001Stu Boyd >> here. >> Denise Chapman >> here. >> Lori Goel >> here. >> Don Kirk. >> Alexander Lesum >> here. >> Nancy Rumfelt >> here. Mike Schaw >> here. >> Right. Nancy, would you lead us in the pledge of allegiance? >> [snorts] >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Isn't it great hearing these young voices joining us as we say the pledge of allegiance? Denise, would you read our mission statement, please? [snorts] >> Our mission. Thank you. >> The Thompson School District will be a school district that empowers, [snorts] challenges, and inspires students, faculty, staff, parents, school leaders, and community members to learn, achieve, and excel. >> All
002right. Thank you, Denise. Uh we'll move now to uh agenda item 2.1 which is the adoption of the agenda for tonight's meeting. Um I'd entertain a motion to adopt the agenda. >> So moved. >> All right. >> Second. >> All right. Did you get those, Lauri? All right. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, let's proceed to the vote. >> Stu Boyd, >> I. >> Denise Chapman, >> hi. >> Lori Goel, >> hi. >> Don Kirk, >> hi. >> Alexander Lesome, >> hi. >> Nancy Rumfelt, >> I >> Mike Schul, >> hi. >> All right. Thank you. Next part of our meeting has to do with public participation. Agenda item 3.1 is a presentation from Mountain View High School, Bill Reed Middle School, and Garfield Elementary. So, we're anxious to have you come up and and
003share what it is that that you're going to share with us. Come on, people. All right. [snorts] Good evening, President Boyd, members of the board. Uh, Superintendent Heler. Uh, I'm John Cliver, principal of Bill Reed Middle School. Um, and we are the Lovelin Integrated School of the Arts. Um, and so I want to [snorts] introduce you to um, obviously Gar Bill Reed Middle School, Garfield Elementary School to my left, and Mountain View High School uh, to my left. Um, if you'll advance just a couple of slides. So, we've got our beautiful pictures there before you. um what's in front of you or what's behind me is uh an overall vision statement that describes who we are and what we are and why we are. Uh and it meant a lot to us to come before
004you today. Uh there's a lot of there's a few new members uh in the board today. Uh and there's a lot of new members in our cabinet in our leadership. Um, and we believe so wholeheartedly in what we do as an arts integration school system, uh, that we want to come to you today and share with you just a a little bit about why we do what we do, why we believe so whole wholeheartedly in it, and why it's so amazing. And so, um, in this whole statement here, I won't read everything. Uh, it's more than just belief. We see transformation, creativity, critical thinking, achievement, uh, voice, choice, and passion ignited in what we do. And so I want to go ahead and hand it over to uh Kathy Sather and Garfield Elementary to share
005a little bit about it. >> I'm Kathy Sather. I'm the principal at Garfield. And I I don't love public speaking, but I love to let people know about the wonderful things we do at Garfield. And so I have Celeste Darrenfield, my Lisa coordinator, is here with a few of our students who are um Bailey Carr, our student council president, Paul and Windingard, our student leadership vice president, and Brie Burn, one of our student leaders, and they will um they're going to let you know a little bit about Lisa from the student perspective, which is really important. We'll actually start with the short short video that was put together. You'll get to see more than just our student leaders here, but kind of get a look uh at what happens in Alisa's school. [snorts] [clears throat]
006Oh, wait, wait. [snorts] The arts >> [snorts] [snorts] >> Hi, my name is Bailey Co. I'm proud of the way we fund raise money for art. Um, and one of the ways we fund raise money is um by um going to other people's houses um seeing if um they want [snorts] um stuff. Um, and my favorite project this year that we've did is a classroom community poster that told me all about my friends um, culture. Thanks, Bailey. Hi, my name is Holland Windgard. I just love the way we tie art into everyday learning. I feel like it makes everyone more focused and wants to learn more about what we're learning and our project. One of my favorite projects this year was representing the three branches of government through an art poster. I didn't know on
007the shelf. The hat, face, and body were all branches of government as in the legislative, executive, and judicial branch. I have the mantle as the voters because our teacher told us that the voters needs to be something like that [snorts] ties the whole system together. >> Hi, my name is Bri Barrett and I love all of the art that we do at school because it makes it more fun to it makes people excited to go to art class and see what we are going to be creating. My favorite my favorite project was the transparency art that showed the internal and external structures of animals. >> Thank you. >> Hi, I'm Heather Hanks and we're switching over to Bill Reed now. I guess you guys can see it up there. Um, our Lisa program is every
008student, every teacher, every classroom. So Garfield, um, Bill Reid and Mountain View, all very similar missions, but a little bit different. Um, so our kids all day, every day, every teacher. And I'm very quickly going to get to our students. I just wanted to highlight a couple of things that John, Gwen, and I had talked about. You go next slide. Um, it was a lot for me to summarize. We do a lot. Um, we did take seven of our educators to the art educator conference in Breenidge in November. It was incredible. We got to share all the cool things that we're doing in our core classes. Very wellreceived. Um, we do a lot of field trips. We get the kids out of the classroom. We go all over the place. Our proximity to downtown, we
009use our community partners and it's been awesome. It's very cool. Next one. Um, again, it's a lot. This was hard for me to put into a couple of slides. Um, we offer after school arts academy into in addition to everything that we do during the day. Um, [snorts] so kids get involved whether sports, clubs or LISA. Um, we really encourage kids to get involved in middle school. In addition to doing all this stuff for our students, we provide support to our staff knowing that arts integration is um more training. They need more supplies and I'm there to support them. Our performing arts absolutely kills it. They go out um field trips, a lot of field trips and high school collaborations. Uh we are the only middle school through the Lisa program that has a full-time
010drama program which is incredible. Most of that's added after school um extra duty contracts. We actually have an inbuilding uh teacher which is very cool. And we are also um myself and our GE teachers um working very hard to make sure we're getting our talented students identified in the visual arts. And now you get to hear from some of our talented kiddos. Um, I have the pleasure of introducing Courtland, Gemma, and Sarah. Courtland, you want to go first, name? Hello. My name is Courtland Harvey, and I'm an eighth grader at Bel Bill Reed Middle School. I've been at BRMS for 2 years and I'm excited to be a part of the Lisa activities at Bel Reed. My favorite aspect of being in a Lisa school is being able to be creative and learn through the
011arts. My favorite core class arts integration assignment was in math class when we got to do the plot point art assignment. This really helped me learn about plotting points because I'm a visual learner and the assignment was fun. I also really like having Lisa After School Arts Academy because of the opportunity to learn new skills and make new friends. [snorts] Hello, my name is Jen McDonald. I am an eighth grader at Bill Reed Middle School and I have attended Bill Reed for all three years. My brothers have also attended Bill Reed. I think learning hands-on is meaningful and more fun. It helps me engage more. And one of my favorite arts integrogregation lessons this year was in science class. He did a Lisa project to learn about the mass changes working with wet and dry
012paint. Learning content through Lisa made more sense to me. I feel lucky that Bill Reed Middle School and has Lisa after school where I can work on how I show my voice and personality. Bill Reed has been excellent middle school experience for me because of its le Lisa program. [snorts] Hi, my name is Sarah Hooks. I'm an eighth grader at Bill Raid Middle School that has attended Bill Reed all three years. My favorite part of being a Lisa school is being able to express my love for the arts in all of my classes and projects. I'm all I always feel ready for class because of the incorporated art. My favorite project in any of my classes was my grid drawing that we did in math class. I got the opportunity to draw and learn all
013at once while also learning about math. And last, my favorite part of participating in the afterchool Lisa program was having the opportunity to do tech for our school productions and being able to meet so many new friends that also enjoyed performing arts. Thank you for letting us present about our awesome BRMS Lisa programs. [snorts] Hello. Thank you. My name is Danielle Balier. I'm the Lisa coordinator at Mountain View High School. Um many of you I know over the years uh but this has been one of the greatest honors of my teaching career is being the Lisa coordinator. Um I get the unique uh perspective to take the students from Garfield to Bill Reid and then also students from all over the district and then they get to choice in or open enroll into Mountain View
014into the program. It is a high school within the high school which makes it a little bit different than uh Bill Reid and Garfield um in that students now have a lot more choice in their passion areas including into the CTE programs culinary uh broadcasting uh graphic design etc. of course including visual arts, music etc. Um one of the beautiful things about uh Mountain View's program if we could see the next slide you could uh read this. Um these statistics are our data when it comes to uh social emotional learning as well as um data when it comes to SAT scores um and whatnot. Uh but the most uh beautiful thing about the LISA program is that it is K through 12 and I have two students here who have finished the program K through
01512. They started at Garfield, went on to Bill Reed and now are going to be graduating from Mountain View High School with a Lisa diploma in the spring. Um, so if you could please welcome uh Helena Spoon first. Um, we'd like to hear from you. [snorts] >> Hello, my name is Helena Spoon. I have been in the Lisa program from kindergarten up until now and it has been spectacular. Arts in my core classes has been really engaging for me. [snorts] I've never felt so actually interested in learning and I see a lot of that in my Lisa peers as well. There's a picture of me up on that slideshow from our Lisa capstone. We got to make a presentation and display all of our art, everything that we have done in the Lisa program from
016freshman year up until now. And it was beautiful to see myself and my peers doing that. We've made a wonderful community in the Lisa program, especially at Mountain View. [snorts] >> Hello, I am Lucy Spoon. Um, I have my photo is also up there from our capstone event up in the corner. I think that the Lisa program, especially at the high school level at Mountain View, is the most motivating program in the entire school. That we have so many students who struggle wanting to go to school lots of the time feeling like why should they go to their classes? And I've never heard that among my Lisa peers in our Lisa classes. I've never had friends there who weren't excited to come to a Lisa class and or who didn't understand the applications for what
017we were doing in a Lisa class. And our our our LISA programs have pushed our art so much. Our our whole school, we have a a giant art show in the fall at the end of every year. Our our show our theater shows are huge and we advertise so much. and our capstone event for our LISA seniors this year, us included, we got to show off basically everything that our us students in the Lisa program were passionate about and we got to share it with our community, our families, our our peers, our teachers in in the classroom. It was it was wonderful. >> So, hello. I'm Marie RmIrez, the principal at Mountain View High School. Um I just wanted to touch a little bit on the collaborative efforts that we have to ensure that our
018students have a K12 opportunity here in Thompson School District. Um not only do we send um our teachers to arts um conferences so that they can get new ideas and bring that back to the district as a whole. Um this year we also did some collaborative activities um all of our students were participating on pastels in the fifth as a K12 system. We marched in the cornrose festival parade and then recently Mountain View High School added an additional day of the arts. Um this year we did one in the fall as a day of the performing arts which we invited students from our K12 program as well as additional students to experience what it's like um to have that Lisa experience. So um thank you very much. >> So I'm just going to wrap it
019up really quickly because we wanted you to hear from our kids. Loveland is a community that values the arts and our it draws students and families into our district as well as into [snorts] our schools, but it is who Loveland is. So, it's it's really important that we continue to support that. We see the power of family partnerships, the engagement and what happens when you can partner with parents [snorts] from the earliest age and their kids all the way through, not just for academics, but for the whole child. Parents [snorts] really want us to see their whole child. And it's a unique academic and creative pathway that sets kids up for success. And so we just wanted to invite the board to be excited about who Lisa is and where we're going and feel free
020to come in, see it in action. It's really hard in a brief moment to get a sense of what it looks like and how it changes the lives of kids on a daily basis. So thank you for your time and just know that we love our Lisa program and we want you to love it as well. >> Thank you. >> All right. So, if you um if you'll stay in the area, uh we want to take our picture with you uh the board members with the students. But before that, I'll uh ask my board colleagues if you have any questions or comments to share. And Lori, we'll start down at this end. >> Thank you. I just wanted to commend each one of the speakers, especially the students from Garfield because I know how challenging
021it can be and just want to commend you each for your poise and the opportunity that you had to to share your hearts with us. Thank you. >> Okay, Mike, question or comment? >> Uh, no question, just a com I just wanted to thank you for coming. I [snorts] really do appreciate it. Um, I actually have been to some of the productions at Mountain View and you do an amazing job. So, I look forward to to to more to come and I hope you'll make sure to extend an invite to the board as well for when they're available. So, Nancy, >> I just again I I like the concept of the arts program. You know, everybody's child children are all different. I have one who's very much like me, an accountant, so she's numbers. another
022one who she tends to be more artistic. So, they both learned math, but they just learned it very differently. And I think the Lisa program at Mountain View, which they're also Mountain View graduates, so um but it allowed them to each learn the math in their own way. And I think that's what's really so valuable. And so, thank you all for coming and sharing with us. You all did a great job. >> All right. Thanks, Alexandra. Question or comment? So, I have a comment and a question um for Lucy and for Helena um that I've known them since they were in kindergarten at Garfield. They're in the same [snorts] grade as my son who's now at Leland High School. Um and so I think it's pretty cool to see see the whole circle and see
023you guys continuing on this path is awesome. Um and so my question for you is are you planning to continue with arts stuff um in college once when you graduate in May? If you can so we can hear you. Thank you. Sorry to put you on the spot, [snorts] but you can handle it. >> Uh, my personal plan is to pursue a general education before I decide first. But in through the Lisa program in high school, we do several field trips every year. And this year we've got to do some wonderful ones um up to the Denver Center for Performing Arts and that has been the most inspiring possible career path onward for me because I love the techn technical theater arts and we got to witness uh one of their technical rehearsals and then
024the show afterward and it was it was so inspiring and we got to see their whole um their setup, their their costumes uh their closet where they make all of the props. It was wonderful and I I really wanted to go talk to the people who work there, see how I can get get into there. [laughter] [snorts] I have a somewhat similar plan though I am considering pursuing either culinary arts or visual arts because that is a lot of what my passion area is right now especially at Mountain View. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you Denise. Question or comment? >> [snorts] >> What percent, >> sorry, what percentage of Mountain View students or at least versus a general population? >> I just took a drink of water. [laughter] Um, currently, uh, we are
025about 20%. Uh, but it's growing every year. uh we just finished our first round of applications um into the program into the high school within the high school. And so what I what I mean by that is is uh those students have all of their core classes together in that cohort. So uh each of the follow the last three years we've um we have about 60 students in each cohort. So >> and how many of the Bill Reed students go to Mountain View versus their home school? Yeah, that's probably one of the most difficult parts about the progression is that Bill Reed only about a third I believe goes is Mountain View is their home school. So that's why we have to have the o the open enrollment choice enrollment. Uh so right now um
026looking at like just I I was just looking at the numbers today for our applications. Uh about 35% are coming from Bill Reed for next year. >> Thank you. So, but a lot of them have to choice and so yeah, and which also means they don't have busing. So, yeah. >> All right, Don. >> I was just reflecting uh that I got to do the Lisa Day um I guess in 2020. Um and I was just so inspired to get to see kind of live what you presented to us here. So, thank you for condensing into 10 minutes what was a full day. um which I highly recommend to anybody who has the chance because it was really great to start the morning at Garfield and get to see classrooms of all ages and then
027go to Bill Reed and see it live in classrooms and then go to Mountain View and see live in classrooms and then since that time I've gotten to spend a day at least at each of the schools getting to do something like that as well. And so it's been really really fun to get to see that through an entire class or through an entire activity u as well as the great productions and things like that. And so I just really enjoy it. I've um always loved that we have something uh this special and I am glad that we have it and I hope that everybody who wants to take advantage of it can because I know it isn't accessible to everybody. That's the only part that's hard for me. It was a hard choice at
028our house to decide which high school to go to because of this. Um, and so I wish we could have it everywhere because it is so amazing. And I think it I mean your numbers speak for themselves as far as what it does for for overall academics, for everyone to have the ability to creatively think and apply what they're learning no matter what the subject. So, thanks for showing it off and giving us a little taste of everything. >> All right. I have a question as well. Um, and I don't know whether any of the adults will be able to answer the question. Do you know at this point how many students um in total are involved in the Lisa program at the elementary uh middle school and high school level combined? Does anyone have
029a number? I'm I'm just curious. I realize I'm putting you on the spot. >> Quick now. Okay, >> quick math and we're [snorts] probably looking at close to over 900 students in total. >> How many? >> 900. >> Oh my goodness. >> Yes. >> That's that's amazing. What an important program that is. All right. So, students, if you'll come back up, uh the board would like to take a picture with you. All right. Tuck in everybody. You good? >> Right. >> I think so. We'll let them go first. So, we're all looking at the same direction. We win. >> You good? Okay. All right. Look right here for me. On three. One, two, three. >> Cool. Thank you. [applause] All right. So, thank you again to the Lisa students, uh, the staff who were here
030to support them and the parents who came to support them as well. We're going to move now to agenda item 3.2, two, which is awards and recognition. And Dr. Heler, I'll turn that over to you. >> We do not have any specifically tonight, but we are excited to preview for January. We believe we'll be announcing the Betcher semi- finalists from the Thompson School District in January along with a few other awards and recognitions. So, January, more to come. >> All right, we'll look forward to that. Moving on to agenda item 3.3, which is public comment. Don, would you read the statement related to public comment? >> 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
031its 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 a 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 concerns them, but are encouraged to exercise their speech rights responsibly. Speakers remarks should be suitable for an audience that includes kindergarten through 12th grade students. Personnel matters will be
032discussed 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. All right. >> All right. Thank you. >> And we believe we have the timer working this evening, so it should pop up in front of you when you're called up um to give you a countdown. First up, we have Reggie Johnson. So, the timer's on here. Okay. My name is Reggie Johnson. My pronouns are she, her. I'm the president of P Flag Fort Collins, Northern Colorado, whose mission is to create a caring, just, and affirming world for LGBTQ people and those who love them. And that's why I'm here today.
033We've been trying to solicit volunteers to speak on behalf of transgender students at the TSD board meeting since the beginning of the school year. We have encountered reluctance sometimes due to fear of speaking out during these turbulent times, but also because although they are Lovelin residents, their students do not attend Thompson schools. They either go to Pter school district or have chosen to attend online. Why is this? Although tsd has great gender related policies, the execution of these policies is lacking in way too many instances. We are grateful for the teachers, staff, and board members who support the gender policies. However, we believe that there must be accountability for those who do not enforce them. That accountability needs to start right here at the schoolboard level. I attended the September 17th schoolboard meeting where Nancy
034Rimfeld was allowed to use the time allotted for committee reports not to report on her committees, but rather to take advantage of her position on the board to espouse her personal views, including comments on the Charlie Kirk assassination. I was not surprised when she said her committees had not yet met like everyone else's. But I was appalled that the board did not cut her off when she had nothing to report and begin to provide comments on the current political climate. I followed up with an email to then President Cruz and Dr. Heler. I received a reply from Madame Cruz with ineffective comments regarding some unspecified board policies. When [snorts] I asked for specifics, I received no response. I also received no response whatsoever from Dr. Heler. P Flag has asked twice for the censor of
035Nancy Remfeld last year and this year based on what we perceive to be bullying of transgender individuals using TSD's own definition of what bullying is. quote, "Any written or verbal expression that is intended to coersse, intimidate, or cause physical, mental, or emotional harm to any other person." Again, we received no response. Dr. Heler, President Boyd, this cannot be allowed to go on unressed. Thank you for the time. Janet Wright. >> Hi, good evening. Um, I'm going to try to read this. I couldn't get my printer to size. I am Janet Wright. I use the pronoun she, her. I'm the vice president on the P Flag board that Reggie just mentioned. and I'm here to thank you for your continued support of all the students in the Thompson district. As we all know, there are organized
036and well-funded efforts to deny LGBTQ plus people basic rights. Many of those efforts are local groups classified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as hate groups. Some of those local to Colorado are Gays Against Groomers out of Denver, FEC United of Northern Colorado, and Moms for Liberty Lmer County Chapter. They are active in trying to strip the rights of LGBQ plus students. Science and education aren't their strong points, nor are compassion and protecting students. all students. Right now, the mere existence of many of your students is up for debate. Debated by the same people who want government out of their lives and parental rights and place. Yet, the same people who ignore the experts and rebel in rhetoric and propaganda. And students hear the hate every time they turn on the news. They see it.
037Humanity is not up for debate. in any form. Whether your students are straight, LGBTQ plus, bipac, or white, all deserve equal treatment under the law of this country, the law of the state, and of the truth that we are all here on the same planet just trying to exist. So, thank you for your time to speak and again for your support of a marginalized community. But you can do more. This is not the time for apathy. It's time for action. It's time to stand up. Lives depend on it. And I'll end with a quote from playwright Tennessee Williams. Has it ever struck you that life is all memory except for the one present moment that goes by you so quick you hardly catch it? Life is fleeting. Take a stand. Rob Everly. [clears throat] Good
038evening, board president Boyd, members of the board, Dr. Heler in the cabinet. My name is Rob Eberly. I'm a teacher at Mountain View High School and I also serve as the chairman for the Big Thompson UNISER unit which includes TEA and TESPA. I'm here to encourage you to recognize TESSPA as the bargaining agent for the classified staff in the Thompson school district. I'm aware that you had a discussion about TESPA and the classified staff voice at your retreat on December 10th. I also understand that there were some questions raised about a few issues regarding affiliations with the National Education Association and the Colorado Education Association. I want you to know that NEA and CA provide a lot of support for classified staff. These organizations provide support for professional development, continuing education credits, discounts for many
039of life's important things including insurance and includes opportunities to influence state and national education policies and many other uh benefits as well. It's important to know that NEA, CA, TEA, and TESSPA are memberrun organizations and are voluntary. Regarding representation, when Tesa becomes the exclusive bargaining agent, like TEA for licensed staff, all classified staff will be represented and supported by leadership and staff. Also, more than 80% of the classified staff qualify for part-time dues, which equals about $20 per month. It was mentioned that TESPA's membership is about 19% at this time. And given that over 650 classified staff signed petitions asking Tespa to be their representative and representative voice in May, more than 60% of the classified staff to assume 19% membership is representative of the interest in TESSPA would be wrong. And to further this
040point, this past November, you asked our community to support a bond which passed in part due to the efforts of members of TESPA who took their weekends to walk and knock on doors. Finally, I understand that TESSPA was given a slot to teach a session at the January 6th professional development day, but that opportunity was rescended. I think that this is unfair to deny classified staff the chance to learn more about this option as it is currently available to all classified staff regardless. I hope that this uh class is reinstated. And I thank you for what you do and uh have a great holiday. [snorts] David Cook. [snorts] >> Hello, my name is David Cook. I'm from Lovelin, Colorado. I'm also the Colorado chairman for the Center for Government Accountability. Freedom and liberty. Where does
041it come from? America, the United States of is built around those rights for people, is it not? Freedom and liberty. But where does it freedom and liberty come from? And how is it presented to our people generation after generation? It's absolutely essential to our survival as a nation and our way of life. The Declaration of Independence, which gives us our foundational freedom, states as follows. We hold these truths self-evident. They aren't arguable. That all men are created equal. That they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable that's means God can't men can't take them away rights. that among these rights are life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, creator-given rights. Where does that we where do we learn about those? Should know it for this? Which God are we talking about here? The secular god of
042man himself or beyond that. The United States Supreme Court, which we all respect, of course, defended that in 1792 in Wrunk versus Weine Miller. And I quote, "By our form of government, the Christian religion is the established religion." Why is it Christian religion? Why not secularism? or more accurately the church of secular humanism 1854 England that is taught in schools today. Where did that come from? The reason is because fre real freedom and liberty relies on internal controls of honesty, integrity, fair dealing, putting the needs of others above ourselves in order to be successful. Secularism does not. The federal law on education established in 1792, specifically because of that statement by the Supreme Court, requires of states, including Colorado, and agreed to by them, it states, quote, "Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good
043government and the happiness of mankind, schools, and the means of instruction shall forever be encouraged." doesn't say anything there about anything else. This is the law of all schools and this school board are to follow by federal law so that each generation may be accurately and in inculcated with the worldview, morals, ethics and values that are necessary for freedom and liberty. >> Time is up. >> Thank you. your time. >> Oh, and this has caused the United States education system to go from the best in the nation to a third from the bottom. >> Okay. Are there any call-ins? >> Good evening. My name is Elizabeth Newton Fort Collins, taxpayer and grandmother of three tsd students. My email is ea newton2013gmail.com. This past two years I have served on the Colorado team for a program
044called best building ecosystems for youth thriving where we are working to break down the silos between education, health, and human services. While interviewing students and families last fall, we heard, "We aren't thinking about thriving. We're just trying to survive." As a board, your goal is high academic performance. However, science tells us that a child in survival mode cannot learn effectively. We also found that a sense of belonging isn't a soft emotional goal. It's a biological requirement for the brain to focus on tasks such as math, reading, and graduation. I know there has been public debate among this board regarding whether teacher unions, bonds, and freelance programs are necessary or simply political extras. But our research and the message you heard from Cassy's own speaker, Hamish Brewer, is clear. Poverty is not a learning disability and
045relationship building is paramount for all students which in turn creates a sense of belonging. When we oppose free lunches, we are asking hungry kids to compete with well-fed ones. When we oppose bonds, we tell students they aren't worth a modern safe building. When we oppose the rights of teachers to organize, we create an unstable culture that makes it impossible for educators to build the long-term relationships kids need [snorts] to succeed. You have the responsibility to set a culture of belonging. That means supporting the policies that honor our staff and students, protecting transgender rights so every student feels safe at their desk, supporting universal meals so no child is shamed by hunger, and respecting teacher unions as partners in stability. I'm asking this board to move past the rhetoric that teach treats basic student and teacher
046supports as optional. If you want our students to do more than just survive the school day, you must support the foundation they stand on. When you choose equity and respect, you aren't just passing a rule. You are finally giving our kids the chance to thrive. If anyone is interested in the best initiative, please feel free to contact me at e newton2013gmail.com. Thank you. That was the only call-in. All right. Thank you. We'll move then to the next section of our business meeting which are reports beginning with 4.1, the superintendence report. Thank you very much. I have a handful of updates to provide to the board. This past Saturday, the 13th annual Thompson School District Science Fair brought 86 student scientists together at Walt Clark Middle School. 55 volunteer judges made up of TSD students, staff,
047and community members interviewed and evaluated each project, assessing scientific understanding, creativity, data analysis, and communication skills. Thank you to our judges, and the TVHS National Science Honor Society for all of their support. On December 11th, we hosted our second Thompson Leadership Academy session at Trescat Elementary School. The group learned about some of the instructional programs within the district and also took a tour of the school's dual language immersion program. The academy is a unique seven-month program designed to connect community members with the important work and service of the district. Through monthly sessions, participants gain an inside look at the district's educational programs, daily operations, funding models, and more. Last week, all of us had the opportunity to attend CASBY's uh Colorado Association of School Boards conference. Uh this event provides a valuable opportunity, I think
048we would all agree, for all of us to learn, collaborate, and share ideas, not only with ourselves as a team, but with districts across the state. Additionally, eight of our tsd students participated in the student leadership academy at CASBY where they engaged with fellow student leaders from across Colorado. One of our students, Trevor Leidig, also served as part of the planning committee for that event. The tsd students joined our staff and board member group for a final breakfast on Saturday, as you know, and each of them, I can say, represented tsd with excellence in the conversations um that they brought to the table. I couldn't be more proud of the work that they all um all all accomplished during that time. I also have to thank Taroo and Andrew Dutch for chaperoning our students. uh
049it is a significant uh feat to bring those kids down and keep their energy contained. Uh but they did a very nice job. Uh and I really thank them for their help with that. Uh finally, these past couple weeks, as you know, our schools have been hosting a variety of seasonal events on campuses, including concerts, food drives, crafting activities, and other items. These activities not only bring the school communities together, but they also provide an opportunity for our students and our staff to give back to the TSD community. We hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season. That's it. >> All right. Thank you. Um item 4.2 are board reports. I ask the board to share with each other and with you who are present here and those who are viewing from home uh an idea,
050experience or significant moment from the CASBY convention that Dr. Heler referred to. So I think this time we'll start down at this end. Don, would you like to share an idea, experience or significant moment that you brought home from Casby? >> Uh, so I will say the highlight was meeting the students. They had a lot to share and a lot of really great perspectives. Um, there were two that I sat with I probably could sit with all day because they have a lot to tell me that I really want to hear. Um, I'm sure the [clears throat] others did too. I just didn't have enough time to meet with all of them that much. Um but the I think most insightful thing that I got to participate in was the session on human trafficking. And
051um there is an organization who was presenting who supports districts um not only with education but also with kind of a where are you at so that we build from what you have and what your strengths are. um to really just help bolster things from policy to practice to PD to um student education and um address some of the the challenges that exist in every community that we don't even know exist because this is a largely invisible problem that we think is a different problem entirely. So, um, I thought that was really eye opening to get a glimpse into some of the challenges our students are facing. Denise, >> I was struck as I sat through, you know, many sessions uh and there are three keynote uh and addresses that the theme that just kept
052playing over and over through each of these moments was the importance of that connection between students and their teachers, the staff, all and having that sense of belonging and meaning from the relationships. Um, and they were taught in, you know, wildly different ways from, you know, the most energetic speaker that I may have ever seen to others that, you know, were more academic in their approaches. But um the the notion that you know we owe it to our kids to find these connecting points to provide the services so that they can um compete where they can you know do the work um with kids that [snorts] may have a better setup at home. uh it it was really powerful that I mean and obviously you know lots of different ways to implement that and address
053it but really the the heart for kids and wanting to make sure they each have the opportunity to learn and grow was over and over um repeated during the conference. >> Thank you Alexandra. So I'll build a little bit on what Denise said and I think another recurring theme was the importance of including the families in their in their kids um education and there were you know a couple of speakers talking about that also and that we're we're not just educating the kids were you know educating the family to some degree they're not coming to class but um I think there was a lot of a lot of that and how how do we truly do it in a way that's meaningful for the student, for the family, and that actually um boosts the student
054success in the school. Um and I think there's, you know, a lot of different things that we can do. Um but I think it's really like just looking at it from a different perspective. And I think we've done a lot of good work in that area and I think we continue to do a lot of good work in that area. Um, but I think there's always room for improvement. Um, and so that was sort of another another interesting theme that came up just in my conversations with people from other boards related to that is that it's always interesting me to me to go down there and talk with people from districts in Denver that have, you know, thousands to h, you know, hundreds of thousands of kids to districts out on the plains who their
055district may have 50 kids. Um, and regardless of the size of the district, everybody had the same problem is that when you host an event, it's the same parents who always show up. You know, whether whatever your pool is to draw from, there's always a limited number that actually come. Um, and so I think it's important to for all of us um to look at that and look at how do we how do we change things and how do we um work in that area. So that I think was interesting. >> All right. Thank you. I'll wrap up. So Nancy, go ahead. [clears throat] >> Um, CASBY is it is an enjoyable time and you do get to meet a lot of different people and so I do appreciate President Boyd's suggestion for our individual
056board reports of what we might want to consider talking about. So for me, the big CA takeaway I kept hearing during CASBY was to meet to meet the not just the students, but to meet the families and the communities where they're at. Not where we're at, not where we want them to be, but where they are actually at. And Dr. Constantine's keynote speech um speech was so it was so engaging and so motivating that I don't normally buy books but when it was over I went out and bought his book and so that's my next book to read but the biggest thing was we always talk about our policy that we pass policies and what we do here is always datadriven always and he challenged us all to stop thinking of family engagement as a
057series of events. He said, "Honestly, step back and look at how many pizza math nights that you hold. What was the real impact on scores? What was the real datadriven impact?" And so, it's a process. Family engagement is a continuous process was the which was the biggest takeaway I took from him. And he also he made this one statement that I wrote in my notes which was if there was a way for teachers to have students learn prof and become proficient and achieve without involving families. They would have already done that. It would already exist. So we need the families and we need to understand that they do see their um kids education as a priority and they do want to help but we need to do a better job of telling them what what
058do we need from them to do and it may require doing a phone call every day and telling them we're studying his example was um operations of order leaving a message and that so then the parents would every day. So, what's the order of operations? I hear you're learning that. What do you know? What's the order of And so, tell them what we need. And I'll just close with he just left it at don't just think differently, [clears throat] but do differently. And that the family engagement piece was by far the biggest takeaway I took from Casby. >> Thank you, Nancy. like uh so uh you know as a kind of new uh member of the board I um I tried to I followed on the track kind of the new member track and I
059went to the the finance one and I was so confused I took it a second time um and then I went to the 2011 and Bob I don't envy you um because our school finance methodology is so convoluted and complicated and even when you want to raise funds, they make you you you lose funds and it is the most absurd kind I apologize [snorts] that but it's the most absurd way to fund a priority in our community or or what we view as a priority not in our community but in the state of Colorado. So, I'm I kind of um [clears throat] I'd say I would say enjoyed learning about that, but it was a little bit frustrating, but I did enjoy kind of educating myself so we can kind of bring that back and
060kind of help work on, you know, see what we could do at the at the district level to kind of help um fund our priorities here locally and fund education here locally and make sure that we have great schools that that uh continue to bring kids in and and graduate successful kids. So, so that was that was my main takeaway. >> Okay. Thank you, Lori. >> Thank you, President Boyd. Uh to the parents, to the students, um teachers, fellow board members of Thompson School District. Um I just want to reflect a little bit on CASBY and my seat here on the school board and how that kind of all relates. So, I I've taken this seat on the Thompson School Board as a director with deep gratitude, a profound sense of responsibility, and an unshakable
061love for the country that makes this service possible. Our district exists to serve more than 14,000 children who do not belong to the state, the district, or even the schools. They belong first and forever to their parents. This was emphasized at CASBY during one of the keynote speeches and CASBY as mentioned before Colorado Association of School Boards Convention. So for those of you following the acronyms but uh Dr. Steve Constantino spoke about family engagement and that to quote engagement of families is directly correlated to student success. To that end, my only agenda is to help return the authority, responsibility, and decision-making to the families who have entrusted their sons and daughters to us each day so that those children can master reading, writing, mathematics, science, history, and the arts and also the responsibility of citizenship.
062For too long, many public schools have allowed the quiet assumption of roles that rightfully belong to mothers and fathers. chronic discipline, mental health care, sexual ideology, and even daily nourishment. That era must end here. If your policy or program would have shocked the parents of 1975, I believe it has no place in our schools in 2025. As our nation approaches its 250th birthday in 2026, we have a totally once-ina-lifetime opportunity to make authentic, joyful patriotism a natural thread running through everything we do. Classroom lessons, assemblies, music, arts, and community events. Too many young people have been taught to feel ambivalence or shame about America. The Thompson School District can and should lead the way in restoring gratitude for the most free, the most generous, and most opportunity-rich nation ever to exist. Finally, I serve from
063an openly Christian worldview. My husband is a pastor and we believe every legitimate authority is established by God and is therefore accountable to him. And I won't vote for any policy, curriculum, or expenditure that I believe directly violates clear biblical teaching. At the same time, I am not here to turn public schools into churches. I am here to help us return to that same moral and spiritual foundation openly acknowledged and by the overwhelming majority of our founding fathers that our rights come from our creator and the public institutions thrive when they respect conscience family and objective truth and as uh Dr. Constantino said that we must involve the families our children our parents and our country deserve nothing less. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. I'll wrap up by saying that in every session that
064I attended, whether it was a small group session, a large group session that was addressed by a keynote speaker, I was struck by the presenters, the speakers, and the attendees commitment to the power, importance, and future of public education. And that was uh that really struck me over and over again while I was at the conference. Just one other thing quickly and then we will move on. Um there are folks in the community who probably don't know that uh we're not paid as school board members. And so when we go to CASBY, this is our one professional development opportunity. um during the year for us to meet with school board members from other places to become inspired to learn etc. And it's um three days of lots of sessions and meetings and conversations among those
065of us on our own board and meeting people from other districts as well. So, um that's that's what we did uh last week. We spent some time together learning and becoming inspired and uh hopefully um bringing back ideas that we can use to make the Thompson School District the best school district in Colorado, perhaps in the nation. Uh and that's what we will attempt to do. So, thank you board members for the variety of um experiences and memorable moments that you brought. We're going to move now to section five on the agenda, which is action consent items. I will first read the items that are part of action consent and then we'll u we'll talk a little bit about where we go from there. So 5.1 is approval of minutes for November 19th, 2025. 5.2
066approval of minutes for special meeting December 3rd of 2025. 5.3 Approval of minutes for study session December 3rd, 2025. 5.4 Approval of minutes for retreat December 10th, 2025. 5.5 Approval of minutes for special meeting December 10th, 2025. 5.6 Approval of minutes for special meeting December 15, 2025. 5.7 approval of personnel extra duty and coaching recommendations. 5.8 approval of expenditures over $50,000. and 5.9 approval of 2025 bond project budgets. Um, board members, do you have any questions about any of the nine items that are part of the action consent? >> Yes. >> I would like to actually pull 5.1 and 5.9. And if we could place 5.9 before 6.2, two. I believe that would be a more appropriate place. >> All right. So, you said, Lori, that you'd like to pull 5.1 and 5.9. >> Correct.
067>> And Dr. Heler, will those go to becoming discussion action items? Yes. All right. Um, let's go ahead and vote for the other items that Lori has asked not to be pulled. So, those in your list that are numbered 5.2 3.4.5 6.7 and8. So, move >> like a motion to approve and accept those parts of the agenda. So moved. >> All right. Get that, Laur. >> Yes. Okay. >> Any further discussion? >> All right. Would you call the role, please? >> Stu Boyd. >> I. >> Denise Chapman. >> Hi. >> Lori Goel. >> Hi. >> Don Kirk. >> Hi. >> Alexander Lesum. >> Hi. >> Nancy Rumfelt. >> Hi. >> Mike Schul. I >> All right. So, that motion passes unanimously. So, we'll move now to discussionaction items. And the first discussion action item will
068become the agenda item that was 5.1 and it will now become 6.1 of the discussion action items. So Lori, you're the one who asked that we pull it and move it. So you're on. >> The only um the reason that I pulled that is because I was not a member of the board at that time. So I'd like to abstain from that particular vote. >> Okay. All right. Dr. Heler, this is a place where you can help your new board president. So how do we uh how do we negotiate that? Certainly as new board members, they can't abstain from from voting, I believe, on that on that item since they were not members of the board. I believe that's is that or is it all technically they just don't vote? >> Usually you can abstain
069if it's a conflict of interest. Do you feel like that's a conflict of interest? >> Not a conflict of interest, but just as we I was not seated on the board at that time, so I just wanted to get clarification on that before actually voting on it. >> I'll grab it for you. All right. Um, >> Lori, are you okay then to based on that explanation, are you all right to >> vote on that or do you still wish to abstain? >> Um, I was here for the meeting, so I I will vote on it, but I just didn't know what the pro I wanted to make sure we were doing it properly. >> Yeah. Okay. All right. Thanks. Um, so that was 6.1 and 6.2. We still need to vote on it. >> We
070need to vote on 6.1. >> That's [clears throat] right. >> All right. Let's go ahead and vote on 6.1. >> I'll make the motion. >> I'll move to approve 6.1. >> Second. >> All right. Is there any further discussion? Okay. Laura Lee, would you call the role? >> Stu Boyd, >> I. >> Denise Chapman, >> hi. >> Lori Goel, >> I. >> Don Kirk, >> I. >> Alexander Lesum, >> I >> Nancy Rumfelt, >> I. >> Mike Schaw, >> I. >> All right. Now, item 5.9 from the action consent agenda becomes 6.2 in discussion action. And so Lori, what would you like to say about that one? >> The reason I pulled that particular item is that I saw that there was a uh money allocated to Mary Blair of $275,000. And I believe that
071that should be uh reallocated elsewhere. And my preference would be for that to go under the ADA priority projects as we are allocating that which would make that line item uh $2,775,000. >> All right. Anyone else want to comment on that? >> Um I I would if if I could. um until the building is is out of our hands, we are still stewards of the building and therefore we must maintain it. We must do that. Um [snorts] many of our buildings, the average age of our buildings is almost 60 years old now. U Mary Blair is certainly one of them that has is around that age. And so there are things that need to be done to maintain it. Even if the intention is to sell it at some point or use it for another
072purpose, it is still taxpayer, it's a taxpayer asset and it is our responsibility to make sure that it works. And that includes doing things like ADA upgrades at that facility as well as all of our others. So, um I I just think this is silly to be >> All right. C. Can I ask Todd to talk to us a little bit about what that $275,000 is for? >> Yes. Good evening, Mr. President. Board of Education, Dr. Heler. Todd Piconei, assistant superintendent of operations. Yeah. What that's for is um that's a there's two items really. One is the parking lot. Um so our risk is if we don't do something, the damage is going to get a lot worse. Then that number that's in there is going to multiply year after year. So it's really protect
073our asset that's there. Um, so that that that's why that piece is in there. There's I don't know how the exact list is, but I think there's um asphalt roofing and then there is an issue with the kitchen that uh we don't take care of it will multiplying cost. So all the bond items in here are the high priority that if we don't take care of it, it's just going to cost us more money down the road. So this is um the item or this is the amount to just kind of get that building back to a space where we can then go and take care of other high high uh priority items. So the major part of that dollar amount is actually uh if you drive through it the parking lot it's literally like
074uh driving in gravel and then we have an issue with how it's attached to SSSE we've got to do something with. >> All right. Anyone have questions for Todd? Go ahead, Nancy. >> I I guess because I just looked it up and I saw that it said parking lot and kitchen. So, I guess my question is I know if I have the wrong organizations, I'm sure you you'll correct me. I know that it was was the YMCA that changed the lease or ended the lease. So, I know that we haven't really decided yet what to do with the building. And so my only concern is and again we don't I don't know what we're going to do with the building. If we put money into the parking lot and also the kitchen and then later
075we decide it should be I don't know it should be torn down or maybe we should sell it that it's money we we put out that maybe we should have held on to until we decided what we're going to actually do with the building. Um, and I don't know at what point you're going to be able to come to the board and present to us and tell us what we're going to do or what you recommend we're going to do with the building again because if we sell it, this might be money that doesn't need to be spent. And that's that's the that's the concern that I have after hearing this. >> And I can say we do have a we're going through a process now to identify um the district's high level needs and
076what that building could be used for. Um the challenge with selling that building is um where it sits within the confines of the other properties. So we have SSC and Conbal. It actually the lot size is very small to where it's a pretty challenging uh location to sell. Um but the process would be we would uh we're looking at now the high priority needs of the district what it would be really work with the master plan committee to make sure that aligns with that physical asset and then the hope is by the end of this year to bring something to the board you know a recommendation of uh what we're looking at. So you know high level ideas which are not flushed out or anything is just like a family center um more of an
077area for students with intensive needs. to those types of programs. But again, that's like up here. That's just being flushed out. So I don't that's not set. >> So if I'm hearing you, you're saying that we'll most likely will the district will retain the building for some >> use like maybe maybe it's an intensive learning center, which then it would probably make sense that we would pave the parking lot and do the kitchen. >> Correct. I mean, I don't want to get ahead of the MPC, the master plan committee, the board, but um, you know, just candidly, it makes more sense to keep it than it does trying to offload it to someone else. >> Okay. I I do appreciate that it was brought to our attention because I didn't realize that before, but what
078you're saying makes sense. So, thank you. >> Anyone have any other questions for Todd? Go ahead. Um when I did the digging on um just pulling up on the website then it just it said asphalt major and then it said kitchen equipment and that's kind of what you know since it was equipment it doesn't say that it's a you know and when you it does not say that this is a priority need you know it doesn't rank the needs um I guess a little bit more information would have gone a long way to to answer question, but what what do you mean by equipment? >> So, if I recall, and I don't have the list, but um actually, let me before I answer, let me get that actual item and I can pull it up
079to show exactly what it is. Um off the top of my head, I know it's um non-compliant. There's items that are non-compliant there that we're also looking at uh doing ProStart um educational system there, Prostart catering. Um so, I know it's with the kitchen equipment. I don't have the actual piece off top of head top of mind. >> Yeah. Yeah. I just would say that we've been having a lot of conversations about how to use that facility. There are more programs and needs than maybe space even allows. So, we will definitely be able to use that facility. As Todd said, we have to get master planning committee to be a part of that conversation. But some very exciting things that I think are being talked about for that facility that in some ways align very
080much with a lot of what you talked about in terms of your takeaways as a board from CASBY in terms of how we can provide services for our families. Um that I think there's some really good exciting ways that we can use that. So yeah, the the prospect of selling it versus keeping it and reusing it for a different way, I think more likely that we will we will want to keep it and reuse it for our district. >> All right. Anybody else have a question for Todd? All right. Thank you, Todd. And do any board do you have a question for Todd or would you like just make a comment? >> You good? >> All right. >> Just >> any other questions for Todd? You do? >> Um, well, I guess it maybe it's
081not for Todd, but it could be actually for Dr. Heler. Um we had talked uh briefly about uh that there were un under unutilized uh areas and schools and just wondering what that before voting on the allocation of this have having that discussion a little bit more so um as far as uh the underutilized schools or areas in schools where we could uh possibly do some shifting. >> Yeah. And again, that's a a big component of what master planning committee does is looking at enrollment projections, what the size of our schools, where there's areas where we need to be considering any potential changes to programming, those sorts of things. Um, one of the challenges with some of the things we're talking about with the Mary Blair property is a way to make a place that's
082very easily accessible to all families without having to go to a, you know, to a specific school, even if your child does not attend there, to have a place that's really universal for all families in the district. So that's one of the reasons Mary Blair is being looked at in that capacity. Uh but yes, master planning is looking at all the things including underutilized buildings and buildings that are lower in the enrollment. Just to talk about what our what our future for Thompson School District is. >> Okay, Mike, go ahead. >> I just have a quick question for Todd. So um I do recall you mentioning that there's a what is the figure of the amount of money that we need to kind of bring the buildings up to is it 700 million? So when
083you look at growth um educational enhancements and also um critical maintenance needs yeah 734 millionish >> and the average age of our building and I looked in our audits 49 years >> right >> and that 275,000 represents 210 of 1% of the 99 million. So I I'm not I'm just show you having you check my math because I'm the the other thing I would say and it's not really a question but a comment and and I've tried not to bleed my professional life over into this world but I I work with communities all over kind of Colorado and Wyoming looking at how to repurpose public facilities and and big communities, small communities all over. And one of the biggest issues, the biggest challenges is getting a building back up to speed to to a level
084of occupancy after you've stopped maintaining it. And I think that's to me your explanation makes perfect sense with the parking lot with especially with a kitchen. I know kitchens because when the moment you kind of turn the lights off and walk out that building starts falling apart and that's the reality especially in our climate. Wyoming it's 10 times worse. So just thank God we're not there for but [clears throat] so I I understand I I I understand kind of why it's in there and kind of given that it represent I mean so I have no problem supporting the budget. >> All right. Thank you. >> Any other questions for Todd or uh board members? Do you have any comments that you'd like to make on this issue? >> All right. Thank you Todd. >> Thank
085you. >> All right. So are we ready to vote then? Uh this is now item or discussion item 6.2 which is the approval of the 2025 bond project budgets. St could have a just a point a point of order. Um and it's unrelated to the kind of the the but it's really just more of a process question in terms of pulling items off consent agenda. Do we I mean you're making changes to the agenda on on the or reordering what is the just since this is my well first half what is the process for that we typically follow I mean when I in different communities they get put to the end of the regular agenda I mean do we and I only asked that because you're renumbering them and is there any re can't we
086just keep the existing 5.9 member B. >> Let me answer your question by saying since I've been on the board, that's the way that it's been done. >> Okay. >> Uh not to say that it's the best way or the only way, but that's the way that it has been done. >> Okay. I would say that usually since I'm the like the queen of pulling stuff off of consent agenda, it's usually put to the end of the discussion action item and it is usually renumbered then. So it would be like 6.5 6.6. I just thought you had some secret code. >> Okay. That that's not my recollection. My recollection was that it became it came at the beginning. You want to enlighten me? >> We do put it at the end because it just makes
087the numbering sequence way. So now everything is all renumbered. >> So if we put them at the end, then everything does not have to be reumbered. >> All right. >> Um so since I reumbered them at the beginning, what >> we just need to continue we need to continue it as is and we'll for now. >> For now. Yes. >> And then I will remember the next time and to put those at the end. All right. Thank you. Okay. So, um I'd entertain a motion to approve what we have numbered as 6.2, which is the approval of the 2025 bond project budget. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Did you get that? >> Who seconded? Is there a second? >> Okay. So, the motion Don, right? >> Second from Denise. >> All right. Is there
088any further discussion? >> I just want to say thank you, President Boyd, for allowing that discussion and the clarification on those items. I appreciate it. >> Of course. Um, any other discussion? >> Laura, will you >> I was just going to say the explanation helped me understand. So, I appreciate it. >> Okay, good. That's what we want to have happen. We're going to understand what we're voting on, right? >> Laurley, would you call the role, please? >> Stu Boyd, >> I. >> Denise Chapman, >> hi. >> Lori Goel, >> I. >> Don Kirk, >> I. >> Alexander Les, >> hi. >> Nancy Rumfelt, >> I. >> Mike Schaw, >> I. All right. Uh, the motion carries unanimously. So, we're going to move now to the item that was numbered as 6.1. It's now 6.3, which
089is the approval of uh curriculum improvement council new course proposals. Would someone from the staff please review the recommendations for us? >> I'll introduce both. Okay. Good evening, Mr. President, Dr. Heler, members of the board, Sarah Rasmmanson, um assistant superintendent of learning services, and also we have Tiffany Jones, who is our director of curriculum and learning design. >> Good evening, President uh Boyd, members of the board, and Dr. Heler. Tiffany Jones, director of curriculum and learning. So, we have supplied you with information that you asked at our study session. We also put together a chart that Laura Lee has um up on your screen right here. What we're looking for tonight is either the board can approve or deny CIC's recommendations for these courses that are here. What I also want to remind everybody is
090when we have need more information, that does not mean this is off the table forever. We know that we could bring that course back next year after the teacher has really refined that um and then that would be presented to CIC. We did have the one that was denied, but really in front of you, you're looking at what the CIC committee is putting for either your approval or your denial. >> All right. Any questions for Tiffany? >> Well, I don't I don't have a question. I have a comment. So, is that >> okay? That's fine, too. So I the qu the question I had was it specifically relates to history 1400. Um it was brought to our attention in a study session we asked the question that was posed was what is your appetite or
091what is your desire to take this course. it wasn't what information or more information was needed and and you know we had asked um you know I had asked and I know the c president asked for the policies and if we could have the syllabus and and um and I think after reviewing that and after looking at that I would like to move to to include that as as approved as that course and and I I say that for a couple reasons one is I think it's important Um, you know, it's an opportunity to give kids college credit. I think for one thing, it's a really interesting course. And I had a conversation through email with the teacher who um who proposed it, and I know he had made uh from what I had heard,
092he had put a lot of effort into putting together the syllabus. And he said one of the things he said to me and I'd reflect on some of the comments that our colleagues had made earlier was when he had looked and he had asked his students and parents what they were most interested in. This course was the by far the most popular. Overwhelmingly he said overwhelmingly the most popular choice by both the students and the parents. And this class because it's a college credit class is um you know it's offered I think partially through to my understanding the gifted and talented students the students that are collegebound and provides opportunity to earn college credit um and so I looked you know so I I I feel like that you know when asked that question you
093know I think I think it deserves to be approved and I would I would kind of move to amend or I'm not sure what the process would be but I think we should approve that going forward. I don't I don't think it's fair to ask the teacher to come back again and submit again and again because we're not happy because it has the term controversy in it. We're teaching his histography. I can't even pronounce the word correctly, but histography, which is it's a different I had to look it up so I could understand it better, but it's it's the study of understand interpreting and understanding history and methods and how how history evolves and how it's interpreted over time and looking at controversial issues is the way that we do that. So, I'm not uncomfortable
094with the subject matter. I looked at the syllabus um and I I honestly I would want to take that course and I asked my son who's a senior in high school and he said his quote was which shocked me he said that looks like a really cool course. So I I don't know why we're kind of waiting or what more information this teacher could provide at this point that's going to change and that is going to hold us up from being able to offer something. And I also think it's important that we respect the the work that the teacher has done providing leadership to bring that that that class forward and his demonstrated commitment to the district and the students to teach a class for college credit. So that for that reason I I feel
095very strongly that that should be an approved course going forward and and I'd like to see that see that changed or included in the resolution and I'm not sure Dr. Heler how we go about doing that or deciding >> that was just going to be my question since staff is recommending that it be postponed. How do we um deal with this? I imagine the the way it would be handled would be a mo by by the way of a motion uh board member making a motion that they want to essentially approve CIC's recommendations as presented with the with the one change to make history 1400 an approved course not waiting for more information. So it really it's you're essentially asking to amend the recommendations of CIC and and prove something other than what the CIC
096is explicitly recommending. The only thing I will add just one piece on this just to be clear though I think maybe the target for this class might be collegebound students students who might be um engaging in more higher level thinking activities which I think is absolutely the target when we open a concurrent enrollment class that is open to any student who wants to take it that is there is no barrier there's no prerequisite there's nothing that would keep a student any student from taking that course who's interested in taking it so just to be clear that there is no prerequisite on that type of a course right >> I would second Mike's motion so that we can have the discussion about actually about the actual amendment to change it to approve. So, I would second
097the motion so we can have >> Actually, I'm going to stop us and see if if this makes sense. Um, I'd like to pull that class out of the list. >> Okay. >> And have us then deal with the other classes that Curriculum improvement council uh recommended that we approve. and the one that they recommended that we deny. Is that right, Tiffany? That's correct. >> And then and then we'll come back and talk about this class separately. >> Then because we have a motion on the floor and I second it, then Mike needs to withdraw his motion. >> So I don't believe we have a motion yet. I just described the motion. >> I thought you did. >> That's okay. >> No, it's fine. I I mean I if I I would like to kind
098of have a full discussion and a vote on it. As long as you can guarantee that that'll occur, I'm more than happy to withdraw in and >> All right. I also didn't hear you actually stated as a motion, but but I may have missed it. So, let's deal with the other classes um which curriculum improvement council is recommending that we approve and then the one that they're recommending that we deny and then we'll come back to talk about this. Does that make sense? And then I would need a motion. I I would say I I would make a motion to remove >> whatever it is history >> history 1400 from the curriculum list to be discussed as standalone item. >> All right. >> Second. >> Okay. Any further discussion? >> Laurely, please call the role.
099>> So the first was by Nancy. The second was by who? >> Lori. Thank you. was the second was Lori, right? Yes. >> Stu Boyd. >> Hi, >> Denise Chapman. >> Hi, >> Lori Goel. >> Hi, >> Don Kirk. >> Hi, >> Alexander Lesome. >> Hi, >> Nancy Rumfelt. >> Hi, >> Mike Schul. >> Hi. >> All right. Now, Laurely, for the sake of numbering, um, since we're pulling this class off and considering it, is it still part of 6.3 or does it now have a different number? >> So, your the um approval of the curriculum improvement council new proposals with the exception of history 1400 is still 6.3. I would probably go ahead with your discussion about this instead of throwing something at the end of the agenda. So I would make however you
100want to make this approval um I would um make that 6.4. >> So the separate course will be 6.4. So 6.3 is your discussion right now. >> All right. I'm learning a lot tonight. [laughter] All right. So, we are now discussing 6.43. >> We haven't voted on that yet. >> Yeah. >> Yes. >> All right. Laurely, please call the role. >> All right. >> I move that we approve the curriculum list proposed as modified. Second. >> Second. >> All right. Any further discussion? >> Okay. Hang on. Did we move to approve the curriculum council proposal with the exception of history 1400? >> Yeah. [snorts] >> Okay. So, you vote. You're approving that whole list except history 1400. >> Yes. >> That's why my motion was as modified. >> Yeah. Yep. >> All right. So, now
101we're moving to 6.4. Now we're moving to the vote. >> No, we got to do >> 6.4. We already did vote the vote. >> You voted. >> You've already voted. >> Yes, you voted on if you approved the recommendation of the CIC horse proposals with the exception of history 1400. So you approved everything on that list except history 1400 and you did vote on it >> and it carried 70. So now you need to pull out history 1400 and have however you want to like what whatever your whatever your item is going to be called and then vote on that and have a motion >> and this will be 6.4 right Laurie? >> Yes. >> All right. So, um, do we have a motion to change the designation of >> I'd move to change the
102designation of, uh, history 1400 uh, from uh, need more information to approved. >> All right, that needs a second. >> I'll second. >> All right, so motion by Mike, second by Nancy. um discussion. >> I guess at our study session uh the one thing that was brought up is that all of what was in that course, this is what I recall from the study session is that those items are also already in other history courses and I think that keeping them there will help probably broaden that interest rather than pulling the controversies out. um if they're left where they are rather than double double teaching them I guess so to speak. So I think I would go with the recommendation of the CIC and staff. >> All right. Anybody else on the board have comments?
103I do. >> Um Sure. Mike, you want to go next then? >> Yeah. I I so I guess since I've kind of been championing this kind of cause I suppose I I um you know I do understand that that you know we're we are teaching elements of this in other courses but I think what's unique about this one is it's an opportunity to offer college credit and it's also taught at a much higher level than other courses um I I would assume given you know given the fact that that you have eligible to earn college credit um and I think you you know, looking at it when I read just the overview, um, you know, students gain an understanding of historical process and methodology and learn how to use critical historical analysis in order to
104achieve a greater understanding of current issues, events, and problems, which I think is really important in teaching history is understanding the nuance, teaching to learn or teaching to understand different issues, not to agree with them, but to teaching them to understand and and preparing kids to be successful in college and preparing them to kind to think to to think critically. So I feel very strongly based on what the teacher has done based on you know my conversation with him that this is a class that that should be approved and that uh that should be offered to students I'm assuming in the fall. Is that correct? Would that be correct? >> That would be correct. >> So I did a little bit of research. Can I >> um I would say that I'm inclined to vote
105to approve this um for a couple reasons. One, if you recall what Representative Slaw said during our dinner when he was talking about history, was the history written from whose perspective? And so was that is it really true and accurate? when I read through the syllabus which was what was missing the first time um and other information I think it's good to not just teach the history history but help them this class the way I read it is help them learn how do you discern who wrote who wrote the history what perspective were they coming from and did they write and then did they do a fair assessment of their portrayal of it. And what's really intriguing to me is in week four, part of it is for the students to find their own articles,
106their own on the 1619 project and the 1776 um commission, which they're two very diverse perspectives, but then come back with what's their take on it? How did they and and I think that's a good exercise in when you're trying to look at history understand those nuances of are you getting an actual historical factual or did the historian mix in mix in their bias and so I think this course which is I think why it's college level I think is a good is a good exercise for the students because it's not necessarily learning about history it's how do you discern who wrote it and did they write it accurately and and all of those things. So, I'm in support of it. I I surprised myself. >> Okay. Um at the at our previous discussion of
107this, you'll recall that I asked for uh the curriculum improvement team to provide uh policy the existing policy related to this. And so I looked at the policy. I also looked at the syllabus and I found some pretty significant correlation between the two. Um let me read you a sentence from this is from policy IMBB. Controversial issues are divi defined as those problems, subjects or questions about which there are significant differences of opinion and discussions of which generally uh create strong feelings among people. A sentence from the syllabus is that the course examines a variety of cases in US history where historians have significant disagreement or diverse interpretations regarding what happened and why come to an understanding of what historians do and how they do it. So I saw that part of the syllabus fit
108very well with um the sentence from policy. Let me just share one other policy statement. Um, so this is from the policy. Um, teachers may use controversial learning materials and our guest speakers and discuss controversial issues if they contribute to the attainment of course objectives directly related to board adopted academic standards. The educational purpose of teaching about controversial issues or using controversial materials must be student achievement in academic standards rather than reaching conclusions about the validity of a specific point of view. And again going back to the syllabus uh is the statement. You will then be able to use this understanding to develop your own ability to make sense of the past, present and future. and then it goes on a little bit beyond that. So, um, after looking at the existing policy and the
109syllabus, I see correlation. Uh, and so I'm certainly in favor of of approving of this. Alexandra, >> so I think one of the biggest concerns you guys had with this was the like parental consent piece of that. Um, do you feel like that's something that could be nava goal nav nav whatever you could figure out. >> Um, if you I mean like I know there was a question about like people signing up for it but then changing and jumping in and blah blah blah blah blah blah. I mean to me those sound like it's something that needs to be addressed but don't sound insurmountable. Um, can you talk a little bit more about that? Whether you or that's somebody else maybe you're looking >> we always just worry about that workload on counselors knowing that
110classes are filled and then if kids don't get their first choice what that means for the student because we always want kids to have that choice but then if a parent says no I'm not okay with this. What else is open um seatwise and of course we want our students to be taken care of. >> Yeah. Only thing I'll add with that is just this in general just this understanding that this course by its nature >> is controversies in history right which means >> in in theory each unit parents could say I'm going to utilize the the policy around controversies in teaching and say I want my kid opted out of that particular unit and now we need to provide them with an alternate assignment when every single unit is controversies in history there was
111some concern about that. So, we will need to come up with a procedure somehow to get the parents as early as possible. I would recommend I spoke to Mrs. Rasmusson this morning. I would recommend that we do something along the lines of when they register for courses this spring. As soon as we know the list of students who've registered doing some type of parent um permission then so that if the parents don't agree, we can quickly change those course requests before we roll master schedule. That's a different process than we typically follow. So again, just the nature of the course will require some different processes to make sure we're not putting students in a position or teachers even in a position where it could be discerned as them violating the other policy around controversies in
112history. Um my biggest concern with this overall the whole time has been I want to make sure our teachers are protected when teaching about topics that in the community at large could be that people might come after individual teachers for teaching topics that might be considered controversial. Now, that's a job for myself and our team to make sure that's done well. But it's always my concern is I don't want to put targets on teachers in in inadvert in inadvertently during those processes. So, I I think we can find a solution to those pieces to your question. Like it's that is not the insurmountable challenge that we cannot find a solution for if the board desires to have this course move forward for the fall. As we talked about last time, the other challenge will always
113be with a course like this. As this course expands to other campuses with different teachers with different perspectives on this, how do we create some level of alignment in how this course is taught because this course is very will be in many ways very dependent on the way that teacher chooses to lead that conversation have those things and and that is again to our end that's a district level need to create alignment around these courses. For now it's a level high class only. I anticipate, like you said, this will be a class that some students will find appealing and it may expand to other schools and we have to then figure out how do we make this an aligned course that we're not having four different versions of the same course being offered depending on
114the teacher that's assigned to teach the class. So, >> can I add one more point? When you ask about the process, we did meet with Love and High around what would that process look like for parent signature. However, when you approve a course, that means all five high schools would have access. And that conversation has not been had at each of those high schools to make sure that they are okay doing a parent signature and making sure that their counselors are aware of what that would look like on entry into that class. >> Level High that you talked to was okay with it. >> They had not figured that out at the first meeting. The counselor depart counseling department was not aware that this submission was there. Um, and so that is where we asked
115if the board had appetite. we needed to figure out each of those pieces across the line to make sure that we would have that satisfied. So that has not been approved by level and high counseling department yet. Um that registration which includes an assistant principal a principal um that had not been approved by them yet that they would have to do that work. >> All right, Denise. So the in does the university required the instructor to have a certain accreditation to teach this class? >> They have to have a master's degree. >> Um I mean yeah I just want to make sure that we're not creating a course that's tied to one person. Um and then you know potentially we don't have anybody that could teach it if they were to leave. Um, so I
116don't know what our level high history staff looks like, but um, yeah, just and particularly as we were or choose to do it and spread it throughout the district, do we have staff that can teach it without, you know, setting up students for disappointment if they see that it's available? Yeah, I would point out just to that point you're making in every place I've been and I've served in in the role that that Tiffany Jones is serving in now, it is always one of the things we consider is is this course what we call kind of a unicorn. It is driven by one teacher's desire to teach a course and when that teacher if and when that teacher ever no longer works for us, that course kind of falls away. It doesn't happen. Which doesn't
117seem like maybe not the big deal. The one piece that is technical but important to know is there's only so many numbers that we can have for course numbers and we are actually running low on course numbers uh because of the number of courses over time that have been approved that have then fallen away. We can't reuse course numbers because those numbers are tied to students and those students transcripts forever. So we can't say well we're not using that class anymore. Let's reuse that number. We don't get to do that. Those numbers stay permanently attached to that course forever even if the course is no longer being taught. So we do there is a limit on the number of courses that a district can actually have in terms of course numbers. So just again small
118technical thing but it's important just for you all to know that as another piece that curriculum departments always think about especially around quote unquote unicorn types of classes. So, >> Don, >> um I I wonder if I mean you can always have an exception to a policy, right? I mean, that's that by nature is an is an allowable thing. And I I I think that having a person um sign that they are aware that the entire class by name is going to be included that. So, we're not going to go line by line through because we can't. Um, but I mean, I think there'll be great interest for anybody who's on the line. I think doing what everyone up here has done is to read through it. If I was a parent who was like,
119should I? I'm going to want to do that. And then I think if we're saying for this class because it is specifically tied to a policy we have we're asking you to say that you are op you know that you are opting in knowing that this is in fact controversial and having them have enough information to know what that means um I think would be helpful overall right um and get us out of the web of having to redo every assignment 10 different times 10 different ways. Um, I as far as the having something go away because it's a unicorn. I think that this is one class where that really won't be a problem. I have a feeling the problem will be that people will want it fairly quickly and the alignment thing will be
120the bigger challenge as is my guess because I think the people who are interested in history are often quite interested in the thought process behind and why did they and what were some of the impacts and things like that and the fact that this goes deeper and richer into that I think is why um it's caught our attention and um I think it it will probably continue to do that and it's it's not as if controversial history is going to probably stop happening. So, um I imagine it could last a very very long time. So, um I also uh I'm actually really grateful we're having this conversation because this is one of those classes I really wanted us to have and um I understand that how important it is to have the logistics worked out
121because you could have something great and still have it fail because you don't have the infrastructure for it. So, I appreciate the thought that goes into that, all the work that is done for all of our classes um to make sure that that's the case and I appreciate that the the fact that this group was so thorough with that anytime that we are sort of changing from what they said. I think it's important to acknowledge that as well. Um, and and in this case, I think all of that work that was done to say this is why it it is a challenge for us is something that we're going to use to be able to hopefully not have challenges when we roll it out. It sounds as if a lot of that groundwork has been
122done already. I I appreciate the fact that you've been doing that with Fidelity till now, too. And and I agree. I really want to sit on this class, like really want to. And um I think there's a lot of good things that that come from a community that's well educated um in history and how it impacts us today. So I'm I'm excited that we would do something like this even if it's not perfect and we got to work through some stuff and now we're in [clears throat] open enrollment and class enrollment. So thank you counselors for all you do all the time, especially this one. >> Great. Laurie, would you refresh my memory as to where we are right now [laughter] in terms of the process? >> So, we're on item 6.4, which was approval
123of history 1400, controversies in history. You have a motion from Mike and a second from Nancy. >> All right. Is there any more discussion? >> May I don't know if I [laughter] want to ask this. So, we're voting on whether to approve this yes or no. If I were if I were to make a motion to change it back to need more information or until process is figured out, would that make it too much or should we just stick with voting yes or no? >> You would vote against this motion if that's what you wanted. Then it reverts back then it reverts back to >> and the only reason I'm asking this and maybe you can address I I I see on your face this like oh my gosh I didn't expect the board to
124do this now what are we going to do when they approve it and we leave the room so maybe I'm misreading your face but it I I sense that you're like I'm not sure what we're going to do now if we we the board approves it. Am I reading >> [laughter] >> Good job, Nancy. We just have a little time to get ready for registration. And so, I just want to make sure again, we want to support our teachers and making sure he has put a lot of work into this. And it's not finalized. It is not to the place where we are ready to make sure that parents are fully aware for that signature piece. Registration starts very quickly after we come back from winter break. And I don't want him working over break.
125So that's where my my shock is coming from because I also want to support and we also have to think about what are we doing to support our system with counselors, registration, assistant principles. What does that look like? >> Yeah. Yeah. The other piece I just again whatever whatever sign off permission, whatever it is we're going to create, we're going to need to get that vetted to make sure we're not putting again the teacher in a position of being seen as violating the other policy. So, we're going to have to really make sure and again to her point, there's a very small window of time from now and when course registration starts. So, >> so I don't know if I I mean I had a similar concern like I I think this course sounds great.
126I think it has a lot of potential. I think I really want it some be something that could be successful, but I'm you know to that point I'm not certain is if that's something that could be accomplished with approving it right now. If it would be better to have more time to get all the parts and pieces in place or if it is something that could be achieved between now and January or whatever and that I I mean you guys know that better than better than we do. Well, I mean, again, I'll just say we're in public education, so we're very used to doing things um with short time frames and trying to turn things around quickly. We'll do everything we can if that is the decision the board makes. We don't have, right, we
127we have to that's our obligation. Um so, we would be probably meeting very quickly to try to figure that out, especially with Lovelin High to come up with a good process that they feel comfortable with that's not going to create potentially extra burdens for their counseling staff. I think there's ways we can get there. Um my biggest concern is getting that permission piece vetted appropriately that it's not creating this new risk for the teacher and that there's any piece that we can do to support and again the teacher understands that that is the case because they want this course to happen. So um can it happen? Anything can happen. Will it be potentially challenging especially given the where we are with approaching winter break? Yeah, it'll create some challenges, right? I don't know exactly what
128date they start doing course description and start doing this work but it's very quickly after they get back from from winter break. Okay, other comments. >> I just want to uh thank the other directors for their insight and thank you uh director Schaw for for pulling this and for the discussion. Um I think putting the extra burden on everybody at this time and uh I think maybe that's where the need more information was to vet that out a little bit better. And I think allowing you guys a little bit of breathing room I think would be appropriate. But I think the course um I've gotten a lot of my questions answered about the course itself. So, thank you. >> All right. >> Go ahead, Brett. >> Okay. Any further discussion? >> Yes. So, you're voting
129on approving history 1400 controversies in history. >> My final is I I think I'm going to lean that we need to get more information listening to the process. I approve the course. I I like the course, but I don't want to approve it and then you guys become overwhelmed trying to make the process happen. So, >> all right. Are we ready to vote? >> Laurie, please call the role. >> Stu Boyd. No >> Denise Chapman. >> No >> Lorie Goel. >> Nay >> Don Kirk. >> Yes. >> Alexander Lesome. >> No. >> Nancy Rumfelt. >> No. >> Mike Schaw. >> Yes. >> Right. So the vote total Laurely was two yes and five no. Is that correct? >> Motion fails. Two to five. >> Motion fails. >> All right. Can I ask so obviously the
130there's a desire to have the class but what is the next step I mean if we need more information because what frustrates me is it obviously the class there's potential for this to be a very popular class and an opportunity for students to to gain credit and now it's wouldn't be offered until 2027 is that the >> yeah I mean it essentially would not be available in the course description handbook for this coming school year um so what would happen between now and then is we We continue obviously to work with the teacher to continue to think about the course in general, more importantly the processes to make sure we can protect both the teacher and the district in terms of that course for the students who are in there. So getting permission forms, getting
131all those things put together um which will I typically would invol involve at least some level of attorney review to make sure it does actually cover our staff members um and protect them in terms of our policies. Well, the the the and I'll stop, but the frustration I have is it's not about the content of the course. I mean, we look at I just to be really clear, the teacher put the work in and put the effort in and the syllabus, you know, obviously there's a there's a requirement that it matches the college curriculum and we've looked at that. What really frustrates me is this is not being approved because it's an administrative burden. And and I know you said it wasn't, but I'm going to I'm going to push back on that. it when
132it become the only reason we're doing this is because it's an administrative burden not because of there's a desire because there's an opportunity and because there's a teacher and students and parents who are interested in it and to me that's very frustrating with that I'll I'll I'll stop I will not call >> thank you >> all right um I'm going to suggest that we take a short break a five minute break and we will come right Back. Okay. >> But we did address Okay, I'll do the [clears throat] >> All right, since Nancy is seated, we will resume. >> Laura Lee, am I correct that that approval of bond issuance documentation is now 6.5. All right. >> Yes, sir. >> And that's where we're moving to next. Um, so who's talking with us about this?
133Bob. >> Uh, good evening, Mr. President. Uh, members of the board, Dr. Heler, uh, Bob Ibers, chief financial officer. Um, these documents, [clears throat] excuse me, were sent to you during the study session and as noted, uh, uh, um, board member Rumfeld recommended that we be clear on the board resolution that the blanks in there are going to be taken care of by the motion. Um, these are all the documents you're actually proving the resolution. The other documents for your information, those are actually follow as a result of the uh, when we actually go out to borrow, we actually have a paying agent when we actually uh give the money uh get the money from the uh the lenders and the other um paying when we actually pay the debt going forward. So the motion
134that you have in your documentation talks about that it's not to exceed $99 million as voted by the uh the voters in November um that you're approving the form of the pain agent the bond purchase agreement. You're also authorizing the board president, the superintendent, and the chief financial officer to make the final pricing determinations relating to the sale of the bonds. Uh we have a pricing uh uh prospectus finalization call the first week of January. We'll be talking with the rating agencies later in January and then we will go out to bid at the end of end of January. Uh we expect to receive the funds in February which fits within the cash flow of the bond project. So I would be asking you to approve to move that motion and approve it. >> I'm
135okay to move unless there's other discussion. >> Second. >> Make a motion to approve. >> Is that what you're doing? >> I'm going to read the motion as written. >> Right. I move to approve the resolution authorizing the issuance of general obligation bonds in an amount not to exceed $99 million as authorized by the voters at the November 4th, 2025 election and approve the form of paying agent agreement, the bond purchase agreement, the continuing disclosure certificate, official statement and other documents necessary to affect the financing and authoriz authorize any of the board president, superintendent and chief financial offer to make final pricing determinations relating to the sale of the bonds. >> Second from Lori. So motion by Nancy, second uh from Lori. Discussion. I just have one quick question for Pava. When we had the
136presentation at the study session, I I was told uh by your colleagues, I know you you were that the the fee was like 300,000 for for part of it and it was about 600,000 which if my math again that's about seven uh uh or.7 point not 7% 7% issuance cost is that I just want to know what the issuance cost. >> So my understanding is the rating agency costs about $100,000. Okay. And at this point, we expect to go to one radian agency instead of two. Uh there are other um agency fees that are advisors and things like that. 600,000 I believe is way on the high end on that part. It's not going to be that much. Oh, I so but but I mean the the um the issue you said the when I
137asked the the um when I asked the people that were presenting the bond the they said it was 300,000 in fees on top of the I I I just want to get a sense. >> No, I the 300,000 is about the total cost of the fees. Oh, >> okay. So that's so that's even so we're like less than half of one. So we're >> the reality a lot of the fees would be the same if we did 99 or if we did our entire $750 million the fee for the a lot of the things would still be the same just because the same amount of work regardless of the number of of the dollars raised. >> Yeah, that's fine. Thank you. I just I just want to understand the issuance cost just to make sure
138it's within normal industry and it seems like we're on the very low end of that. So, >> yeah. And we will be reporting back to you on what the actual costs are. >> Thank you. >> All right. >> Any other questions? Don, I'll start down here with you. Do you have anything, Denise? Alexandra? I don't either. Mike, anything else that you'd like to ask, Lori? All right, then. Let's proceed to our roll call vote. >> Stu Boyd. >> I. >> Denise Chapman. >> Hi, >> Lori Goel. I >> Don Kirk >> I >> Alexander [clears throat] Leam >> I >> Nancy Rumfelt >> I >> Mike Sch >> All right. So that motion passes unanimously and we will move now to discussion action item 6.6 with the new numbering uh which is the approval of
139the 2024 2025 annual comprehensive financial report. That's you again. >> Good evening again. Um, board president, members of the board, Dr. Heler, Bobby Brrisole, chief financial officer. I will tee this up. Uh, our auditors are actually be make the presentation and then open up for questions thereafter. Previously sent to you is our cover memo, the actual proposed uh, acter which this year we hired our auditors to do that. Our goal in the future is that we will do it internally again but this was performed by them their draft management letter and the audit presentation which is the PowerPoint that they will go through. Uh also with me is Zach Moser director of finance and the uh presenter from our auditor is John Paul Le Chevle from CLA Clifton Larson Allen and I'll ask him to
140come up now. Presentation is Thank you again. My name is John Paul Lishia with Clifton Larson Allen or CLA, the external uh audit firm uh for the district. Uh presenting the results um kind of the final draft form prior to issuance of the annual comprehensive financial report for fiscal year 2025. And the fiscal year ends June 30th, 2025. So I realize in December we're kind of pretty far uh past that point. Um but this is kind of the uh around the typical timing for when the audit is complete and the results are presented to uh to the board. So if we can uh scroll through and then to the next one. So um just wanted to quickly discuss kind of our responsibilities as the auditors what we're uh issuing the uh audit report for. So
141basically after all of our audit procedures we issue our audit opinion. And what that is is uh it means that after all of our audit procedures, we're saying with reasonable assurance that the financial statements are materially correct um and that all of the required disclosures are included. So uh basically what that means is that our audit opinion um is assessing the accuracy of the financial statement. So our audit report doesn't say whether the financial standing of the district is good or bad. It just says whether it's accurate or not. Um we also assess the internal controls um but we don't issue an audit report over the internal controls. So what that means is does the district have good processes for uh financial activity uh or uh bank statements being reconciled? Is there approval processes before
142checks are dispersed? Uh before payroll is made, that type of thing. So uh those are the things that we're looking at as part of the audit. Uh we do um have some procedures designed to review for potential fraud, but uh our audits not specifically designed to look for fraud. If anything like that were to come to our attention, we would bring it to the board regardless of the dollar amount. Um but it is kind of a common misconception that what we're looking for is specifically just fraud. Um we're really making sure that the financial statements are materially correct and have all the disclosures that are required. So if you move to the next slide uh and one more uh so discussing kind of the different components of the audit uh there's really kind of three
143main components that we'll um discuss. The first is the financial statement audit uh which is really the bulk of kind of the testing and procedures that we do. This is the actual financial statements that's included that about 150 pages that are in the uh PDF that was uh provided. Um we're uh intending again at this point it's still kind of the final draft. We anticipate probably around next week that we'll be uh issuing that um pending approval from uh you all as the board. Um we're planning on issuing an unmodified audit opinion which is informally referred to as a clean audit opinion. That's the highest level that you can receive. Again, what that means is that after all of our audit procedures, we believe everything is uh materially uh correct and presented as it should
144be. So, that's kind of the first component. I'm going to go into just super high level. Uh I've got some uh graphs in there to kind of explain some of the results. Again, it's about 150 pages, so uh I'm not planning on going into too much detail, but do want to give just a little bit of a flavor for what uh the results look like. Um the next item uh kind of included within the audit is referred to as the single audit. And what that is is audit procedures performed over federal awards. So the district does receive a relatively significant amount of federal awards. Any uh entity that receives over a million dollars in federal awards, which the district does, is required to have uh this single audit. U and that's testing to make sure
145that all of the compliance requirements that the federal government has, basically the strings attached, if you will, um that comes with those federal awards are being complied with. Um and so that is uh a required basically one of the strings attached is that if you receive over a million dollars you're required to have this uh single audit uh performed by the external auditors. So uh that is still in uh process that will be uh it's a little bit farther behind than again kind of the next week uh issuance. So that will be issued in January. The deadline for that is the end of March. So there's still uh time for that to be uh completed. The federal government was behind on releasing what's referred to as the compliance supplement. That basically says, "Here's all the
146procedures, things that we want auditors to do. They normally issue that in May. They issued it uh right before Thanksgiving." So, it was quite a bit later than it normally was, which kind of has set everything uh back a little bit, but again, with the deadline being uh the end of March, uh the district has plenty of time to have that completed. So, did want to give normally we'd have kind of both presented at the same time. So did want to bring that uh to your attention that that's still probably around 75% completed. And then we also have our findings and recommendations. So again that's uh not on the performance of the district but more making sure that these are kind of the processes that the finance uh business services department uh has uh in
147place to make sure that things are running smoothly and any recommendations that we have as part of that. So if you move to the next slide, I did want to briefly kind of um the terminology that's used can be a bit confusing. So I did want to outline uh when we talk about those audit findings or recommendations, there's three levels of those. The most significant is referred to as a material weakness. This would be, you know, a really significant item that uh should be addressed immediately. Uh the next level is a significant deficiency. That's kind of your moderate um issue that should be addressed but is not as significant as the material weakness. And then the last kind of uh category would be your best practice recommendations or kind of minor deficiencies, things that we
148want to bring to your attention but at the same time are not nearly as significant as the other two. So if you move to the next slide, um this is our first year performing the uh audit for the district. Um so prior year it was a different audit firm performing that. Uh they did have three material weaknesses over financial reporting. Um which uh reviewing that is very significant. There were a lot of issues that they identified. Um again that material weakness is kind of the urgent should be addressed immediately. Um we're very pleased to be able to say that based on our audit procedures, all of those uh corrective actions were taken on those and there was significant improvement in all of the areas that they had identified. So if we move to the next
149slide, we kind of have what the current year is. We do not have any material weaknesses or significant deficiencies identified. We do have a couple of kind of those uh lower level best practices or recommendations. Um the first uh is relating to the budget process and um so the state uh finance act uh relating to or the school finance act um that kind of governs uh the requirements for schools uh does have a section that uh requires that basically as the board you set the total uh allowable or total expenditures that uh the district can have as part of the budget process and then the uh district and management of the district then um basically follows through on those costs in providing services to everyone uh within the district. And so that budget is viewed
150as kind of the guard rail of this is the total amount that should be uh spent. Um and any additional amounts that are spent should be also kind of gone back to the board for approval. So, uh, we did notice that in the final budget, uh, those costs were less than the actual total costs, uh, for a couple of the funds that the district has. So, uh, that's a recommendation that we have. basically uh we can kind of talk through maybe that in a little bit more detail that there's some circumstances that that's the that's the idea behind it but a lot of times it's something that um makes sense and is probably approved by the board but not necessarily updated through the budget process. So for example uh one of the funds that was
151uh overexpended so actual expenditures greater than the budget was the grants fund. So if the district receives more in grants um than what was initially budgeted for, you know, if you receive additional grants, you normally want to spend those or required to spend those. Uh but that means that if you don't go back and reapprove kind of those amendments to the budget that the uh costs are going to be greater than what was budgeted for. Uh so that would be one situation. Another situation is there are some instances where u particularly this year within the general fund um there was a state payment to parah that's the uh defined benefit uh pension plan provider um under government accounting standards that's required to be shown as passed through the district even though the district never received
152the money it went straight to parah but a portion of that that basically relates to kind of what the district would be as a percentage of parah it's required to be allocated. So what mainly what I'm saying is it's kind of a non-cash transaction but it is showing up in the budget. If it's not budgeted for then that's going to cause a variance in there. Um so our recommendation is that this is reviewed um more closely in the uh fiscal year 2026 to make sure that um actual expenditures and budgeted expenditures are compared and if uh the board is going to approve any uh additional expenditures prior to uh entering into any of those transactions causing that. So that's the first recommendation that we have. The next recommendation relates to uh grants. There was a
153number um of those material weaknesses in the previous year from the previous auditors that related to grants and reconciling those and making sure that accounting wise everything's in a good spot as of the end of the year. Uh that was cleaned up a lot during the current year. Some of the activity um related to the to previous years that should have been shown uh differently in previous years and that was corrected during the current year. Uh technically that should be a reissuance of the previous year but based on the dollar amount it's around 35,000. Uh it wasn't considered worth the additional time and effort that it takes to do that. So it's recorded as activity during the current year. Uh so basically if you see the activity you'd notice that it's well you probably wouldn't
154notice because it's not a huge dollar amount but the dollar amount is higher this year than it would be by about that 35 $36,000. Um there's also one grant that was recorded as revenue during the current year, but based on the timing of when the cash uh is coming in under governmental accounting standards required to be moved into fiscal year 2026. So that was another uh adjustment is around 141,000. Uh so really it's just a timing issue of recording it in fiscal year 2025 versus 2026. So we have a recommendation that we talked about with the business services office uh for uh that item as well. So those were the two recommendations that we had. Basically anytime we have an adjustment or uh what should be an adjustment that shows up as one of our
155recommendations. So that's why uh you'll see uh these items show up a little bit later in the report as well. So have a few more things to go through, but I'll pause if there's any kind of questions or discussion on those items so far. >> Or any questions on that? >> Okay, moving on then. >> All right. So I did want to give again just a brief overview things that you uh only see really in the annual comprehensive financial report. So the annual financial statements uh these normally uh are not looked at on a uh kind of monthly or uh budget basis on an ongoing basis. So I did want to point those out. Uh the first is that the district as as all other uh Colorado school districts present. Um Colorado school districts are
156required to be part of PAR. Again, that's the defined benefit pension plan provider uh for Colorado. Um, one of the requirements that came about around 10 years ago is that the unfunded liability, so if you take kind of the current assets of PAR and compared that into the future with the earnings on that to the projected benefit payments, uh, they would be showing at a deficit if you go out, you know, in infinitely into the future. Uh and so the that unfunded portion then gets allocated to all school districts that are part of uh PAR. And so as part of that, you'll see on the graph here that um a little over 250 million is presented as a liability on the district's financial statements. Um, I do want to point that out because it is
157very significant in terms of the total dollar amount, but it's not and it's shown as a liability, but it's not something that you could uh pay off even if you happen to have $250 million sitting around. Um, so it's kind of more of anformational uh amount that's presented on the financials. Uh, but again, since it's so large, did want to point that out. Um so if we go to the next slide, if you see here, this is the net position which is um on the kind of there's two sets of financial statements that are presented. One is on a long-term basis and one more closely mirrors the budget basis of kind of cash paid. Um this is that long-term basis. It includes dollar amounts for your school buildings, for your long-term debt, bonds, um as
158well as this net pension liability. You'll notice that the amount is negative for the last 5 years. Um, if you were a business, this would be very concerning that you would be uh, you know, your liabilities would exceed your uh, assets, but for school districts, it's pretty common based on showing that pretty large number for the net pension liability. So, did want to point out that's why that that number is negative. If you look at it, it's a little over 150 million of a deficit. as we just looked at it was around 250 million of that net pension liability. Um so you know it's not nearly as dire once you kind of factor out that uh pension liability. Move to the next slide. U the this item is also related to parah. This is a
159health care subsidy that's offered to retirees. Uh oped stands for other postemployment benefits. Uh if you look the dollar amount is less than 10 million. It's a drop in the bucket compared to the pension liability number. Mainly I point it out because you don't really everyone knows what a pension is. Most people don't talk about OPED or know what that means. Um and so just pointing it out so that you'll see there's probably 10 pages of information about it within the uh financial statement. So just wanted you to be aware that that's what that stands for and that's what it relates to. If you move to the next slide. So uh the this is kind of more on the budgetary basis. So, this is going to be more similar to kind of cash that's left
160over, the reserves that can be budgeted into fiscal year 2026. Um, if you look, there's kind of this trend of a decrease in fund balance. But if you go to the next slide, I do have this split between um all of the different funds and then also the building fund. Uh, so that's what's kind of in that orangeish color. um that represents uh bond or debt proceeds uh that the district has issued. So basically you'd issue that that's cash. So that increases how much is available to spend but then you'd spend that down over the next couple of years. So it looks like fund balance is going way down but really it's just spending those uh debt proceeds. So wanted to give a little bit of context as to kind of uh that trend. If
161you go to the next slide, the general fund is where most uh operations of the district are recorded. Um so looking at the uh fund balance here, kind of again those leftover reserves um that move from year to year, pretty consistent fiscal year 2025 compared to the previous year. So, no drastic changes uh within the uh ending uh financial position of the district, at least from kind of the dollars and cents. Obviously, um it's a school district. The point is not to make money. The point is to provide an education to students. So, obviously, there's a lot of qualitative factors that go outside of the financial statements, but um again, wanted to give a little bit of context to uh those uh dollar amounts here. And then also uh actually yeah one more thing on
162here fund balance as a percentage of expenditures. So this is frequently um kind of a ratio or percentage that's used to analyze the uh health of the uh fund. So that equals 55% and what that means is that the general fund would be able to continue operations for a little over half the year before running out of money if you didn't receive anything else in revenue. So that's normally just kind of a a gauge for um how much is being held in reserve. So um wanted to point that out that number. Um this is just summarizing what I had mentioned earlier about the final budget compared to the actuals. So you can see those are the uh funds where the actual expenditures exceeded the final budget. And if we move to the next uh slide,
163uh you'll also notice as you kind of if you look at the budget in detail, uh that there are some classification differences between how things are presented within the budget and how they're presented within the financial statement. So that's why you'll see some categories that have zeros in one or the other. Uh that's not because that didn't happen at all during the year or wasn't budgeted for, but they're just in different captions. So, I wanted to point out uh that and that's something um that talking with uh the business services uh uh department that is going to be improved and kind of worked through in um future years to make sure that that's more consistent presentation between the two. Okay. So, I won't spend too much time on the single audit because again that's about
16475% complete. Uh but did want to give just a little bit of information. So, uh, the district received a little bit less than 20 million in federal awards during the year. Uh, there's three major programs. What a major program means is those are the ones that were actually uh testing um and performing procedures over to make sure that the district was in compliance with all of the required um requirements that the federal government has. Um, two of these programs also had material weaknesses identified uh in last year's audit. So, they're being tested again this year. Again, we're still working through things. I can say that it definitely looks like there's going to be improvement. We don't have any findings at this time, but normally the last 25% is if there's going to be a finding,
165that's when it's identified. So, I can't really speak to that final results until we get to that point. So, again, expect uh that to be completed in January. Uh so, this kind of summarizes. will have another letter that gets distributed after the audit is complete that has uh we're required to communicate things to the board at the end of the audit. So, it's a very templated letter that goes through these are basically bullet points of all the required items that we're uh we have to report to you. Um there was a change in accounting policy. This is required for all governments in the United States uh within this past year relating to compensated absences. That's a um vacation, PTO, sick leave, that type of thing is what changed. That doesn't impact the district's policies on
166that. Doesn't impact what employees are able to receive or those benefits. All it changes is how the liability relating to that is calculated and presented on the financial statements. Uh so that's what that relates to. The overall change was not that significant for the district. There was a change, but it wasn't wasn't drastic. um the uncorrected misstatements on here, those relate to those grants items that I mentioned as recommendations earlier. Um and so that those when we say uncorrected misstatements, that's mainly referring to the timing of when those are recorded, not that they are just wrong. It means that they're being recorded in a different year than when they uh technically should be. The district is aware of that, but again, the effort to change uh the timing of that is not worth the time
167that it would take. So, uh that's why they're showing as uncorrected. There were no uh corrected misstatements. Uh so really the information that was provided by the district was very clean. Again, huge improvement as we can see from the previous year. Uh so very uh pleased to be able to see that. Move to the next slide. Uh again, kind of all of the uh items that we're required to have kind of bullet pointed here. The one thing I would mention is that the district's financial statements do include the uh two charter schools that are part of the district. Um those are presented as uh separate columns. So even though they're kind of run independently, uh they do because the district has oversight over them, they do get included in the financial statements. Um, one of
168them is uh currently still uh waiting to have their audit finalized. Uh, and so that also is one of the reasons why the district's uh is still in draft form. That's our understanding expected to be finalized this week. So that would let us uh finalize the district's audit next week. So that's really kind of all I have uh for the audit presentation. I'll pause again if there's any other uh questions, comments or discussion. uh the under the expenditures under the equipment um that like there's an original the final but there was no dollar amount in the actual help me if you could help me understand that. >> Yep. And so that's kind of a classification difference between the budget and the financial statements. So the budget has and this is based on the classifications that
169uh the Colorado Department of Education outlines um they have equipment under these categories but under governmental accounting standards those are required to be shown under capital outlay. So if you look towards the very bottom that's where that capital outlay um category is. So there can be just classification differences between the two. And it also can be this is just the general fund. There's also a a capital projects fund where those purchases may have been recorded as well. So that's typically where that would be. I don't know if Bob or Zach if any other context, but >> appreciate that. >> Okay, Mike. Um yeah, just a couple quick questions kind of help me understand kind of learn a little bit about this process. >> Sure. Um the [clears throat] so the you you you made the
170comment about the the reserve like you know we have 55% which gets us but that's really more of a cash that's not like an a typical reserve because we because I my understanding in in you know reading this is a it's a wonderful sleep aid um [laughter] the uh um our general fund balance or we drew from reserves and I don't know Bob maybe it's a question for you um we drew from reserves to kind of make up a fund balance. Is that corre? Did I read that correctly? >> Yes. Um two two times the board voted um u a total between the um original budget last year and last January's budget. The board voted to uh appropriate $10 million out of reserve. By the time this all went through with the increased revenue and
171increased expenditures, as we talked about, we only drew down about 8.8 million. So uh we had about 39 million in reserves and we're down to about 31 million after this year. >> So the question I have though is related to that is how um what is what's considered a healthy reserve and how we because we can't obviously go on drawing off of reserve. So, um, the ideal situation is that you have a CFO that budgets too much for expenditure and too little for revenue, and you always make extra money to try to build it up. Zach and I are of the opinion is that we should be budgeting as close as possible, one to two to 3% variance by the end of the year. So, it's really current year students get current year revenues. Uh
172the reserve should be used partly because there's a table reserve. The the state requires us to have a reserve. We're well over that. This is part of a cash flow part. In addition, this money is earning. We get about $2 million a year in the general fund of interest from this reserve. So that helps us create and that's included in the budget each year. Wasn't in the past. So you want a healthy reserve so you can pay your bills on time. You want to gain some interest and you want to have healthy situations so that as we look at the next two years when the state is discussed earlier with another billion dollar issue and two years from now when the um averaging of pupils goes away when we have a fiscal cliff. We will
173have a reserve that could help us cushion what may happen at that point. As student population is currently still going down, that per pupil money from the state goes down as well, it starts limiting our mill levy override opportunity. We need the cushion there as well. When you draw it down completely, it's gone forever and you don't have it to do it. So, you really don't want it for operating. If last year we did about $1.5 to$2 million for an HVAC unit, that's a capital unit. I'm okay with using reserve for capital when we had just lost the bond and was something we had to do. We don't have to do that for the going forward for the next year. So it's an art not a science of what the proper reserve is. So 55
174is a healthy. We will have some opportunity to use some of it in next year's budget. How much is another question. >> Thank you for the um I just have one more question. Uh and and so one of the things I'm you know because as a new board member when I went to CASBY I didn't get to go to the the Paris session. Sorry, Stu. I couldn't go to everyone um to learn about that and and when I look at that and I see that that you know pension liability, how do I how do I understand that and explain that and and what should I I guess I'm trying to understand it. It it it looks like a scary number and I know there's challenges with in this day and age, not just with pension
175liabilities. Um what should I understand about that going forward? >> Sure. So, I mean, I think kind of to Bob's point, I think managing the pension plan is more of an art than a science. And when we're doing the audit, we're saying whether this is accurate or not. Um but to give some context on um the uh parah pension liability um this number while really significant and you know Thompson school district is really a tiny percentage out of PA's overall um liability. So when you have this 250 million that's actually still a pretty tiny percentage of PA's overall liability. That being said, they also uh currently are not projected to run into any cash issues for at least the next 30 years. That's one of the requirements that they uh have to look at and
176basically would be disclosed within uh their notes that then gets copied into your guys's financial statements as well. Um so that's one thing of kind of when you're looking at the time frame for this. This is really 30 plus years into the future. Um, the liability is something that would either need to be through additional contributions that either employees or the district are making um or uh state appropriations made directly uh to PAR or through benefit reductions um really would kind of be the main avenues for uh resolving that. There's currently um I think it's been the last fiveish years that the state has been making a direct payment to PAR. So that was one of the items that I mentioned was kind of causing one of the budget uh variances because they are contributing
177it's typically been 225 million that's contributed from the state directly to PAR to try and bring the um pension plan kind of into balance. um that has fluctuated each year. Sometimes it's been higher, sometimes it's been lower. Sometimes they've made additional payments one year saying that next year we're going to make less, but we're going to give you more this year to try and increase the uh investment return. Um so again, that's really kind of pretty far outside of the scope of the district's audit, but to give you I mean hopefully that's some helpful context to that. I don't know. So one additional thing is that parah divides its retirees in different categories. Schools, police officers, municipal officials and they calculate the pension liability with each of those categories. That's why our employees pay 11%
178and we pay almost 21 22%. That can go up and down. In fact, statutoily it has to go up and down for both of those categories. If the fund goes down, PAR has a they make money, they invest it. They not risky, but they invest it. They have a return on investment. If they don't meet that return on investment, they have to trigger these other things. So, we was talking about last year we had about a $600,000 $600 to $700,000 influx from the state. That was on the revenue expenses. This year was 2 million. So, I don't know where the state got the money, but I'm happy that they're helping fund the situation. >> Thank you, Nancy. >> Um, I have a few, but first I'd like to start off with that it's you guys
179are barely approaching one year. Um, Bob Ebersell, the CFO, and um, Zach Moser, the new director of finance. And so I would say that you guys walked into an audit report where it showed material weaknesses. And as I've said before, audit findings like that aren't fun, but they always highlight that there's an opport that means that there's an opportunity to improve things. And I know that the two of you have worked so hard um your first 12 months, and I can't wait to see what you do the second 12 months. But I just want to acknowledge that, you know, this new this audit report this time there's nothing other than, you know, a little um procedural on the the budget, which I'll address. But I just want to everyone to know that um you guys
180are doing a great service to not just the school district, but to the taxpayers and the community. And so I applaud you and thank you. Um my one question for you is on in your presentation you show that um towards the bottom under supporting services you have nutrition services which the nutrition is a grant fund and then you have community services and facilities. There's no original budget no final. there is an actual so obviously that's creating a variance. I I what what why is nutrition listed there? What is the community services and why isn't facilities up in like maintenance? I mean I what is that or or is that a question I should be asking Bob? >> Probably more to to Bob. The actual categories are based on the coding that's uh done for the
181expenditures. And so that's why yes, there is a separate um nutrition services fund, but if something is coded that way, that's a cost that's also kind of borne by the general fund, that's where it would be recorded. But I'll let Bob speak. >> I I I believe that may um I won't say it's before I started, but uh it was about $112,000. The general fund supported the uh nutrition fund with some funds, but in the other governmental fund, that's where the most of the category is. There's about 8 to9 million worth of activity there. Uh this is you will see us when we come to you at your January 21st board meeting with the first budget amendment when we will be updating all of the other funds other than general fund. Generally finance has been
182focused on the general fund and the other funds take care of themselves which is true but it's not the way that we should be doing things with an audit process that type of thing. So we are as with the budget software um updating with how these are being classified so they fit within the audit. The system will actually do the ACT for we'll actually be able to have the categories that will match the budget which was actually not loaded in the prior year. >> And just a quick I would say Zach Moser and his staff have done the yman's work on this audit. I would like to take a lot of the credit but the fact is he and his staff are doing most of the work. Okay. [laughter] Um, and then I had sent
183an email and so I'm not going to go through everything on it, but key key takeaways for me are is I know that we did approve, you know, using 10 million of the reserves, but we still we still manage to go three million over on expenditures. When the board approves expenditures, it's especially for the general fund, not necessarily the grant. if we're going to go over that's where I I do expect that as you guys get the processes figured out that that will get tightened up and we'll vote on that before it gets to this point. My bigger observation is just seeing how the salaries and benefits and instruction increased went over budget and then down below in school admin there was also a significant um overspending but then I saw like a supplies and
184materials we underspent. And my concern with all of that is maybe that's due to hiring more staff that we weren't aware of or maybe it's salary and benefits increases all of those things. But on something like supplies and materials that's typically goes directly to the classroom and to me that's the line item that unfortunately we we hear and see a lot about teachers that's where they are having to spend out of their own pocket to cover for that. So going forward, I would like to just keep that at the top of mind that materials and supplies for the classroom. I don't want to see that we didn't spend it all, especially if I know that teachers are spending their own money. That's just my my personal perspective on that. It also concerns me that just
185between these two fiscal years, you see not just the funded people count dropping, but the actual enrollment, you know, what I call um butts in a seat. But yet the number of our staff is is increasing. And so it just seems like something's off there that and if we know our enrollment is going to keep declining, then we need to really step back and make sure that where we're adding staff, it's really for the in the classroom and look at the administrative staff because it it seems like we're headed in a direction with declining enrollment that's not likely going to be sustainable and we're going to have to start having some really some really hard tough conversations and again just for future reference um when we do get the final budget to actuals if there
186can be just a little bit not in the audit report I understand that's your dear Dale but just in board report if there could just be a little bit more context added of salary and benefits went over budget because you know I I don't know xyz or supplies and materials went under just to help with that understanding of what really happened. And it doesn't need to be like in the weeds. It can be just some context added to some of those summary lines so that we understand what's going on. Um but again, I I can't wait to see the new budget software implemented because I know it's going to make your life easier, make our lives easier, and I just again I really thank you for all your work. >> Just just a quick a
187couple of things. one um the u the parah amount that ran through both revenue and expenses about $2 million which wasn't budgeted. Um, when we budgeted, if you remember the old Excel system was we had salaries, the FTE here and then we had non-FTE, but the nonFTTE had about $8 million worth of payroll costs. That's where they were budgeted because they were extra duty hours, the substitute teachers, the uh extra contracts, various things like that. But when we pay the people, it shows up in the expenditure line up there, not down here. We did not change the budget in the year of that we were at this at this point because at that point we weren't going to go back beyond where we were working let alone trying to get the next year started. Not
188an excuse just an explanation. Um next year is going to be a different part on that that going forward. I will I will say that we will be looking at all positions. Not trying to scare any employee but we'll be looking at all positions in this coming year. But when you reduce students and you take away 20 to 30 at each school, you still have title compliance. You still have workers comp compliance. You still have to have staff title n compliance. You still curriculum. That expense doesn't go away just because fewer students. At some point it has to. So this year is going to be a review when you're going to start seeing this year's budget to actually because we have actually loaded this year's budget in the system. You're going to be seeing that
189with a new budget software which is going to be hybrid for the next year. You're going to see a tracking system for the following year where we will report on variances on both percentage and dollar-wise. >> And I would just end with and Kelly you'll probably love this. So I'm learning to love chat GBT and AI so I stand corrected. But and that may be a way that on some of these mandatory reporting we can find ways to utilize that to to just better overcome some of that. But again, thank you. >> Thank you. >> The only thing I would add for that one is >> you want to come up to the mic. The only thing that I would add is we do need an AI tool so that we don't have data privacy
190and PII in things like open AI and chat GPT. So those you will see possibly additional future expenses because even though you may have an AI tool, you still have to pay for something to make sure that we are not violating any laws. And um and not all AI tools are perfect. So that's just my two cents on that. >> I don't have any questions, Alexander. >> So I just have a question about So we're approving a draft tonight. What? But we don't do we ever approve the final or like explain that to me a little bit more how that works. I guess I'll say that in for state requirements and federal requirements, there's no requirement for the board to approve. That's a district by district policy. So I would defer on what kind of
191the final approval process is. But basically by providing the documents, we've kind of met what we need to do. So it would just be up to >> So we will be asking you to vote to approve to submit this aer to the state by December 31st. When the single audit comes back, it will come back to you again and I will ask you for your approval for that one as well, even though it's not legally required. >> My questions have been answered. >> Uh, thank you for this. I mean, thanks for um being able to sum up a whole year's worth of adjustments and and changes and and just look at the the practices and and all of that. I think is it's really helpful to know that the changes we've made have shown up
192ultimately in the in this last document. Um so, thanks for letting us know and being that third set of eyes. All right. Any further discussion questions from anybody? Dr. Hiller. Oh, I saw you moving to your mic. I thought maybe you were going to say something. All right. Uh, so I would take a motion then to approve the 2024 annual comprehensive financial report. >> So moved. Second. >> Okay. Get those. Any further discussion? >> Let's vote. >> Steu Boyd. >> I. >> Denise Chapman. >> Hi. >> Lori Goel. >> Hi. >> Don Kirk. >> Hi. >> Alexander Lesum. >> Hi. >> Nancy Rumfelt. >> Hi. >> Mike Schaw. >> Hi. >> Right. The motion passes. Seven to nothing. >> Thank you. >> And I will echo the thank you to the board. Uh, thank you
193to the entire business services department because we are now empowering them to do the audit instead of just having to be the CFO or the director of finance. And thank you to the other cabinet members and other departments because we go to them and ask them what are you spending this on? What does it mean? Where should this be coded? Where do you think it should be coded? So it becomes our budget, not just finance. Thank you. >> All right. Just one last comment before we move on to the next agenda item. Uh Bob, thanks to you, thanks to Zach, thanks to the uh gentleman from the auditing firm for uh explaining things very clearly and u we appreciate that. All right, so we're moving now to 6.7. Is that correct? All right. Which is
194the approval of calendar recommendations for 2026 27 and 28. >> Good evening, Mr. President, um board members, and Dr. Heler, the Tiffany Rogers, chief human resources officer, and I have Valerie Laura Black. We're just right there, HR director, and we're here to present um the calendar committee um results. And so since we last um spoke at the board study session, we did have a couple other pieces of information that came to the calendar committee. So in our final meeting, we are proposing a revision that we supplied to you through um the word memo. And so I wanted to kind of review that with you. Um when the calendar committee met, we wanted to look to make a couple changes. The changes that we're proposing do not impact student contact days at all. They are more
195around training for our new teacher orientation and our TENS week for our staff. The premise in the first one is to change a new teacher orientation dates. Um this change is really to create an improved and more seamless onboarding experience for our new teachers and allow them a break before they come into week because that's a lot of data and information that they're receiving as a new um teacher to our district. So we're proposing to move um the dates that are on there. I can go through them but you guys um you can ask me questions at the end. The second change is a change in 10 week dates. Um this change allows for a break like we have for our new um teachers as well because there is an intensive training week in 10
196week and a lot going on. So that will allow a break before the teach the teachers will be back in their classroom prior to students starting um on their transition day. So there's no change in the start date or end dates to the school year or transition days. This also does provide an opportunity to hold um our convocation um ceremony at the beginning or sorry the convocation at an indoor venue which was feedback we received from teachers. We were very lucky last year to um have good weather for that um event. The other change on here is in addition, we changed the wording for the number of days per semester at the bottom to really delineate between K5 and 6 through 12 because the days are different um based on the planning days for our
197elementary plan time. We also remove the small numbers for each month were removed to just avoid confusion to student and families. So the one thing I do want to point out, we did notice that um acknowledge there was an error in the presenters from the last board meeting. Um, we did have a misspelling to Sue and we did not acknowledge um, Carol Thomas as our teacher um, who came to um, speak and present. Any questions you guys have? >> All right, question board. >> We're part of >> Well, I was, but I wasn't at the last meeting. So, I do have a question. Great. um is as far as the breaking up the 10's week, it's four days, one week, and then three days off and then one day. Um which to me that seems
198a little bit disjointed. And so I'm just curious about how like how that decision was made or why I like I I read that, you know, they get a break and they get a day that like 17th is a day to rest and recharge and so on and so forth. Um, but I'm just a little bit curious about about that decision having it be the four plus one. >> So, but there were two twofold to that is there was a need to want to have um convocation and allow us to be come together as a group because we are a school district versus a district of schools and so to come together and have an opportunity to start um the year off together. The other piece of it when we um talked with our professional
199development team some of the feedback they got on from new teacher orientation was that large amount of data that's coming in that's the same experience for our teachers and so to allow them a break before the school season started. So it was twofold. We did have um um Dr. Dr. Lesson's been part of our um calendar committee team and we did have members of um K5 and middle school and high school there as well. And so we did have a vote come across that um we were in agreement to that. We had one um medium vote. So one of the thoughts would be is to um actually at the end of this um TENS week is to be able to actually survey our indiv our teachers and to get feedback from that on how they
200liked that and then if there was um needed change we could come back to the board for a revision in the 2728 calendar and that's kind of where we landed. I don't have any questions. Mike. >> All right. >> Thank you. >> Then we're ready to um move to approve the calendar recommendations for 2627 and 2728 school years. Uh do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> I'll second. Lori second. Any further discussion? Vote. >> Stu Boyd. >> I >> Denise Chapman. >> Hi. >> Lori Goel. >> Hi. >> Don Kirk. >> Hi. >> Alexander Lesam. >> Hi. >> Nancy Rumfeld. >> Hi. >> Mike Schaw. >> Hi. >> Thank you. And I'd like to make a thank you to all the members of the committee. Um those that were we did have a
201parent um volunteer as well that joined our committee. Um I think we had great good committee discussion. We appreciated Dr. lesson being a part of that group and just all the hard work that the team put in. So I want to thank them for all their support. Thank you. >> Please extend the board's gratitude to all the members of the committee, will you? >> Great. We will. Thank you. >> All right. We are now finished with discussion action items and we're moving to our only discussion item tonight which is 7.1 the annual utility and resource energy department report and it looks like that's Todd and Kristen. >> Yes. Thank you m Mr. President Board of Education Dr. Heler. Todd Picone assistant superintendent operations. Uh last but not least is our annual utility update. So Kristen's
202going to uh take us through this presentation tonight. Good evening, Mr. President, members of the board, Dr. Heler. I'm Chris Mati, director of operations. This is a really interesting day to be talking about utilities. Not getting into all of the all of that over the news. Um, but we'll be talking about our utilities here at the district. So to start off with our strive 2025 connection, um our energy resource department really works to make sure the functioning of our buildings, our utilities are also brought into the classrooms with presentations, field trips, things like that. So we have a strong focus on making sure we've got that engagement. Also, increasing alignment of resources um is really important. We're tracking our utilities and also working to support our schools um with the appropriate resources and also look
203for ways to reduce these costs to make sure we're putting the most dollars into our classrooms. So, we'll be looking at the last five years of our utilities and um our utility use shows increasing trend in water use, steady trend in electricity use and a decreasing trend in natural ga gas use. Um all of the costs however are trending upward um with a district-wide annual util utility cost of almost $4.7 million. Also waste um has increased to over $200,000 in the last year. So these graphs over the next number of slides will look very similar. So on the left hand side you'll see the monthly water use over the last five years and then on the right hand side is the annual use. You can see how it changes overall over the years and also
204see those monthly um changes. So here is our district water use. Our outdoor water use is over 75% of our total water use. Um so you can see of course we see that the most in the summer. um hotter summers have certainly contributed to um additional water use. Um on the right hand side, you can see that annual trend. Overall, our non-pottable water is not included in this. Um and that goes into a lot of the efforts that we've put in, especially in the last few years to get grants to support removing turf um looking for native grasses that use less water. Next, uh this shows our district electricity use. Um so again, you can see those monthly trends that is variable based on um time of year, things like that. And then overall that's
205remained fairly steady. Um we are really excited about the energy performance contract. So that's I'll get to that a little bit later just with some updates on that. So, as we're incorporating our LED lights in 22 of our schools, we are expecting to see a decrease in our electricity use in the next year. Um, that also goes along with as we talk about air conditioning. And so, we do know that that will use more um but looking at efficient options um again in order to be um strategic with those dollars. Our district natural gas use um so we've seen some milder [clears throat] winters. So we have seen a decrease in that. Um we also have seen some trends with colder temps on weekends and holidays which certainly helps just what what we're paying for
206those. Um these last two years we are working with our utility providers. There may be an issue with the meter. So we're asking you know this is the the costs are lower and so we want to be paying what we should be paying for for those. There's just a couple of sites. Um so we have seen some decreased costs. Um, and we want to make sure that we're paying appropriately for the utilities. So, this shows our overall um district utility costs for water, electricity, natural gas, and then other other costs, which are administrative fees. Basically, those aren't fees based on directly correlated with use. It's administrative fees for those providers. So, you can see we've got that spike there that we've talked about each year um back in 2021. And overall the costs continue to
207trend upward as rates increase. This is just another way of looking at those funds across um the various um utilities. And then our waste um waste rates and diversion rates and costs. Um so we do have recycling in our buildings and so really working on that diversion rate. Um, so that stayed fairly consistent both in our diversion rate, so how much of our waste is actually diverted into recycling. Um, so that's maintained fairly steady as well as how much waste we're producing each year. What has not remained steady is the cost of that. And so a big piece of that is the Lammer County landfill closing. And so transportation costs have increased with our um provider and um a lot of that waste is being diverted to the alt landfill. So, as I mentioned, our
208energy performance contract, we're really looking forward to seeing those electricity costs um go down or usage go down. Rates really depend on what our cost looks like. So, the work began this summer. Lights were upgraded at gyms that are high use during the school year. So, working to have the least impact as possible to when our kids are in the buildings. So, um, these sites, Bertha High, Lucille, Irwin, Turner, Walt, Clark, and Thompson Valley had their lights, um, changed out in the gyms. And then we've also started from the south and are working our way to the north, um, with the LED lighting throughout the building. So, Turner, Ivy, um, Berthodell, and mostly Bertha High have been completed. The plumbing scope is expected to start in February and we're on track to complete these projects
209by the end of summer um 2026. So we continue to plan sustainability projects um [snorts] and so these are broken out into systemic. So what are we doing with our buildings and then what are we doing in the classroom or outreach and pieces like that. So of course we have our energy performance contract. We're also looking at additional landscaping upgrades at Namakqua and um Lorraine Edmonson. So Melissa Carol, who wasn't able to be here tonight, she's our energy resource manager. Um she has been very um proactive about reaching out for grants from CWCB, which I'm not going to remember what that stands for. Um but and also Northern Water. So we've been able to make great improvements. Um this this last summer we um removed turf at Sarah Milner Winona and one more that I
210am not seeing on my paper. Sarah Milner Winona and no not going to come up with it right now. Um so then continuing just on that ongoing basis looking at those schools. We've got schools who are interested in um great improvements for how their school looks and so it's a great partnership that we have. Um we had been pursuing public EV chargers and just in the last week um the company that we've been pursuing that with have decided it's not a good financial um space for them. So we're pausing that one and we do hope to um pick that back up. And then also the electric school buses and chargers. So that process is underway. Those chargers, we're hoping to have a ground bake groundbreaking um event in January and then we'll the buses have
211been ordered. So hoping to see those in the spring. Behavioral again, just continuing the outreach and education presentations in our schools and uh cafeteria waste diversion program. So we have that at Big Thompson Elementary and Trescott Elementary. Any questions? >> All right, board. Any questions? Alexander, I'll start with you this anything. All right, Nancy, >> I have three. One you I doubt you'll have the answer to, but um there was the recent new PUC stance ruling position. Um I think it mostly affects residential for um requiring the move to electric heat or electric pumps, but there is a commercial component to it. It looks like it's more going to apply to new building and doing the codes. So will that be an impact on Bertha Elementary and Ivy? And what happens when they say you
212even existing I mean you have to replace >> um I can just say even though there's um regulations it doesn't mean the states adopted those. So I don't think the the [clears throat] state runs under international building code. I think what it's from a few years back. So from what I know they haven't actually adopted that language in there yet. So we'd still be read the code for the last I think two [clears throat] years ago. >> Okay. >> So as of right now it wouldn't be a part of the project. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> And then on the energy performance contracts. So does that mean for fiscal year 27 we'll start seeing um the rebate savings come through that will then go towards um the payment of the was it a lease? No,
213it it was a lease. Okay. Um so we'll see that reduction in um use of electricity starting I mean it's happening right now so it'll yes we'll start seeing that in that annual report and the following year is when we'll really see that that bigger impact. Um >> and then [snorts] the other you probably already I just don't remember I I'm aware of the school bus charges chargers but I don't remember us talking about doing the public charger program. I mean, >> it's been four years worth of meetings, so maybe I forgot. >> Yeah, it's something we've been looking into and hoping to to achieve. That's part of our sustainability management plan, but hadn't quite gotten to that point where we we would be coming to the board for approval. >> Oh, okay. >> Uh,
214thank you for the presentation. I appreciate it. I just have a just a couple quick questions. Uh, and one on a very personal note. Um, so I live right behind Lucille Irwin Middle >> and as I look out my back door over the summer you built a solar panel, >> but I don't see any reference to that in here. I I think I Todd and I talked about it briefly, but could you kind of talk me through that a little bit? >> Yeah, absolutely. That one should be in our um the report, the broader report. Um, but that is a we one of our goals in the sustain sustainability management plan is to get solar at our sites. And so we um worked with a company to get a solar um shade structure for actually
215less than the cost of what it would take to put in a regular um shade structure. So it was really a win-win. Um, we're still working uh with the city and the company to get it fully energized um because it'll be a great learning opportunity for kids with a dashboard so they can see what um what that's doing and just a learning opportunity there. >> Yeah, that's great. I I I I hope to see more of that. I think it's a great opportunity. Yeah, just a really the other quick question. I think kind of Nancy touched on it a little bit, but the the chargers is that I mean are you discussing like licensing kind of a comp to have public public chargers that where there is a revenue component to that or am I
216mis reading that or not understanding that? >> So in this case, so we've um we've gone off after grants and and pieces like that so that we could have chargers for our fleet. um the how much the grants would be don't even come close to covering what the the cost of those chargers. So, in this case, we were looking at um partnering with a company who has done other Whoops, sorry. Um done other work within the city of Loveland to have their charter. So, it's not a profit for us. Um but we would able be able to to use that on the district site. >> Okay. Thank you, Lori. I believe this was one of our conversations. I don't believe it was the board, but uh just at Casby was the possibility of um doing
217composting at schools uh in regard to taking care of uh food waste. Is that something that's in discussion or >> So, at this point, it's sight by sight. Um in some communities there is a commercial composting provider. um we don't have that offered in this area. So this is a um just kind of a smallcale composting um initiative that we have at two of the schools. >> Great. So I don't really it's not really a question but just I'm hope very much that in doing the planning for the big remodels at Ivy Stockwell and Buret Elementary that you are looking very seriously about at you know sustainability and not putting in new grass fields and um all those kinds of things like that in and it's an opportunity with those to to make an impact.
218>> Yeah, absolutely. and Melissa has been great at looking at grant opportunities and different pieces to support projects like that of more energy efficient and all of those different pieces. So yes, Berthael is the other landscaping one just got it >> happy to help. [laughter] >> So with the recycling programs I know you know sorting is always a challenge. I mean are we paying more to have stuff recycled versus the regular trash rate or >> it's the same. Okay. >> Yep. Same cost. >> Are we sending clean product? >> We have to um so if it's not clean then they dispose of it as waste. So and that those um they've been much more stringent about that in the last couple of years and so really getting more careful in our cafeterias especially um because
219that's where we see the most contamination and recycling. >> Right. And in terms of the buildings, is there elementary versus middle versus high greater >> as far as rates? >> Um, I don't know that off the top of my head, but we can certainly look at that. >> Okay. >> Um, it thanks for this and I know it's an it's a snapshot of all these things. I think one of the things that strikes me is the costs going up and our usage for the most part is sustained mostly. Um, which I think at the very least is a a good reason for us to be looking at all of the other things that you've brought to us over the years, right? is that there is um a way for us to save money when we're
220um going with alternatives that cost less. End of story. I mean, and I'm I'm seeing that now as these things are no longer just creeping up um as they sort of did I think the last time we looked at them, but there's like some of these more significant jumps and we know that many of the conditions that have led to that have no signs of getting any better and maybe even getting worse by the time we look at this again. And so I wonder um like I I love the grant idea. I love the fact that we would do it when we're doing projects. All of that's brilliant, but I also wonder if we're at a point with critical mass because of how much things have went up where we do need to even be
221more aggressive in some of those replacement decisions. I don't know that that's the case, but I mean when I see like four $4 million being spent on more than what we planned for the same thing. Um, then I wonder, should we spend that four million on something that's sustainable where we're not going to have to spend that year after year after year? You know, it's that one-time cost that ultimately saves us a lot of money in the long run. And I know you have been working very hard and partnering so that you're not doing that all by yourself. So, um, I just kind of want to bring that back up to say sometimes you have to be smarter, not harder. And that's hard when we're spending four $4 million more than we did for the
222same thing last year. And so, um, these are the kinds of projects that you always wish you did the year before because it's always more expensive the next year and the next year and the next year. There is never a good time. There's never a convenient time. And yet um these are also services in the end that go to whether people can make it to school, make it to work, whether they can um see when they get there. Makes it real hard to get educated if the lights don't work. Um, and we could argue about whether we actually need plants at all, but overall our neighbors, if nothing else, tell us that we must, even though that's a luxury and I'm happy to cut that easily over teachers any day. Um, I know that my
223all of our neighbors would heartily disagree with me and I get that. So, you don't have to call. I got it. We're not going to do that. I'm just saying when we're going to have to make hard decisions, um, most of these things aren't optional anyway. So, uh, thank you for looking at so many different things, so many different ways, trying to find grants, trying to find funding. Um, and I think we're at a point where we might need to be more aggressive with that because it's never a good time. So, thank you. >> All right. Question, excuse me, question, Dr. Heler. Will we see this report again as discussion action or is this purelyformational? >> Purelyformational. There's nothing for the board to approve. >> Great. Thank you, Chris. >> Yeah. And everyone. [laughter] >>
224Yes. And everyone who's involved. All right. Uh Laurely, written reports. Do we have a family PIIE report? No. So, no written reports. Pardon me. Okay. Um we have any requests for information from the board hearing? None. Meeting a ter