Board of Education Regular Meeting: 1.21.2026

001You can just bring I don't see myself. Going to call the meeting to order. >> Lorley, will you call the role, please? >> Stu Boyd >> here. >> Denise Chapman >> here. >> Lori Goel >> here. >> Don Kirk >> here. >> Alexander Lesum >> here. >> Nancy Rumfelt >> here. Mike Schaw >> here. >> Nancy, will you please lead us in the pledge of allegiance? To the flag of the United States of America to the stands nation, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you, Nancy. And Denise, our mission statement, please. The Thompson School District will be a school district that empowers challenges and inspires students, faculty, staff, parents, school leaders, and community members to learn, achieve, and excel. >> Thank you, Denise. We'll move then to agenda item 2.1, which is

002the adoption of the agenda for tonight's meeting board. Hopefully, you've had the opportunity to review the agenda. Do you need a minute? Are you ready to for me to entertain a motion to accept? >> So moved. >> Motion from Alexandra. >> Second. >> I heard seconds coming from both places. >> Dawn down here. Who's Dawn down here? >> All right. Second from Dawn. Any discussion? All right. Lori Lee, will you please call the role? Stu Boyd. >> Hi, >> Denise Chapman. >> Hi, >> Lori Goel. >> Hi, >> Don Kirk. >> Hi, >> Alexander Lesum. >> Hi, >> Nancy Rumfelt. >> Hi, >> Mike Schul. >> Hi. >> Great. We'll move then to public participation. Uh, item 3.1 is a presentation by Thompson Valley High School. So, come on down. Good evening, president, members of

003the board, and Dr. Heler. I'm excited to be here tonight. Um, I'm one of the assistant principles at Thompson Valley High School. My name is Jeremy Lanter. Uh, at Thompson Valley, we are uh intentional about offering multiple pathways for students to be successful. Whether students are pursu uh pursuing advanced placement coursework, concurrent enrollment opportunities, or engaging in career and technical education programs like ProStart, our goal is the same to ensure every student graduates college and is career ready with meaningful opportunities, options, and a clear sense of purpose. Tonight, I'm excited to introduce Aaron Bender, who leads our ProStart program and exemplifies the incredible work happening at Thompson Valley High School to prepare students for life beyond high school. ProStart is a powerful example of this work in action through rigorous hands-on learning, industry certifications, and

004authentic professional experiences. Students are not only gaining technical skills, but also developing collaboration, problem solving, and professionalism. skills that transfer to any post-secondary pathway they choose. Under Miss Bender's leadership, students are connecting classroom learning to real world careers in hospital, hospitality, culinary arts, and beyond. This program reflects our commitment to meeting students where they are and empower them to achieve their personal and academic goals. It is my honor to introduce Aaron Bender to share more about the ProStart program and the impact it's having at students at Thompson Valley High School. Thank you, Mr. Lampner. ProStart is a culinary arts and hospitality management program through the National Restaurant Association and the Colorado Restaurant Foundation. During the 2-year course, students learn about the front of the house, the back of the house, entrepreneurial skills, and culinary skills.

005All ProStart students receive a SurfSafe food handler certification, and have the opportunity to earn their Surf Safe management certification as well. This year alone, 75 Thompson Valley students had the opportunity to receive three college credits through Metropolitan State University of Denver. And with the addition of the Pathfinder internship next year, we'll be able to offer students up to 10 college credits for completing the hospitality pathway at Thompson Valley through Metropolitan State. ProStart has been at Thompson Valley for eight years now, taught some board members, kids. Uh so we've seen the positive impact um it's having on our current students as well as the lasting impact it's had on our previous students. Before I talk about the current impact of the program, I am thrilled to introduce to you Connor Grzmic, a ProStart graduate to share

006with you his experience. Hello everyone. Thank you for your guys' time tonight. Uh I am Connor Gasmic. I graduated last year from Thompson Valley and I took ProStart my junior and senior years. Uh ProStart was a very very fun and great experience. I got to learn more than I ever thought I would about the culinary from front of the house, back of the house to even just cooking food that I on a normal state wouldn't have ever made on my own. But besides working on everything culinary, you also get to build a strong relationship and team building aspect with everybody that's either in your class, if you're working at a company, anything like that. Uh we were able to participate in the ProStart State tournament competition which it's a management and culinary based competition. You

007get graded on a point scale depending on how you perform. It's a very very fun opportunity to work with others and get to grow and learn and it helps you use these different forms and techniques that you learn in these classes to help further uh show your skills. And as she had mentioned, there is that college credit opportunity and in any sense having that opportunity to use courses that you took in high school as even if it's elective credits towards your degree in college or if it's even specifically for culinary. It's always helpful to anybody who signs up for the classes. So yeah, it's ProSart was a very very fun experience and I am so very glad that I was able to take it in my time at Thompson Valley. Um, also joined with us

008tonight is Landon Hoffland. Um, and he was your student chef for today for the turnover. So, if we can get a little mini round of applause if you guys enjoyed those and thank you again, Connor, for your insight as well. Some additional alumni I would like to highlight. Jaden Shots graduated 2020, worked as a GM for a hotel in California from tw 2022 to 2024. Brooklyn, sorry, Brooklyn Kias graduated in 2023, earned her manager certificate during her senior year and was working at Renza. Renza then gave her a $1.25 an hour raise for that certification while she was still in high school. Deja Malerano, sorry Dea, I pronounced that wrong as always, um, graduated in 2022. Um, and then she, uh, was an ascent student, um, and then went to Colorado State University and has

009graduated last spring with her family consumer sciences degree. So, if we can get that extra FTE, I want her. Um Emerson Sanford, sorry, Emerson Sanford uh graduated 2025, completed the program her junior year and she applied to Ayra, which is reg Re registered youth restaurant apprenticeship and trained under Chef Nick at the Urban Field Pizza. After the apprenticeship ended, she was hired and will be attending Escafier in the spring. Aurelia Kemp 2025 was was promoted at their job at A&W in Bertha during their time in ProStart and received raises for her credentials. Titus Hargrave and Tody and Cody Johnson, both 2025, work at the restaurant at Mariana, but um both of them had started while in school and are able to still continue their work there. Titus accredits ProStart for his ability to graduate high

010school. Um his speech is way better than I will try, but he gave it to Theo and Schaefer last year. It's good. Um he hopes to start culinary school in Texas next fall. if he chooses the art institute, since he has his certificate of achievement, he will be able to enter with getting his entire first semester covered. Um, so he won't have to duplicate those classes. Um, Dre Balky and Marin Rossman both completed ProStart year 1 and two their junior years. Uh, they weren't done with the program yet, but we did not have um a ProStart 3 opportunity for them. So unfortunately through northern Colorado we don't have as many apprenticeship opportunities as Denver but Dre was able to get um on with the Ryware apprenticeship through Comet Chicken and then Marin Rossman worked at

011the restaurant association was not able to get an apprenticeship but was able to start working at Josh and John's for extra money with her credentials. Um Marin also was on our third place management team in 2024 and received over $2,000 in scholarships that she'll be able to utilize next year. Currently I have a number of students working at various businesses including lame assisted living and their nutrition services little caesars into juice coldstone the district in the pool system and also IT internship Freddy's the black steer and I'm sure I forgot to list some. I love watching students learn while they're in the kitchen and hearing about their aha moments while they're at work and how the class has helped them approach a hard conversation with the manager, how to apply for jobs, how to resign

012from a job appropriately to keep that relationship, how to ask for references, um how to ask for more money, which has been a lot of fun this week. Uh we're emailing bosses, texting boxes. Um I'm like, why? It's hard, but the worst they can say is no. Let's ask for that money. Um so that's been really cool. Um, I love providing as many opportunities as possible from the industry industry experience field trips to working with different restaurants to Denver Food and Wine. Thank you for your time and continued support of the ProStart program in Thompson School District. Um, are there any questions I can answer for you? >> Turn myself on here. Ward, any questions? >> Go ahead if you have one. >> Thank you. Uh just wondering you mentioned scholarships and what percentage of

013the students uh apply for scholarships and then as far as uh receiving scholarships and what's the varying >> Yeah. >> That's a great question. Um so we have a couple different scholarship opportunities or like pathways for that. Um the biggest scholarship pool is through the Colorado Restaurant Foundation and that closes in January. Um, we've had Titus Jurgensson from 2021 receive um a $2,000 PepsiCo scholarship that was renewable every single year. So, that's our largest um one that Thompson Valley has received so far. Um during what Connor was mentioning, uh ProStart State, um it's CPSI, so competing in that one um you have to hit third, second, or first place to get scholarships. And then um so Marin's total was 2,000, but it's like 250 here, 500 here, depending on if she goes to those schools.

014Um Emerson was on the Scafier team for two years. So they will have um five $500 for each competition they completed in. So when they start in the spring, it'll be $1,000. Um anytime they compete at Scafier and they go to Esafier, they get that scholarship. So that percentage is a little bit higher. Um so I would say from I would say that like 10% of my students do hospitality after this program. So um I think it's important to note that 50% of all adults in the United States have worked in industry at some point in their life. So um like Connor was going for computer sciences. Um he worked uh I'm so sorry what not restaurant? >> Metro. >> Yes. Um Connor was working at Metroux. So, um he was able to take all

015this all these skills that ProStart gave him um go use that um credit as elective credit at CSU. Um and so it helps him personally and professionally um even if it's not that direct route, but hopefully we'll get more people entering the hospitality industry and if then they're going to college, there's a lot more scholarships available, but you have to have committed to a hospitality program. Thank you for that question. >> Any questions board? What kind of demand do you have for the classes? >> Yeah, that's a great question as well. Um, with uh scheduling, it's a little challenging. So, I the last couple years I've been getting right around 75 students who want it. So, that would either be really huge class sizes or three a little bit smaller class sizes. So, we have

016um cut back on our culinary offerings um for our freshmen to offer these programs. So, my ProStart 2 um is kind of small this year. So, hoping hoping that we'll kind of even out a little bit more as the years go on, but um it's just been hard to rebuild since co. But yeah, >> I'm I'm so glad to see you here because I remember when the program was down at the forge and there was one year where you um we went down there for the competition and it was so fun to watch all of the students practicing and we were of course um testing all of their their work was which was a lot of fun. It was such a hardship um That's Yes. >> But I'm curious to know because with once that

017um the previous ownership closed down and then Grim Brothers moved in, I know that there was concern about where where was the program going to move to? So I I would love to hear how did you find a solution to that and so how is this program being done now? because I thought the forge center was a great a great way to >> I think that would be a great way and if we can discuss with uh Dr. Heler and secondary director. Um, so sorry I don't have their name off the top of my head. Um, I think that partnership is still available if we could get over the fact that they sell beer. Um, Poor House sells beer. My students work at Pore House. Um, so I think there is different avenues. How I've

018accommodated it. Um, I'm just not able to be self-sustaining and cater. So we have to I have to rely on student fees. I have to scrge up um any donations for food that I can get. Um because without the forge, the forge would allow us to cater and sell make money off of our food, >> right? And it also because of the way the kitchen was set up, it just allowed I I I could see the students were able to just develop so so many more of their skills. >> So I didn't realize that that's what was holding >> that was my understanding from last year that um Theo did not want to push it because it was a brewery. But I think we could talk about it more. >> May maybe and options maybe

019we could. >> But um yeah, that commissary kitchen is great and they did remodel it with the intent of having classes up there. Um which has been so awesome. And then Amber Wharton um at Loveland has a good partnership with Beggars's Gate Church off of 29th. And so we've used their um kitchen before as a commissary kitchen for a couple um catering events we did last year. >> Yeah. Thank you for that. >> All right. >> Okay. Sweet. I'll pass it back to Jeremy. Any other questions, board? >> Anyone else? >> All right. Do >> we have time for more? >> Before you all leave, >> one of the highlights of the evening for us is to take a picture with the students. So, can we do that or do you have more of your

020presentation? >> I believe Mr. Lander has some closing statements and then we >> All right, Mr. Lander. I just wanted to say thank you for the opportunity to talk about Thompson Valley High School. We really are very proud of our programming and the opportunities that our kids have after uh they get out of our school. So, thank you guys. >> All right. Hey guys, come on up and the board will come down. should go. >> Yeah, we should both go. You should. All right. I'll see. Um, yes, actually I can. What do you know? Excuse me. Okay. On three. One, two, three. All right. Thank you. We'll proceed now to agenda item 3.2, which is awards and recognition. And I'll turn this over to Dr. Heler. >> Thank you. Good evening. We do have some

021awards and recognitions tonight. quite a full house many because we have a lot of students to recognize tonight. We'll start with our uh Martin Luther King Jr. event, Heart and Soul hosted the 37th annual Lovelin celebration honoring Martin Luther King Jr. at at Mountain View High School just this past week on January 15th. We had Thompson School District students who were challenged with creating a piece of art, writing, or music that aligned with the night's theme of we cannot walk alone. So, I'm going to ask you to help me recognize these different groups of students as they come forward. I'm going to start with our writing contest winners. So, all of our students who were writing contest winners. Put that slide up. I think we're good. You should know who you are. Mackenzie Oakley, Sergio

022Arav, and Chloe. Are you in the house? Have you guys come forward here? No other Rob, you might be the only one in the house tonight. So, we'll have you hang out just up there for a second while we bring the rest of the students forward. Hopefully, um some of our art contest winners. How about our art contest winners? Any art contest winners in the house? Please come forward. We got lots of you. And then we have our music contest winners. One of them is already up there. Arav is already there. Laney, come on up. >> Forward. Do you want to do a picture with these amazing kids as well? >> Um, sure. But I wonder in order to save time if we can ask you guys to stick around for a second, then let's

023go ahead and do the other recognitions and then we'll take pictures of the kids in >> Okay. So the next group >> different groups it'll save us a little time I think. >> So the next group is our Betcher semi- finalist of winners. So if we're want to move forward with those I Okay, >> you want to do it separate? You want to do the art? Okay, let's because the next ones do will be our BER kids. All right, I guess we're doing it. Yeah, let me bring Let me talk about each of our Betraer Award semi finalists. We had seven tsd students who have been selected as batcher scholarship semi-finalists and some of them were able to attend tonight. First from Bertha High School, if you'll wave when I say your name, a special

024congratulations out to Haley James and Benjamin Klopper. Loveland High School's Elsa Anderson and Ellery Anne Bowersfield also advanced to the semi-finals. From Thompson Valley High School, we have Noah Citzer and Trevor Lighting. And finally, Mountain View High School senior Joshua Nearman. If you don't know, so the Betra Scholarship is a 4-year full tuition and partial living expenses merit-based academic scholarship that is awarded to graduating Colorado high school students. Award recipients on average rank in the top 2% of their graduating classes. It is one of the most comp competitive and prestigious programs throughout our region. It is an exceptionally high honor to be named a semi-finalist and we're very proud of these seven students. One more time for them. That's it. All right. So, we're going to bring all of you around here to the front

025of the of the DAS here if you will. We're going to take a really big picture. Let's have the high school kids in the back with the not quite as tall. Okay, let's try to squish in as much as we can. >> What's um let's do like >> I think so. We'll see here. All right, let's see how wide I can go. Actually, not too bad. Whoops. All right, everybody look here for me. Ready? On three. One, two, three. All right. Thank you. Okay, I think I'm going to start going around your side. >> Okay, I'll give the mass exodus just a second to happen. >> Yeah, we'll we'll take a second. allow people to get settled and then we'll move on to the next agenda item. >> Okay, we have one more item ST

026on the recognitions before I move on. >> All right. Okay, I'm going to move to the next part of our awards and recognition. Uh, as I think many of you might know, January is National School Board Appreciation Month. We're honored to recognize our incredible board members, their dedication, guidance, and unwavering support strengthen our schools and help each student to thrive. We appreciate all you do for the TSD and our community. There's some posters in the room. We have some cards in the back room that were made by students and staff. Um, I do want to read the schoolboard recognition month proclamation if I could. There's a lot of wherehouses, so just hold on tight. Whereas, the mission of public schools is to meet the educational needs of all children and to empower them to become

027competent, productive contributors to a democratic society and an everchanging world. And whereas local school board members are elected by their community members to do what's best for students. And whereas local schoolboard members work closely with parents, educational professionals, and other community members to create the educational vision we want for our students. And whereas local schoolboard members are responsible for ensuring the structure that provides a solid foundation for our school system. And whereas local school board members are strong advocates for public education and are responsible for communicating the needs of the school district to the public and the public's expectations to the district. Now, therefore, we do hereby declare our appreciation to the members of the Thompson School District Board of Education and proclaim January 2026 as school board recognition month in the Thompson School District.

028Please join us in recognizing the dedication and hard work of local school board members and in working with them to mold an educational system that meets the needs of both today's and tomorrow's children. Thank you. That's it. All right. We'll move on then to agenda item 3.3, which is public comment. Don, would you read the introductory statement? Because the board wants to hear the viewpoints of the public and also needs to conduct its business in an orderly and efficient manner, it will schedule time during its regular board meetings for brief comments and questions from the public. The board will set a time for public participation prior to the business portion of the meeting. The time for each speaker will be limited to three minutes and each individual will only be recognized once. If there is

029a large number of speakers, the board may elect to take comments for one hour before the business meeting and conclude public comment after the business meeting. Public comments and questions at a regular meeting may deal with any topics related to the board's conduct of the schools. Speakers may offer such criticism of school operations and programs as concern them, but are encouraged to exercise their speech speech rights responsibly. Speakers remarks should be suitable for an audience that includes kindergarten through 12th grade students. Personnel matters will be discussed in executive session. Finally, as a reminder to all present, the board and staff do not respond to public comment. This is our opportunity to hear from students, parents, and patrons. The board may discuss public comments later in the agenda or on future agendas. >> Okay. >> Is

030the timer working? Okay. So, we're going to have our electronic timer again, which means that in front of you, you'll see the numbers. It'll countd down for you. Um, first up, we have Bailey Long. Am I good? >> You're good. Yeah. >> Okay. Hello, my name is Bailey Long. I'm a junior at Lovelin High and I've been a varsity volleyball player for the last two years. Throughout my volleyball career, I've always been searching for more. More opportunities to shine, more playing time, more reps, and chances to get better through different coaching staff. But when I tell you I've never had a coach like Natalie Carrasco, I mean it fully. She may have only been the head coach for two seasons, but she changed the name for Loveland volleyball and Loveland sports in general. Lovelin has

031never been a school that has had outstanding athlet or an as outstanding volleyball record, but that all changed with Natalie. Natalie wanted it as bad as the players did. She would do anything she could to make us improve as athletes. She showed vulnerability, which not a lot of adults want to do with a bunch of high school girls. She would cry when our goals were reached, and when they weren't reached, we sat right back up to find the next goal to accomplish. That part didn't come naturally. But Natalie didn't let us let it stink for too long because she knew something deep inside of us wanted to keep working hard. Natalie also took the time to get to know all of us. I very vividly remember a time when I was on the verge of

032tears the entire practice, and she could tell. She took me aside, looked me in my eyes, and told me there is no pressure, which there wasn't. That one quote will forever be engraved into my mind. You may think the girls on the team only got close with each other, but it was even easier to get close with a coach that truly cares for each and every one of us. From what I've heard about how she was let go, which is quite a bit, a statement was made about how she was using verbal aggression, which is interesting because what's a coach without discipline? I know that sounds a little ridiculous, but players aren't going to succeed if it's all sunshine and rainbows. She's going to discipline us. She's going to get mad at us at certain

033points of the season. But that's my favorite part. It makes us work hard and instills drive into us. The girls on the varsity team range from 15 to 17 years old. With some of us about to be adults, I think we should be able to manage a little bit of constructive criticism. I'm not only infuriated by how she was let go, but I was frustrated by the lack of support. It was her against herself. No one asked about a witness. No one had any evidence that the statements that had been made were true or untrue. It's unfair that she felt alone in a moment where someone should have been there to stand up for her. Instead of any help she could have gotten, the people that fired her wanted to get it off the off

034their backs as quickly as possible and take the easy route. I'd like for someone somewhere to be considerate of what they have done and the damage they have caused to someone's family, someone's legacy, and above all, someone's passion they have in the sport. I've truly been sickened on the fact of how this all went down. Thank you guys for your time. Ashlin Mayor or McTar. Good evening. My name is Ashley McTar and I am a junior at Lovelin High School. I am also a member of the volleyball program. I am here tonight to speak about the former head coach Natalie Krasco. I have played competitive volleyball for many years. I have played for various club teams and school programs and I have worked with a long list of coaches. Throughout those years, Natalie has stood

035out as one of the top coaches I have ever had. When I was a freshman at Leland High School, Natalie was my coach for my first high school season. She believed in me the way I haven't seen a coach do before. Even though I was quiet and a scared player on the court, she encouraged me to break out of my shell and leave all my fear outside of the gym. Therefore, since she broke my shell in the gym, I'm here tonight breaking my own shell to speak up in her honor. What sets her apart from other coaches isn't that just that she knows the game, it is that she knows how to teach it. She is a perfect mixture of a coach who is constantly jumping and cheering on the sidelines after a good play

036and a coach who will correct you as well as push and encourage you to be better after a bad one. She also runs a program better than any coach to possibly fill her shoes would. She set up team bonding games for the entire program every practice. She had varsity watching film before and after games to help the team recognize their strengths and weaknesses. She ran a very productive, fun, and organized program. She made sure the teams in the program were always there to support and cheer on each other while they were playing, which isn't something I've seen in other programs. Not only is Natalie a fun coach, but she's a driven one. Joining varsity for the po postseason and traveling with them to state helped me see even more why Natalie should stick with this

037program. She's led the team to state two years in a row, which hasn't been done in a program in a very long time. When you have someone who is this successful and who has the support of her players, I don't understand why she needed to be let go. As a student athlete who has dedicated years to this sport, no matter the level, I am asking you to listen to our voices. We have built something incredible over the last two seasons with Natalie, and we want Natalie to be the one to lead us forward. Thank you. Hannah Gatinella. >> Hi, my name is Hannah Gatinella and I originally thought I'd be speaking um before my daughter Bailey Long um to give her the courage to step forward and speak. However, obviously she didn't need that. Um,

038I just want to tell you a little story about how um, when we heard that Natalie was let go, what transpired in our household from the email that we received that she was being let go. Within minutes, I called Mr. Habard and had a discussion with him about it because I wanted to hear from him what had happened. And Bailey came home in tears and sat down and wrote what she wrote. I did not help her. I did not incite for her to come in here. She came to me and within that afternoon she said, "I am going to the school board to talk to them about this." And so I'm not going to talk about the injustices of how it went down, but I do feel I've been coached since I was very young

039to the highest level. I've been a coach at many levels, including high school level, and I have never seen something like this transpire the way that it did for Natalie, without any help as far as looking at what actually happened and the people that were actually there. So, in order for me to like be a true um I guess in spirit of being in front of Bailey and helping her to use her words to talk about this and to speak truth to the situation, we just want you to know going forward, I know there's nothing that can be done about this, but going forward, I think there should be some type of rule in the process, some due process for these coaches that you have to actually look at and see what has transpired that

040led up to this point because there wasn't any of that and I also spoke to Kevin about this as well as well. So that's all I have to say. She pretty much said everything. So thank you Claire Wit. Hello. My name is Claire and I have a master's degree in clinical mental health counseling. I provide services to clients here in Lammer County as well as throughout the state. The last time I was in this room was um about a year ago and I heard a lot of hateful comments um from various community members blaming trans people for their mental health struggles. And I would like to use a part of my time to speak on the reason why trans people struggle with mental health issues like depression, anxiety, and suicidality. A study published in the

041National Library of Medicine in 2019 found that gender diverse clients were more likely to meet criteria for mental health diagnoses when compared to cisgender people. Another study published in the same library in 2023 found that experiences of daily marginalizations and non-affirmation increased symptoms of anxiety and depression for these people. And for clarity, to be marginalized is to be excluded from full participation in life due to identity, to have barriers to essential services and resources. And maybe you've heard this statistic before, but when LGBTQ youth have at least one accepting adult in their life, their risk of attempting suicide goes down by 40%. And I work with these folks, um, teenagers and adults alike every day. Um, these people are not struggling with mental health because of their gender. They're struggling because they face harassment, being

042misgendered or called the wrong name, being stared at in stores, followed, kicked out of bathrooms, being barred from playing sports with their friends. Their sense of self is attacked at the micro, messo, and macro levels. And so, since I'm at a schoolboard meeting, I just wanted to thank you for policy ACE3 regarding discrimination. and I hope that you continue to uphold that on behalf of these vulnerable students. So, this sentiment comes from a non-binary person I know who went to Thompson Valley uh their whole life. Um, this person recalled the first time that a teacher called them by their chosen name. It was years ago and they still remember how nice it felt. They told me it felt like respect and like they belonged. They say it set the precedent for how others should refer

043to them at school. And they told me that having their correct name and pronouns used incentivized them to raise their hand in class. They weren't afraid anymore to speak up in the classroom, answer a question, ask a question, and it helped them be a more productive student. So, I thank you for all your support for these kids. Um, and I hope that you keep fighting for them, and I know that I will as well. Deb Adams. >> Good evening, Dr. Heler, President Boyd, members of the school board. My name is Deb Adams and I live in Loveland. My remarks tonight are directed to Mrs. Goel regarding her statements at the school board meeting on December 17th, 2025. I will focus on her comments regarding her religious beliefs since there really is no controversy among school

044professionals about the critical importance of family engagement. I will quote directly now. If your policy and programs would have shocked the parents of 1975, I believe it has no place in our schools in 2025. Many things have shocked all of us in the last 50 years. For example, the tremendous advances in technology and innovation are indeed shocking and have improved the lives of countless citizens around the world and in our own country. These advances would have been impossible without strong public education and the neverending desire to understand our human existence. Which leads me to her statement regarding her openly Christian worldview. Each person's worldview is unique to them as individuals with different experiences, attitudes, values, and expectations of the world around them. A Christian worldview, even if shared by many others, is not superior or

045inferior to another. It is simply a different perspective. Board policy BP IH A L gives clear direction to school professionals regarding teaching religion in our public schools. Here are some core principles outlined in this policy. secular, academic, objective, respectful, cross-cultural, factual, religiously neutral. These are principles which guide the people who are trusted daily with the education of our students. I believe those same principles should apply to every member of this school board. To quote Mrs. Goble one last time. Our children, our parents, and our country deserve no less. Thank you. Darren Barrett Barrett. Well, good evening everyone. My name is Darren Barrett. I'm a local uh lifelong resident here in Leland. Uh been around a long long time. I'm a property owner and taxpayer. In fact, clue you in how old I am. I'm one

046of the first generations to go to Walt Clark and then go to Thompson Valley when Levelin became big enough to have gosh two high schools. So, I'm also uh one of the individuals that applied to be on the bond oversight committee. Um, well, I've got a pretty lengthy uh uh resume on on nonprofit and uh volunteer efforts. Uh, professionally for the last oh 25 years, I've been involved in the industrial mechanical trades. I currently hold a what they call a universal HVAC license. Uh, I can practice refrigeration and air conditioning uh in all 50 states. That's administered by the Environmental Protection Agency of the United States. I recently served a a 5-year contract with the local branch of the Department of Energy uh taking care of all their uh extreme cooling and heating needs um

047in a critical infrastructure uh environment. In fact, uh I got a coin of excellence here from the administrator uh coin of excellence for serving under uh conditions during the COVID pandemic. I'm quite proud of that uh coin there I got from him. So, uh, once again, I hope you consider me for your bond oversight committee. If you have any questions about my, uh, credentiing or or history, I'd be happy to share that with you. Also like to talk with you all a little bit this evening about the urgency of, uh, getting an a board member here to serve on the Loveland Earl Urban Renewal Authority. That's very uh, important. First of all, because there is a Laura meeting tomorrow night at the city council chambers, and we really need somebody who's very, very knowledgeable about

048what's going on, the history here in Loveland, who's very knowledgeable about these metropolitan districts and special taxing districts because they are in fact competing with the school district for our tax dollars. you need to be aware of that and uh look at some uh ask critical questions about what's going on with the urban renewal authority. Um if you don't understand that part of it, you certainly need to ask questions. There's the only dumb question is the one that you don't ask. So uh hope you can uh find a a willing volunteer that's knowledgeable to serve on the on the lure board and we really need one desperately. There is some controversy right now, but uh I think if we have a good person who can look at that and get through it, uh I think

049it would be great. So, hope you take that in consideration. Thank you, >> Jana Lewis. Good evening, President Boyd, Dr. Heler, and members of the school board. Happy schoolboard recognition month and thank you for all you do for our community. My name is Jana Lewis and I'm here today to talk to you about Thompson Education Support Professional Association. As you consider the formal recognition of TESSPA as the bargaining agent for our classified staff, I want to share why this partnership is the right choice for our employees, our district, and most importantly our students. TESSPA is not a new presence in our schools. We have been representing and advocating for classified employees for years. We are a member-run, member-driven organization that understands the unique pulse of our district and classified staff. Because our leadership has the

050duty to reach out and listen to our staff, we act as a bridge, helping the administration identify both the bright spots and the challenges within our buildings. The desire for this representation is clear. Over 60% of our classified staff, more than 540 individuals, have signed a petition asking for TESPA to represent them. These are the people who keep our schools running from our bus drivers to our PAR educators. But our commitment extends beyond the walls of the schools. TESSPA is deeply invested in the success of Thompson School District. We have a long history of organizing support for mills and bonds through our affiliation with Colorado Education Association and National Education Association. We bring powerful resources to the table to ensure those elections succeed. Whether it's participating in community events or attending board meetings, our members

051are active, engaged, and present. When recognized, TESSPA will take on the responsibility of supporting all classified staff. We provide essential safety net support for staff issues alongside significant member benefits ranging for from free health free life insurance to discounts at thousands of retail retailers. Furthermore, we're committed to professional growth through CAPI and partnerships with Adam State University. Our members access highle training win school safety, deescalation, behavioral support, and many other opportunities. This isn't just about labor. It's about building a more skilled, professionalized workforce for our district. At the heart of everything we do is a simple principle. We put kids first. We believe that when classified employees are supported, respected, and heard, they are better equipped to provide a great public school experience for every student. We ask that you honor the voices of the

052540 plus staff members who have spoken informally to formally recognize TESP as their representative. Thank you for your time and your dedication to all Thompson School District employees and students. >> Hi, I'm Nancy Meredith. I live at 1620 Maryland Court here in Loveland. Thank you, Superintendent Heler, President Stu Boyd, and board directors. As a former Thompson teacher, I have a vested interest in Thompson schools and its impact on the lovely community. As a board of education, I thank most of you for your service. And I know you realize you have been elected to serve and represent all students, staff, parents, and leadership at a level of inclusivity where everyone represented feel safe, welcome, and an integral part of the Thompson community regardless of gender, race, religion. This brings me to my main point. In December,

053newly elected director Lori Goel commented that she could support only issues which were religious-based. I need to bring to her attention and yours that religion has absolutely no place in a public education system. That is why we have separation of church and state in our constitution. By making this statement, Lori Global's true colors why she's on the board was made very clear. As educators, it is our responsibility to do just that. Educate students so that we can have productive members of society. Critical thinkers who are able to think without indoctrination of religious rhetoric and ideology. There are schools for that. Private religious schools. As a board of education, the job becomes one of maintaining the inclusion of our diverse community, accepting and including all populations. As I know most of you believe, we cannot let

054the extreme thinking of a couple of board members hijack the purpose of public education. Again, thank you for this opportunity to speak and again, thank you for your service. I can be reached at 970-2152817. Thank you, Bonnie McDermad Levelin. I'm talk speaking about Nancy Rumfeld and Lori Goel's behavior. Nancy Rumfeld and Lori Goel's far-right bigoted and hateful agenda is not acceptable in our public schools where every child is different and has different needs and cannot be treated as a set of building blocks. NY's behavior has escalated, and if the last few weeks are any indication, our district is in for a long political ride that teachers and staff do not need or have time for. Nancy Rumfeld and Lorie Goble and their supporters have no reservations when it comes to badmouthing other board members and

055sadly even teachers and principles. They follow NY's lead as they have done with her budget and audit conspiracies. Our school should not be your subject line on radical talk show radio shows and podcasts of Advanced Colorado. Parents should know by now that they cannot trust anything either of you say or what you put out on social media. I urge the board to censor both of you and keep you off committees. I support the voters who want to recall both of you as soon as can be done by law. There are others who can certainly do a better job than you have and they will do it with integrity, honor, respect, and facts. For you both to resign would be the right thing to do and is what is best for students, teachers, staff, and yes,

056our district finances. I can be reached at 970-3108016. Thank you. All right, that concludes public comment. Mo, we'll move then to the report section of the agenda, beginning with agenda item 4.1, which is the superintendence report. >> Thank you, President Boyd. So, I will start off by just saying that we are pleased to welcome our students back. We had secondary students back in the classroom on January 7th and elementary students back in the classroom on January 8th. I think the first half of our school year went well. It feels like it went by really fast, but it went well and we're off to an exciting start already. Uh we also held a district-wide professional development day on January 6th. This was an opportunity for staff members across the district to engage in both online and

057in-person classes uh to collaborate uh to continue to grow as a team and helping them to again provide the best education for our students. I want to provide a thank you to Berth High School. They were the hosts of our third session of the Thompson Leadership Academy. That group continued learning about several of the district's programs, including student support opportunities, athletics, and activities, and our family school and community partnerships. Participants also took a brief tour of the library at Berthood High School and learned about the unique maker space that is held at that school. The leadership academy is a seven-month program designed to connect community members with district's important work and services. the participants learned about the district's educational programs, operations, and funding models, etc. We already talked a little bit about the Dr. Martin

058Luther King event. Some of the board was able to attend. It was it was an honor to celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King with our community last week. There's a tremendous partnership that's that exists between Thompson School District, the city of Leland, and the Thompson Education Foundation that makes that program exciting. A highlight of the event, as you saw earlier, was seeing the incredible talent of our students, uh, both through their artwork, their essays, and their music contests. Uh, I want to specifically thank our our staff in each of the buildings who encouraged and supported our students in submitting these creative um, ideas. And we also owe a huge debt of gratitude to Dr. Maria Gabriel um, from Thompson School District who is really a driving force behind that celebration. I also want

059to spend just a minute, well, might be more than a minute, talking a little bit about um to the board and the community about an issue that's coming up down at the state capital right now, um regarding something called the specific ownership tax. Uh I think most of us know what this is. This is the annual tax that we pay when we register our vehicles in Colorado. So, currently a portion of that tax is distributed to school districts to help fund operations. As most of you are also aware, the state is in the middle of a fairly significant budget shortfall. And to address this, there is a proposal being discussed at the state house to change the school finance formula and count more of our local specific operating or specific ownership tax revenue towards the

060local share of our funding. So in the simplest terms, what this means is when the state would count more of our local vehicle tax as a local share, they would be able to give us less in terms of their total funding. This is a budget cut. It is not a fix for for Thompson. This cut would be approximately $3.5 million that there is no other way to recoup those dollars. It would be a straight cut to our budget. Uh we do not have these funds sitting in a site account. We already budget this money every year as part of teacher salaries, programming, transportation, all of those things. It is just also distributed based on a district's mill levy. So, it very specifically creates a situation where the the districts like ours who have passed either

061a mill levy override or a bond um are hit harder. So, the state would essentially be using our local community's generosity to justify reducing its own funding obligations. What I'm asking for anybody in the community, including the board, to do is to reach out to legislators, make them known that this is not something that you think is the right way to handle K12 funding. It will be a very devastating thing to K12, not just for Thompson. I've talked to districts all over the state. There are districts who are losing 2025 million due to this potential um change in how the funding formula works. So, uh more than anything, I want to create awareness. Uh, I think if people can reach out to legislators to let them know that they don't agree with this this way

062of doing business, this is not a fix to the budget. This is a cut to K12. That's it for my report. >> Thank you, Dr. Heler. Any questions for Dr. Heler regarding that report? I can't believe what I just heard. I it's the specific ownership is tax that they assess and it just seems like they keep wanting to take away. We had the marijuana funds which again it's a mystery where they're all going. Um I mean I understand that they need to cut the budget. I think that there are other ways that they could look to reduce their spending on things that maybe they the state shouldn't be spending, but don't cut spending on things that is an obligation of the state. I I I'm I don't support. >> Any other comments or questions? Nancy,

063pardon me, Lori. uh question is uh what is the bill number and who are the sponsors on this bill? >> I don't know if there's an actual bill. This is kind of going through the the budgeting process right now and it's being discussed. It was essentially floated as an idea for how to balance the budget um to create a statistical scientific way to balance the budget. It is a is a cut to K12. I do not believe there is a specific bill associated with this. I do know that Bob is also probably going to talk about this during his financial update as well. So, yeah. >> And uh yes, for you, President Puting a pulse on the I'm sorry. Are you keeping a pulse on the legislative set area or is that more in Dr.'s

064wheelhouse? >> Both. Uh both of us. I don't know that this has come yet through CASBY. >> It hasn't yet come to the CASBY membership. So, I'm I'm hearing this for this for the first time just as you are. >> Yeah. This first kind of popped up as a possibility when we were actually at Caspby. Um, I heard about this for the first time. I shared it with a couple of board members as I heard about it and I was still trying to wrap my brain around it. Since then, we've had a number of meetings through case and the Colorado School Finance Project around this issue so we all can try to understand what they're trying to do, why they're trying to do it, and what we should do about it. So, we're all kind

065of learning as we go and a lot of crossing fingers and toes that it actually goes away and doesn't happen because we know how devastating this will be, not just for us, but for all public schools. >> And >> so, uh, in response to what you just said tomorrow, I just made a note to, uh, contact someone at CASBY to bring me up to date as much as he can at this point and suggest courses of action for us as a board. >> Thank you. >> And I do believe uh, what Dr. Heler said for us to reach out to our legislators and then possibly maybe find out where this is originating or who's possibly going to sponsor a bill such as this and uh even reach out to those legislators as well. >> Right.

066Okay. Thank you board. Any other comments or questions? I guess I would just also throw in the mix of this, which is that the Colorado School Finance Act is the most complicated in the nation and frankly has not met the needs, right? And every time that we get to the point of thinking that we might be able to look at it holistically and fix it for its flaws, um, it gets kicked down the road like because it's complicated because there's there's pieces that different people like in different ways and then that becomes a a an area of contention. Um, and so what ends up happening is these band-aids, um, and then they have further impacts or they might solve one part of the problem only to create another problem somewhere else, right? Um, and so

067I just want to throw that out as part of the talking points to go along with this, which is that as long as our legislators aren't taking on the real challenge of fixing school finance in Colorado in a significant way, these little bits and pieces and parts that they're putting together is creating this Frankenstein's monster um that ultimately falls to kids and educators. to take the burden of. And I I really think that that's unfortunate as well. I think that um when we talk about the budget, we need to to take care of the obligations and figure out how do we do this better than we're doing it now. >> Right. Thank you. Any other board comments? What I will do tomorrow is contact CASBY and ask for a statement as soon as they can

068provide it. uh regarding this particular situation. As soon as I receive it, board, I will send it along to you and to Dr. Heler. Okay. All right. That takes us to agenda item 4.2, which is board reports. I suggested to the board that they talk to um us each other and you uh about either a committee meeting that they've attended, a program, an activity, etc. something that is Thompson School District. And so, Don, I think I'll begin with you. >> So, I actually haven't gotten to do much of anything for the district um after we got back from the holidays. It feels like there I blinked and we're here. Um so um I I went to some meetings that weren't my committee assignments yet. Um I've done things that are for um the people that

069I'm close to, but I haven't been able to do a committee meeting or anything else yet, sadly. So um this is the little quiet period before everything gets busy. Hopefully that means that I'll be rejuvenated in time for all the busyiness that comes in the spring. All right. Thank you, Denise. >> So, I had the opportunity to attend my first Thompson Thompson Education Foundation meeting. Um, this is the group that drives a number of um activities that help our students, our um staff, and the community. and just to learn how this group works in terms of raising funds, um the budget challenges they have, the upcoming um activities around make preparing uh for prom and the gathering of gowns and finding a place where students can go to try on things. So all of these

070things that help students who financially can't necessarily um play activities. um Thompson Education Foundation is there for them and I'm thrilled to have that as a committee assignment this year. Um I also have a family pie. I'm meeting next month with uh the special education I'm sorry, early childhood education um group and uh working with that group. And then I'm also um on the audit advisory um group by benefit of being the treasurer. So, it'll be a busy year. I'm looking forward to it. >> Thank you, Alexandra. >> So, last week I went to the the JIC the Joint Insurance Committee meeting um which I've been on for quite a while and it was a little bit sobering um speaking about financial issues within the district. um basically looking at the insurance premiums and how

071premiums are stacking up against uh payout costs. Um and our district is doing okay. Um the CBT, the trust as a whole is um not doing superb right now. They're it's fine. They're not going to go under or anything like that. Um but it's there are a lot of big claims out there that are causing um insure the insurance to pay out a lot. Um we will be meeting next month to um talk about sort of our renewal our insurance renewal is every year in July. Um and so we'll be looking at starting next month looking at what that's going to look like for July. um and looking um at sort of some different options as a sort of precursor. The the groups so mostly city groups, cities and other municipality groups renew every year

072in January, January 1st. Um so those ones just did and their um renewal cost was up. Their rates went up 14%. Um and so we're looking at something kind of close to that unfortunately. Um which is a lot of money. And so, um, just sort of a a warning of things to come. Um, it's going to be, um, take some looking at how, um, what other options there are as far as, um, looking at other if if we want to leave the trust entirely and go to other, um, groups. They're looking at that. We will, they will also next meeting we'll be talking about um, they've been doing an RFP looking at some other um, companies and things like that. Um, so that was that was a little sobering. Um, more to come on that.

073And then, um, I'm excited. I am newly joining the SEAK, the Special Education Advisory Committee, um, that I'll be attending the first meeting of that next week. Not next week, next month. Um, that I'm really looking forward to. I attended one meeting of that um, filling in for I think Amy when she was unable to go. Um, and so I'm looking forward to being a more regular member of that group um, coming starting next month. >> Thank you. I'll conclude. So Nancy, I'll move to you next. >> Um, so I appreciate President Boyd's suggestion. I would though like to talk about something that I feel that is important. None of my committees have started meeting yet. So I'd like to talk about that the tsd community reflects a significant diversity in demographics, backgrounds, and values.

074For too long, many in our community have felt unrepresented by those seated at the deis. For that reason, it is a positive development that the board is becoming more diverse through the directors elected. It is no secret that director goal places great value in her Christian faith and I appreciate her honesty about who she is. None of us checks our life experiences or personal values at the door when we serve. I want to reiterate that I have consistently and strongly advocated for ideology to be kept out of the classroom. Whether it comes from the progressive left or the conservative right, classrooms exist to educate students, not to reate reshape social values or culture. I will always oppose any attempt to insert ideology into the classroom. A board made up of individuals with diverse backgrounds and

075beliefs is a strength. For the sake of our community and especially our students, we must model how to respect differing viewpoints and work together effectively in governing the district. We all care deeply about education, all seven of us. Let's focus on that shared commitment rather than insisting that we all hold the same values. >> All right. Thank you, Mike. >> Uh thank you. I'll be quick. None of the committees that I'm on have met, but I am looking forward to attending the the accountability uh committee next week, Thursday. >> All right, Lori. Thank you. Um, I just want to give a public thank you to the parents and the community members, emails and words of encouragement and support uh to principal or Sarah Milner and principal Essen and Carrie Martin. Um, all the things that

076we received this evening uh the posters and the cards and everything. Uh, their words of thanks to us uh for the National School Board Recognition Month. I am too also looking forward to serving on the DAC committee and I truly enjoyed the live drill committee meeting. Uh coming away with a greater understanding and seeing more of the facets of an event uh of this type. I left with a greater appreciation for all involved. I also attended the celebration of the D Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and saw the inspiring projects uh submitted by the students and we were truly blessed to be able to see those as well this evening. uh the I will not walk alone but what I heard was the word hope many times that was seemed to be a theme throughout

077the evening and so where did this inspirational man get his hope Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a Baptist pastor and he followed in the footsteps of his father and grandfather and this is somebody who was truly raised inside the church immersed in scripture prayer and the preaching of God's word strong in his faith the hope that Dr. king had was a biblical hope, a confidence that God is sovereign, righteous, and faithful to his promise. He preached often from the prophets where Amos declared, "Let justice roll down like waters." And from Jesus' sermon on the mount where Jesus calls his followers to love their enemies and overcome evil with good. Dr. King believed that the struggle for justice was moral and spiritual, not merely political. For Dr. King hope was not passive or abstract. The

078hope he knew and practiced was grounded in the conviction that moral truth matters, that dignity is God-given, and that injustice can be confronted without surrendering our humanity. That perspective is especially meaningful in education. Hope, as Dr. King understood it, is what calls young people to believe their lives have purpose, their voices matter, and their character counts. It is the belief that perseverance, integrity, and respect for others can shape a better future. And I thank um the program that night because it helped me to uh dig a little deeper into uh the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. So, thank you. >> All right. I'm the the board's liaison to the newly formed Thompson Leadership Academy. And at the meeting on January 8th, the focus of the presentation was on family school and community partnerships.

079Uh I spent my career in the Thompson School District and have now finished six years on the Thompson School Board and I learned things about the district's family school and community partnerships that I didn't know. And I want to just hit a few of those. I learned, for example, that at this time Mountain View High School, Lincoln Elementary, Edmonson Elementary, and two or three other schools are now part of an FSCP cohort that is federally funded and that is focusing on family community partnerships with the schools. I learned about something called tsd connected project which involves home visits and family connections. The purpose is to deepen family relationships to build real and trusting relationships with educators, students, and family. I learned that the family school community partnership uh program in our district currently has eight

080specialists. Seven of them work at title schools, one at the family center, and they focus on improving the partnership between school, family, and um community. And I'll close with a quotation that was projected onto the screen at the uh Thompson Leadership Academy session. A school striving for involvement leads with its mouth, telling parents how to help. A school striving for engagement listens, pardon me, leads with its ears, listening to parents dreams and worries to build true partnerships and not just serve clients. And I mentioned to uh Dr. Heler, he was there as well after the the session. I that I think at some point uh it would it would behoove us as a board perhaps during a a study session to have the folks in the district who actually work on FSCP in Thompson uh

081give us a brief presentation on all the things that our school is doing to promote this particular uh partnership aspect. So that takes care of the board reports for this evening. We're going to move then to the next item on the agenda, which is action consent items. Board, is there anything you want to pull off the consent agenda? >> No, I just only have a comment which I can do after the motion and second. >> All right. So I would entertain a motion then to approve the action consent items. >> Motion to approve the action consent items as printed. >> All right. Did you get that, Lorley? All right. Um discussion. Go ahead, Nancy. Uh, I only wanted to um comment and so when I was reading the personnel recommendation, I'll be honest, I was

082surprised to see Janice Marchman's name and I first met her in 2011 and so I know that she's um education is a major part of her life and so I'm sad to see her leave the district and I only hope that she's leaving to go pursue a more exciting opportunity in education and I hope that she stays in education because I know it means so much to her. But I I just wanted to say something publicly to thank her because I know she's worked here for a long time and I've been um I've been familiar with her since 2011. >> All right. Thank you. Any further discussion? All right. Let's proceed then to the vote. Laurely, >> you need a second. Oh, >> it was seconded. Okay. Sorry, I didn't hear it. >> All right.

083Um, Steu Boyd. >> Hi, >> Denise Chapman. >> Hi, >> Lori Goel. Hi, >> Don Kirk. >> Hi, >> Alexander Les. >> Hi, >> Nancy Rumfelt. >> Hi, >> Mike Schul. >> Hi. >> All right, the motion passes seven to zero. So, the action consent item section of the agenda is approved as printed. We'll move then to the next section which is section number six discussion action items beginning with the approval of the Loveland Urban Renewal Authority Commissioner representing the board of education. Let me give you board a little additional information before we go any further. The appointment of this individual will be for a term of five years or until the commissioner becomes ineligible. The commissioner will share will share the lura agenda and make regular reports to the board and seek guidance on

084how to vote on major actions of the commission. With that, are there any questions before we move to nominations? >> It seems odd. Five years. >> Yeah, we we were surprised by the five years as well, but it is in their bylaws. >> All right. If you if you have a specific question on this, uh I think Mr. Ibraol probably could answer a question if there's one. still out there. Would you like him to come up and do you have any questions for >> Okay. All right. Um I would then entertain a motion to nominate someone to be the Loveland Urban Renewal Authority Commissioner representing the Thompson Board of Education. I would like to nominate Mike Schaw. Um I I know that he's has a a great bit of understanding of this being part of

085of um city operations in a diff wearing a different hat. Um but you know getting to see this stuff in different ways um and he has uh I think a an insight into this particular type of government interaction that that we haven't had on the board in my time here. uh that I really think adds a a good you know a good representative voice of asking the right questions to to really hash out um both uh practicality of decisions as well as impact of decisions. So I'd like to nominate Mike for that reason. >> All right. Are there any further nominations? >> I would like to nominate Director Lorie Goble. I know that she is an often often a constant present in within the city council meetings. So, she's well aware of what's going on

086there. I also believe that her experience on the planning commission helps her to understand many of the issues that have come before the city and what the development means um in the city of Loveland. And so, I think that she would make a great representative um to the LURA board representing the school board. >> Right. Thank you. Are there any other nominations? I'd entertain a motion then to close the nominations. >> So moved. >> Right. All those in favor of closing the nominations, please say I. Oh, we probably should do roll call, right, Laurely? Do we need to call the role on this? Yes. Okay. >> Uh Stu Boyd, >> hi. >> Denise Chapman. >> I >> Lori Goel. >> Hi. >> Don Kirk. >> Hi. >> Alexander Lesum. >> Hi. >> Nancy Rumfelt. >>

087Hi. >> Mike Schul. >> Hi. >> Right. The nominations are closed. We'll proceed then to the vote. Nominated first for our Laura representative is Mike Schaw. >> May I make a comment, please? >> Sure. Um I just wanted to make a comment is that when we originally uh sat during the study session back on December 3rd um I was the one who did I expressed interest in that uh serving on the lure board and at that particular time um and I know we were all new to this or at least uh director Schol and I were new to this and uh at that time there was no objection to my serving on the lower board uh from any of the directors to go and at least temporarily represent uh the board at Laura for the

088upcoming meeting and which I did which I did attend and which was mainly an executive session but I just wanted to reiterate the fact that uh that I did put my hat forward on that. I have been uh as far as other experience is uh clearance by the coc and then also my experience on the planning commission and I guess if a lot of concerns that have been raised here as of late if there was a proof of that of me not being able to res represent especially on the planning commission people that came there felt heard they felt respected and there were lots of compliments ments and comments to the city planning department in regards to the entire board, but especially as my time as chair of that board. All right. >> So, I

089just want to thank you for that opportunity to share that. >> All right. So, I will repeat then we're ready to proceed to the vote. All those in favor of uh Mike Schaw, do we do this as a roll call vote then to Laurley? How does this work when there are two candidates for a position? All right. So by that do you mean that for example when my name is called I would say either Mike or Lori? Is that what you mean? Or no. But I I just for clarity sake, I mean, wouldn't approving one then nullify the other. >> All right, Mike, you were nominated first. And so I think we will proceed then to the vote. Um, Laura Lee, please call the role and when your name is called, indicate if Mike is

090your choice to be our Laura Commissioner. >> Stu Boyd, >> Mike is my choice. >> Denise Chapman, >> Mike is my choice. >> Lori Goel, >> no. Don Kirk. >> Mike. >> Alexander Les. >> Uh, yes. >> Nancy Rumfelt. >> No. >> Mike Sch. >> Uh, yes. >> All right. So, if I was counting correctly, uh the vote the vote is five votes yes in favor of Mike Schaw becoming our uh Laura Commissioner. All right. Sorry, not to I don't want to belver this, but we voted, but now do we have to do a vote to formally or is that Am I overthinking? >> No, you're good. Okay. >> Yeah. All right. >> All right. Thanks to both of you for your willingness to uh have your name submitted for uh this important position which

091we have modified in terms of its uh duties and so on moving forward. So I believe then we are ready to move to uh agenda item 6.2. All right. Agenda item 6.2 2 is the approval of the proposed 2025 2026 amended budget and I'll ask Mr. Ibersol to come forward. >> Good evening uh Mr. President, members of the board, Dr. Heler. My name is Bob Ibers. I'm the chief financial off financial officer and with me is Zach Moser, director of finance. Um I'd like to start with some good news. We received our rating from Moody's for the bond issue. Um they have affirmed our current uh issue of uh a double A2 general obligation for tax ratings which is a very high rating. Uh they have stated that they've assigned a stable outlook to the

092issuer and underlying ratings. We have also assigned a double A2 under underlaying underlying and double A2 enhanced ratings to the district general obligation bonds series in the approximate par amount of 99 million. So that's the bond issue that the voters voted last year. So that's very good news. Um and then before I start I'll uh echo um Dr. Heler's concern about the specific ownership tax uh information. I just emailed you information from the Colorado finance project which gives you detailed what's going on. It originally came from the governor's office but the legislator legislature is looking at this point. It is their statement of speeding up the full funding of the school funding act but based on analysis that is not moving in the way that it would be realistic to that actually happen. Um so

093that gave you more information and you'll be I'm sure that uh other information will be coming to you at forward at this point. Um as to the um the budget um there are usually two times that the board votes to amend the budget January and in June. We did not do that in June which basically based on what the auditors said we should have so that we didn't have expenditures greater than what was voted. Um, so we are coming to you for some general areas to be changed for the budget. Uh, and I'll go through those. Uh, Zach will be talking about a little bit u on on one of the items. Um, uh, and this is we will come back to you again as the year goes through the year. There may be actions

094that you take during the year that are effectively budget changes, but we won't call them official changes until June. So, for instance, last year when you approved the sale of the Monroe School and you approved the spending of that money, that was technically a budget change. We didn't include it in our budget when we did the June budget. That's now included in this information. Um, also updating of fund balances. So, we get the budget out to the people in April and May. We get it to you for the study in June and then we vote the beginning fund balances at your second board meeting. But we haven't closed June. We don't close it until July, August, and September. And actually until the audit is actually done. So you're actually voting estimated fund b beginning fund

095balances for the year. So now this budget will bring the actual fund balances for the various funds that were actually audited and approved. Um we in June we do an estimated of the pupil count. Pupil count runs through the entire format of of uh formula for funding. uh we get the final count in October uh and then it's certified by the state in January. So that's included. That turns into affecting the funding that comes in from the school finance act. We have updated that. That's actually going down. Um adjustment to revenue expected from local mill overrides. We're conservative when we estimate in our budget for what's available. It will depend on what the cap is and what's the assessed value. Um, as uh we talked about during the bond process, the the assessed value went

096up tremendously, not on necessarily into people's um properties for a reassessment, but because of new growth. So that allowed us to raise additional funding on that part. And I apologize, the original um spreadsheet that went out had last year's mill levy uh at a lower number than it actually was. So that changed some of the formulas as we went through it. the formula, the final budget is on the uh the diligent website. Um and then the other things that we've talked about um is adjustments of personnel from Medicaid funding. We've done an assessment of making sure that the staff that are were charged to Medicaid whether they are eligible or not and we have adjusted those. Um, and then we've made uh uh Zach will talk about the grant funds and then as a result

097of the mill levy and the taxes there, we share that with the charter schools. So we actually have to appropriate that that's in there as well. Um so um those are the major items on that. Um, so the funding, the mill levy, the general fund, um, as a result of, uh, the mill levy and the reduction of the school finance act, we're increasing revenue by about 1.4 million. I've talked about the 1.2 million of of moving Medicaid salaries from the Medicaid grant program to the general fund. Uh, and 333,000 for the charter funds. Um, I'll ask Zach to come up and talk about the line item regarding transfer to grant funds to uh for the beginning balances. >> Good evening, uh, Dr. Heler, um, President Boyd, and then board members. Um, just wanted to speak

098a little bit about the, uh, um, the items on the, uh, um, the grant funds. Um Laura Lee, can you forward over to the the grant funds? Oh, so 1.3 um just to give you some history as as we got into the um position here. Um one of the things that had been languishing um for quite some time with the grant funds is that they'd been they've had negative fund balances um for quite some time. And so working with CLA, um we um they recommended and we um um advocated for a one-time transfer from general fund to the grant funds to right side those uh um those fund balances to get it to the square square one so that we can better track the uh revenues and expenses. Um and so that's really what that

0991.3 um share between 22 and 28 um represents. And then when we're looking at these two slide decks, um, as we're getting our, you know, our budget process and when it comes to reporting and better accuracy with grant funding, um, just when we have updated and better information when it comes to the awards and the budgets that are allocated to our grant funds, um, that we're taking this opportunity to just rightsize them to what we know right now. um the net difference on these on these balances are um not large, but when we're going into the um just on the spirit of being as accurate as possible with our finances and what's in the system, that's why we're doing what we're doing here. So really um the the takeaway here is that injection into these

100funds is to get those fund balances to square one and then we'll um monitor those more carefully or carefully going forward so we know exactly um so they should always be zero at the end of the year. And if there and if they're not it's merely because of the timing of when we're getting our grant funds from one month to the other when it lapses over a fiscal year. So that is kind of in a nutshell what these two last slides um represent and really are are um yeah what they represent. So and so what that is is the last step of the 2024 audit process where there were findings to say we need to revise how we manage our grant programs. Again no money was sent to the wrong person. Nobody stole any money.

101It was how it was accounted for. In some cases, may have had the money and it was left in the general fund, but the expenditures were left in the grant fund. So, all of that process plant Moran adjusted a lot of those during the 2024 audit. This is the final part of that part. Um the slide regarding uh I talked about the the sale of Monroe um and just carrying forward the various capital projects that you've previously voted such in the energy uh efficiency fund. Um, in addition, as was discussed during the bond proceeds, um, we're now including the bond money that's that's that was appropriated and that that now will be going forward. Um, carrying the we still have as a result of the bond reconciliation process that was done at the end of

102last year. We had some additional carry forward. So, this is being the the last of the last of that grant program. And whatever is spent will be spent out of here. anything that's left will go back to the original source of the funding. Um, so it's a lot of different things going back and forth. We appreciate uh board member uh uh goal's uh eagle eye on checking some of our typos and things like that. So, we appreciate that as well. Um, and so I would be open to any questions on the amended budget. We be we will be asking you for a vote to amend this at this point. All right, Denise, any questions? Alexandra, >> I just have a question about when you were talking about the grant thing. I just want to clarify

103that I'm understanding there was the the 898,898 826,000 transfer from the general fund. Is that what you were talking about to get them all like equal to or to zero or whatever to rather than being in the negative? >> Um, so let's see. Let me go back to the other part. There's one transfer to federal fund grants and one transfer to state and local fund grants. The total is about 1.3 million. >> Oh, okay. So, the one Okay, so the first Okay, so there's the federal grants run. Oh, and then the local grants one. >> Oh, is that 470? Okay. During the audit process, the auditors were mostly focused on the federal funds because that has higher level of audit issues. The state funding is is still concerned and then local maybe an individual grant

104has less of a concern on an audit function. So those are usually we'll get to those at some point. We're doing them today. >> Okay. Okay. Thank you, >> Nancy. >> I have a couple. So the first thing, so Zach, you went into what one of one of my questions was, which is on the the transfer from the general fund to cover the negative balances of those two grant funds. I still am a little have a little bit of pause for concern because many times we would hear that the negative balance was due to timing issues and I understand that that can happen because of re receipt of funds and I know that you guys have been working really hard of cleaning up a lot of processes and stuff. I guess it's just a little

105concerning that 1.33, you know, million is going out of the general, which already we're having to, you know, um, a little bit of deficit spending there to cover these grants. So, again, just just anything you can do to help when these situations and we see something to ensure that there's no longer going to be a negative and to really help us see the detail. the timing is specifically for these reasons and list out some specifics. I think that would go a long ways um for someone such as myself to understand that it is truly just a timing issue, but I really again appreciate you guys. I know you guys are trying to clean up a lot of different things. And to answer your question, um, we just we talked with, uh, Plant Maran today as

106our last call with them. And one of the things we talked about was this transfer, including what Zach will be doing is that, for instance, if we have expended funds in June and we submit the funding to the state and they send it to us after 60 days, 90 days, 90 days. If they send it to it after 90 days, we will have a deficit because we will say it's a deferred revenue. We will be explaining that in the financials for June that will be coming to you. So the answer is yes. We will report those anytime there's a negative. >> Okay. So that are you saying that you would now start be utilizing the deferred revenue to help? >> We've Zach has already started doing that during this year. >> Okay. Okay. Um perfect.

107And then my other question is I was a little surprised to see in the capital projects the 1.1 million for the Lovelin High School ball field that has been approved for a while and if I'm thinking correctly is this the one that was approved in October 23 at at Berthood when we were approving different things for use of funds. the contingency funds or was this approved later? >> So, this this is app proving the beginning balance. Correct. >> So, this this the 1.1 um that we're referring to here is back in April when we had Plant Moran help us with this bond reconciliation and there were these three um projects left to be done. the Ivy um Ivy Stockwell, the water retention over at Big T and then this ball field um were those three

108items. And so from fund 27, we were appropriated th these funds in order to finish those projects and then compared to that budget. This is all the timing, all those expenses hit over on after um July. And so in order to make sure that the budget is on the right side of the fence, so to speak, that's what this represents. >> I just would like to still clarify the original approval for this ball field though that has been for a while, hasn't it? And I believe Todd Picone knows that. >> I don't know the exact. >> Is there a reason why it's taking so long to get this? this money's just been sitting there when there are other things that could use that money specifically for ADA. >> Um the the the timing of the

109the ball fields I'm I'm not sure. I mean like Todd, if you want to come here up here and and speak to it. I'm just like the um versus what was approved in in April when I was there when um versus um what we need in order to >> Right. And I realize you don't know all the the history and maybe Todd could come up. >> So this is to get the money in there in the amended budget. It a lot of this has already been spent. So this is not so this this is this is already this is to get the accounting in there. Whereas you so this is the expense to get it in there so that we the expenses that we've already paid are authorized in addition to whatever's left. >> So

110the the money's already been expended. >> Not 100% but most of it is. most of it, but it just hadn't been accounted for in the capital projects. >> It's been accounted for, but it's never been brought to the board to approve to be expended. I see. You approved it to be expent there, but it was never put into this fund as a board authorization for each fun. >> Okay, I got you. It the way it reads, it reads like it's >> it's new. It's not. This is this this is housekeeping, unfortunately. >> Okay. No, I I get that and I appreciate that. I'm in the midst of that with with a client right now, so I can understand. So, thank you. Thank you. >> All right, Mike. Uh, thank you. I don't have any questions.

111>> All right, Lori. >> And no questions, but thank you for that explanation on that. >> Great. Thank you, Don. I just uh first off want to thank you for continuing to nail this in like you know ratchet it in and and make these changes and get it to where it's more clear presented more often. Um, and then what strikes me and this strike this struck me as I was looking at it for myself way before we got questions and we met this evening is that the the challenge with anything like this is that nothing ever, especially in this works out to where like there's a day where it's how you want it to look. And that is going to be true. And I just really feel like it's important to say that because the

112invoices don't come in on time or the funding doesn't come in on time or it's reimbursement instead of um you know us being able to to count on the money on the day that we were supposed to get it. There's been a lot of funding challenges as far as timing this year especially that cross my mind as I look at this when we talk about grants. Um, I'm terrified about the idea that we're talking about spending more of the money ahead of time only to not know if we're actually going to get it every day. Um, and so I just want to acknowledge that that that that you're really constantly trying to reflect accurately the finances of the district, knowing that this is about capturing the commitments financially, the outlays, the specific numbers, and what

113we think the numbers were going to be, as well as keep track of when were we going to do this and who did it and when and why, and how did the project go or the work go or how many people are funding with it. You know, a budget reflects so much. It's one way to look at the district and and the nuts and bolt of it. You've made a lot easier for us to do that, which I truly appreciate. I really like seeing the grants. I think that this is the most detail we've ever had on that. Um, and then I got worried a little bit on, but you guys know a lot more about this than I do. And so I'm mostly saying this for the public that has the knowledge level I

114do about this, which is that we're zeroing it out, cleaning these things up. But again, we just won't have that day where Janu June 30th every year when we closing the books. We get to where it's like, yep, it's clean. I wish it would happen, but that literally will never happen. If it does, I want to know about it. We're going to celebrate because there's always these things going in and out. And so, uh, thank you for trying to keep so much better track of it, to clean it up, to make it clear. Um, and I know it's been a massive undertaking. You've been doing it since you got here, and you were doing it, carrying the torch before. Uh, so, thank you for all that. >> Thank you. And I will thank the other

115staff that we have within business services and the grant department over in uh title within learning services because the reality is is in the past as is true of some organizations it's the CFO doing all of it or the CFO and the director of finance doing all of that. It is now shifted to we all the department. So when they apply for a grant and to the state for reimbursement that is now recorded. It's not waited until the cash comes in. So, all of the things we should know, we're trying to get that. We'll never be perfect, but we're going to be closer. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you, Bob and Zach. I think we're ready to proceed to a motion to approve the 2025 2026 amended budget. So, I'd entertain a motion. >>

116I move to approve the amended 2526 budget. Need a second. Second. >> Second. And >> the second from Lori. So, that was a motion by Nancy, second by Lori. Any discussion? >> Laura Lee, please call the role. >> Steu Boyd. >> Hi. >> Denise Chapman. >> Hi. >> Lori Goble. >> I. >> Don Kirk. >> I. >> Alexander Lesum. >> Hi. >> Nancy Rumfelt. >> I. >> Mike Schul. >> I. >> Right. The motion passes seven to nothing. We're going to move to agenda item 6.3, the approval of State of Colorado interestf free cash flow loan program resolution. And you're on again. Great. And thank you for that previous vote. Um, so the board voted in June to approve up to 25 million of borrowing from the state's interest free loan fund. As a result

117of the budget amendment, as we raise more taxes on the school financing act tax portion, they give us less state aid. The state aid comes to us on a monthly basis. The property taxes come in in March, April, and May. So therefore, the more property taxes we have, the less state aid, so therefore the higher cash flow. The state only allows us to borrow what we absolutely need. Zach has to do a cash flow for each draw down and they recommended that we increase the limit from 25 to 35 million just to give us the flexibility because there may be a time period where we may have to have a higher part. Theoretically, there may be a delay in property taxes, although I understand the tax bills just went out. Um, so, uh, we were

118we're asking for your approval to the 35 million instead of 25. We do not pay interest on this and we only borrow what we absolutely have to. >> All right. Questions, board, uh, beginning this time with Alexandra. >> I have no questions. Thank you, >> Nancy. Mike, >> no. >> Lori, Don, Denise. All right. Nor do I. So, we're ready to proceed to a vote. I'd entertain a motion to approve the state of Colorado interestf free cash flow loan pro program resolution. >> So moved. >> Moved by Don. >> Second Denise. >> Second by Denise. Any discussion? Laura Lee, please call the role. >> Stu Boyd, >> I. >> Denise Chapman, >> hi. >> Lori Goel, >> I. >> Don Kirk, >> I. >> Alexander Les, >> hi. >> Nancy Rumfelt, >> I. >> Mike

119Schul, >> I. >> All right. Thank you. So, that's a 70 vote. Then, >> thank you very much. >> That motion. >> We'll move then to agenda item 6.4, 4 the approval of the 2025 2026 board of education meeting calendar amendment that will be either Dr. Heler. >> Yeah, I can >> that's Dr. Heler. >> Sure. I So, as we discussed at the study session, this is um an amendment that would change our April 1st study session uh to April 8th due to a conflict on that April 1 study session with the beginning of Passover which starts at sundown. So, we're asking the board to consider and discuss and take action on making that change from April 1st study session to April 8th. Again, that meeting will be at Big Thompson Elementary School. >> All

120right, board. Any questions? Beginning with Nancy? >> No questions. >> Mike, >> no. None from me. >> Lori, >> none. >> Don Denise, >> no questions. Alexandra, >> just verifying you checked with Big Thompson that it's okay with them if we change it. >> Okay. >> Yes, we did. >> Perfect. Thank you. >> I don't have any questions either. So, I'd entertain a motion then to approve the amended 2025 2026 board of education meeting calendar. >> So moved. Second. >> All right. Did you get that, Laurely? >> Second. >> Okay. All right. Um, let's proceed then to the roll call vote. >> Stu Boyd, >> I. >> Denise Chapman, >> hi. >> Lori Goel, >> hi. >> Don Kirk, >> hi. >> Alexander Lesum, >> hi. >> Nancy Romfelt, >> hi. >> Mike Schaw, >>

121I All right, we'll move now to discussion items. Uh, item 7.1 is the financial update. Mr. Iversol, you're back up. And u I'll be asking Zach to come up as well. Um just uh to give a number to what um Dr. Les mentioned about the 14% increase for health insurance. It's estimated to be $2.6 million for next year. So starting the year with $2.6 million worth of more expenses, not to mention the the specific occupancy tax. So, we're trying not to lose sleep as we get ready to start the budget process for next year, which is in process at the moment. Um, so the financial um I'm going to do an overview and just have Zach talk about some of the philosophy of what we're doing at this point. Um, this is a continuing work

122in progress as we learn how we do accounting within the system. Um because a lot of the reports in the past were brought up to a very high level. As we try to bring lower level reports, we're finding that they're not jing. So we appropriate to this number money for schools, but we spend it in the middle school, the elementary, and the high schools. So that report over there says you're spending more than your budget because there's no budget, but and you're spending under here. We're still looking at the budget together. We're trying to create a report here that's bringing it down to a next level for the board to get a high level report and there's additional reports that we're creating for the actual departments at this point. Again, we're meeting the budget. We're

123doing the various things. The Zach will talk a little bit about that. This is also giving you um early indication of what the new budget software format's going to be. Um we're doing weekly calls with this software company. um I describe it is that um Zach is building the plane while we're flying the current one. Um we are now sending out or Britney will be sending out budget forms to the departments using the old Excel format by the end of the year when we come to you for the budget are hopefully we're going to have this Excel budget thing that's going to turn into new software by the end of the year. may end up happening after the end of the year, but we're trying to design the system in the current business plus. So,

124we upload it to the software and they download it back and forth that it's going to be useful to everybody there. Talking to the cabinet members and department heads to say, "All right, is this the way you want your budget to look? Is it going to be useful?" So, as we've talked about the challenge of the budget for the next year with the health insurance and other things from the state and federal government and our own uh current uh challenges, we want the budget to be able to be looked at as a way of saying, well, we need to increase this or decrease here and have it be useful instead of just the CDE technical required budget format. We're still going to do that because we have to, but this has to be a programmatic

125budget issue and say where are we spending our pro money and does it make sense for our students. So I like Zach to come in just just give a brief overview of our current report. Um okay. Um, so this this table I'll I'll start um by giving a kind of a a tutorial as to what you're actually looking at because there's a lot of um uh information on here. And what this really is showing is the snapshot in time as as of November. And so when we're looking at this, I I've included some narrative below to kind of give a the elevator pitch as to what these variances are. And really when you're looking at this this report here, I mean I I'll just put your eyes to the bottom line. So if we're looking

126at that over under a column, we're looking at $17 million under budget year to date. And really what that is is is this these is explaining the drivers as to what makes up that number and what you should know. And so that's really what this this table is trying to um trying to tell you. So, when you're when you're looking at this, what I always um what I always um have people look at is the year-to date. We look at at the 37% at the very um bottom of the table there and compare that to how far we are through the um through the year. So, if we're 30 37% of our um bud way through our budget, but 42% away through the year, that means we're 5% under budget year to date. And the

127and the explanation to that is really going into um the I I don't want to get too accounting on it, but the acrruals for the what um salaries were paid in July, June and I'm sorry, July and August, but actually moved to the prior year. And so this is kind of where where Bob and I come from is how the timing of how our um our spending goes. And that's where that year-to-ate budget comes in value. And and so when what when we get more sophisticated with this, what will end up happening is we'll take that budget that was allotted in the front side of the of the year and put it in the backside because that will reflect actually how the um the uh the spending will um will happen. And so really what

128that bottom um that bottom box is is giving your elevator pitch as to what is going on in all these variances. So in a nutshell really what the story is on this is those salaries um in schools, middle schools, high schools and those being acrewed back and that is kind of explained why that 5% is. So this is this is showing that everything is um is the way it was last year and that's kind of reflected through the prior year comparison. So really what the um the takeaway from this is we're trying to explain what's what's a um timing issue and what's permanent and if it's a timing issue on the the budget to actual when it's going to resolve. And so this um is telling us that that $17 million under under budget is

129actually a timing thing because when we get to the end of the year this year that will that approval will happen again and it'll wash that favorability out. So, that's kind of really what this Whoops. That's really what this table is telling us. Everything um we're we're on track. We have a lot of timing issues and what this does is this helps us inform our budgeting going forward. So, the the things that we're telling the um vendor right now and how we're trying to develop this um budget where we get those variances, the year-to- date um actuals um the comparison between budgets and actuals are really a lot closer. And so those variances um we can see those opportunities or we can inform you of decisions that need to be made. And so that's really

130what this this snapshot is um telling you right right now that we're under budget. Everything's looking good. A lot of timing issues right now, but as those manifest, as we go forward with our December, we'll start things will start unfolding as to like, you know, things that we really need to keep our eye out um for like the um uh the insurance that Bob alluded to earlier. And so that's kind of what this table is is is telling and it's divided up into um the structure that's our um our org chart. So you'll see we have um business services, communications, human resources, um IT, learning services, and the lot. So we talk about our finances in the way that we talk about just our daily operations. So, it's trying to make sense of the structure

131and and how we're talking about it. And so, that's what what this is um saying. So, if um Laura Lee, if you go to the next slide. So, this is kind of on the flip side, the revenue side. And this one tells a opposite story, but again, it's really a timing issue because um because we're talking about this um the interest free loan, a lot of our um uh our revenues, property taxes, and that doesn't come till March. So, when we come to the spread of our budget, we'll we'll take what we know now or not what we know now, but instead of spreading that budget evenly, we'll backload it. And so a bulk of that revenue is expected to come in the later portion of the year. So when we're looking at how we

132are on track um or how we're doing to our regular plan, that will actually inform us more accurately accurately because our bud budget reflects on when the timing of that revenue comes in. So again, all of this um is a timing issue when it comes to the over and under, but really I'll draw your eye to actually how we're doing with our actuals compared to the prior year. So prior year we brought in $49 million versus our $51 million. So it sees so it'll it'll show you like if we compare it the way we were last year, we're slightly ahead. Um and that goes into our stabilization. So that'll give you a little bit more of a clearer picture as to at this point in time, how were we um with the money that came

133in the door last year? And that kind of gives you a little bit better context as opposed to looking solely at one column. So that's really what's going on with with this um caption here. And then the final slide here um the final slide is really our cash balances. And really, I'll draw your eye to the totals and how we're comparing last year um compared to this year. $52 million in 24 and 25 compared to our $54 million um that we have in the bank right now. And really the bottom line between those two um those two snapshots is the $5 million that we got for the energy project. And that's really the difference between last year and this year. And so those um really when we're talking about our um when we talk about

134the way that I look at um our finances is really explaining those drivers and that's um that's really when I present with these things like really what is the difference between those those numbers and explaining those variances. So um I'll open it up for um questions or comments or anything that you might have at this point. >> All right. Mike, I'll start with you. >> Uh, I don't have anything, but thank you for that. >> Lori, >> uh, Zach, I just wanted to say thank you for the elevator pitch and I appreciate the the footnotes at the bottom u explaining some of the items on there and giving just a little bit more on the detail. I appreciate that. Thank you. >> Yep. You're welcome, >> Don. This actually is a great book end to

135what I was just saying about how there's not a moment in time when it's perfect the way like everything came in and out at the exact same time. Um, this is helpful because it's that context, right? It's that do we really need to take action on this or is it just something that is about the flow of of the expenses and the output and input. So >> this is I think really helpful um to turn the massive amount of numbers that we have to look at into actual realities for the kids in the classroom. >> Thank you. >> No questions. Thanks Zach >> Alexander. >> No, thank you. This was very helpful. I appreciate it. I like Lori, I um I really appreciate the notes at the bottom because it helps explain puts a lot

136of things in context. I also like the new format because it focuses more on this year's actuals, this year's budget. There's a little bit of reference to the previous year budget, but not I mean there's just this is what we really need to focus on. Um, I look forward to when the new software is in place so we can see more detail in the spending. Um, but I think this is a great start and it's very useful. So, um, again, thank you, Zach, for all the work that you're doing with this because especially since I know you spearheaded the budget software purchase. So, thank you. >> Yeah. And and just for and I'll know that Nancy you'll like this is that so the the the slide deck what I made that slide deck out is

137is unadulterated do data outside that came out of our out of our system and actually it's all in Excel right now and you can and you can actually dive down all the way down to the bottom line for from and where exactly those um those expenses are located in our system and that's what I'm used to and that's like looking at our finances from the highest level all the way down to the basement. So, thank you very much. >> All right, we'll move then to discussion item 7.2, the audit advisory committee update. Um so at the uh again Bobby Brzol chief financial officer um at the study session one of the comments was how quickly did we need to do this? We didn't need to do it very quickly but I wanted to get it

138off my desk. So we have updated the um the advisory committee to reflect that there is going to be not the uh appointment by each board member but a make sure that we have a member from each district with a process to be determined. um and that it will go through. I made it clear that the term of office is two fiscal years for the community members, not the treasurer or the CFO because that continues on. Um and then if this description is approved, we will solicit applications that will be due in April. Uh the reality is there since we're not going to be selecting a new auditor, that duty wouldn't be done at this point because we've already assumed that it was going to be going forward. But we would get it done well

139before the initial work that would be done for the audit for the current fiscal year. >> Would you repeat what you said about when the this committee will actually be formed and seated? >> So we will ask for applications. They'll be due in April and therefore they'll be seated by May or during the month of May. >> All right. All right. Board questions for Bob in regard to 7.2 starting with Lori. So just in the odd chance um do you feel it's very realistic to expect to have a a member from each district? Um I guess that's the first question. >> So the an answer is we will have one from each district. That that is that's requirement in here. >> Okay. Thank you >> Don. >> I'm just wondering about the timing. I assume

140you already thought of this, but the thought crosses my mind that it's a very busy time for the budget, which might make it perfect, but might also make it kind of a hard time to bring a new committee underway. And I know we threw a monkey wrench in this um by asking how we were doing it and revisiting it. So, I just want to make sure that we didn't burden you and your team and everybody else who had something to do with this too much by trying to add this change in at this time. Thank you for asking that. Uh we are actually moving this budget process for this year up two to three weeks already. So the FTE process is going through the communication to the bo to the schools is going to happen

141two or three weeks before it has happened in the past which then gives us the information all the way through. So even though you will still vote in June, a lot of the heavy lift is going to be done earlier. So thank you. >> Yeah. Thanks >> Denise. Let me know if there's anything as a member that I can do to help with the uh moving forward of getting a committee. >> You will be Alexandra. I'm just curious why in this the I guess it's not a policy whatever it is a statement um about it there's a few places where things that refer to the committee's bylaws are all crossed out >> right because I don't believe any of our committees have bylaws so we've taken that part out >> there >> my only question

142is um by by doing this by application what what will the process be? You know, I mean, we receive a lot of different applications. I know the mill levy oversight committee has vacancies. And so, what happens when >> we receive a whole bunch of applications, >> but we don't receive applications for one or more specific director districts. Then, how do we what I mean, what's what do we do then? At that point I would look to the to you to make recommendations even though that's not the official way of doing that but we really need to have representation from each district just to get the full geographic coverage. >> I I absolutely so we we will make sure that there is coverage and and fill in the vacancies. >> Okay. Okay. Thanks. If if I

143if I could and one of the questions I might ask the board would be maybe that's something that we could include in this document to say if there was not applicants from a director district then the CFO will come to that specific board member and ask them to help find a member from their director district. >> I think that's a great suggestion. >> I will I will incorporate that. >> Um I I Yes, it's your turn. >> Uh just one quick question. What is the the timing of this though when when are we for the in terms of >> so so the the basically um so they meet with the independent auditor at the beginning of work. So that's why we want the the committee to be formed by May June because sometimes they'll do

144some preliminary assessment but the this audit committee really that's just give us some bills and we want to look at we really want them to be involved with the auditor before they really start the work. What are your concerns that you'd want to do? What are the concerns that the community want to know during an audit process? So that's part that's the first part of the audit committee. Then they will become towards the end of the audit. They'd see it before it comes to the board and then they would come to the board and make some recommendation and then there would be followup after the audit. Is there audit work that needs to be done afterwards? >> And so in in backing that out to in terms of the when I guess the question is

145when are we going to go out to the public like how quickly >> I would imagine we'd be putting these applications out in either March or early April is my guess. >> Okay. Thank you. Appreciate >> it. And if you talk to anybody that's going to think about doing it, we have several committees that we'd want you on. So want them on. >> I don't have any questions >> more than anything else before we move on to the next agenda item. >> Thank you. >> Let's move then to 7.3, which is the annual school utilization update. And Todd, that's you. >> Yes. Good evening, President Void, board members, and Dr. Heler Todd Piconei, assistant superintendent operations. Uh tonight, as in every January, we go through the school utilization. What I'll go through first is policy

146FCA and FCA-R and FCA. Um they really guide staff their process of what to look at the utilization percentage. So here specifically uh service level U which is schools that are under 75% utilized uh and then timelines for recommendations if that's direct the direction we go. So looking uh at modify capacity this is something the board has talked about previously is every year we are very focused on the build capacity. So that means we count the rooms times by students. We look at enrollment um and truly what the school is just built for. What we did this last year was we uh modified our master plan through the master plan committee to also look at the modified capacity. So what that means is we take the bill capacity and then subtract out programs that are

147placed there or specific modern service spaces. So for example um you look at more modern schools, they have spaces for interventions and our older schools don't. So, we're taking those spaces out of the capacity for how we look at or how we can look at utilization. And just for note, um if you're interested want more information, there's a link there to the master plan and kind of the process and more detail around um the modified capacity. So, as we look at the 25 utilization, there are 14 schools that um sit underneath that service level U. What I would would like to point out though is just an example of build capacity to modified. So if you look at say Lincoln Elementary, when you look at Lincoln Elementary, uh their build capacity, they're at 50%. When

148we actually look at how the school is being utilized, they're at 110%. So, that's something that we've talked a lot about before as we're looking at school closures and utilization is truly um showing how we're using the buildings because even though the build capacity shows one thing, there's and you know that example is there's a lot of district programs that are there. Not that district programs can't move, but it tells a full story of how the buildings um are being utilized. Um the only other note I have is Sarah Milner. also is at 70% so it would have a service level U next to it. Um but as you can see there's 14 schools that fall under service level um U which is at 75% um called out by board policy. So without going through

149each uh individual school, what I will note is that uh at this time as we went through analyzing different developments um looking at the demographics and the growth and decline throughout the district um and reviewing with the master plan committee uh staff's not recommending that we go forward with uh FCA-R which then shows our timeline of how we actually would put together um a school closure and the steps to actually close the school. So at this time we're not recommending it although we are still monitoring because we do know that year after year we do see some of the same communities um and schools underutilized. And there's just a couple other notes um you know that I think are noteworthy as we talked to NPC. The things we have done in the past is we

150have closed four schools in the last six to seven years. So that has an impact. Um we're also looking at how those impacts you know are impacting our community in general. Um and then as we have this modified capacity you how does that actually impact how we look at the schools um moving forward if we are looking at schools for that FCA-R the closure the other thing to note is uh Ponro Ponroa for example you know it sits underneath this utilization um but if you look at the future growth within tsd there's there's plenty of growth up there and other places that a lot of these schools actually fit into so just because they have, you know, that that mark there doesn't mean that um you know, there's reasons why they can or cannot be

151closed. But, uh those are all the pieces we looked at as we analyzed um the different utilizations throughout um throughout the district. And the other note that I'll put there is um it's a pretty lengthy presentation, but if you'd like to see it, we did do a full demographic presentation to the master plan committee which actually showed you know trends from the past birth rates um all the different pieces that go into the projections one um for current year but then projecting forward in the next 5 to 10 years. So before I turn over the board, I do want to thank Ryan Baker, our planning manager, because he really um has the details and the um attention to all the pieces that go into all this. So any questions from the board? >> All right,

152Don, beginning with you. >> Yeah. Um so thank you for this. I really do appreciate the modified piece because I mean I think when we look at um part of what this is, you know, the final product of this is to look at like the closures moving those programs also has a cost and an impact and so this helps us a lot. It also helps us to see like where we've been putting programs and maybe where we haven't like that starts to jump off the page now that we have it. Um, one thing that would be, I think, helpful next time around, um, because this is such a good snapshot is to show with just like up arrows and down arrows that piece that you were just talking about with the projected growth because like

153literally the houses are going into my backyard. They're going to have kids in it. Um, so Ponderosa won't be underutilized for very long at all if the dust in my house is any indication. Um, and so that up and down arrow would just really help because we do know that the growth and the decrease is boundary specific. Um, so I love that. I also wanted to just point out one other thing um that I noticed is like some of the schools where we were where we just did big changes to like kind of amplify what you were talking about um we built some of these knowing that this is an area where we're having growth or we wouldn't have had to do the consolidation in the builds. And so I'm glad to see that we're

154not maxed out before we even really get out the gate, but we will be. um like growing in capacity in some of those areas like High Plains is not going to stop being an area of growth unless we run out of the space. Then we'll probably just grow up because that's where everybody wants to be. Um so even though it's small now for the first time in many many years, it's not going to stay that way. We know that we're still going to have capacity um that we're looking at at High Plains always. So, uh, thank you for somehow putting all this into one chart that was really easy to understand with all of this in it. And, um, I mentioned this week in my one-on-one that I I just I'm hate this, by the

155way. But, so for everybody who also doesn't like what I'm about to say, I acknowledge it. I I think that because the trends are happening where there are just less kids period, we're not done with having to figure out what this means for us. And we're constantly being asked to balance like the fact that if you were doing something that impacts kids, doing it in the schools is sometimes the most efficient and effective thing. Parents are asking for that over and over again. They're like, I don't want to have to pull my kid out of school. why can't we just do it there? But we've also heard that that's not necessarily what people want. And so, um, you know, then we get into the hard choices of do we use this space that we already

156have effectively for our community as a community good >> or do we say that it needs to be somebody else's responsibility and it gets put somewhere else. And I think so far we've done a little bit of both. And if we are not putting programs in these schools and if we're not serving families in the way that they're asking us to, then we're gonna have to look at consolidating or closing again. And I don't like it. I'm going to be honest. The schools that are on here that we would probably be talking about next, I don't like any part of that. But I also want to prepare our community that I'm bothered by the idea that we're probably going to have to do that sooner rather than later. And I don't want anybody to be

157shocked by what do you mean that we're talking about that again. So >> Rick, thank you. Don Denise, >> I just want to thank your team for for providing this information. It's fascinating. Um, and can you just quickly touch on the difference between the built capacity and the modified capacity? What are the exact things that go into the difference there? So really when you look at bill capacity, we take in essence the floor plan, we count the classrooms no matter how they're being used and then we times it by the um student count. So say it's 25 per classroom, that gives the actual built design capacity. So modified, we take that same floor plan, but say we know that um you know there's GT or OT that's taken a classroom and they've you know the

158school has it cubed off and even though they're sharing a space that classroom is now offline to students. So then we subtract that from the capacity. So whether it's that whether it's ILC rooms or specific programs that are put there. Um, so the build is really what it was designed for and then the modify takes out space >> because the built capacity is a fixed number in theory. >> Correct. Yes. >> Okay. >> Perfect. Thank you. >> Yep. >> Alexandra. >> Oh, thank you. And I appreciated the links to that about the modified capacity and to the that the demographic presentation. Um, I thought that was really interesting and gave a little bit more insight into the whole process and how this comes about. Um, and I also think it's interesting looking at sort of

159the changes over time. And I remember like and sort of to Don's point about, you know, building schools in anticipation is I remember the first few years um that I was on the board when we did this and looked at Riverview and it was under under capacity. Um, and you said, you know, that's that was the plan. There's going to be people and now it's not. It's 77%. Um and so I think that's you know interesting to see how how things do kind of flux and change and you know with the demographics and you know interesting reading about also with like you know the area that I live in in the central Leland part you know there's not a lot of new kids moving in there because it's you know old people like you know

160my family that moved there with little kids and now our kids are grown but we still live there um and lots of other people like that and so you know I thought it was interesting reading about that um and that I think is sort of a bigger challenge is what do you do in those areas where people have aged out um and theoretically like my family I we should move and make room for a new family to to come back in but we're not all going to do that. So it's it's just interesting. I think it's a big puzzle um and really kind of fascinating to see how the how the trends change over time. >> It is. Yeah. Thank you. >> I'll save my comment to be the last one. So, Nancy. >> Oh,

161Todd, I thought I was going to go to the whole meeting without talking with you. >> I'm excited, Nancy. Um, so on the utilization, I I took Dr. Heler. He sent out a board update on I think it was Friday that it showed the optin opt out uh count. And so what I did with me and my Excel, I took your enrollment number from the utilization, added the opt out students and subtracted then the opt in. So that really it shows that we're losing we're like a net of 1125 students that are opting. They're going somewhere. >> That's a lot. And actually if you take it times our per pupil funding, that's like over $12 million. that would easily cover the deficit um spending that we're doing with this year's budget. It would easily cover

162it. Um, so knowing that, I think we a need to try to figure out why are why are they opting out, but then we also need to look at at some point at some point I do think we're going to have to look at and figure out. Th this area is always underutilized and these developments that we thought we were going to happen, they're not going to happen. And more than that, we only have a finite amount of money to work with. So we have to look at with the money we have, how many schools can we support and support well so that the students can learn. Um, and so that's just a real it's just a big concern for me. And then my I do like the modified capacity, but what I'm trying to

163still understand is when you say the ILC rooms and the gifted and talent rooms and stuff, they're removed. Is that still students that are within that school that are using them, but then now they're specific use or is it or is it programs for other kids coming from somewhere else? What What is it really? What does modified capacity truly mean? >> It's really both. So sometimes it's school within that community that um or kids within that community that use you know say there's an ILC um room within the school that within that boundary the kids go there. Sometimes there's students in rooms that come for a specialized program. So it's kind of a mix of both uh depending on the school. So Lincoln for example um a lot of the rooms were taken I would

164say offline because they're used for programs. It's students being, you know, almost bust in there for a specific program. >> Is there any without making it too complex, is there any way to make a like some addendum so that when you looked at that you would know, oh, this school's modified capacity is because there's outside programs andor these there these these rooms just trying to understand it. >> Yeah. And we do have all Yeah. between behind all this this spreadsheet is that data that you're referring to. So, um, yeah, we can find a way to get that information out. So, you can see that at this school it's because of these two programs or at this school it's it's this. It's this. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> If I could just add I just want

165to add just around this modified capacity. There's this as Todd talked about built capacity, right? So, you have 30 classrooms and we're going to use 25 as our multiplier. But a modified capacity, we know there are some classrooms because of the specific type of program in that classroom that does not have 25 kids, right? The capacity in that room is going to be five kids. That modifies the capacity of that building. Um, and so as you have a larger number of specialized programs that because of the nature of the program are going to have a much smaller student count, it naturally is going to lower the capacity of that building. So that's another piece of that modified capacity is just because of the nature of some of these programs we have to lower the in

166you will if you will in that classroom from what was it was built for. >> Okay. And I'll just one last thing on on the students opting out. I mean again that's I the math is it's like 9% of the of those that enrollment number and that's a that's a big number when you take it with our pupil per pupil funding. if we could just identify like what regions and what's their reason so we can find a solution because we need I just would like to see that stop seeing that money leak away from the district. >> Yeah. And we do have some of that data of what regions they're going from. Um when they leave the district, our ability to track kind of goes away, but we do have some of that. Yeah. And

167we've we've had some additional conversations around is there a mechanism within our building when a family does choose to to go elsewhere and not within our own district but even just to leave our district to have the conversation much like we might with an exit interview with an employee who chooses to leave to have some conversations around what what's driving this change for your family. Not every family is going to engage in that conversation, but those who will, um, it may give us some data in terms of what is the deciding factor that's causing you to choose to leave a school or a district. >> Okay, Mike. Um, I'll be brief because, u I kind of want to Nancy kind of stole my thunder a little bit, so sorry. Uh because when I saw the

168enrollment numbers, I did the same math piece too and looked at it and and and I was thinking of like you know overlaying kind of what you know if which schools are are losing more and and because you know I and you know with respect to kind of doing exit interviews and like and going through all it's just the perception is is negative and we have to changed the perception and we and and that obviously that takes time and there's a lot of things that go into that which I understand. Um, but I I also, you know, it was fun having the kids, the the kids, the cooking, culinary kids there because I like to cook. And I go back to Gordon Ramsay who said, you know, don't tell me what I'm doing right, tell

169me what I'm doing wrong. And like I want to understand like if there's specific schools that where you know not not to indict them but where we need to kind of think about how we can kind of make them better so that they serve as to attract families and not you know and and and stem that tide because you know I agree with Nancy it's like 10 or 12 you know millions of dollars that we're losing you know for for a range of these programs. So, I'll So, so I I appreciate what you're doing and and I you know, I want to hopefully we can continue this conversation. I don't I you know, I was elected and the last thing I want to do is have to close a school. Um so, I think it

170you know, I do take this very seriously. So, thank you. >> Yeah, appreciate it, >> Lori. >> Thank you. And thank you for um questions I've been asked and answered um because that was you know like what other programs I guess when I saw the modified capacity I guess I was looking at you know what are those programs um and having a identifier as to which ones are where I think would be very helpful and as far as like say other programs coming in the utilization of the schools uh maybe for I don't know I guess I was just looking at like maybe after school programs and stuff what other um uses we could have at some of these buildings you know if they are being underutilized what are some of the other options have

171we looked at other options as far as I don't I don't know what the possibility or if that's even on the table >> yeah I mean one thing we're looking at is um EC so expanding EC to some of these schools. So, working with Lamb Caro to okay, can the Makqua open up? You know, they're underutilized. Can we open up an EC there? And that does that create more community involvement? Do you have EC there? And does that a draw? Um, we have wraparound services with both YMCA and Boys and Girls Club. So, we also work with them. Um, even trying to, you know, push to some like BFK, you know, we that's one of the schools we push one of the programs to. So, students are going there. So those are a couple examples

172that we're pushing into, but I'm sure there's other things out there we can think about. All right, I said I would conclude. Uh I want to begin by talking about the national problem or the national phenomenon known as declining enrollment. Uh regarding declining enrollment, part of that is due to options that weren't available years ago or that were not as readily available. And I'm speaking of homeschool and private schools particularly. Did they exist? Yes. But were many people using them? No. And I think we know that um this particular problem was exacerbated by by COVID and and everything that happened to public education during that period of time. Uh we know too that people move around. We know that we have a declining birth rate. And when we put all those things together, um, for

173me, I don't find myself pointing a finger at our school district or other school districts. I just say that this is a changing society uh because of the reasons that that I mentioned. I want to close by making uh a comment about the modified capacity standard. I think just about everybody has commented on that. I was on the master planning committee as the board representative when that decision was made and I I think that's a very good decision. I think it adds um a whole dimension to our understanding of how or why schools are allowed to um continue to operate. And Todd, you mentioned Lincoln. I remember I believe it was last year I went to a meeting at Lincoln and at that time too uh Lincoln was at a 50% um rate which might

174have people thinking the school district should probably close that school but during the time that I spent at Lincoln and saw all of the programs all of the busy students all of the busy staff members there that building is very well utilized. And it certainly is an important part and just using Lincoln as an example just a very important part of the uh educational program of the the Thompson school district and I think Ryan I think maybe you brought that idea to us or I remember when I was on master planning you're the one who uh explained that at a meeting as to what that would look like. I think that's very important and I'm as a board member and as a citizen of the Lovelin Bertha community, I'm very glad that we're utilizing our

175buildings for some of these special programs and that we are able to keep some of these schools open uh because students are being funneled into that school for the special programs. So, thank you and thank you Ryan uh for all the work that your department does. >> Thank you. All right, we'll transition then to 7.4, the citizen bond oversight committee membership selection process. Yes, thank you again, board, assistant superintendent operations. So, um, as we dive into this, there's really two parts to this presentation. So, one is the purpose of the committee. Um, and then we'll talk about how we want to go into selection. But really, I just want to review the purpose. Um, and when we look at the ballot language, shall the spending of the debt proceeds be monitored by a citizen bond

176oversight committee. So, it's very clear on bond language that we need this committee and the different pieces they do. I'll note that the committee is not a decision. Um, so they don't make decisions based on spending or budgets. That's board approved. Um, so any budget actually changes would come through the board. Um but they do look at how the funds we are spending are aligned with one the ballot language because the ballot language is very clear on what we can spend it on. And then two what uh the expenditures by school that we're showing are aligned. So it you know if you if you look at past um even meeting minutes that are on this site you know we'd go through um expenditures processes risks out there and then Sabbach would just report back to

177the board on expenditures um process and how the overall program was going. I'll say this has been a um citizen run committee. So at the first meeting a chair and co-chair would be elected. Staff really takes a back seat. Um, we then hand it over to the chair and co-chair and they go through, you know, all the pieces. You know, there's a couple notes here, but they go through all these pieces and they just ask staff for information. At the end of the meeting, they ask if um staff has satisfied the committee's um request for information and if we need any more. So, each time when they left the meeting, we'd say, "Okay, the committee feels and community group feels like the there was enough information or staff need to bring back more." So I

178go over that because that's kind of how the committee ran last time as far as the selection process. So um just for review, we can do many different things here, but it's 16 members are needed. Um previously we take the applications the president vice president would pick eight eight of the members. So two from the financial sector, two from uh the parent and then six from the community area. So we have different areas um you know between Fort Collins uh east ber and then central and then the other eight positions would be blind drawn out of a hat. If any of the board remembers I would have my little basket I'd come up during a board meeting you pick a name out of the hat and then that's how that person was selected. So that's

179how we've selected before those names then came forward to the board for approval um and then the committee went forward. So what we have this year is we actually have 44 applications and as we heard in public comment there's we're getting questions about we're ready to start. There's some excitement behind it which is good. So we have 44 applications received. Um you'll see the first three lines there are what the board has selected before. So actually going through the applications reading them and appointing those you know the two for business financial background two for parent and then the four um communities and then the eight have been selected at large. So for tonight, the hope is because we do need to get this going here in March, April is just to understand um if we

180want to modify the selection process at all and then if there's any questions or comments regarding um how the um bylaws really have been put in place for the committee. So staff's just looking for direction um because we'd like to hopefully bring that process forward to the board um 1st of February for final approval in the second meeting in February. So discussion around that would be helpful. >> All right. Uh Denise comments, questions >> Alexandra. >> So I think just I think you sort of misspoke with because I think last time the president and vice president selected 10 and then there were six that were drawn. That's what it says on the slide and what you said. what what you said talked about that the president and vice president selected eight and then eight were

181drawn but it looks like that's what's proposed for this time. >> Yeah, it should have been eight I think. >> Or was it eight and eight last time as well? >> I believe it was eight and eight. Yeah, I'd have to go back and look, but I believe it was eight and eight. >> Okay. I mean, I don't know that that especially matters. Um but that was just I wasn't I wanted was unclear about that part. Um just because it's different like I said it's different what's on the slide. >> Yeah, I see that. >> Um and then I think the question was about whether we wanted to like continue with the process of the president and vice president selecting those eight and then having the eight blind draw or if we wanted another process

182for selecting those eight that are not the blind draw. Is that correct? That's correct because right now we have the 44 applications and Yeah. So, do we want to stick with that way or is there another suggested way? >> Okay. So, I mean, I guess personally I don't have a problem necessarily with doing it the way it's been done. Um, but I'm open to other suggestions if >> I'll conclude with my comments. So, Nancy, I'll move to you. Uh I do believe that it's important that this process um be done by the board itself. The responsibility for it lies with us. I also think transparency in the process is also really important. What what I would like to propose is that we have 44 applications that all of the names on the applications be redacted.

183I think there's somewhat of a fear that um as soon as a name is seen that they may or may not be chosen simply because of that. I think that takes care of that addresses the fear. You would have your own uh top secret Captain Crunch decoder list of who is who. Um and then the board itself would select would select everyone except for the um the ones you know their names are thrown into hat. Um I do think that the parent group should be larger than two. I understand that community-wise the voters um who don't have kids in school is greater than parents um in the district. However, to me, parents with their kids in school, they have a greater stake in the game. they have more I mean so I think it's important

184that maybe we look at changing the parent group to three and the financial group to three and then the draw a name out of a hat to six but I think if we did something where we redact the names and then your your staff says here's this this particular application they qualify for the parent group this geographical region and maybe the business representative or maybe this one only qualifi, you know, and then the board, you know, gets all of those application. We review them and in a study session or a voting meeting, we we discuss who we would like to put forth for each of those positions and we vote on it and then you bring your magical hat and the rest of the names are drawn out. I think it's very open and transparent

185and I just think it's I just it's it's an idea that came to me today when I was getting ready for the meeting. >> Great, Mike. >> Um, thank you for this. I have just a kind of a couple concerns. Um, and one is just having having been on a committee of 16 people for the community, it's unwieldy. Um, and I think without I was a little concerned when you said kind of the staff takes a introduces and then kind of backs up on that because I feel like uh I feel like when you have that many people and you've got you know hopefully a good diverse group of folks that you know maybe aren't as well-versed in kind of school finance and funding and that it can you kind of explain that a little

186bit more because it that that caught my attention. >> Yeah. So our first meeting is really um education about the committee and the things you're talking about. So financial pieces, how the bond was put together, um the goals around the bond. So it's really an educational piece so they have that understanding. And then what we did after that was put together um the committee said here's four sections we want to learn about. So next time bring the expenditures you know that you've encumbered forward. um schedule uh risk, you know, that let's look at any risk. So, we bring very specific items forward to say, okay, here's the four things you asked for. We're reporting back on those. So, it's it's a pretty structured um meeting as well. So, it's not um yeah, I will say

187over the last four years of doing it with that many, five years doing it with that many uh committee members, it was, you know, staff was comfortable in saying, "Okay, what do we need?" Because our goal is to be transparent as we can. Sure. >> So, if someone says, "I want to see this." You know, what I don't want to do is get in the way as staff members say, "No, I'd rather show you this information." Um, so it was a way to just open the books and say, "What do you what do you want to see?" And it wasn't about Sorry, it wasn't about debating um, you know, what was in the bond or do this instead of that. You know, that's not the goal of the committee. It was truly about aligning to

188the bow language, expenditures, schedule, and risk. I I I appreciate that and and I would hope or I would encourage kind of early on to very clearly establish kind of what the the ground rules are and what the areas that they can influence because I think sometimes you know if you get on the board and it may perhaps come with an expectation that hey we can we can have a lot more influence on the process than perhaps kind of we intend or the or the that the board allows. I mean, I'm for full transparency and I want to get I think it's important, but I I want to just establish that that those expectations really early so that we're so that the people that that volunteer their time, you know, understand that. And I would

189kind of I I I don't have necessarily like a suggestion per se, but I do think you know the business or financial background like I think I I don't know why having a financial background I mean I think we put it in there because we're talking about kind of a bond issue but why can't we have five businesses just say five people that represent the business community that pay taxes or that pay property taxes or something and and and you know and parents and And you know, I I because I I I I kind of tend to agree a little bit with Nancy that maybe if we lower the atlarge or the the blind draw um though I'm not sure I don't know about the Captain Crunch Decoder comment about >> I don't know if

190we can talk about that, but yeah, >> but but I I mean I I you know I want I hope kind of all of us and and I and I know Dr. Heler and we can kind of set aside and you know any of our you know try to pick the kind of best most committed people. I mean that that would be certainly be my commitment but but I do think I I would be in favor of kind of trying to recruit more people like from the business community, more parents >> and and then kind of taking that out of the atlarge pool a little bit and and you know if we could get like a good a good cross-section. So um So, so that's >> Yeah, thank you. Appreciate the comments. >> Uh, Lori,

191>> thank you. Thank Thank you, uh, Director Schaw. I appreciate that. Um, that, um, the sentiments here, I guess, are it's kind of this end of the table just as far as, you know, possibly raising that to three or more for each of those other two categories. Um question is what communication have uh applicants received after applying because I have had some people say we put in our application and you know I don't know it appears that they haven't received anything since they applied. Did they I'm sure they've received an acknowledgement about the application but has further communication been sent out and I guess I would if it hasn't maybe send an email saying where we're at in the process. >> Yeah, we did send one out shortly after the application closed saying thank you.

192The board will go through a process selecting, but we can send another one out just to kind of Yeah. reconfirm where we're at. >> Thank you. >> Y >> is that it? >> All right. Thank you, >> Don. >> I'm I'm wondering because you collected demographic information for these groups, correct? as part of the application like you asked them do they fall into the like do they live in this area are they a parent are they do they have a financial background like were those boxes to check >> they were I will say not all applicants selected the appropriate boxes so but that's fine we don't I don't always follow instructions myself um the reason I the one of the things that I um am concerned about at this stage is that we asked for

193some pieces of information and Now we're talking about really trying to decide people based off of information we didn't ask for. So then are we going to have to somehow get that information which is more work. With that said, um we also told people and again I don't know how many people go out and read this kind of thing on their own ahead of time, but um we did tell people that this was at the time that we put the applications out the way that we were going to do it. Um, and so I'm sure that there are people who are expecting us to end up being pretty close to this. I think that if we move to be more transparent, we're not going to have a problem. Um, I think that if we're shifting

194what we're looking for in a group of people and asking for a different set of demographics, then we're shifting it and that will create extra work and it will create confusion and issues. even though we have good intentions in doing it. And so my wondering is for the people who gave us the information on their demographics, can we divide them up into hats? And we select everybody out of hats based off of their demographics that they fall into. So there's going to be a hat for parents and we're picking out whatever number from that hat that has everybody in it who said they were parent. We put everybody who is in Bertha in a hat and we pick that many people from Berthid out of that hat. Um we probably don't literally need hats for

195this. There's other ways to do it. Um this is pretty similar to how we've done some of our uh making sure that we're getting all the people who represent the different groups in other committees. And so it also is aligning with other practices in the district. It means that everybody is randomized instead of having a selection process of any type which I don't think is a bad thing. It's based then on what did you self- select because those are the hats you'll be in and then we're randomly picking people out of it. The one thing don sorry if we did that then you could end up with everybody from birth because we you know we don't have a big it's a small enough group from a rand like said all the business people or all

196the parents you know they could all be from loveland or they could all be from and I and I don't know that that serves I'm just pointing that out as perhaps a flaw in in that but but I I but don't misar I appreciate appreciate kind of the thinking around it. I just >> Right. And I I I hear what you're saying. I mean, there is the possibility that if we were to put everybody's demographics on a spreadsheet right now, we were going to we're going to see that we are weighted in some way. And if that's the case, that's the risk in what I just recommended. But if it's relatively random already, then this would just make sure that we are getting people based off of them fitting the criteria that we already told

197people publicly we're going to at we were going to pick them from. And the only thing we're shifting is that we're not asking for some people to select applications based off of some sort of judgment and instead randomizing based off of your demographics. and that's transparent as well. Um, I do think we could also do a selection that says we're gonna double check those things to say if everybody did somehow magically end up falling into a skewed way, then we could fix that. That's not a bad thing for us to fix because we don't want everybody to be from one neighborhood. But if it's mostly random, again, the odds are that it'll end up being random. >> All right, let me uh let me share my thoughts and then we'll see where we're going to

198go from here. Todd, I have a question about the citizen representative section with four representatives and four communities mentioned, Berth, Loveland, the eastern portion of the district and the surrounding unincorporated county. Um, is the intention that there would be one member from each of those four? >> That's how we did it last time. Yes. >> Okay. All right. Then regarding um Nancy's suggestion, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, did I understand you to say that the board would would look through 44 applications and choose members of this committee? Did I understand that that's what you're suggesting? I'm suggesting that yes, we would read through the 44 applications as part of our responsibility and obligation as a board member. >> Thank you for answering my question. I consider that very unwieldy for seven people

199to look at 44 applications. I'm trying to think what the time frame of this would be. I personally don't find that that would be necessary uh in order to do that. Um, so board, I think Todd is probably asking for some direction. So, um, Dr. Heler, maybe you may want to enter in here, too, and provide some direction for us moving forward. Well, I mean, the the challenge here is uh, you know, we brought this back to the board tonight because there was some discussion um, when we sent out kind of the process that had been followed in the past. A couple of board members expressed some concerns that maybe a different process might need to be talked about. So that's why it's on the agenda tonight. It's not an action item. It's a discussion

200item. Um certainly if we're going to do something at the February study session and the February regular meeting, some some direction from the board on where which way we want to go would be helpful. Um so that staff can start putting those things together. If we're getting 44 redacted applications put together for the board, then we need to get that done so we can get it out to you in a timely manner so that you can review those. Um, I will be clear, these applications, we really are talking one page per application. It's not a significant amount of reading. Um, but it is 44 individual pages about each individual candidate. Um, not something that we cannot do if that's the direction that we we go. Um if the board, you know, in general wants to

201continue the current practice as has been, then we'll move forward with that. If there's a anywhere in between, we we can really facilitate anything as long as we have some guidance so we can be prepared for the February study session to get the ball rolling. >> All right. I have um another question or comment. Um first of all, a comment. I think it would be a very good idea to provide uh a second notification to all the applicants that we're still in process and that their application is still being considered and thank you very much for applying. Um then the other thing my other um thing is a question. Did you receive any um concerns, questions, complaints about the way that we did it the last time? And I think perhaps times before when decisions

202were made and choices were made by the president and vice president. Were any problems created by doing it that way >> over the years? No, we did not receive anything. And well, just one piece of information that might help. Um, when we talk about business representatives, financial background, you know, I think we had five applications that really applied for that. So, you know, not 44 for that. Um, you know, so the three specialized, you know, we had there's less applications to look through. So yeah, not necessarily because I round numbers. I don't remember the exact number, but I think there was 30 that just said citizen at large. >> There many many who only wanted to be considered in the atlarge pool. Then there was a group who really only wanted to be considered as

203a parent. Um so there isn't 44 to consider for every single one of these things. you have a select group you have to consider for your parent representatives or for your business financial representatives >> and those applications indicate which position. >> So they did there was a selection they checked the box and also in the question we asked of why do you want to do this and how does this relate you know that's where you could really see that they had up that financial business background and why they check that particular box. And so when the committee comes together, everybody has it what bucket they fill in in on the agenda or >> No. >> Is it all been everybody's equal? >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Can I ask just a followup question on

204the because part of it the regional distribution the four representatives like why how come that why is that a spec a separate category as opposed to like an overarching goal to say we've got 16 people we want to make sure that all four areas are represented either as a business as a parent and open it up to more like an open it up to kind of more like parent representation or business representation or other because it it seems to me that we could meet that goal through our normal selection process as opposed to having somebody designate themselves to say I'm going to be the birth representative representative. Do you know is that? >> Yeah. Um, when we talked about this before, there was just concern that we just wanted to make sure kind of the

205finance that we had specific regions identified. So, if there was, you know, something in northern, you know, like the Fort Collins part of the district that there was someone there that kind of represented that those schools. So, it was just a way to try to cover make sure we had all areas covered. And when you look at our unincorporated part of the district, it's quite large. So, then that was a thought too. we need to make sure that we that's that's kind of a whole sector or area within within the district. So, it was a way to try to capture um make sure we had specific coverage in all areas, but yeah, there's there's other ways we can accomplish that, too. All right. Um I'm going to throw out an idea and see what you

206think about this. Uh, our study session is February 4th. What would you think of the idea of giving this back to Todd after he and his team have heard our um discussion and ask them to based on what he's heard this evening to provide us at the February study session um a way going forward of selecting the committee members. I mean, I think that kicks the can down the road. I think we need a select before I mean, not necessarily on that day, but I think like we're saying, they're just sort of waiting in limbo. Okay. So I think I think I I I think at our I mean if we opt to do the you know Nancy suggestion and have us review the applications I think we could do that at the study session

207have them beforehand review them at the study session in February and then vote on those and do the blind draw in at the actual meeting in February. Um I think would not be unreasonable. I also I mean I think Don's suggestion also is an interesting one in that that does take out all you know potential bias and so on and so forth if they're all just randomly drawn. Um but agree with Mike's concern that then if we do that how do we then know that we are getting the broad representation that we want? Um, so I >> go ahead. >> Oh, sorry. Could we not sort them by address and then have four that fit into the four categories there and then draw one person for each region and then sort for the rest and

208do those other buckets? >> Yeah. And we can sort them any way that's helpful. So yeah, if we need to sort them by region, uh we can definitely sort them by, you know, financial business. There's definitely, you know, by parents, we could have those different buckets and by the community representation. We could divide those out if we needed to to make sure that, you know, we capture the different areas of the district. So absolutely, we can. Yeah, we could do that. >> I like the idea of everyone having an, you know, equal chance to be selected. And it may be that you know like in the eastern portion of the district we have one name because that's all that is there. But yeah, I guess I'd also like to just kind of throw out that

209um if we were to really have something that was skewed, what's the worst thing that would happen? We've created this language because we do know that it can get off. It can be an issue if you were to have people show up who are all not interested in this or who only who are in an area that's growing a lot and they want to put all the money where we're growing a lot and only where we're growing a lot. That would skew things. But ultimately, this isn't so much about making the decisions, it's reviewing the decisions. And that's and I think that really is an important point here because if this truly was to be all retirees who all have financial background, great. If this were to be all parents who all lived in a

210neighborhood, but they're going to review this to make sure that it meets the bond criteria, great. Like the odds of that happening are slim anyway. But if that were to happen, it's not as if they're making the decisions. They're reviewing the decisions. They're a voice to to be just to say, "Yes, we're doing what we said we were going to be doing, and if we're not, we need to understand more about it." That >> can I make a maybe a recommendation that could balance both sides? is what if we >> what if we um >> for the two upper categories so the business and financial and TST representatives those could be board selected we can redact the name um you know that could just be that so you're only selecting even if we increase it

211say that we do four and two um you only then I'm looking through eight applications and then we just blind draw everyone I I I think if I if I could try to be quick. >> So, just a couple comments to that and I don't want to I know it's I don't want to keep complicating because I understand you're going to have to interpret everything and come back. Um but I I think I want to just reflect on on a a comment that President Boyd made a few minutes ago about kind of we did it before and it was okay. And I think that's that in some degree I think you know maybe that I I agree as a as a process moving forward but I feel like as a committee that is it you

212know we need to be more outward facing is kind of I really believe that as a district into the community and I think given what's happening at the state level what's happening at the federal level we're going to have to rely more and more on the taxpayers local taxpayers to fund education and so to the extent that we can get people involved actively meaningfully involved is going to be really important because these are the ambassadors in the community for us in the next five years six year and if we wait a month I mean it's a five the bond is we're going to be spending it over the next six seven years to what's a few weeks or a month I'm not um I want to be respectful but my and my point that I'm

213leading or you leading to is is there a magic number at 16. I mean, if there's five business people that want to like dedicate their time, I hate to say no. And if there's 10 parent, like could could we expand it? And I I know it's a little bit more of a burden on staff, but >> no. And honestly, this is a flashback to eight years ago when we started this. It was the same type of conversation. Um, and this was the outcome that that board said, here's just some general framework that we can do moving forward. So you it could >> I recognize it's contrary to my earlier opinion about large boards >> my inconsistency is >> but and maybe yeah so we can change we can do any of that you know there's

214there's 100 different ways we can do this looking at other districts ours is more so the other thing I did was look at other districts say like how did you do this ours is way more robust than other districts um I can say districts that pass billions of dollars of bonds don't have this robust of a process and or um reporting mechanism. So, you know, even there we're kind of leading the way in this. So, that's why I as suggested I can do it anyway is to simplify what you know all the pieces and just split it in half and we look at half and line draw half. Todd would you repeat your suggestion >> just so so let let's say for example we do four business background keep two pair representatives we can those

215numbers can be anything those then eight applications that we have for that would be reviewed by the board everything else so the other 36 applications then would just be blind drawn so you would blind community and citizen at large and we could break the community up if we needed to. >> Yeah. President Boyd, may I? >> So, I think you're what you're proposing is a good solution. What I will say though is that I I do not agree that the parent group should be kept at two. Business business, if you want to keep it at four, that's fine. Then the parent should be at four, but I don't think we should have less. We should only have two parents. And then yes, everybody else just be blind draw because it's very at large or it's

216it's the regional. I think that does make sense and I would I would support that um proposal that you just put forth if we did for parent for business and everybody else's blind draw >> others. Lori, go ahead. And since you've already seen uh them, my guess uh if there were four BIS or four business financial and then four parent, my guess is we would probably have all four of those areas covered as well. Correct. That there would be some overlap. So that blind draw on the other eight would be effective. >> Correct. Yes. Yeah. >> Okay. So if there's I gather a sense of comfort maybe with the idea of redacting names for those specific categorical at a 4 and4 ratio asking the board to review just those applications. The rest would go into

217a blind draw pool. So at the February study session the applications would be provided to the board so you have time to look through those specific applications. Maybe ask any additional questions about process any of that at the study session. At the regular meeting, we would have do the typical thing where people would make motions for individuals that they would want to fill specific positions, seconds voting to fill those positions, and then after that's completed, there would be a blind draw for the remaining positions. Is that >> is there a any strong opposition to that plan? >> We do rank choice. >> You want to do rank choice voting? >> Yeah. Any strong concerns with that, Denise? only in I mean I totally understand like financial expertise being something we would want to review but

218like you're a better parent than this parent and I don't know that we need to review the parent >> ones. Yeah, >> I I share that concern >> and I will tell you that you're you're not going to get much of that information out of the application anyway. Uh the information they're sharing is really why they want to be a participant on the committee. Uh so um they aren't talking necessarily about their parenting styles or their beliefs. It's really why I want to be involved with the Seabach committee. Would all of the board members review all of the eight or pardon me choose all of the eight um roles that we're talking about the four business or four parents? Could we split it some way so that some of us would be looking at the

219business applications and some would be looking at parent applications? No. >> Okay. >> Yeah. I say the applications they're not it's you know it's not a robust application. It's basically why do you want to be here? So it's yeah it's that type of reading >> and there's a few that are lengthy and there's some that are sentence. Do you feel that there's time for us to do that at a study session? >> I think we narrow it down even if there's concern about the Yes, there is. >> Okay. >> That yes. >> So, one of the things I I mean Todd and I can work together and look at kind of writing up what we believe we have heard about this process and then sharing that back out with the whole board so that you

220kind of know what to what to expect in the February study session. >> Prior to the prior study session, >> correct? Okay. >> Yes. Mhm. >> Everybody okay with that? Yes. Yes. Everybody okay? All right. You understand what what your charges? >> Yeah. Clear as clear as the sky. Yeah. >> All right. Before we move to written reports, I noticed something tonight during the uh as I was looking through the agenda from our study session, something that's not on the agenda for tonight, but was on the study session agenda and that was uh 6.2 from the study session called board committee membership. And so I'm >> Yeah. So you have decided that there's no voting action required for those committee memberships. I know there was some conversation uh offline uh about one committee that but

221we again that's not an action that the board takes. So we can we can work we really already settled all of those. We do have one conversation maybe to have offline about one of the committees. Um >> all right. So so I guess this is a a question I have then Dr. Heler. So something that's on the study session discussion item doesn't necessarily have to be part of the um regular business meeting agenda. >> Not not necessarily often that is the case where we're putting things at a time when that hasn't been the case and that's why I'm asking the question. >> So discussion for upcoming meeting >> I don't remember that >> disc st discussion for upcoming meetings always goes forward for a board vote. discussion items only do not go forward for a

222board vote. >> And it's been like that since you guys decided. >> No, I I knew it wasn't coming up for a vote, but I didn't I don't recall that that something has ever been dropped off the study session agenda and then not be part of the >> If it's a discussion item, it does not go forward to the next meeting. If it's a discussion item for upcoming meetings, it does. >> All right. Um Okay. Do we need to have Dr. Dr. Heler, any discussion related to board committee membership then or are we finished with that? >> No, we are good. >> We're finished with that. Okay. All right. Then um item agenda item number eight, the written reports. Uh are there any written reports to be presented tonight? No. Board, any requests for information?

223All right. Meeting adjourned.