with this activity I'll Tell You by in a minute I think the sounds create feeling and emotion and it's it's difficult to separate that emotion because we're human we all have emotion like the honk gave you a little bit of stress so but by taking the opportunity to go oh wait I felt this but then this is what's the fact and it it takes a second to separate that anyone else want to share I think some of more I don't emotional because I me when you start the bells and stuff it kind of
048all a sudden sounded like Christmas you know it was relaxing but prior to that it was kind of intense and so I'll tell you the feeling that I get when I listen to all 10 of those sounds is impatience I get impatient that's that's my feeling it the Jud in reflection we need to think about some situations that might be better if we practiced observing and describing without judgment so whenever we're taking a look at this Trails curriculum I do hope that we are looking thoroughly at this for the facts and that we're keeping an open mind and that we're looking through it withs and not just judment so I didn't print the coping skills coping skills allows kids to keep track of things that they learn along the way with social emotional curriculum and
049so today if if you were in my class I would ask you to give me one skill that you possibly learn today about mindfulness or something that you could do for yourself and your family to be more Mindful and to be present for your people and that concludes my lesson [Applause] now if you want to hand me your um check you're welcome to if you want to keep it till the end and give it to me because you may have different feelings towards the end you're welcome to give it to me at the end as well thank you okay we're going to go ahead and move on to presentation from hble West High School JC for a trip to Sandy Utah yes please thank you ma'am uh good evening again board appreciate the time uh
050we're just trying to get ahead of the game here um the trip to Sandy Utah would be our Rifle Team they qualified for the first time last year uh we anticipated them qualifying again so we're just trying to get ahead of the game to to get your approval um to to go on that trip um it's fully funded by the army so uh there's no really cost to the the kids at all um for the second trip this will be our third time to San Antonio again we were supposed to have our first drill meet on the snow day uh so obviously it was postponed or canceled at the time um so I don't know where we're at again we're trying to uh assess where we're at I I intend to take at least one
051team down there again uh to compete uh with hopefully qualifying for Nationals that's been our goal for the last uh three years so thank you thank you okay um now we have a presentation of the adoption of policy good evening everyone I've asked Dr Martinez to join me for a couple of these policies as Dr Martinez was the one who did quite a bit of research in regards to our new policy on uh School District volunteers uh and so I'm going to have him uh chime in as um appropriate so uh what we had uh prior was we had a visitor policy and it and it was a very uh you know standard visitor policy but what it didn't address is what do we consider a visitor what do we consider a volunteer and how
052do we identify Who falls under what category and when when we would consider somebody to be a volunteer and what would be the steps to become a volunteer versus what would be just a normal visitor to our school so that's what these uh first couple policies um are are about so I'll have Dr Martinez talk about the district volunteer policy uh basically what it means to to become a district volunteer what are some of the expectations um some of the things that you know um they have to follow and then how do they become a a volunteer so thank you so we use Volunteers in a lot of different ways uh in some cases we have some groups traveling I was just listening to those presentations we would have parent chaperon on those trips and
053they would be volunteers to our programs uh we also have volunteers who come in to classrooms and read with students who come in and tutor in math we come in who uh we have families who support and they're with students on a regular basis and we want to support them in being able to be successful and we want to support our teachers and our school staffs in being able to continue those programs so we wanted to make sure that we had some consistency across the district and that was really the big thing because every school operated a little bit differently in terms of how their volunteer program worked and so what we did was worked with Miss Russell in the HR department who manages the background checks uh worked with the student safety department and
054and Mr petro and then uh from the instructional side to come up with something that we could use across the district for volunteers um our volunteer definition they assist employees in providing more individualized instruction they enrich the instructional program they build an understanding of the school programs among interested citizens thus stimulating widespread involvement in our school district's programs and they strengthen our school and community relations uh another place that we see a lot of volunteers is coaching right we have lot lots of folks who want to be part of our programs because we have very successful programs and so we want to make sure that we can have them there but we want to make sure they're safe we want to make sure they're supporting our students and our staff and they're meeting the needs
055and the ultimate goals of school district 70 and so with with volunteers um you know there are times where they're working with students who they're not always going to be 100% under the supervision of a certified staff uh or a teacher or other uh members of the the school building so we have we have to make sure that when we uh make sure that these people that are working with our children can pass a background check just like any of our employees or our volunteer coaches or our coaches would would be able to do so they do have to go through a full background check we do have a new form that goes with uh this policy and that that's uh combined with this and that's I uh J c-r so this would be completed
056it would be submitted to the Department of HR Miss Russell and her group would put that person through uh a background check and then they would be added to an approved list so that that school knows that this person uh has passed the background check and is eligible to be working as a volunteer in the schools uh it will have to be done annually so if somebody wants to volunteer uh every year then they would have to go through this process yearly again to ensure that we're doing our due diligence about making sure those individuals coming into our schools and working with our kids have passed the requirements um and then also you know it's always at the district and school's discretion and and administrator's discretion on whether or not they would uh ask that
057volunteer not to come back or if we would ever pull uh a a volunteer for some reason again it's at our discretion uh and that's listed in the policy um so any questions on uh volunteer policy Chris how does that pertain to say a teacher bringing in a speaker for the day good question and if you give me a minute to go to the next policy I hopefully can sum that up or answer that for you and uh we'll see if we'll see if you have that same question any any other questions outside of what Mr Christian just no okay so uh next policy is our Ki policy and this this is a current policy we have and we we did make some uh revisions to it and so uh Mr Christian to to uh
058answer your question if you look at number four on the the visitor policy um we did add educational guests and other professional individ individuals participating in educational enrichment activity range and supervised by a certified uh School staff so yes if I'm a teacher and I brought in a guest speaker uh I'm doing a lesson I'm bringing somebody in that has that expertise that knowledge maybe maybe someone from the zoo coming to work with a science class um that person would be covered under our visitor policy would would just state that they have to sign in uh just like any other visitor they would not be required to go through a full background check just to come in and present a lesson to um a class or classes for the day um same uh piece to
059that is you know we have career fairs that happen across our district across the whole school year you know those individuals again we wouldn't ask people that are coming in from companies and schools and other organizations uh providing our students with some enrichment activities again that's under the supervision of those teachers those schools that have put that together and so that would fall under that again guest speaker slash uh professional coming in to provide enrichment uh opport unities and activities so did that answer that question on yes sir perfect um in addition we you know we have this come up all the time well what about um you know events like uh parties in the classroom Halloween you know we just finished with Halloween um we have other activities uh that happen Awards assemblies different
060activities that are large scale activities that happen across uh the school year so what we were missing was a section on that and so we looked at other policies across uh different districts and we found a couple different uh you know uh pieces that we liked and so the the second thing that we added again is uh the requirements sta in this policy and regulation may not apply when visitors are attending an assembly athletic event or other school programs and areas typically used for large group assemblies such as gymnasiums auditoriums or parents attending activities um clearly for the purpose of parent Guardian involvement so again that would be Halloween party that would be uh coming in for those types of activities now a school may still have some form of signin so you have to
061come into the main office you have to still show your ID or you have to sign in uh a school may have to limit say you know depending on what activity is you know they might not be able to have you know student might not be able able to have five adults come into the to the event because it just there won't be enough space so they still may have to do say you know two two uh two adults or something of that nature but again we wouldn't require those people to go through fill out a background check and go through that whole process just to attend an event like that so uh that's been added to that policy to give us um that clearly defines you know what school should be doing in regards
062to that and again once this policy is approved we'll make sure that all principles and all of our schools um have the updated and and know that this is this is the way we're moving forward with both um policies any any questions on sir um thank you for clarifying some of that stuff I appreciate it and when will it go into effect if it's pass and will it be immediate yeah okay it it it is on the your action um items for tonight so if if you do vote to approve them we will get them all uh distributed out we'll notify um our principles of the process they'll they'll be able to see it and then again Mrs Russell and her group will be available to um handle that we we we've had Volunteers in
063schools that have already gone through process just like this it's this just clear defines what the expectations are now so it it will it will become effective thank you yes so can I still bring uh brownies to the schools absolutely as long as you stop by our office first I don't have a background check as long as you're supervised bring your ID miss Helen all right um thank you person thank you I appreciate it uh okay okay um any other questions on visitor uh volunteer policies all right so moving on to um the last policy and that's our uh revisions to jcj uh as you know um we've had many discussions over student cell phone use in the buildings electronic device use in the buildings we've we've had a couple presentations in the last uh
064few months um we had an individual come in that uh was arranged uh by I believe Dr Wilson you had uh Mr everol come in to to give us a a presentation uh we did a a cell phone survey with our high school staff and our high school parents to get some more information I did present that uh a few meetings back and so I think what we finally did was come up with uh a good revision to our very old policy that we had in place and so um the first thing we did is just kind of clean up what is uh you know an electronic device CU we had a lot of different things that there dating back to pagers and beepers um so we made sure to to kind of update that
065to include not just you know and again make sure privately owned that was one of the things that we saw consistent across other policies um again cell phones SmartWatches have been added tablets cameras audio and video recording devices um still kept pagers in there and then um that kind of Shores up that um that language there so what is considered an electronic device uh then where we really made the changes was what what are we going to allow and what are we not going to allow so on that next uh paragraph where it gets in students may carry electronic communication devices um we went to a a a varying uh degree of what can be done at each level and so the language has changed to say these devices must be turned off inside buildings
066on buses Etc and it it now goes into to say students may carry electronic communication devices but to protect the learning environment the following guidelines shall apply we have uh prek through 8 guidelines which very much mirrored what we've been doing already and that's basically saying that during the course of the school day once you come into that building electronic devices are turned off if you have one and they are either stored away in either like your backpack uh or on you or some classrooms have individuals turn in their things such as um you know little pouches or other storage areas within the school um and again we said the school day is uh includes but is not limited to all instructional time lunch periods recess School sponsor programs events or activities other times during
067the designated school day and so we did put that those time frames in there because um we we don't want to have to govern until 7 o'clock at night if students are there for basketball games they're using their phones to call for rides they're doing um that kind of stuff so again we just talked any activity any instructional time any time during the instruct or during the entire school day and then uh in n9th grade um we have a separate uh piece for n9th grade and just says um students in grades 9 through 12 are prohive from using personal electronic devices during instructional time we manage just to include instructional time includes the entire period of a scheduled class and other times when students are directed to report and participate in any instructional activity you
068talk about students May wear smart watches or electronic watches but may not use any communication applications or features that are prohibited from use on any other electronic device and all notifications must be turned off um again all personal devices should be turned off kept in stored in backpacks or other designated areas um and then we did add this because we did hear from our parents that they like the fact that they can communicate with their parents during the course of a school day um and so we did put in the piece that uh personal electronic devices may be used during lunch periods however such use is limited to communication with parents and Guardians so not to listen to music not to play games not to do other stuff really should be um just I need
069to check to see you know am I getting on the bus today am I not um so we did allow that um to happen uh we also heard a lot from our teachers that there's a lot of apps that they do use on cell phones and some of these apps can be replaced by other things and some cannot and so uh after a long discussion within our leadership group uh and others we did um come up with any event an electronic communication device may be identified as as an instructional tool teachers may allow use of them for instructional purposes only this use should be done on a limited basis and should have clear student expectations while using them again not hey you're done with your work you can listen to music on your cell phone
070or you can do this or that so again we we learned that they a lot of teachers use this graphing calculator uh there's some different apps again uh the camera uh can be very useful in certain science projects and other different things uh as we know there's a lot of apps out there that can be very instructional oriented so this does allow some freedom to say yes we're going to do this but here's the parameters um that we're working under um we just went in to talk about again we have the piece on what's what's considered an emergency uh and then we did add um again the principal May Grant use of electronic communication devices and other circumstances as deemed necessary so if something comes up during the course of a school day you know
071we've had a couple times where we have to you know um close a school or send kids home early because of a sewer issue or no water you know those are times where we can uh utilize with our older kids again on how we can get some communication out um for things like that so that could be an example and then again uh just cleaning up the language and say what's what's an appropriate place to store them and then uh did add the piece on um if a building principle or designated believes a student's possession of a use of electronic communication advice may involve with violation of law uh the principal May uh notify law enforcement as appropriate that's what's uh we've come up with after a few months of doing a lot of work
072and getting a lot of feedback from uh individuals any questions on that policy yes sir I just want to thank you for being diligent in that and I'm I like to see the clear communication with that on kind of what the expectations are and I'm excited to to see some of this change a little bit and hopefully you know the staff feels confident and in utilizing this in this way as well and kids can get off the screens and devices a little bit more and and so what we'll do is again uh you'll vote on on this policy we ac tonight and then we'll have to figure out you know make sure that we get uh notification out appropriately and you know with our elementary middle school it's really not a change it's it's really
073now working with our high school so we'll work closely with those High School principles on making sure that this policy will be moving forward and cool thank you thank you thank you okay next up is our presentation of the of agreement between PCA and dist regarding changes to language in the negotiated agreement good evening Madam president members of the board um as you know we do negotiate language in our contract in the fall and so this tentative agreement brings us into compliance with the federal definition of a full-time employee as an employee that works 30 plus hours per week on average so that changes our definition of full-time employee and then brings all of these other um definitions and articles through our um dental and health and medical insurance um language up into compliance of
074that full-time employee so some small changes but several articles were um affected by that definition change um the other uh article within this uh is um from an mlu that we had last year regarding flexible schedules during our school testing windows and the new language does give flexibility for schools to provide 160 minutes of plan time over the week for a teacher rather than um 40 minutes per day so they can be flexible with that plan time so and we did meet with the employees that were affected by this change um over the last week to um give them some guidance into finding health and dental insurance um Mrs Russell and I met across the district with those affected employees any further questions thank you okay uh next presentation is of the 2425 quarterly financial
075statement mman good evening we have the first quarter Financial so that is July through September of 2024 and in our general fund um you'll see our revenue is about 26 million um and then our expenditures are 17 um right now the state has changed the way they give us our Equalization payments across the state normally those were divided by 12 now they're divided by nine so we do receive more money UPF front part of that was because of districts like us that um we don't get as many property taxes as everybody else so there is that piece um that it's hard to get through the year and this also helps with the cash flow loan so getting more money UPF front helps us with the cash flow throughout the year that's how we make pay
076roll so keeping an eye on this um nothing in school Finance actually divides by four so you will see numbers that are lower and higher um so as you look you see some ument ages that are over 100% but a lot of those are our subscriptions and and licenses that we have for the software different pieces um of that that we have to pay upfront that we do pay in July and so under operations and maintenance um HR and IT are under that so that's unfortunately a little misleading but uh that's the way the state chart of accounts works and so when you look at that it's not just what you consider just maintenance of the buildings so so um along with that without passing um for a the mlo we will have to take
077money out of reserves and so we will be right at the minimum of our reserves so we have to be very cautious we have to be mindful of what we're expending every single month and so we have deadlines in place right now so that we can make sure that we're staying within the limits um right now our uh fiscal health is okay according to all the ratios with the state but again we're at those bare minimums so we really have to watch So within that as a team we prioritize the needs we try to uh purchase in bulk and as we move forward if there is a vacancy we look at it does it need to be filled not filled can we do it in a different U more cost-effective manner so all those conversations
078are had it's we work as a team we reach out to everybody to see how it impacts so it's just important as we move forward through throughout this year and even in fiscal year 26 um You probably have heard already with the governor's budget that they are probably taking away our um oh averaging of our student count and right now we are declining enrollment so that averaging actually will probably hurt us um hopefully we'll have a base year and so we won't uh we'll have a hold harmless uh so it won't hurt kind of as bad but again um we're kind of going into uh some I'm going to call them rougher Waters um we've saw some really big CPI increases for a couple years and right now the most that they're saying that we'll
079get is a 2.5% CPI so um when you look at the cost of utilities you look at the cost of our transportation again we just have to be super careful as we move forward and every expense to look at so um on the graphs you can see um um the Orange is actually what we receive from the state so you can see how much we're relying on that state Equalization that comes in see we'll go to page five and so that's our capital reserve fund and right now we have approximately 3 million in our capital reserve fund that's not a lot for 21 buildings um when Neighbors in neighboring school districts have millions and that's not their bond that is their Capital Construction so again prioritizing what the next need is um Beyond County High
080School sewer and roof so and then our insurance Reserve fund is on page seven um within this fund um again money's transferred from the general fund we pay all our district liability insurance upfront um but this also includes our workers comp and our unemployment um taxes so is we move throughout the year you will see this increase um as we pay our workers comp um our unemployment and if we have any insurance claims uh throughout the year on fun page eight we'll see uh the preschool fund unfortunately we have seen a decrease in preschool um a lot of the local areas can uh private preschools can offer full day preschool which unfortunately with our schedule we are unable to so it's hard to compete compete with them so we have seen a decrease um again
081uh looking at the budget we're making sure that we're staying in line um as well with the revenues coming in and the expenses going out and then of course several graphs those sometimes are always nice to see and in our food service fund on page um 11 um you will see that our Revenue um is only at 93,000 when we have a million already in expenses and again the state is absolutely behind in getting us our reimbursements so well maybe the financials don't look so good um we are waiting for um a couple million dollars in reimbursement from the state fortunately again every school district's facing um within their grants fund Food Service getting those reimbursements in so when we have to put money out up front that's where our reserves come in and are
082very important because it's like your savings so I don't know if that stalled but we can go to page 13 oh page 13 well I can't it's like too tidy let's see keep going you're on special Revenue so we need to go to designated grants go one more there there should be 14 so yep within our designated grants again this is where all our grants come in Esser did end so a lot of that uh cash influx we no longer have and unfortunately um don't have as many instructional AIDS um that money in the classroom we' be great if we could get that um money back in um but again we had to make some cuts across um but our goal is always to get as much money into the classroom that we can um
083that's spended on the kids that are here today so we're constantly looking at how we can get different grants to help out the only hard part with grants is a lot of times you got to be able to sustain it once the Grant's done so we're always very very mindful again about what we're doing um are if we go for this grant how much labor does it cost is it sustainable how long what will it bring to the classroom so our student athletic fund um on the next one uh so this is subsidized by uh the general fund as well as well as what the gate is and participation fees and so um that one is tracking right along it's great to see all the crowds that are at our events and so again that
084helps um with the budget as well so our Student Activities fund is fund 27 so the donations that you hear the fundraising goes into fund 27 this isn't used for operations of the schools this is whatever it was donated for or what the schools are fundraising for is spent on so almost 100% of these funds are for kids um and raised by kids and again the donations that go in there so on our bond Redemption fund um this is money that we're unable to touch so um and your taxes do come in to pay for our bond which is almost complete um these payments will be for many years um probably 30 plus years and so um but again this is uh money we cannot use uh we don't even have access to the bank
085account so when they're due which we have a bond payment due on December 1st we send an email to the bank that says pay so much interest in principal um on the bond so um sometimes people think we can spend this on other things but we cannot so that's why it sits in a very designated fund and our building fund so our building fund is our bond fund and so we see that winding down but what you'll see um coming up in the quarters is this is where our best Grant will live um because it is M making major improvements to County high as well as our fire alarms that are across I believe at seven uh schools and So within this fund we also that's where the match will come in and we'll use
086our reserves uh for that match and so again once those um funds are expended uh they're gone so um we do have to uh pay the bills before we do get um the money back from the state but again our match on that money is 5% so we're liing about 4 million that uh we'll have to match on that and our final fund is our trust funds and what this is is our scholarship funds so when we get scholarships it goes into the special fund so that it's always earmarked for that specific scholarship and so um this one usually it's kind of like in the fall or in the spring when the scholarships are awarded and sent to what college the kid is going to so do you have any questions not right now right
087thank you thank you okay we're GNA go ahead and move on to our action items um the first one is approval of the adoption of policy and - R dri have a motion to approve the adoption of these policies so mov I second y hi step is approval of revisions to policy ki do I have a motion to approve the revisions some I second Christensen cath Chris deuca Kathy Hollen hi an O AJ Wilson motion carried okay next action item is approval of revision policy jic CJ do have a motion Madam president I moved that in light of everything going on that we implement the ji JC the electronic device the first day back from Christmas break for in hopes of a kind of a smooth clean transition with everybody instead of just flopping it
088in right now so I move to implement that January 6th I believe right after winter break I'll second John Christensen y chrisa Kathy Helen hi an o y AJ Wilson y motion carried all right we'll move on um the next is approval of the tenative agreement between pcea and District 70 regarding changes to language and NE iated agreement do I have a motion to approve the agreement so move second John Christensen y Chris Luca y Kathy Helen hi Ann o y AJ Wilson yay motion carried okay next up is approval of the consent agenda items is there a motion to approve these items sove I second John Christensen y chrisa Luca y Kathy Holland hi o y AJ Wilson y motion carried can you make an announcement about the okay thanks okay so the next
089board meeting is scheduled Tuesday December 10th 2024 Educational Services Center beginning at 6: pm and um we're going to go ahead and adjourn this regular meeting and we're going to move to begin a special session can can I make one more announcement about Pablo in PLO West at Sky View Middle School on Thursday at 1:00 we will be celebrating uh Sky View Middle School receiving the Blue Ribbon award and so everyone is invited to attend uh that celebration and we'd love to see you there so thank you and congratulations to Skyy Middle [Applause] School andbody it'll be [Music] fun e e e reing ising [Music] can I have a motion to approve and start the special [Music] so Carri okay we're going to go ahead I just want to um say a few words um
090we're not taking any live questions this evening it's just a question and answer session if you did submit questions to us they were put on a spreadsheet and um they were submitted to superintendent Ryan and Mr vitro and they um were able to she went ahead and put it into a PowerPoint and we're going to go ahead and get started with that if you have any follow-up questions you're welcome to grab there's a little card back there you can write your questions on there or you can submit an email to the board or superintendent Ryan or Mr mro and we will get followup questions for you okay and we'll post the PowerPoint online as well so that um if you want to review and go back because you missed something that we had said uh
091you're welcome to take a look at what how we answer the questions our new platform is the same as the same company but it's upgraded so you'll see diligent I know some people confused by that you find it on the can you can you pull the PowerPoint up please so we thought we would present from here since um that way we can see the audience and we're not just standing at the podium and uh you are all turning around and straining to see us so we'll start our informational presentation on trails and in order to know how we got to even choosing trails um there's some backstory with that and so we began meeting with the Colorado forum who approached us about wanting to make a systemic change in in education for district 70 in
092May of 2023 and it was determined that student mental health would be the focus um because our students have been struggling with mental health issues after covid and we wanted to make a direct impact on student achievement and so we thought if we could address all of the things and the barriers that kids are having with mental health that that would help them to be better students um and to be focused on learning rather than um not being okay so we met in June August September October and November and we met with Community stakeholders and Leadership from school district 70 we met with school building leadership the Board of Education president the PUO Department of Public Health leadership Health Solutions CSU Pueblo leadership Park viw Medical Center the sheriff's department PUO Community Health Center and
093then Business Leaders from the Colorado Forum a company called persono and the Attorney General's office was a part of this as well so we had multiple stakeholders anybody who had anything to do with mental health or dealing with kids or adults who were struggling with mental health uh we invited them to the table and they spent countless hours with us discussing how they could be a assistance and how we could address um the needs within our district so as we gathered in this room after those very extensive conversations um persono and their team outlined a strategy for us and a plan of action after the strategy and so with that um it was determined collectively as an extensive group that we needed comprehensive compet compet competency based social emotional emotional learning curriculum in grades K
094through 12 with that continuity of vocabulary throughout dedicated Mental Health Solutions for every student lower student to counselor ratios with a focus on increasing our counselor count inter agency institution coordinated approaches and digital resource Huds to help our community navigate families and students to the supports that they need and comprehensive student mental health assessment designed to account for developmental stages which this curriculum does p through 12 we have not obviously done all those things yet and we're still working with Colorado Forum to accomplish all those things um and and I think we're on our way to doing many of those um there was some extensive seal curriculum discussion with those Community stakeholders including all of our district 70 um team members we wanted the common language for K through 12 for the curriculum to be
095become a normal part of students day and schedule and so when a student becomes ill they want to go to the nurse that's not a problem nobody questions that and so we want that to be the same whenever they're not okay they want to see somebody they want to talk to somebody we want to make sure that they have the ability and that becomes as normal as going to the nurse whenever they uh need some help and so we focused on evidence-based programs we wanted to make sure that we had teacher training ongoing professional development M and then we wanted we wanted it built into the master schedule so we could actually measure success and we can measure success in multiple ways and we'll cover that in a minute we wanted to adopt a curriculum
096and identify who would coordinate the PD and training and so that's when we brought uh Dr Martinez into the into the uh conversation and then we wanted to integrate seal curriculum at tier one and create strategies to actually decrease the needs for tier 2 and tier three interventions so we currently have tier two and tier three interventions happening in our school our school counselors our school psychologist they're meeting with students individually they're meeting with small groups we're lacking the tier one the foundation of our house isn't in place and that becomes a problem so implementing the universal tier Oneal curriculum has been shown to reduce disruptive behavior problems um emotional distress promotes positive and pro-social behaviors uh improves relationships between our peers and between our peers with their our students with their teachers um can
097increase student engagement in learning and improve their cognitive and their academic performance right we are here to help our students be successful in the classroom being successful in the classroom means you have to be in the classroom tier one uh instruction can benefit students with intensive needs thinking about our students who are receiving those tier tws and those tier three supports but positively impacting the social dynamics of the classroom and of the school broadly it can enhance social interactions relation ship students have with their peers and those students with social emotional difficulties can connect with their teachers potentially reducing the need for more interven more intensive interventions again trying to catch them at the beginning uh we use the sources of St we've had sources of strength in the past uh sources of strength focuses
098on developing eight protective factors or strengths like family support positive friends mentors healthy activities generosity spirituality physical health and mental Health what sources of strength lacks is those tier tws and those tier three supports anything beyond sixth grade right so we we catch our kids we build them up at the elementary school and then we don't have something to continue to support them into the middle school and the high school Trails provides us that K through 12 comprehensive curriculum all the way through 12th grade from the kindergarten grades so the question and the teacher in the room always asking how are we going to measure the success this how are we doing this well first of all positive classroom culture so being in a classroom you can tell when students feel connected to that classroom
099they want to be in there increased Satisfaction by students we use student surveys as part of our counselor core grants we use them as our Wellness as part of our Wellness um initiatives so we are collecting this data already now we will look at it through a different lens decreased Behavior referrals uh Mr sodnik presented a presentation at the last board meeting to show where we had uh multiple suspensions we want to reduce those suspensions again going back to kids need to be in school so we can teach them uh decreased safety instances and safet details uh Rhonda passionately spoke about this number of safet details that she and Bob get uh we want to reduce those safet details we want students to be able to address those issues immediately uh increased engagement between students
100and teachers building those connections within our school communities between staff and students between students and students and increased teacher retention uh and decreased frustration our teachers are are at a Tipping Point they are frustrated with the behaviors and we want our students to be able to be successful in the classroom so our teachers can continue to be successful continue to have the success that we've had in district 7 so in comes persono with the introduction of trails to us and so it was brought to us by Colorado forum and proo proo does Action research and uh it was initially funded through private donors and philanthropic donors but but they have recently received $50 million from the state of Michigan to ensure that all of the schools throughout Michigan are implementing it and are not having
101to pay for it so they did an in-kind donation calculating that it would be around $35,000 per school for 20 schools if we were to have to purchase the curriculum and have um it implemented and training and support at all three levels level one two and three and so um that comes with professional development and support for our counselors as well as our teachers uh so the first time we met with Trails was in November uh on November 29th of 2023 to learn more about their program and then we met again on December 11th to learn more about what could be offered and at this time they had not offered us um anything necessarily for free but this was such a widely implemented program in the state of Michigan that um we were considering it
102some things that we liked about Trails was that it was grounded in research uh it utilized cognitive behavioral and mindful practices um those are both two evidencebased approaches that are proven to promote mental Wellness in our students it also Trails also supports teachers as they deliver seal lessons through a wide range of implementation support including ongoing professional development and seal practices the curriculum is convenient for teachers to implement and it's designed for their flexibilities so um if they only have 15 minutes they can utilize a 15-minute lesson if they only had uh 10 minutes they could utilize part of the lesson to um talk with children Trails also provided tier 2 supports and coaching for counselors and psychologists as well as tier three resources for K through 12 students which is not something that we
103found with any other curriculum um every other curriculum seemed to be uh divided or what they provided was not comprehensive all right so this SL kind of goes along with a few slides prior when Dr Martinez talked about how do we measor success this might slide might be more appropriate um kind of tied to things that we're currently doing and how uh some of the goals can be tied toal and howal can help us attain some of our goals specifically and a lot of grants that we do uh through student services um and so this this kind of helps us what Canal do to help us achieve some of these things one increase student engagement uh again get students wanting to come to school and then when they're at school being engaged uh not thinking
104about other things not worrying about other things um you know number one on the list um increase suicides to zero like how do we help kids find coping skills how do we help kids find connections how do we help kids U not want to go home uh and take their own life um engaging families uh in schools and increase awareness about mental health among families uh increase attendance rate to 97% that's that's a very lofy goal um our attendance rate last year uh 91.5% so you calculate that by the number of days we have in the school year you know roughly um that's that's around 12 um school days and so that's that's a lot of days to miss school in addition our chronically absent te rate is right around 30% for last year that's
105about 4 percentage points higher than the state average what chronically absent by the state definition is any student who misses 10 or more uh days of school within a calendar year and so uh you know our goal is to get students to come to school uh and be engaged um decrease expulsions by 95% for repeated Behavior so these tie into students who uh by law get into trouble so many times get uh declared habitually disruptive and if they continue to get in trouble then we're looking at expelling those students from school uh because of those behaviors uh we have grants to try and Target um how we decrease those behaviors and again uh teaching kids coping skills uh is one of the number one things uh again uh connecting student engagement and mental health programming
106in the community we've been doing that with our partners uh through uh that group that we've been meeting with and other ways and then uh how do we address the workforce challenges again how do we get more clinical counselors to our to our schools and other ways to support kids Mr this is goals not stats Golds so after the in-depth review really looking at the different programs thinking about what we want to achieve with it we started our implementation process and our implementation process began included key stakeholders right from the beginning uh so uh on January 11th I was int to the Trails program uh as well as a presentation on the tier 2 coaching and that was with our Colorado Forum group um right after that on the 26th we had a uh a
107principal's and director's uh review of the curriculum so they had an opportunity to uh be on a zoom with the trail staff so they were introduced to the curriculum they could see the materials they could ask questions they could get their wonderings out then we have a monthly school counselors meeting and our school counsel superintendent Ryan arranged to have Trails come back and do a zoom with our school counselors um and so on February 7th school counselors and psychologists were able to take a look at that ask their questions hear about what the what trails was and what our goals and what we were trying to achieve with it and then we had at that same time we were able to take volunteers to start the process for our tier 2 training because the tier
108two training uh which is where our small groups are happening requires some additional coaching and some additional professional development and so we we wanted to know from our Counseling Group who would be interested in that and so we were able to get our counselors together ask those questions and get them signed up for their CH two training Trails is set up and it supports our mtss program so our multi-tiered systems of support that we have all across our school district really supports our kids at number one a universal or a tier one level right what's happening for all kids in all classrooms at all grade levels then we're looking at tier two what's happening in terms of small grou how are we providing interventions to students just like if we were providing interventions to a
109student in reading or math to close some gaps in reading or math we were providing interventions for uh social and emotional learning as well and finally our tier three that really that high level that risk management for that Stu for that student who is in crisis um the American school counselor Association uh position statement on the mtss says school counselors are stakeholders in the development and the implementation of the multi-tiered system of part of support they're right there side by side with all of our healing leaders and our teachers uh supporting our kids school counselors align their work in mtss through the implementation of the school counseling program designed to affect student development in their achievement in their career Explorations and development and in their social emotional or their behavior domains so really the school
110counselor comes around to wrap around support to provide the student what they need to be successful in school every day I think it should also be important to note that with those tier 2 interventions whenever they're working with counselors um parents know that they're working with those counselors that is a that's something where um counselors seek permission to work with with students at that tier 2 level it's it's it's not a secret that they are working on tier two with a counselor um the contrib that were made by the Colorado Forum same for tier three as well absolutely so tier three is really more um resources than it is actual um lessons so it's more resources for our psychologists and our counselors to utilize for those students who are in crisis but the parents are
111absolutely so anytime we have a student in crisis uh the parent is the first person that we are contacting absolutely um so the contributions that are made the Colorado Forum volunteered countless hours of meeting with Community stakeholders and hiring persono uh we did not pay for the hiring of persono persono worked to assist in making actionable changes and they facilitated every meeting and they did an amazing job facilitating those meetings uh they worked with the Great Outdoors Colorado americore activate work better business bureau energize Colorado among others and they helped to strategize develop programs research and develop and Implement change uh Pro persono did actionable research on social emotional curriculum to find something that met what we wanted which was something that was nonpartisan evidence-based Casal aligned curriculum and this was how Trails was brought
112to our attention as a district uh Trails saw the potential Beyond uh Bennett 29j strawberg 31j and weld 3j in Colorado uh so they wanted to expand and so I can't say what trails is receiving because we're not giving Trails anything but my guess is that they would like to expand throughout Colorado and so by um possibly being introduced into a pretty large District that gives them some great exposure to be introduced throughout the rest of Colorado um again nothing was paid to Trails they received $50 million from their state for funding and then they gave us the in-kind contribution which I brought to the board on March 5th uh 2024 and the board voted unanimously to accept the ink kind donation gift of the K12 lessons that teach self-awareness self-management social awareness relationship skills
113and responsible decision making for students this had been reviewed by the department of curriculum and instruction as well as instructional leaders in education and counseling they also accepted the coaching for counselors and psychologists at Prairie Winds Elementary Pleasant View Middle School Vinland Middle School Vine Vinland Elementary po West High School Liberty Point Elementary Sierra Vista Cedar Ridge Elementary to include teaching mental health professionals how to provide sessions about depression anxiety and other common mental health concerns providing a range of strategies for helping our students cope with life and that is exactly what was on that board dock for March 5th 2024 so Rhonda I have a question yes yeah you know my you know my back you know I know that you were a drug and alcohol I I also have two years towards my
114master's and marriage and family therapy I have 37 hours in my in in my background towards therapy yes but I was never ever contacted about any of this I would have been more than happy to give input so you are welcome to ask about curriculum anytime we did discuss this a little bit U um it was presented by the board president it was presented in this set you could have asked to seen the curriculum and I don't recall you ever asking to see the curriculum and I had people who are qual trained and know what the curriculum is or what the standards are for qual and so I depend on my professionals um that are current with their current um certificates okay and the woman that was up here Miss Davis before who is uh
115she works with um uh children that are placed out of home and stuff she talked about the dangers and she she sent me her master her doctoral paper about what seal is very good in the proper setting with the proper people but it needs required training and and you're saying tier one is going to be taught by teachers correct not trained counselors because tier one is not counseling and T if you read through the curriculum you'll see that it's providing life skills and providing skills for students to utilize that we're already teaching in the classroom however it gives them teachers tools to utilize rather than um going on Teachers Pay Teachers and what happens when a teacher who's not trained triggers some child for something because that child is not living we know of an
116instance that just recently happened what if what if that child is triggered I mean sincerely then they're referred to their counselor because a teacher is you don't know you you do know when a teach you do know when kids are triggered many times you know when kids are triggered and so you do refer those kids to their counselors and we do have counselors and syes assigned to every single building which we haven't in the past kids can get triggered at home right and they come to school and um move on with this because this is not a time for discussion okay it's a time for the answers to be made to the public okay okay trainings so Colorado standards if you spent any time in the Colorado standards you know that uh Colorado standards Comprehensive
117Health standard number three social and emotional awareness our key standards for students and social and standard number four prevention and risk management so the lessons these students the lessons our teachers teach equip the students to meet those grade level standards so we have to have training we have to have training for our teachers uh the training prepares the staff to address those standards in their grade levels no different then we would teach math standards or writing standards or reading standards so we started with the training uh a small group of Administrators and a few counselors took the very first training available to the district and that was in April so we kind of had a preview training to kind of get an idea of what was going to be coming uh for the rest of
118our district and that's when we were starting to plan what our summer trainings might look like then we had a training for our principls uh June 10th 11th and 12th here's where we ran into a bit of a hiccup with Trails Trails originally promised us all lives Zoom uh trainings and in-person trainings my training that I took and and some of our counselors uh took a live Zoom training so we had interaction we were able to ask questions we had some breakout rooms and those things so they were very interactive we were able to really dig in deeply Trails did not have the staff to come deliver the in-person trainings that that they had told us they would so this is where we did run into a hiccup with them um so we planned for
119uh inperson training we didn't have enough so to make sure that our teachers and our staff who was face to who were face Toof face with students were going to have the support we did our training August 1st that was our virtual that was our webinar then we did inperson trainings on September 20th and again on October 11th so those training those inperson trainings came a little later than we had planned but we still wanted to make sure those were available the September 20th was all staff because that was at a district professional development date so all staff was able to experience that in-person training so now that we have a little bit about the backstory and how Trails was um provided for district 70 we really want to take the time to delve into
120what's actually in the curriculum it's it's on our website we understand that some of you have said the content is difficult and time you know time consuming to digest and get through and so bear with us tonight but we're going to take you through what each lesson um overviews and the content of it so what is the culum provide and how is it best for all kids because we are here to service all of our kids and so lesson one discusses what social emotional learning is by defining it how to apply the skills to manage emotions build relationships and make good connections lesson two discusses mindfulness which is similar to what superintendent Ryan Illustrated earlier in our lesson and how can we be mindful listeners when people are talking to us it shows us how
121to recognize ize when others are struggling and listen to them and how to be present lesson three discusses how our interpretations of a situation affects our emotions the curriculum presents material like this thought made me feel like and so I behaved like if students are asked to think about how they may have reacted to a situation because of their emotions then they're also presented with opportunity to learn how they can better react the next time um that they face a similar situation Lesson Four discusses emotions and how they can lead people to act in a certain way it asks students to think about how they react to their emotions like anxiety or anger and the next time they encounter that emotion how can they recognize and think through it instead of responding negatively this directly
122correlates to the um influx of severe behaviors we're seeing in our classrooms and so what these first um quad of lessons presents to us is how to help kids deal with that these lessons help them develop their essential life skills they are not a shift away from academic R rigor but instead it's a compliment and a reinforcement as it helps our our our kids become more equipped with the necessary and sound life skills that they can take forward both in the classroom and outside in our Greater Community lesson five discusses how thoughts impact our Behavior it talks about not falling into thinking traps like jumping to conclusions or thinking everything is a catastrophe or ignoring the good things in a situation lesson six discusses unhelpful thoughts and not letting them derail you how can I
123catch my unhelpful thought ask myself is this helpful or not and change the thought so instead of taking a test and automatically thinking I'm not a good test taker I'm going to fail how could I look at this in a more positive light lesson s discusses applying self-awareness recognizing my skills as well as recognizing my thoughts and emotions and things I might need to work on for growth how can I make better decisions and solve problems more effectively lesson eight discusses managing strong emotions when I become extremely upset and angry how should I react how do I act and will that be helpful does the situation require me to invest more energy than I currently am or does it require me to downregulate and to not overreact right lesson nine these center around how to
124be active uh discuss what um I can do when I'm filling down how can I be more active how do I address barriers to ensure that I'm active and how can I use physical activity to improve my mood and then how the fillings impact our activity and performance and and each one build so Elementary kind of focus on finding joy in physical activity Middle School kind of goes into a focus is how does activity impact our mood and feelings and then High School kind of brings in that mindfulness how how does um becoming mindful of of what I'm doing impact and and help me perform better uh they use some examples of how the US Olympic Committee has um uh psychologist teams that help with the mindfulness with athletes that are getting ready to compete
125at a high level a lesson 10 gets into discussing U what I can do when I'm feeling stressed out how do I relax what's my normal reaction to stress and what I can I do to lower my stress levels again Elementary it gets into the breathing piece we we saw the the the first thing I know uh one of our uh teachers out here said breathing uh helps you calm and helps you become relaxed so teaches uh basic breathing skills then in Middle School it gets into more of coping skills again focusing on breathing focusing on other uh relaxation techniques such as stretching and then high school again just gets into a little stronger on how do I cope uh and how do I identify stressors and again focusing on what are those things that
126I can do to reduce that um and then 11 uh just talks about discuss what sort of healthy activities do I do to ensure I'm taking care of myself do I find comfort in uh fulfillment of spiritual needs emotional needs basic needs what helps me take care of myself is it Sports time span with family friends ET Etc and again uh in each level it just asks you know again what kind of routines do I have how do routines help me how do I focus on the things that I uh find joy in in life and so again each one is building upon um those levels depending on the grades and again thinking about our our standards our standard for is really managing risk right and one way to manage risk is to have is
127to be surrounded by supportive adults and peers and just like we have a room full of people who care about their kids in this room right finding those Place finding those safe adults those caring adults that that support network that you have lesson 13 discusses identifying those around me that I consider my support my parents my friends my teachers uh can I identify those around me that are healthy for me to be around can I identify when I'm around someone who's unhealthy for me to be around does this person get me in trouble do they make me feel anxious how do I set boundaries for those around me that are unhealthy for me to be around so we think about our middle school kids and they're drawn to their to their friends but if we
128can have if we can help them give them the tools to think about is this a good relationship for me we can equip them to be successful lesson 14 discusses how to listen and how to understand someone's situation to show empathy am I quick to judge someone based on my thoughts of who I believe they are have I given them a chance to get to know them without judging them can I see their perspective lesson 15 discusses what defines me and makes me me this could be my spiritual belief my family that I'm a woman or that I'm a man that I'm an athlete or that I'm an academic or I'm an educator it ask students to realize that we're all different and that's okay who do we choose to be friends with do we
129choose people similar to us can we be accepting people who are not exactly like us and finally Lesson 16 is a review of these things and how we apply these to life how can we build a caring community in our school for everyone supports one another and again it's about building those pro-social connections and those relationships between peers that build the cultures in our schools so consistently you can start to see as we approach lesson 17 that continuity of language that will take these kids through um lesson 17 goes on to discuss how can how can we make new friends it's hard for kids to make new friends they're transient in our communities and that will help them how can I put some of my negative thoughts aside to meet new people how can I
130overcome my fear of meeting new people what sort of activities could I try to meet more friends 18 discusses how to communicate clearly and how I can better directly share my thoughts these are practice scenarios how will I talk to my teacher about a poor grade I received I don't understand why I received it but I I don't know how to talk to my teacher about it lesson 19 discusses how to deal with conflict recognizing my feelings challenging my unhelpful thoughts using empathy to see others perspectives then communic communicating clearly and assertively what are my priorities when I'm dealing with conflict is it to get what I want is it to maintain the relationship or friendship is it to stick to my values all questions lesson 20 discusses how to maintain our relationships and friendships
131how can I work to improve my friendship how do I validate my friends and how do they validate me can I fix this or not lesson 21 is a review of all of those things and how we apply these to life how do I manage my friendships even when we disagree how do we talk through an issue and communicate to resolve the problem the content empowers our students with life skills supporting them to build those strong relationships and to help them better communicate and navigate life's challenges both in and out of the classroom the curriculum focus on focuses on universal skills that help our students Thrive as individuals in our schools and in our communities all kids need these foundational skills both taught at home and reinforced at school we we know that our home
132school Partnerships are critical relationships and they have to complement each other all right uh getting into lessons 2223 24 25 uh centers around problem solving again problem solving uh in addition to how your values may come into problem solving and then again how you uh set goals around your values uh so lesson 22 um just kind of talks about how you how we make choices and it depending on the level it's it's it's all kind of common across the the three levels but it talks about um we make thousands of choices a day and and so it goes through that like realizing that you know some choices are good some choices are not so good but we're making thousands of choices each day and how how do we how do we brainstorm how we when
133we come up with a decision or when we come up something we have to do how do we make that it really gets into it the high school really talks about how to evaluate how to enact and then how to make it happen uh when you're dealing with the with um lesson 23 again gets into values with the elementary group it talks about talk about the values of your classroom talk about a person in your life your family a friend uh that that you you believe uh has high value and character and then um it gets into um with high school again what how can I put my values into action realizing my values but how do I put them into action uh and then lesson 24 again gets into goal setting um with the
134elementary it talks about how to set goals it goes through four simple steps to give students on how to set uh goals for themselves Middle School uh how to make a smart goal we hear smart goals when when Dr Martinez talks with our uh individuals about setting smart goals for instruction uh and assessment and learning and then uh with the high school it it gets into the focus on you set your goals but how do you achieve your goals it's easy to set a goal right we all have goals I talked about some pretty uh goals of trying to get to 97% attendance but how do we make that happen so it focuses on how do we achieve those goals uh once we set them so the modifications that were made to the curriculum were
135minimum uh I took out items that could have been considered controversial and there were very few actual modifications made the modifications to lessons were made to ensure that sites other than Trails work on worksheets uh didn't go anywhere so it just the worksheets are there any other sort of links to outside resources were taken out for the teachers uh the Integrity of the lesson still remain the same and the content of the lesson still remain the same as the original intent uh there were three videos that I changed one was on mindfulness because there was just a better video in the resources I I was bored with it so I watched another one and I liked it more so I changed that in and put that into it and then there were two on diversity
136lessons um the two on the diversity lessons they they used terms that I didn't think our students would understand and were not at their grade level so there was one at sixth through 8th grade that talked about intersectionality and that just means that every part of me all sections of me make me mean and I just didn't think that sixth through eth grade students would understand that term and then the N so I I put in something that talked about appreciating diversity and it was a it was a better video talking about how things how you can appreciate people who are diverse and different from you and then I took out another video that talked about implicit bias um because again I didn't think that it was a term that people would understand and I
137put in a video that talks about what diversity means again and we think about diversity and implicit bias and we do have implicit biases and every time that we look at the Olympics and we see the par Olympics I can't think of how many times I thought oh my God I can't believe they can do that that's my implicit bias why would I think they couldn't do it that's an implicit bias and so I wanted that to be reflected in the video and so I put that video um in so that people would understand truly what an implicit bias was um teachers are professionals and they will utilize their own pedagogy the lesson I taught is not going to be the lesson someone else teaches because they'll put their own spin to it everybody every
138teacher has their own pedagogy every teacher teaches uh a little bit differently um but you've heard what these lessons entail and we must trust our teachers to be [Applause] professionals in the terms of use I received the following statement I asked Trails may I modify some things may I change some of the curriculum to better fit our community uh they said this is what I received um the statement from Shannon Ellis who is the vice president of implementation for Trails as well as permission from Lauren kazzy who is the vice president of National Partnerships uh in response to my questions Trails supports districts in adapting their seal curriculum to meet the needs of their communities this includes removing or adjusting particular components Trails has granted permission for PUO District 70 to make needed modifications the
139trails website was not designed for use by students and there is no programmatic need for students to access the site any resources offered via links are public websites these links are intended to be used to assist adults in providing support for students as appropriate and at their discretion all right so these these next slides and I apologize some of are going to be small and might be hard to read but it just talks about some of the data that we have um we know that the kids are struggling we see it in the classroom at times we see it with behaviors um we see it with family uh families coming to us for assistance uh but what we did is pulled some data together from things that we have at our disposal and so the
140first one is just from the tlcc survey which is teaching and learning conditions Colorado report given to our staff last year and uh talking about support for student well-being and this is what teachers put so our average was 78% of our staff feel like uh we're supporting student uh well-being big thing is it did change 12 points uh from the last time time um that we did so obviously again we're seeing that teachers are seeing that in the classroom on what we're doing um last year we administered um our own um survey um to our middle school and high school students it was a wellness survey it asked a lot of different questions from uh social emotional to healthy habits uh similar to The Healthy Kids Colorado survey except not as robust and didn't ask
141as many questions um this is uh some data just that kind of pertains to social emotional or mental health um and again um you'll see some of the data so Middle School Wellness again are you currently struggling or struggled in the past with social emotional concerns and so you could see we have yes at about 24% uh and you can then not not sure again you kind of not sure do they not understand again you know what does struggling mean what what does that mean with social emotional but you know we could kind of look at that and say you at least half of our students are thinking about you know something uh and they're going through um something so that's that's Middle School when it talks about you know struggling with those things um
142next slide again on most days how do you feel when you're at school and so you know when we look at that um kind of breaking down probably about 45% of our students at some point in time without stress tired worried um or even horrible um when we look at that and again um we see that our teachers see that our staff see that and so again that's a concern right when 50% of students at some point in time across um the school day or week or month uh feel one of those different things um this is the one you know that that that hits home and and we sit and we we talk about this a lot but again during the past uh you know 12 months did uh you do something that purposely
143hurt yourself without wanting to die and again you can see um you know about 15% of our middle school students and if you look at the response rates you know that's about 155 students um who who said yes and then you get into the last one you know have you thought about uh committing suicide or make plans and again you're talking 12.5% so you know 13 uh you know 130 kids um roughly at some point kind of considered uh something that this does mirror um our healthy kids Colorado survey the last time we did a full round of that uh back in um our 2021 data uh nothing's changed uh we haven't seen decreases we haven't seen I mean we're continually seeing uh based on that data and based on this data that yes we
144have kids struggling and thinking about harming themselves all right next one um again this one um again I'm going to have to put my glasses on read from my sheet because I can't see that far over the past year we're uh if any of you received educational support about your mental health and well-being and again um if you kind of break it down um it looks like a lot of that's coming from parents and and Guardians and and that's great um because that's where the support starts is at home and um then we look at you know what's what's the other friends uh or social media friends are great sometimes social media yeah we all know right social media can help um in some aspects but can really go the other opposite when we're when
145we're dealing especially with middle school and high school students um and then you the rest of it kind of broken down that 25% teacher trusted adult you know our health class other program activity and then again um do you have a teacher or other adult at school that will help you no matter what and you know we've got um the never uh which we hope we you know can get that down to zero sometimes we'd love to just be it always right we we'd love 100% of our kids to say I know I at least have one trusted ad all that I've learned to go trust or I can feel good about going to all right high school so a little bigger so I can can read off there again uh same same questions as
146the Middle School uh in regards to that lot of data looks similar on these again have you had social emotional problems um Yes again not sure I choose not to answer so about 50% split uh so we can again we know uh struggle next slide uh um again on most days you feel how do you feel when you're at school again going into that we could say about 50% at some point in time F stress tired worried or horrible um and you know some okay uh some good not a lot of not a lot of excited um but you know uh again consistent data that we're seeing at both levels um my stress level is manageable on most days again we come into about 30% that have that kind of not sure disagree or strongly
147disagree U then you got the other uh you know agree uh or strongly agree so at least this is a little bit higher so again um our high school kids are figuring out how to manage stress uh but again we have a large group that um has as is struggling with that and again that's one of those pieces that we look at trying to to provide resources and tools for all right me to the next one again um High School uh again getting into uh have you done something that purposely hurts yourself without wanting to die uh again looking at uh 11.3% uh have said yes again if you look at the responses that is close to to 200 um students for that and then again have you ever seriously thought about committing suicide or
148made a plan to commit suicide and again we're right at 14.5% uh of students so close to you know 300 little less and so again concerning right uh our number one goal we talked about zero suicides right if we get not just zero suicides but can we get kids to stop thinking about that cuz you know just imagining a a 15-year-old thinking about going home and and thinking about um suicide just makes me um you know it's it's a struggle uh when we when we talk about the safe to tell tips and we get those tips and we see you know at 12:00 at night somebody uh posting that they want to hurt themselves or kill themselves and uh that's you know those those really hit you and so you know our goal is to
149get it down to zero not just zero suicides but zero people thinking about um that and then again those other slides just talk about again uh where do you find you know support uh in high school a little less on the parent Guardian side kind of expect that when kids get into high school right like they they stop um sometimes they stop talking to to parents as much that that Bond you know stretches a little bit because of some of the things that that we Face U and then you go in again it grows a little bit more on the friend and social media right that's where high school students start to to lean on a little bit more and so uh you know we want to find ways in which to to find that
150support both at home and um within our buildings and then do you have a teacher or other trusted adults and uh again um it's we're still at about that 10% we're never and then again yes sometimes and and and uh they always think so pretty consistent on that one with middle school so we do have some scientific data from a Colorado study on trails that that were implemented at the three schools in Colorado um and it was with action lab uh overall students reported reduced mental health concerns there were 840 students that self-reported uh 4% increase in students reporting no or minimal symptoms of depression after Trails implementation 2.4% increase in students reporting no or minimal symptoms of anxiety the staff reported their average satisfaction with lessons was always over 4.0 out of Five Points
151uh staff reported the mean preparation time was a little over 20 minutes and delivery was around 33 minutes uh student engagement was reported 3.6 out of Five Points uh Elementary reported higher than middle school and high school which is always expected uh the effects were particularly not notable for the lgbtq community uh there were 110 students that reported uh this is a group that experiences heightened risk of Mental Health concerns and suicidality uh there was an 11% decrease in students reporting moderate to severe depression 8.3 decrease in students reporting moderate to severe anxiety 8.3% decrease in students reporting suicidal thoughts and then the transgender students there uh were 30 students who self-reported uh and they experienced substantial reductions in mental health concerns there was a 20.1% decrease of students reporting moderate to sever depression 7.4
152discre 7.4% decrease in students reporting moderate to severe anxiety and 13.6% decrease in students reporting Suicidal Thoughts we have to make sure that we're taking care of every one of our students and so I think it's important that every student is addressed um so I'm G to let me talk about our opt outs um because it's a question that has been brought to my attention several times uh depending on the number of students that actually opt out we can potentially create specific home rooms at the secondary level next semester for students who haven't who have opted out so we could potentially put them in specific access hours if they are opting out Elementary would need to be provided in alternative areas such as library or work to work on I ready math or reading or
153homework during this time we've never allowed opt-outs for a curriculum in the past and so this does not set a good precedence for our future will students be allowed to opt out of teaching on immigration or historical perspectives or slavery or climate discussions or vaccinations or Evolution discussions or genetic engineering when they are taught there are always social issues that different groups do not agree on but we provide perspective and we allow differing points of view we don't just opt students out completely how is it beneficial for students to be Ed out of this curriculum when research consistently shows it benefits their academic performance mental health and overall well-being by offering skills like relationship building and emotional regulation ultimately benefiting them inside and outside of the [Applause] classroom yes never mind it's okay so now
154what're we going to take the questions from the public that were presented to us um by the board so the board received the questions and so we will go through each of those questions and uh with our answers so the first public question that we'll address is is Trail's Ada compli with our district so the trails curriculum is accessible to all students it is an in-person curriculum not an online program meaning students do not need to log into Trails directly instead each student's needs are met in alignment with the district's established procedures for ADA compliance as with any other curriculum in use our staff ensures accommodations and supports are available for all students as required by their Ada guidelines so in short the answer is yes is Trails compatible with mtss how does Trails tier
155one differ from tier two and tier three so Trails provides resources at all three levels of mtss or the mtss triangle it's a tier one program that meets The Learning needs of all of our students from kindergarten to 12th grade um it's a comprehensive program that builds as students grow and mature so they're considering the same Concepts and a more appropriate level for their age tier two uh focuses with our with our counselors and our school psychologists on targeted interventions uh in small groups like a friendship groups loss groups executive functioning groups the groups that help those kids be suc sucessful in the classroom uh tier 2 provides cognitive behavioral therapy supports and mindfulness supports it's facilitated by counselors who are coached by Professionals in the mental health in the mental health Arena and finally
156tier three it's risk and crisis it's Suicide Prevention risk management also provided by our school counselors and by our psychologists this came up in our in our last presentation to to the school board but we have a 25 year history withal in this school district some of the programs we've used we've used Kelo choice kelo's choice for kindergarten through 2 grade uh bully proofing our schools for third through fifth grade uh we've used second step in third through fifth grade and in our preschools we've used zones of Regulation uh we've used the bot botvin life skills training and we've used sources of strength in kindergarten through fifth grade um without any tier two tier three inter ions uh for 6th through 12th grade the district's use of these programs has been fragmented and that's really
157a key point of this right this is comprehensive K through 12 resulting in inconsistent expectations and student experiences as they transitioned through the grades and through the school levels the inconsistency confuses our students it undermines the effectiveness of theal efforts and it makes it a challenge to measure the longterm impact of the initiatives that we rolled out without the alignment and continuity students do not receive the structure and predictable support they need to build the social emotional skills as they progress through the grade levels and through our schools in today's climate where our students are facing increas in mental health challenges and pro providing them with the tools to regulate their emotions build resilience and develop healthy relationships is as important as important as it has ever been sorry so my question that's why I
158wanted you to continue so you have posted an opt out form I have given the opt out form to all of of our principles oh to the principles okay I just want similar to when you opt out of um taking Cass I mean it's not something that's posted online that anybody could just fill out when you opt out a Cass you go in and you sign an opt out form with your principal or you give that to your principal that's the process I was to okay okay so the next question is why is the district adoped a program like trails that was developed and implemented primarily in Michigan who ranks 20 9 in the state in the nation for educational performance wouldn't it be more prudent to consider programs from higher ranking educational performance States
159so Michigan is 29th Colorado is 45th um in the nation in educational performance according to USA Today Trails has been available since 2013 and began with two schools but was then made a part of Michigan curriculum in 2023 so the it it's important to note that the implementation of a curriculum takes at least full cons full um consecutive threeyear spans to reach Mastery and to assess academic results over that time the research from quel states that anal curriculum that addresses the five core competencies increased students academic performance by 11% of percentile points compared to students who did not participate and then we also have some links available for your reference as well so at this time looking at another curriculum um you heard Mrs Whitman's report earlier now more than ever District 70 doesn't have
160the additional Financial Resources to offer anything extra we can't continue to do more with less for our kids and so now more than ever we must be fiscally and financially responsible this in-kind donation helps us meet our needs to serveice all of our students while also helping us preserve our funding um and resources to meet the critical needs that our district faes so District 70 was gifted this $700,000 in kind donation to adopt the trails curriculum uh this amount of money is not given to a district with no strings attached what has the district agreed to by accepting this monetary gift there are no strings attached but what this does provide is an opportunity for trails to be implemented in a larger District in Colorado and to be considered for future adoptions by other districts
161in the state it's an introduction beyond the three smaller rural districts that it's already being implemented within our district does a lot with very little and we made it clear from the beginning that we do not have any money to purchase a curriculum through our counselor core Grant we are tracking student outcomes in attendance achievement and behavior similar goals can be tracked for theal curriculum across acoss the district we already have District made surveys that are given to students to track this information any data that would be provided is not identifiable and it's self-reported as well as voluntary the next question I had was did Colorado Forum contract contact trails to come to the district if so did Colorado Forum provide a grant or any monetary gifts to District 704 trails and I detailed the
162process earlier about their contributions of hiring persono Colorado Forum has not provided any grant money or gifts but their members have been supported in assisting Us in trying to pass our mlo and assisting Us in obtaining grant money to create a district mental health assessment the Colorado Forum carefully evaluated and researched several other Colorado school districts and because of our high performance low fended status they chose to help our district there's no underlying string attached No Agenda District 70 has been identified as a collective beneficiary by a group of people who want to ensure quality education and economic sustainability we can't say this enough persono Colorado Forum the state of Michigan nor d70 has a hidden agenda we are one of the lowest funded districts and we depend on the generosity of our community stakeholders
163to help bridge critical funding gaps there support directly impacts our ability to provide quality education and essential resources for our students and staff this is our transparent message that we've shared countless times every decision that is made illustrates our commitment to educating all students while functioning with minimal funding we can't do a lot with a little anymore we need more funding from our stakeholders [Applause] I I have more was there a contract of any sort signed between District 70 and trails we have not signed a contract with TRS has the district agreed to the terms of use and data collection from Trails we've not agreed to anything yet but we would like to provide the same data that we provide for our counselor core Grant all right next question despite the es to parents and
164students at Trails website would not be accessible after edits have been made to the curriculum all current PDF documents which we're uploaded to count are still linked to the trails worldness uh Trails wellness.org how will the district ensure students do not have access to these external resource so you know this is kind of a tough one because we can't we can't control everything 100% kids have computers they have smartphones um it's hard to prevent uh certain things uh especially when they're not on our Network when they're at home or they're outside of our Network um it's it's hard for us to control what they access when they are on our Network we can uh control some things and we can um make some things that that they would not be able to access the big
165thing the um you know the access to the to the website is really for the teachers it's really for those individuals uh to go on and they can look for resources or they could look for things that can help students when they're in crisis so to to say we can monitor this and and Patrol it 247 and to keep every student off it it would be impossible for us to do that but we can again print materials we can uh do some things to limit availability but in the end students when they go home they can look up a lot of different things um and so we would not be able to 100% control that for for any website yeah any website really so according to the superintendent Trails is intended to reduce disruptive behavior
166and support suicide preventions stating it is evidence-based and data driven can the district provide specific empirical data from Michigan schools that show measurable improvements in student behavior and mental health before and after Trails was implemented this has been fully implemented across Michigan for one year so I do not have more data from Michigan but they have been awarded a $3.8 million US Department of educa or I'm sorry $3.8 Million by the US Department of Ed Institute of Educational Services to support that implementation and evaluation of trails so that's a lot of money to evaluate whether Trails is working or not we don't have that kind of money to evaluate it but the state of Michigan is giving them or the state US Department of Ed is giving them $3.8 million to evaluate this um and
167make sure that those interventions are working will student data be collected from inclass surveys if so how do we guarantee the student identity personal information and data will not be shared um we would we would utilize our counselor core surveys which do not provide personally identifiable information uh all data we collect and share with our partners uh is anonymous it's deidentified meaning it's been processed to remove any remove or obscure any personal identifiers by removing the personal identifiers uh we make it difficult or impossible to link the data back to any individual uh this off this is done to protect the privacy of our students and our staff will still allowing the data to be used for research and for analysis right so uh how are teachers currently being advised to respond to kids that
168approach them uh with big problems such as thoughts of suicide abuse addictions or bullying um concerns uh are brought to office administration and that can include the principal assistant principles Deans counselors um all those individuals have the ability to initiate a self harm assessment or address other concerns that may arise it may not be a you know a suicide or a self harm thing um parents are notified in all cases with one exception unless a student comes forward with abuse concerns and again those abuse concerns are stemming from a home situation in that case uh parents may not be notified and again educators are all mandatory reporters so any case uh of suspected abuse must be reported to the plal County Department of Human Services um we also have the ability to dispatch although we
169are very uh limited uh we are very light in our resources um we're very Thrifty in making uh those stretch as best we can so we also have the ability uh to dispatch or provide additional resources to counselors or others in the school such as our district psychologist can go and help assist in assessment uh we have a couple District social workers that can go help in cases where we're dealing with potential abuse or other concerns um we have Health Solutions School clinicians in some of our buildings they can be leaned upon and we can uh bring them into cases when needed and then if we really are struggling then we can call in the he Solutions crisis team and they can send out an individual or two from their uh group to come out
170and assist our schools um if necessary so that's what we're we're currently uh doing right now and would continue to do uh moving forward um if we uh do implement the trails curriculum how can the district District legally alter the curriculum so it fits the needs and wants of our district without violating user terms uh and I addressed that earlier we've been given permission by trails to utilize the curriculum in whatever way we need to to meet the needs of our students our teachers and our community we're not changing their original curriculum we're modifying it to meet the needs of our district and for our community Trails consistently uses the term programming to describe its to describe its imp impact on students 5 through 18 years of age isn't this essentially brainwashing under a different
171label what does programming are are vulnerable students actually involved and why is this language acceptable programming in this context is an educational term it's the process of selecting anding learning experience experiences which enable students to engage with the content to develop specific skills and knowledge so we talked about it builds on itself from from level to level as students mature and grow this isn't brainwashing it's systematically and Method methodically teaching building on prior knowledge from year to year we have athletic programs we have a sees program at County High School we have GAC program we have construction programs we have agriculture programs and we have leadership program leadership programs programming is a common term in education brainwashing it's a process of pressuring someone into adopting radically different beliefs using forceable means we're not brainwashing why
172weren't parents stakeholders or the Board of Education allowed to view the curriculum before it was being taught to our students uh we don't have a single curriculum that's online on our website for everybody parents and and the board to review but we have lots of curriculums that are available every single curriculum is available for families for parents for the board to come and review you can make an appointment with me you can make an appointment with the principal and they' be happy to sit down with you and review the curriculum all of our curriculums are open and available for you and every lesson in Trails is on the website why didn't the district offer parents an opt out before Trails was implemented this was addressed earlier in the presentation we've never allowed opt outs before
173for the curriculum in the past does not set a good precedence for the future will students be allowed to opt out of teaching in on teaching on immigration historical perspectives slavery climate discussions vaccination Evolution discussions genetic engineering when those are taught in their content areas there's always social issues that different groups do not agree with but we provide perspective and allow differ points of view we don't opt students out completely if students have been opted out will they be removed from the classroom where Trails is being taught this was addressed in the presentation uh the compromise is that we'll allow allow them to opt out of this but depending on the number of students that actually opt out we can create specific home rooms at the start of next semester for students who have opted
174out of the secondary Level Elementary would need to be placed in another area to work on either I ready math reading or homework how does a district justify the time allocated to Trails within the classroom considering its impact on core academic instruction time most schools school already have home rooms where they addressing individual individualized career and academic plans or IAP plans uh feeding the students breakfast so implementing a social emotional curriculum one day per week is a good use of this time and provides an opportunity for the well-being of our students um they're better able to perform academically when they have this support although offered in Home Room the academic language can be utilized all day long as research supports thatal can increase academic performance by as much as 11% percentage point at the elementary
175level last spring all of our elementary principles came together and we developed Elementary Master schedules so we have consistency across the district our focus at that time was really core instruction how are we ensuring that we're getting our 90 minutes of literacy instruction in our 80 minutes of math instruction in and then in that still finding time for social studies science and then built in thatal time as well they're feeding those they're feeding our students breakfast and thatal time fits in that day as well and that was consistent across all of our elementary schools for the whole District next question according to Colorado State University Pablo's website a person who would like a degree in Psychology needs to complete 42 credit hours in order to acquire a bachelor's degree currently an elementary teacher is required
176to take psych 151 human development or psych 251 childhood and Adolescence each class is worth three credit hours and only one classes require required to graduate with a degree in elementary education both courses are listed as electives to graduate with a degree um a per so both courses are listed as electives um why would a person choose to take and are not a requirement in order to get your teaching diploma why are teachers who have had 7% of the education required to become psychologists being asked to teach our children about social emotional well-being social emotional well-being should be taught by a counselor or a psychologist would you trust a doctor who only has completed 7% of their Medical classes to perform surgery on you we are putting more and more on teachers plates and expecting
177them to rise up to not only be teachers but psychologists counselors nurses Bankers Librarians mothers fathers Detectives IV dieticians mediators cheerleaders and so much more so um since we're using comparisons when you go to the doctor you see a nurse it's the nurse who would eventually who initially takes your vitals before you're ever seen by the doctor this is triage when the nurse assesses the patient's condition and long before it is determined that the patient needs surgery the nurse establishes the appropriate intake information before the doctor administers the treatment or perform surgery teachers are our nurses they provide that tier one lesson that addresses the vitals or they conduct the triage in in support of this comparison then from there counselors and psychologists who are trained to administer the treatment or perform the surgery are
178brought in when it's determined to be necessary teachers are not asked to become counselors or psychologist teachers are asked to take the temperature or the blood pressure and then send them on for treatment the tier one curriculum addresses vital life skills nothing more it's important to realize that all students are general education students first then from there they are supported by subsequent tiers of instruction for example a student may need a remedial reading course or an extended reading course they they get their tier one from their teacher but then they are serviced by subsequent tiers of instruction and Specialists depending on their needs like speech or physical or occupational therapy it's not the teacher that's expected to do all the tears of instruction they have they have support so it's our job to close the
179gaps and meet the needs of all kids the teacher does the [Applause] triage okay how how will the curriculum be safeguards for the trails nor anyone else cannot add material that was taken out um again I think uh Miss Brian alluded on this earlier you know teachers are professionals and we're going to treat them as such um we got to give them the academic freedom uh to teach in a way that they consider appropriate and a way that they can discuss subject matter again free from censorship actually when you don't adopt a curriculum that's you know when you have people going out and trying to find and do and and and mesh something together so uh curriculums provide you parameters but again uh um we have professionals they know how to um gauge they know
180what works uh and I I think Miss Ryan said you know finding a couple different things one video that she watched just didn't get anything out of it found something that she thought was better um again uh no curriculum is perfect but we have to trust our teachers they're professionals um they go to school they get degrees they continue their education they continue their training and uh we have the trust um that they're going to do uh the job that we uh have them do what safeguards are in place to protect teachers who are expected to address sensitive and potentially controversial topics without specific training or support we would ask you to please review the curriculum the curriculum is filled with life skills for students and if a teacher doesn't feel comfortable with teaching a
181topic we're fine with them skipping it I don't believe that there are sensitive or controversial topics in our how will students who start sharing sensitive subjects be addressed in class is there teacher training on how to handle these situations I.E suicide gender identity religion bullying abuse Etc so I just have to say the presence of a curriculum or the absence of a curriculum doesn't stop kids from sharing sensitive information in class it's coming so personally as a teacher I dealt with the most sensitive and quite frankly shocking topics nearly 20 years ago when I was an elementary school teacher in another District at that time there were no seal curriculums to speak of but that didn't prevent students from sharing information because I was their trusted adult it's important to listen and set ground rules
182for respectful discussions it's also important to be able to ask that student if they'd like to discuss it with a counselor if you feel like it's beyond your realm now it was noted earlier that we are mandated to be reporters and so you are obligated under some circumstances it's typical to be uncomfortable with some of these subjects I heard things that I never thought I would hear out of the mouth of a third grader that they're out there with or without curriculum that's a valid feeling to be uncomfortable when those are brought to your plate our children regardless of age are potentially exposed to the most deplorable things and they don't realize the difference between a classroom teacher or a school psychologist they are just searching for someone that they trust so we need to
183be prepared with how to get them the services they need so they come to us because they have a temperature but we send them on to the doctor for the surgery or the treatment Trails reported that 91% of um teachers found it easy to deliver 91.8% described Trails seal as being flexible 82.8% of teachers described Trails seal as requ as requiring minimal prep time so again we have a link available to support that but because they're sharing it with or without a curriculum doesn't change the fact that they have the challenges how many teachers have been fully trained on the curriculum from Trails staff so I'm not going to just speak about teachers I'm going to talk about all of our staff so all of our staff has had all of our staff had the
184initial training is the recorded webinar on August 1st um they had to go through that train to get access to the curriculum so no one had the curriculum until after they took the initial training then all staff had the second training not the September 20th PD dat this was live and in person and I believe we had five Trails staff members here from across the country uh who came in to support our staff and teachers along with superintendent Ryan and uh Miss Russell uh then we offered another training on October 11th because we heard the staff say we still have some questions we still have some wonderings about this and so we provided another in-person training here on October 11th in addition to that uh we heard Miss William say earlier Trails offers monthly virtual
185trainings that are open to all of our Trails staff uh the lessons are skill specific and they support our our staff as they learn to facilitate and grow in their facilitation skills so the training isn't just one time or one webinar or one video but it's ongoing and it's consistent for our tier 2 and our tier three support staff they're getting coaching over the course of this next coming year so they continue to grow in their skills and in their facilitation of their groups will there be an option for teachers to opt out of teaching Trails we do not want to force teachers to teach this we want teachers to want to teach this because it ensures our students are learning important life skills that will help them academically and socially we can't force anyone
186to teach this in their access hours or within the school day but we can outline expectations there will be some teachers who choose not to follow those expectations and I can't say this and every time we drw every time we do uh adopt a curriculum there are teachers who do not teach the curriculum we set expectations those who utilize their access hour it's written in the negotiated agreement teacher evaluations are not tied to any part of a home room access hour I'm not looking to tie this curriculum to anyone's evaluation I just want our kids to be okay will teachers be allowed to use lessons outside of the approved curriculum so we' address this question uh but if a curriculum is not adopted or outlined then teachers have the academic freedom to choose their resources
187and I will tell you we have teachers who are putting Patchwork lessons together as we speak because they recognize the need for their kids this provides us a tool that's consistent and comprehensive from all grade levels from kindergarten through 12 what Ram ifications will teachers have if they do not implement this curriculum into their classrooms will this be written into their contracts again access our home room cannot be tied to a teacher's evaluation we do not want the use of this curriculum or lack of use of this curriculum to be punitive this is supposed to help students and staff not hurt them in conclusion the parable of the river one day a group of villagers was working in the fields by a river suddenly someone noticed a baby floating Downstream a woman rushed out and
188rescued the baby brought it to Shore and cared for it during the next several days more babies were found floating Downstream and the villagers rescued them as well but before long there was a steady stream of babies floating Downstream soon the whole village was involved in the many tasks of rescue work pulling these poor children out of the stream ensuring they were properly fed clothed housed and integrating them into the life of the village well not all B babies now very numerous could be saved the villagers felt they were doing well to save as many as they did before long however the village became exhausted with all the rescue work some villagers suggested they go Upstream to discover how all these babies were getting into the river in the first place had a mysterious illness
189struck these poor children had the shoreline been made unsafe by an earthquake was some hateful person throwing them in deliberately was an even more exhausted Village Upstream abandoning them out of hopelessness a huge controversy erupted in the village one group argued that every possible hand was needed to save the babies since they were barely keeping up with the current flow the other group argued that if they found out how those babies were getting into the river further Upstream they could repair the situation up there that would save all the babies and eliminate the need for those costly rescue operations Downstream don't you see cried some if we find out how they're getting in the river we can stop the problem and no babies will drown by going Upstream we can eliminate the cause of the
190problem but it's too risky said the village Elders it might fail it's not for us to change the system I challenge you all it is up to us to change the system we have to address the social motional well-being of our kids to prevent having to constantly be in crisis [Applause] okay before we adjourn um we did have a couple questions for the board um there's only five so it's going to be quick but first one was if the board decides not to move forward with the Trails program what will the schools use for the tier one interventions so the board will make a vote on this on December 10th so we do not have an answer for that um do parents staff members families students understand what tier one interventions are I can't speak
191for that um she gave us a good presentation they gave us a good presentation on this tonight um but the board does understand what tier one interventions are um has the board discussed the Trails program with all staff members from District 70 to get their feedback on the program um the board has been given staff and community members the opportunity to provide questions feedback over the last month and that's why we scheduled this special session um does a board have a plan in place for providing schools with quality resources for supporting student well-being if the trails curriculum is rejected as a tier one intervention um the board will make a decision about Trails on December 10th um d70 Administration and staff will always continue to provide resources for students wellbeing is the school board willing
192and able to provide School schol with additional psychologists social workers school counselors to support increasing needs for tier 2 and tier three interventions even if cost is not a limiting factor so our answer is the school board is always looking to provide additional School psychologists social workers school counselors to support increasing student needs it would definitely help if we could find more staff without cost as a limiting factor and those were the questions that we for the board specifically so okay so we'll go ahead and that's the end of our special session thank you thank you all for coming out you're the winner thank you guys for putting that together have to go home and wake up and