Board of Education Regular Meeting: 1.22.2025

001e e e [Music] going St boy here Denise Chapman here Amy Doran here Don Kirk here barbar Cruz Alexander Lon here and ncy here thank you Nancy will you lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance States and Denise would you read the Thompson School District mission statement please the Thompson School District will be a school district to empowers challenges and inspires students faculty staff parents School leaders in community members to learn achieve Andel thank you our first item um on the agenda is actually the adoption of the agenda hopefully you've all had a chance to look at what we're going to be accomplishing this evening and I would a motion to adopt the agenda as presented so moved is there any discussion hearing them let's proceed to the vote L will you call the rooll

002please sto hi Denise Chapman hi Amy Doran hi Don Kirk hi Barbara Cruz Alexander Lon hi nany r hi we have two sets of minutes that we need to approve appr first is from the regular board meeting on December 18th 2024 hopefully you've all had a chance to review those minutes are there any changes to the minutes of the meeting of December 18th 2024 hearing none I'll accept a motion then to approve the Amendments so move second any discussion let's proceed then to the vote St boy hi Denise Chapman hi Amy Doran hi Don Kirk hi Barbara Cruz Alexander L hi answer hi all right that motion passes six to nothing uh we also need to approve minutes from our January 8th 2025 study session again hopefully you had the opportunity to review those minutes

003and i' take a motion to approve the minutes so moved second all right it's been moved and seconded any discussion let's proceed then to the vote Laura Lee Ste boy hi Denise Chapman hi Amy Doran hi Don Kirk I Harbor Cruz Alexander Lon I Nancy r i all right that also is approved unanimously we'll move to the section of the meeting that's called public participation begin with the superintendent report which will also include the MLK celebration of student recognition good evening vice president Boyd and members of the Board of Education uh this evening I am pleased to give you some updates and highlights uh for the month of January so after a restful winter break we were pleased to welcome students back into the classroom on January 8th the first half of our 2024 2025

004school year was excellent excellent and we look forward to continuing that success throughout the second semester on Saturday January 4th before the boys basketball game between Thompson Valley High School and Loveland High School Thompson School District and the Colorado High School Activities Association honored Gordon Jones for his 21 years of service as a basketball referee and his 10 years of service as the district's Chief Financial Officer position he recently retired from thank you Gordon for your amazing work and your caring support of students here in TSD and throughout our state so this evening we have um a number of students that we would like to honor and recognize as part of the Martin Luther King Jr celebration so if you are here students as part of our Martin Luther King Jr celebration I'm going to

005ask you to come forward I'm going to say a few words and then we're going to take a picture with you so students if you can come forward if you're part of that got some artwork y if you want to just come forward and just hold up uh some of you brought some artwork and have some writing and this is awesome okay I'm going to let me read a couple of comments here last Thursday our community came together to honor the legacy of dror Martin Luther King Jr at the 2025 MLK Day commemorative program this cherished annual event made possible through the partnership of heart and soul Thompson School District the Thompson Education Foundation and many Community Partners celebrates the values of unity hope and Justice we were especially proud to have our very own

006Lucille Irwin Middle School principal Dr Olivia glasby as the featured speaker highlights of the evening included the inspiring student artwork essays Awards uh we had one musical Fe feach as well as well as a musical performance uh we had a musical performance actually by the scrappy Breakers as well the ceremony was a beautiful tribute to Dr King's message and a testament to the creativity and passion of our students thank you to everyone who joined us for this meaningful celebration and the students you have in front of you are our district Award winners at various grade levels for again their their artwork their their different pieces um essays um we had one student who um wrote an original song and and performed it which was that was a big deal was great so how about a

007round of applause for [Applause] these so what I'd like to do if we can Board of Education love to come down and take a picture if we can pictures let still okay your please hold it [Applause] still still hold still sweti thank you again students and uh yes I see you're making your way out Wednesday January 15th Thompson School District's exceptional student services department hosted a Colorado Department of Education learning cohort event at Mountain View High School over 50 leaders from around the state attended the event the cohort is a collaborative effort to help improve special education systems throughout Colorado the group focused on collaboration and the sharing of innovative strategies to to enhance special education systems ensuring better outcomes for students with diverse needs tomorrow evening uh Thursday January 23rd our district will be

008hosting a special dual language immersion Forum it will be held right here in this room from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. this meeting will be a terrific opportunity for families to share their experiences and thoughts about tsd's DLI program and to help the district plan for the future pandos Elementary School students are diving into exciting Hands-On learning experiences in science this year as part of their exploration these curious Global Learners examined weathering rocks to understand the processes shaping our Planning by investigating the effects of weathering they're sharpening their observation skills asking critical questions and making real world connections to the natural environment around them a heartfelt thank you goes out to the three local Safeway stores here in lovelin and their incredibly generous customers for raising an amazing $117,000 during this year's kids pack holiday fundraiser

009thank thanks to your kindness and support These funds were distributed to families in need through Safeway gift cards making a meaningful difference in their lives we are so grateful for your partnership and helping families in our community thank you for making an impact in light of the delayed start that we instituted yesterday morning I wanted to take a quick moment to mention our district closure evaluation processes that we follow during inclement weather each day our staff Works tirelessly to help ensure that we can provide a safe and nurturing environment for each School Community fortunately sometimes Mother Nature doesn't cooperate with us and we have to make the difficult decision to either delay the start the school day or Clos our schools and district offices in working to decide the best path forward for our school

010communities we evaluate current site conditions examine current and forecasted weather patterns and also work with our city and town government Partners to help get a proper assessment of how a storm or upcoming inclement weather will likely impact our district the safety of each student and staff member in our buildings is and will continue to be our top priority and we sincerely appreciate your patience and support finally uh as you may have heard January is designated a school board appreciation month and on behalf of our students family staff members and Community I want to personally thank each and every board member for all that they do uh later on this evening um I will have the opportunity to read a special Proclamation commemorating this very special month but uh to the Board of Education thank you

011so much for your your your tireless service we really appreciate it okay um now I would like to invite Mr Zach moer to come forward uh so um this evening so Zach to make his way up to the podium and uh we are excited to recommend Mr Zach moer is the interim Director of Finance here in the Thompson School District Mr moer comes to TSD from the city of for college where he has spent the past six years as a financial analyst in this role zap acted as a liaison between the city CFO and police services to provide Clarity and financial results with operations he also has partnered with risk management to help enhance and reevaluate Insurance funding and coverage policies and provided timely and accurate Financial results with uh data um aggregation prior to

012his work with the city of Fort Collins Zach spent three years working for CSU as an accountant in that role he monitor maintain reconciled and analyze the financial activ for the CSU system and produced yearend financial statements uh Zach holds a bachelor's degree in finance from CSU he's been with us for two less than two weeks about a week it seems like two weeks huh it seems Zach's working really hard we are excited to have him aboard so Zach welcome to TSD well thank thank you uh board members um thanks for having me I'm I'm humbled and grateful that uh that you chose me as your interm Finance director it's a great um uh great opportunity for me and I'm really excited to to be a part of it uh my family is a come

013from along line of um School teachers my sister is a principal at PSD my wife is a school teacher my mom's a school teacher so it's really exciting to be a part of this process and see if I can um I know I can actually U have a lot of value and just help um with your questions and and making the final aspect of Education clearer and hopefully easier so I appreciate um the opportunity and I thank you all for for giving me a chance thank [Applause] you so next we're going to move on to our top of Thompson and community champion uh recognition for the month of January um each month we um recognize employees from each of our three employee groups are classified are licensed and our AP which is our administrative group

014these are peer nominated um so any employee can nominate someone else for this recognition and uh in a moment we'll be inviting uh these individuals to come forward um when when you come forward uh if you could please speak from the podium you'll also notice that there's a small plaque on there so um after you're uh finished sharing uh the words uh we ask that you um also present the plaque um we also have U Community champ chion award uh and each month again we recognize um a member or group or business or nonprofit or some organization from within our community that has um tremendous impact on our schools or within our district so we'll be recognizing that as well so first I'm going to start with um classified and so I'm going to invite

015uh Kristen bigi uh to come forward um and we are recognizing Jeff Smith who is the day codan lead at Lucille Irwin Middle School good evening Mr Vice President members of the board yes okay wait did I do it right I got it okay members of the board Dr schaer Chris director of operations um so I get the honor of recognizing je Smith our lead Day lead custodian at Lucille Lucille Irwin tonight um Gregory moril nominated him wasn't able to be here tonight so I get to present this man has been amazing ever since I started my job so this is Greg Gregory speaking ever since I started my job there not only does he never miss a day but he has been covering for me while I've been down and out he's consistently had

016my back and he's taught me quite a bit about the job I honestly look up to him I would call Jeff a leader because he's in the front leading the way as opposed to someone behind telling you what to do he works hard and he cares about all the kids in his school their health and their safety and I can also speak from my experience in the operations team Jeff is an amazing member of our department and I'm so excited to be able to present this [Applause] honor congratulations next we want to move on to our licensed um this evening we're going to be recognizing Tamara b um who is an ilc ESS teacher at levelin high school and Tamara was nominated by Elena Bruce and Taylor bushy I oh not bad okay come on

017up please hi everyone I'm Taylor bushy I'm one of the school social workers at levelin high school and I'm one of the ones that nominated Tammy um and what I wrote for my nomination is that I nominate Tammy for her exceptional deduc dedication as an ESS intensive Learning Center teacher despite the challenges of integrating new students with extremely high needs Tammy has consistently provided compassionate and individualized care for all of her students she balances their unique needs with Grace and ensures her parents are well supported all while maintaining an incredibly positive and caring environment Tammy's commitment to her students and her team truly exemplifies the heart of special education I'm Elena Bruce and I'm the affected Learning Center teacher at Rand high school so I'm working quite a bit with Tammy this year and I

018had to say that tamy is an outstanding advocate for our ilc Learners she's committed to providing them the skills that they need to be successful in the postsecondary world her tireless efforts ensure that each student grows in his or her skills that they can become as independent as he or she can she gives the students the ability to advocate for themselves and find what they need to make themselves successful in both school and the community you will not find another teacher with Tammy's dedication towards her students in the ESS community tamy congratulations and uh Tammy and Jeff will be taking a picture in a minute with you but before we do that we want to do our community champion uh this evening we are recognizing Silver mind subs um and that will be Stephanie Hancock

019will be representing silvermine Subs uh and they were nominated by Kimberly Cronin so hi I'm kly Cronin I run the um uh geometry and construction program over atom Val School Stephanie Hancock and silvermine Subs deserve recognition for their unwavering support of the tvhs geometry and construction program over the past seven years their generosity has consistently contributed to the success of the program's community house building project in collaboration with birds and Habitat for Humanity by providing lunch for our first Saturday build of the school year they not only nourish the students and volunteers but also play a vital role in fostering Community spirit and helping the program Thrive their long-term commitment highlights their dedication to education community service and support of the tvhs GIC program thank you very much thank you so much so we uh

020like I'd like to invite the board to uh we take a picture with uh Stephanie Tammy and Jeff please thanks so much [Applause] okay superintendent report almost finished however we have one more as you know each month we recognize one of our amazing schools uh in the Thompson School District showcasing and highlighting some of the great work that is taking place and so this evening I would like to invite Mr F Robison who is our executive the director of secondary education uh to introduce tonight's theer school so greetings Dr schaer Vice President Boyd members of the board I'm theor robis and executive director of secondary education and I'm pleased to be here tonight to welcome our Loveland High School staff members and students and also their principal Sean Collins that will be guided through the

021presentation [Applause] uh thank you Dr Ro and Dr schaer and the board for inviting us tonight this is honestly this is a real honor we're really really excited so if you don't know who I am I'm Sean Collins head of schools from Loveland High School go Loveland um but our my distinguished speakers tonight is El Anne bowfield uh Josiah Krill and Juan kado uh so we labeled our presentation today learn to thrive and uh here at Loveland High School um we believe that every student needs to thrive both in and out of school not just succeed and not just get through uh but we need to be able to to to thrive as we move forward uh and as the world begins to change and change rapidly we need to be able to adjust and

022change for those circumstances as well and so um that's our vision for every single one of our students that comes through our school is to be able to thrive no matter what the situation or the circumstances might might rise so in order to do that one of the things that we've done at level and high school is we had an IB Continuum day on January 7th we had both um Cy Ridge Lucille Irwin and level and high school all three of those schools together were working together to try to to address address the issues and concerns around trying to help students thrive in and outside of the school and we worked on basically looking at um a lot of the skills that are needed in order to be able to do that and we're going

023to talk about that in just a few seconds but the great thing about this is it was teachers teaching teachers and it was our own professionals and our own experts inside of our district that were able to help support and and be able to do this and it was an amazing opportunity um and I want to say thank you for everybody that was able that was able to be there so thank you very much so as part of um Love on high school and around IB um we have we strive towards what we call the IB learner profile and this profile coincides directly with um the portrait of a graduate that we have right here at TSD the portrait of a graduate and I'll just remind everybody real quick is about being a communicator critical

024thinker a self Advocate and a collaborator and as you look up here on this screen um you'll see a lot of the these kinds of skills that we're we're looking at here at lovelin high school and these skills here are what is going to help make um our students Thrive as they as they move forward here at lelin high school one of the other things that we work for when it comes to thriving is we offer a large multitude of opportunities for kids whether it BEC comes through the general education process all the way up through the diploma program we as well as AP in concurrent enrollment and some of my students here right here you're going to hear tonight they're going to be talking a little bit about that we are working also in

025developing a career related studies program where kids who are working around the world of CTE can earn credit and earn industrial certifications here at L High School too so we are approaching all aspects when it comes to um thriving in in our world next slide please so a couple things around couple things around the um the piece around here in L high school we also have the Dual language program um the goals for TSD are up on the board we've added as far as our goals for for Lev High School about being open-minded inquirers reflective culturally competent and globally aware all of these things coincide with what we have as far as that learner profile and and the goals that we have set for our students for for thriving the last piece of this when

026it comes to the Dual language program that we're often here at level and High School is right currently we're offering Advanced Spanish for we have freshmen who are offering College credit at the Freshman level for Spanish as well as next year these same students are going get college credit as sophomores um at at the advanced Spanish level five and so as you can see we offer offer a multitude of opportunities and I'm just going to turn over the rest of the time for myself and for you guys to hear from these amazing students about what they see is their their their work around um thriving as they move forward so good evening everyone my name is Eller Anne B I'm a junior at L high school and as a Unified sports partner I regularly have

027the privilege of interacting with individuals with a diverse set of skills I feel an immense Joy from brainstorming ways to help an athlete overcome a challenge regardless of its nature the athletes feel an immense Joy from being included inclusivity is vital at lovelin high school we know that everyone deserves to have their worth celebra this enables all of us to thrive my experiences at LEL High School have taught me that anyone can Thrive with the right support and it is okay to ask for help I know these same skills will ensure that I persist through future challenges as well both college and through my participation in Loveland High School athletics music IB and AP academic Pursuits student counsel and volunteering in my Lovel one Community I've learned active participation in the profound impact it can

028have on one's sense of self and belonging thank you my name isah KR and I'm also a junior at levelon High School uh about a year ago right around this time I decided that I was going to enroll into the IB diploma program and that is a 2-year commitment and basically I signed my life away for the next two years picked out my schedule chose all my classes everything like that all good things and it's probably one of the best decisions that I've made academically throughout my years and that's because not only is it is it academically rigorous and challenging which I really appreciate it's also taught me lots of other skills that are super valuable for my life outside of school uh IB has taught me things like time management and collaboration communication self-

029advocacy all of these things that are going to be super beneficial to My Life um from high school through college to my career Etc from there um I've learned how to manage deadlines and how to talk to people and all of these really fantastic skills that I don't think I necessarily would have been able to get at this level without uh IV and things like that so that's thank [Applause] you good evening I'm student at high school I'm a freshman I'm one of the students at the Dual language program and I'm going to be talking a bit about that so the Dual language problem program is can is me is taught the Spanish class taught by pe by teachers from Spanish speaking count so that's really good to be able to talk and to ride

030real food as well as learn a lot about uh cultures from many Spanish speaking countries around the world and for the career After High School uh this class really can really teaches you to be able to speak it and to interact with other people from from these countries and from other countries if you don't know that native language so again thank you guys very much for this opportunity to come up here and talk a little bit about Lovel high school and all the amazing things that we have to offer and as you can see we have everything from athletes and we have students who are part of activities and clubs uh and so it's really an absolutely fascinating and great time to be here at Loveland High School and to watch all these kids Thrive

031so thank you very much and go Loveland four M have any questions let's stay here for a second guys just for a second guys yeah any questions I do have a questions so while the rest of you are thinking so here you are speaking to us as a couple of Lovel and high Juniors and a Lovel and high freshman um where do you see yourself 10 years from now and how does the experience that you just talked with us about kind of um fit in or lead in to that experience and by the way we aren't going to hold you to it and if you change your mind in two weeks that's okay but at this moment in time what do you see yourself doing in 10 years and what has this program contributed to

032that particular idea so personally I'm interested in pursuing a healthcare profession and in 10 years I see myself in a hospital setting potentially pursuing something along the L of along the lines of anesthesiology and through what Loveland High School has taught me specifically through unified I am able to now see a skill set that somebody might have it might be very different from mine it might be similar and I'm now able to work with that skill set that they have in be able to make it so that they are truly able to thrive going back to Mr Collins's main idea um and a hospital setting specifically that's going to be super important because I'm going to maybe have a patient that's unconscious and getting them to breathe and just have their body functioning is going

033to be my main goal and then there might be a patient that you know could potentially be working on rehab and beginning to walk they're going to be so many different stages in taking people where they're at and making it so that they feel that joy and happiness and acceptance is just key all right than um I would really like to be an engineer that's my my goal um I don't really know right now what type of engineering I would like to go into but I know that it's not necessarily going to be easy it's very math heavy and science-based and uh it's going to be a struggle and I'm aware of that and I'm okay with that and I think that some of the skills that I picked up like time management and stuff

034like that is going to be super beneficial for that just because I know um it's it's not going to be easy I'm going to have to put some put some effort in for sure but I think I think that I'm more prepared now I was at this time last year official thank [Applause] you me I still don't really know what I want to do for my career later after high school but I do know that I really want to travel see the world so I think this class is really going to be really good learn about the culture and the language before I ask board colleagues whether anybody has a question question I want to make sure that those of you who are here and those who perhaps are listening at home know that they

035didn't know ahead of time uh what they were going to be asked or even if they were going to be asked but what's always impressive in a situation like this is how poisoned and confident they are to be able to speak on the spur of the moment to talk to a group of adults about where they see themselves or what they like about their school or the program in which they're involved or whatever so excellent job guys any other comments or questions from my board colleagues do principal take a picture with the board picture too thank you thank so for being here your time thanks thanks for coming all right we're moving now to item 5.5 on the agenda which is board and committee reports um what I've asked my board colleagues to do this

036evening is to talk about a project or an activity or a service that Thompson School District offers students and so uh I didn't ask them to let me know ahead of time what they were going to talk about so I'm going to be very interested to hear what uh what project or activity or service they've chosen so don can I start with you uh so I I had a very hard time picking just one um but I I landed on a scent um so it is a program where students can do a year of college like their fifth year of school um paid for and um it's one of those just amazing resources available that makes College a little bit more affordable for students it gives the additional options and it's an investment in their

037future so in addition to the concurrent enrollment and certifications and all the other things that may also come up from some of my colleagues um this Partners really well so um my youngest is going to do a year of certifications and then in her senior year and then do the fifth year with the scent and get everything she needs and it's exciting and it's opened up new possibilities and all of a sudden she's like maybe I maybe I'm going to do something different now and like the what I just saw her light up with when there was somebody talking about her future who really cared about what she was interested in and the possibilities was super fun so I love that we have uh just one more way that we can make a future attainable

038for people thank you skip for not NY share with us um while we were asked to uh talk about a TSD program that is offered and there are many great things that the district does well I cannot ignore the results of the audit which has highlighted serious deficiencies in the way we operate the audit findings are alarming and yet the auditor's discovery of these issues is also good news this is an opportunity to be fully transparent with the community and recognize that we must talk openly about what the failures are and what the plan is to rebuild the finance department as the guardian of all district resources and assets to ensure the Integrity of our financial data and reports this is an opportunity for the board to embrace their our fiduciary duty and ensure tax

039dollars are spent on the classroom and that we have the processes and reports needed to ensure legal and policy compliance is being followed and trans trans arent with all things financially our focus our time our energy must be on ensuring that taxpayers trust us with their money and they've made clear that that trust has been broken without their trust we may not have the money to continue so many of our amazing programs we need to ask the hard and uncomfortable questions in where and how we have failed in our obligations to ensure that every penny we spend is to improve academic achievement for all the students the concerns of the community are valid and the continued dismissal of how taxpayers feel will ensure that a much needed bond is never passed there are many changes

040at the federal level coming our way that will require difficult discussions respect for different views and hard decisions it is time we unite as a governing body for the district and focus on debating the merits of ideas and solutions versus rejecting ideas and solutions based on politics personalities and majority versus minority it is time we lead the district with respect integrity and humility so I was going to talk about um sort of also related to our three young visitors today regarding all the career um exploration options that are offered throughout the district um and there's a whole array from when kids are really little they can have you know their career days where people come in and talk to them about different jobs to get them maybe interested in something they might want to pursue

041in the future up to as when people get older and the high school age are able to do internships and apprenticeships um in all different areas in healthare in um you know technology in um different um engineering I mean sort of all over the thing can go to there's a I know there's a um day coming up at UNCC the shadow in the education department over there for people who are interested maybe in becoming teachers um we do have students who are working as teachers AIDS and um helpers teachers helpers now as they continue their school um and so I think it's just really neat that there are so many different ways for kids to learn about all sorts of different careers as they progress through their schooling um to help them try out all

042sorts of different things and think about what they ultimately want to thank you thanks Al it's a great lead and I actually think one of those pathway um to talk about so the hospitality and food production food production pathway is something that is set of courses that are offered across the district's high schools um and we have um all the way from culinary careers in nutrition as an inro class all the way to um their internship as the Capstone of that program um these are concurrent enrollment classes of um Metropolitan State of Denver the students can complete the program can have six college credits going into whatever they do next after leing Thompson and I was blown away to learn that we have over thousand students across the district that touch this pathway in some

043way they may not do the full thing but they are taking the classes and and learning um these important skills around catering and food safety um how to manage a kitchen um then you know start a business there's a lot of Entrepreneurship that goes into this program um and so and then at the same time we've had um over 100 well 150 students get their safe server hand food handler certification um another 25 the safe manager certification um and LHS is adding a new halfway diplom IB diploma on the hospitality pathway and then Thompson um their proart management team came in third place last year in the Statewide competition um and these are real skills that you that our students can take out into the world um real certifications that will help them move quickly

044um in the hospitality field if when they choose to go that way or take those credits to college and get a good Financial investment for their family having to pay for this thank you Denise am come back to you um so I am going to talk about um a club at a middle school that again is the base for um students learning students um participating in our world today it's a club at um Irwin Lucille Irwin Middle School called no place for it's the club is no place for hate um Irwin was designated a no place for hate um School in 2010 um the purpose of the club is to provide a learning community of inclusivity respect and equity and everyone has a role to play um the what I find most um what I

045love about this club is their resolution of respect and it is um at the school it hangs there and um their pledge is I pledge from this day forward to do my best to combat Prejudice and to stop those who because of hate or ignorance would hurt people or violate their civil rights I will try at all times to be aware of my own biases and seek to gain understanding of those I perceive as being different from myself I will speak out against all forms of prejudice and discrimination I will reach out to support those who are targets of hate I will think about specific ways my community m members can promote respect for people and create a Prejudice free zone I firmly believe that one person can make a difference and that no person

046can be an innocent bystander when it comes to opposing hate I recognize that respecting individual dignity achieving equality and promoting Intergroup Harmony are the responsibilities of all people by signing this pledge I commit myself to making a positive impact in my community and so um this is you know a club that middle schoolers are um it's a robust Club at Irwin and I just wanted to give it some recognition here thanks I'm going to tell you a little bit about a program called mckenny vento mckenny vento supports students and families who are experiencing homelessness the mckenny vento Bento homeless assistant assistance Act is a federal law that benefits Children and Youth who are identified as homeless or unhoused under a federal definition Thompson School District assists these students in several ways number one with School

047enrollment number two with transportation to and from their school of origin with access to free meals educational programs and extracurricular activities and also providing refer girls for health care and other Support Services Thompson School District has a mckin vento coordinator the program is also supported by a number of local churches in various ways so thank you board for sharing in the variety of ways that you did and we will now move to agenda item 5.6 which is public comment and Don would you read the Inu question to public comment public comments and questions at a regular meeting May deal with any topic related to the board's conduct of the schools speakers may offer such criticism of school operations and programs as concern them but are encouraged to exercise their speech rights responsibly the board encourages

048the discussion of all personel matters to be conducted in executive session the board president shall be responsible for recognizing all speakers who shall properly identify themselves for maintaining proper order and for adherence to any time limit set questions regarding investigations shall be referred to the superintendent for consideration and later response comments are limited to three minutes per speaker to ensure that all have a chance to speak um so when you start you'll get a green light when you have 30 seconds left it'll go to yellow and beep and when um you're out of time it will go red and it will keep beeping at you first up is an bradburry Dr schaer staff and board members school board members I would like to wish you Happy New Year first of all it's a new year

049Clean Slate it's good um I would like to speak to the recent audit results from what I have read and understand it appears that findings are showing many weaknesses in the internal controls of the Thompson School District it appears these results show the CFO of the District was not really keeping his eye on the ball it see it seems that at least $100,000 has to be utilized to pay for the internal mistakes made this is money that will not be spent on academics in the classroom which is a shame for the students and the teachers I think it's unacceptable really we got to we got to do better with our budget we really do finances and budget um it it appears that there's been a huge lack of transparency along with the politics getting in

050the way and decisions have been made that do not match up with honesty and integrity our citizens in our community students teachers and families deserve better director ronfeld has suggested since 2021 I might add to have a financial budget committee which would keep an audit in check and above board I believe this makes perfect sense in any organization from the oversight perspective sometimes we just need that oversight uh director rumfield is a very qualified professional accountant and she really does understand numbers I believe you should all listen to what she has to say on financial decisions and other issues as well I've been here before and I it appears that every suggestion she has is is turned away or rejected please think about the greater good and listen to what she has to suggest it

051could save the school district Financial embarrassment plus it gives the teachers and the students a better education in the classroom it's a new year again a clean slate and I'd like to end with Psalm 1331 how good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in unity and that includes working together as well thank you for your time Emily Chapman um first I'd like to thank you all for giving us the opportunity to come here and speak directly to people with the power to enact andal changes um I am a student am a senior at H Valley high school and I'm here today to bring awareness to a problem that I've noticed I've spoken to several of my peers some teachers and even parents who also agree that this is a problem um parking

052lot Safety and Security today I will be thinking purely about Tompson Valley but that by no means means that this problem applies only to Thompson Valley um so um there's many problem in parking lots from like doing wheelies in the morning when it's snowing outside um going there after hours throwing parties beer cans on the ground in the grass glass bottles shattered over the parking um vender Benders and I think we should address and at least um acknowledge that these issues are present after speaking to several people at my school are of students and secretary Quinn some issues he thought that were important were he he would like to Advocate and I'm am advocating for a better surveillance system as we have cameras but they are not always asitive as they could be in a

053recent incident one of my classmates car was keyed on school property during school hours unfortunately due to the unfortunate camera the security was not able to pick up who did it as the camera was blocked by trees and so I navigating perhaps for better camera placement um but there as it is a high school uh they're not the best drivers so accidentally hitting others is not uncommon in high school and a lot of high schoolers especially when and if they own their own car it is their pride and joy as is probably the most um expensive asset they own and so it could cause issues there um other features have stated that um other issues that are present are just kids going there after hours and so a possible solution to that is to have

054more posted signage or even Gates that can lock people out of the parment lot after hours as several members of the security team at home I'm not who but they think that um people should not be David Cook my name is David Cook been here before I'm a resident of Loveland my children were schooled in these schools I'm also the Colorado coordinator for the center for government accountability with the right and duty to inform those this board and others when it is outside legal limits and if necessary lead the correction need the state of Colorado to become a state as well as a territory agreed to follow the articles of the Ordinance of 1787 passed by Congress signed by President uh Washington and defines by the Supreme Court of the United States in order to

055become a state that's the only reason we are a state we went along with that our constitution had to go along with that that law and curriculum is very clear it's still in effect and it's still legal our article 3 sentence 1 pertains to schools this is federal law religion morality and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind schools in the means of instruction shall forever be encouraged what is the encouragement this is the encouragement and all that goes with it this board has been informed of the law for educational curriculum and the First Amendment redress AG grievance was presented nothing was done to correct the curriculum to follow the law we're now still continuing an extensive discussion of that law was presented here nothing came of it we are now

056still continuing to propagandize our children in the secular humanist doctrine that is in direct contradiction to that law according to the Supreme Court and the United States of America since the courts and the justice system had not followed up to make this school board accountable or any school board for that matter to the law the people may now exercise their right of quote alteration and abolishment in the right of man law in the Declaration of Independence the first law of the United States to correct this problem by making members of school boards accountable personally in their persons in their uh funds in their everything they own that may get a little bit messy each of you have a copy of the substan IAL amount of information on the back of this copy pardon the spelling

057I was a little hurried that's all I have to say about that Frank Torres first I want to applaud the house bill at the federal level for the protection of women and girls in sports Act of 2025 this bill prohibits School athletic programs allowing individuals whose biological sex at Birth is male to participate in programs that are for women or girls this is a step in the right direction when this becomes law I hope our district will be early adopters of this and rewrite our district policies next I'm here tonight not to address the board but rather to call to action our community to wake up and pay attention to what is happening in this District my personal experience with District leaders in this board is its avoidance to address questions and its unwillingness to

058act tonight the board is going to approve $145,000 invoice to be paid for audit firm I would like to think this community should be aware of what our money bought I should I want to highlight a few items from the audo report that should be a concern of this community challenges we Face continued declining enrollment in this District less Revenue per student less Mill Levy Revenue facility utilization I.E school closings inability to successfully recruit and retain staff and continued increase in cost and expenditures also called out in the audit was two adjustments made to Prior year financial statements one for $43 million and one for 6.7 million both adjustments significantly impacted this District's financial position when one reads words like lack of internal control controls lack of supervision lack of training lack of timely filing

059of mandatory reports inadequate skills and knowledge of personnel out of compliance with Grant funded programs not following federal policy and their own District policies we as a consum community should be very concerned later on tonight this board will be approving the amended 2425 budget I want to call out a few specific items on that the amendments are 2 million decline in projected Revenue $5.9 million of amended expenditures for a total of $7.8 million which again drastically reduces or erodes this District's net financial position it's my assumption that the majority of District leaders and board members don't understand these financial statements clearly there was no interest in the audit findings as only two board members attended the audit finding meeting on January 16th it is time for for this district and board to be fully transparent

060with this community if we as a community fil to hold leaders accountable we will be left cleaning up their mess in the coming years be warned when I say that in the next two years or if not sooner there will be an exodus of this leadership who will be left to answer the mess they leave behind Robert renfeld good evening greetings Dr schaer Vice President White members of the board I come to you this evening to voice my concern as a taxpayer taxpaying citizen of Thompson School District there's no point in Sugar coding the audit findings the district failed the audit plant Moran uncovered mismanagement of District resources a lack of process and internal controls by the finance department and a total lack of accountability so I'm asking where was the oversight the mismanagement and

061material weaknesses extend to the handling of the Bond I would like to know how much of the $185 million Bond money was spent us using the no bid contract system I live in the contractor world no bid contracts are not the norm especially when dealing with large construction or repair projects there's an example of a no bid contract in this board packet tonight it's the $1.2 million roof repair at Mountain View High School this is a no bid project because it's classified as Professional Services an example of a professional service is accounting bookkeeping advertising marketing event management Legal Services things of that nature roof repair doesn't fit the description of this category in my opinion it's a workaround to avoid going to get bidding through the bidding process that's just my opinion clar's findings also

062discover material weaknesses in six areas this is alarming on so many levels and I'm wondering how these major deficits in daily operations of the district finance department went unnoticed for so long we're now paying plant morand an additional $100,000 in Consulting fees to have them work with District staff to fix the material weaknesses in the finance department it's well passed time to completely overhaul the budget process and create a finance committee that has the authority to provide real oversight my opinion you know this is an opportunity for you guys to lead to do something different to be Innovative think outside thex there's as mentioned earlier with the election there's going to be budget cuts to education and a lot of other departments times up you guys should think about that and have a backup plan

063so we have one Callin too hello this is Karen my little one is Arizona col in the mountain VI High I am calling in asking about how the defending women from gender ideology extreme restoring bologal truth to Federal Government Act SCH is going to affect our non-binary students I know schools are R by the state but they're funded Fally funded this became a concern with mine yesterday when my child and some of their friends were really at asked yesterday about being openly nonbinary my concern is for the safety and mul of these students and how the harassment is going to be addressed and also I have a concern about the Dei programs if they were also going to continue to as well um like I said this is strictly about if we're going to continue

064our nonbinary programs if they're going to be able to keep them and if the harassment is going to be dealt with or anything off from this point on thank you very much you have a great day that concludes public comment we'll move then to the next agenda item which is action consent items I'll begin by reading the list there are seven items that are part of action consent then I'll ask my board colleagues if anyone wants to have an item pulled off action consent and move into discussion action so the seven items currently part of action consent our approval of personnel extra Duty and coaching is 6.1 6.2 is approval of expenditures over $50,000 6.3 approval of the proposed 2024 2025 amended budget update 6 point uh 4 is approval of contract as presented and

065the associated project budget for Mountain View High School 6.5 is approval of least vehicle contract 6.6 is approval of the EPA Electric bus Grant contract and 6.7 is the national school board recognition month would any of my board colleagues like any of these items removed from action consent yes vice president B I would like 6.2 6.3 6.4 and 6.6 removed from the consent agenda all right all right um so the procedure is that um this doesn't isn't subject to a vote uh when something is asked to be removed from action consent it automatically moves to the next part of the agenda which is discussion action so so we will be then uh talking about and approving the following parts of action consent and they are 6.1 approval of personnel extra Duty and coaching recommendations 6

066just a second here 6.5 Nancy is that the next one that you've not had has to be removed okay 6.5 approval of leased vehicle contract and 6.7 National School Board recognition month so does anyone else uh want to request removal from the action consent of any of the three remaining items if not then I'd entertain a motion to approve the action consent agenda containing these three items so moved and that needs a second second any discussion all right Laur will you call the role please Dr of course so I'm going to read the proclamation for Schoolboard recognition month whereas the mission of public schools is to meet the diverse educational needs of all children and to empower them to become competent productive contributors to a Democratic Society and Ever Changing world and whereas local Schoolboard

067members are committed to children and believe that all children can be successful Learners and that the best education is tailored to the individual needs of the child and whereas local school board members work closely with parents educational professionals and other community members to create the educational Vision we want for our students and whereas local school board members are responsible for ensuring the structure that provides a solid foundation for our school system and whereas local school board members are strong advocates for public education and are responsible for communicating the needs of the school district to the public and the Public's expectations to the district now therefore we declare our appreciation to the members of the Thompson School District Board of Education and proclaimed January 2025 as school board recognition month in time and School District please

068join us in recognizing the dedication and hard work of local school board members and in working with them to mold an education system that meets the needs of both today's and tomorrow's children thank you um I believe we're ready to proceed to the vote then on the three items that are still part of action consent all those uh pardon me Laur would you call the rooll please St boy hi Denise Chapman hi Amy Doran hi Don Kirk hi Barbara Cruz Alexander Lon hi hi all right we'll move then to agenda item seven which is discussion action items originally there were two items there uh there are now going to be six and so I'll tell you the ruming and please help me I have something out of order here so 6.2 approval of expenditures over

069$50,000 that becomes 7.1 6.3 approval of the proposed 2024 2025 amended budget update that becomes 7.2 6.4 approval of contract that's presented and the associated project budget for Mountain View High School BEC 7.3 um 6 six approval of the EPA electric bus Grant contract becomes discussion action item 7.4 and then the two that were originally part of discussion action approval of the 2023 2024 annual comprehensive finan fincial report known as AER that becomes 7.5 and approval of city of lovelin consent to lease which was uh previously with a different number now becomes 76 did I get that correct all right all right so we now go back and discuss uh the various items that are are part of um discussion action beginning with the one that has now been renumbered as 7.1 which is approval

070of expenditures over $50,000 uh Nancy I'll ask you first to speak to the uh reason that you've asked for that to be pull and treat it in a different Manner and then we will proceed to questions and comments from the board so you're on with approval of expenditures over $50,000 thank you vice president Bo I I pulled this mostly just so that there could be a discussion and have awareness around we originally um the budget was for $65,900 for this audit and it is now um up to 145,000 and as we'll see in the amended budget it looks like we're estim meeting maybe another 10,000 to come in so my questions for this and I'm not really sure well T Mr bone is the he is the lucky guy guess I should have played the

071lot on his head um my questions are and it might be a combination of you and Dr shaer answering is I'd like to understand why as this audit was going on that when we received the 91 invoice which put us at 54 um ,000 of the budget at that point I'm sure there was awareness that there were some issues with the audit and that we were most likely going to go over budget why wasn't why wasn't the board informed um so that we would not in December suddenly be hit with this hey because there was also no invoices in October and November and then the other question which is sort of related to this is doesn't the Consulting contract for another 100,000 or so require board approval all right uh before actually answering those questions

072Todd I'd like you to uh make the presentation or if you have a presentation connected with this particular item and if not then we can proceed uh directly to answer ing the question questions yes thank you vice president Boyd Dr schaer members of the board we did not have a presentation because it was on action consent so it's just the memo that was submitted tonight all right um so what I can say is um the questions areer two invoices that were um submitted and paid August September which totaled about 55,000 um we then did not get another invoice until January in which that's really the work the um audit was happening what we did do um in the amended budget that was per out we did project those um invoices um additional expenditures into the

073amended budget did that answer both of your questions I I guess really what I'm looking for is on 91 we were at like you said the approximate 55 5,000 at some point there had to be awareness that there were issues being uncovered during the audit and rather than the board not finding out till the audit was done it seems like there should have been a little bit more communication with the board so that a we would kind of know that there was this was coming for 145,000 versus almost 66 and that there were going to be issues with the audit Dr sh so PL Moran um is or has been our new auditing firm and um in initially in August and September when they embarked on the initial audit um we didn't have any indication

074that there were any issues or findings at that time they had just begun the audit um and were uh navigating and migrating through documentation and all of the information uh since uh plant Moran has never audited our district before this was new for them um and they um they they truly did a very thorough and comprehensive audit which is exactly what we hired them for but in terms of any initial indications that there were concerns or errors or issues or findings back in August and September that was not known to us and as we um got closer to um late November then early December we became aware that there were some findings that the audit was still going forward because they were still um uncovering and and finding um other matters at that time um

075when I had uh my first meeting with cl Moran the Auditors and and then our interim Chief Financial Officer I was made aware of these were the preliminary initial findings again they were still auditing um and immediately informed the bo I mean we we held a um we had our um board working session um done in Colorado Springs at that time we provided to the board a um initial highlevel preliminary um findings of of some of the things that they had identified um knowing still that the audit was still continuing so nothing was was finalized it wasn't actually finalized finalized to even beyond that um but I I will I just want to underscore that um um during those those initial months or at least the August September time frame I we had no indication

076that there were there were any findings at that time as they were just initially embarking in the audit okay thank you I appreciate that um and I'll I believe the auditor is here to present later there is a discussion item for the then I'll probably do a follow up at that time but thank you all right so I to do you have anything else you would like to say on this particular matter before I ask other board members and ncy uh for additional comments or questions no all right so um I'm going to begin this time with Don Don do you have any questions or comments relative to um the movement of this particular item to discussion action all right Denise I'm going to go to you next any questions or comments Alexander not really

077I guess I mean I appreciate the the answers and I think you know it did end up to be more than any of us expected but but I think it's seems appropriate and I think we're getting we're getting the services that we pay for both through the thoroughness of the audit and then the helping us fix the fix the that need to be fixed all right uh Nancy you had the opportunity to ask a couple of questions you have a comment no moving forward all right Amy no all right and nor do I so I believe we're ready to proceed to a vote on discussion action item 7.1 so I need a motion yeah I would move that we approve 7 approval of expenditures over thank you that needs a second second um I heard

078both Amy and Don so laury I guess just pick whichever one because they kind of did it in chorus um any further [Music] discussion again this is on newly numbered item 7.1 which is approval of expenditures over $50,000 hearing no further discussion Laura Lee you P the board please stoy hi Denise Chapman hi Amy Doran hi Don Kirk hi Barbara Cruz Alexander L hi YY hi all right so the vote was six to zero and so we will move forward then um item 7.2 with the renumbering is approval of the proposed 2024 2025 amended budget um NY you're going to ask for it to be pulled so if you would just give a quick explanation for the reason that you're doing that um don't necessarily ask any questions at this point we'll have I'll ask

079Todd if there's a presentation on there is a presentation on this one and then we'll go back to the rotation of questions go ahead if you'll explain how you ask for it to you pull it I I pulled this from the consent agenda due to the fact that at our work study session on January 88th we only had the changes in Revenue at that time to discuss and go over we did not have a presentation that had any um adjusted expenses and last night about 6: PM that presentation was sent over to us and made public and so I do believe it's appropriate that we have a public discussion about this rather than it be on the consent agenda all right so if you'll go ahead and do your presentation and then we'll go through

080the rotation of the board members again with comments and questions great thank you again vice president uh boy and or members of schaer uh topon s superintendent operations um yeah annually as um board member R mentioned we go through a um budget process this time of year uh by Colorado State Statute we required to submit the amended budget by January 31st um as we discussed we did review the initial um adjustments to revenue in uh the initial board meeting January 8th tonight we do have uh updated expenditures proposed um expenditures and we will I will briefly go through those and answer your questions that you might have so as you can see here this is um just the general fund balance um that will was previously presented um I will note on this there are

081still some minor adjustments that um we will Gove forward and adjust um mostly with the beginning fund balances so just a note on on those pieces on the next slide you'll see the uh per pupil uh Revenue was adjusted down this year $44 the fund of people count uh then obviously was adjusted and then that goes into the school Finance Act the formulas for our funding and charter schools so the overall change in revenue from the PPR um is a - 675,000 next slide is our adjusted MLL Revenue uh really through all four of these uh sections what it comes down to is a negative adjustment of right at 1.2 million uh to the m Revenue most is from the 2018 let override on the next slide um this is something that we uh started

082now um I say that because in the past we have always updated revenues uh at this time we did update the expenditure budget as well so this is something um you know to show the board and Community uh where we're at as of really today on our projected budget so the items listed 1 through 12 are items that um either have been previously committed or reviewed and found in the last uh short time frame um so what staff did is take a really snapshot of all these items um either projected a few out and or looked at the actual cost at what you see here um the for example number three the Medicaid reallocation that is something that is a new expenditure that's on this report um that's something as we were going through and

083look the expend fures um Medicaid allowance um the FTE from that switch to general fund rather than Medicaid so going forward we are budgeting for those FTE that were out Medicaid um in the general fund balance so we can go through and look at um you know I use that as an example when you look at number one that was a c it was previously approved by the board the expenditures coming out of this year even though the outperformance was at f524 so just going through um going through all of them um those are the items and expenditures to date that we can project forward for this year's um amended budgets so when you look at the total impact of Revenue um and then the adjusted budget items is uh 5.9 for adjusted expenditures U

0841.9 for the adjusted revenue and an anticipated fund impact is 7.8 um so what that takes into account is really in the f524 there was performance of the budget so that's what's really included in the 39 it's like the big bucket but when you take all the all those adjustments out um leaves an ending fund balance of 32 million so I will uh pause there and um see what questions I can answer all right this time Denise I'll begin with you do you have any questions or comments regarding any part of this presentation Alexander Nancy um yes I have questions so as you just pointed out the for the TW the adopted budget that we adopted in June those beginning balances that are in that report don't match the beginning balances that are in this

085presentation so some of those adjustments are off I will tell you that I created a spreadsheet because it's what I do and did work through all the math and I I show that the actual ending fund balance will be at 29 million plus so there is a little bit of a difference there um I do think that we need to figure that out I don't think we can figure it out in time for tonight's vote I also would point out that the state statute requires that when we are doing budget work we are supposed to be presented with actual spending from the prior year with the act with the actual budget from the prior year while we're working on what is the budget for this year it typically has not ever been done that way

086and I have asked for it to be done that way so I am appreciative that this year we are at least going in the right direction and getting some expense side adjustments and I realize um that our new intern director of Finance has had to put this together rather quickly so I appreciate that and thank you the only question I do have on the expenses because we've already talked about the Consulting for app Moran and the additional audit expenses and I know that the telephone Hardware that's coming from uh the approval of the outperformance on the additional legal expenses if I am reading this correctly we budgeted 149,000 and this is saying that we're going to add 200,000 more to Legal expenses which would mean for this year basically 350,000 in legal expenses because we

087typically have not ever seen actual spending I found this number very surprising is there any do you have can you explain what the overage is due to without um in just generic terms or as a standard what has it been in the past um I would say it's a little more I what I don't know andely going do is the election legal you know for the election and the bond um I think that might have a lot to contribute to it um and then that's a projection forward so the 200 projection Budget moving forward so um you know I think as we move forward and we do some more reports on actuals versus budgeted um you know we can see where that falls that's one piece that I know was in there um as far

088as the other pieces I don't have any answer as far as what Mi up the rest of that but I know the legal fees for um you know a bonded Mill initiative or I don't have the actual number but it is a subal number okay um the only other thing that I have is that again when we did the adopted budget because of these um beginning fund balances are very different what we passed for a resolution on the Appropriations isn't even doesn't even match what the actual adjusted beginning balances are and the same with the resolution for use of beginning fund balances where I find that most concerning is with the building fund 41 where at the time of the adopted budget the beginning fund balance was going to be 2.3 after adjustments it's now

089467,000 I understand that that's part of the Consulting reconciliation work to figure that out but it does mean that our Appropriations resolution and our use of beginning funds resolution have very very different numbers and so I do find that concerning as I also find concerning When I Look to gy and I Look to gy because they are a very successful District when they do their Appropriations resolution they do not appropriate all of their general fund balance and all of their revenues they appropriate only those adopted expenses plus transfers so it basically puts a cap on how much the district can spend you you can move it around in your lines but you can't exceed that the way we do it is we appropriate it all and I think going forward in the future we should

090change that to only appropriate approved expenses and transfers but do you know that we'll will we need to adjust those resolutions because of those fund balance changes I don't know at this time that's something we're looking into right now and then going forward as you and I talked um once some things get settled we can expect some regular reports on actual expense to budget yes that's something that both Dr schaer and I um talked about in a community was doing a you know whether it's a figure out the mean is whether it's presentation or just a report um but a monthly report showing the more the actual to date um so it's done more on a regular basis rather than kind of twice a year okay and is there enough for one I'm sorry one

091less one is there enough room within this that if we do add additional Finance staff Andor on the bond manager position that we decide to have some of it half of it all of it come out of the general fund is there enough um to cover that there is but that's something we come back to the board for your approval anyway but that is the discussion we'll have and figure out what those few other expenditures outstanding are um if we do need to you know adjust something else we'll come back for court approval to to review that okay thank you you know I I guess I know that we're going to be talking about budget in several different places this evening and and one thing that strikes me is that uh it's easy to get

092lost in the trees and miss the forest um I'm already doing it and we were only through two of the items um I am a little concerned that all that we've got scope creep with all these different things being added um at a time when we don't have a CFO and the um auditor found that the number one root cause behind our findings was turnover and keep Personnel um I want to be sure that the board uh is supporting you to make sure that we don't have a lot more work that doesn't like we need to look at the totality of all these requests in addition to the individual request on their own Merit and I'm I'm going to ask that we do that at the end of the night instead of Point by point

093before we at work um I do have some questions Todd um and for the benefit of my board colleagues um rather than submitting this these five questions as an RFI knowing that he was going to cover these in the presentation or um through the answers to my questions uh I felt justified in not submitting this as an RFI because we were all going to hear it tonight we were all going to hear the the answers together anyway so my first question was um was some budget adjustment expected going into of the current situation yes I mean even look at the history uh of this time of year in the amended budgets there is typically you know an adjustment in um the PPR so last year it went up by you 1.4 million uh this year

094of course down so there is typically um and that's why I set up due to the finalization of those numbers from the state uh there is an anticipated budget adjustment or minute budget this time and the next question and I told him when I submitted the question I understand that he might not be able to answer it I wondered how much of the budget adjustment was expected are you able to give me a figure on that or is that too out there to be able to do that yeah I would hate to commit to a number I would say we we know that there is but uh yeah for me to say a number right now I wouldn't comfortable all right would you say that most school districts believe that an adjustment to the budget

095at this time of the year is typical yes it is a pretty standard procedure it's also part of um State Statute that by January 31st we have to submit an amendment budget all right do you know how much the adjustment was last year I didn't um last year that as well yeah the M adjustment was A- 350 and the PPR adjustment was a positive 1.4 million all right there was no expenditure adjustments last year okay and the last question I submitted was which amounts or items were unexpected so in other words now that we are where we are were there either amounts that were a surprise or items that were unexpected you know I would say is the team took a deeper look into the items you see in front of you um number three

096the the Medicaid reallocation was probably the one that uh jumped off or out the the most um um you know the other ones as we went through you know we took a deeper dive in so I would say that you to answer your question that would probably be the one that um stood up most all right um that takes care of my questions did does another question occur to any of my worried colleagues otherwise I think we're ready to proceed to a motion and then to a vote so if somebody would make a motion relative to item 7.2 so moved needs a second all right any discussion president boy I do voice president Boyd I do have some discussion okay the only thing I would like would add is that what is required by 10.5

097for the amended budget is that you review revenues and expenses budget is not made up of just Revenue it includes revenue and expenses so yes it is typical every District does an amended budget usually however those other districts look at both revenue and expense adjustments our board has typically only looked at amending the revenue numbers and not ever amending the expense numbers and as we can see tonight it can be significant adjustments and I know that we probably have an adjusted all of them which when you appropriate 100% of your budget for expenses and beginning fund then yeah the District staff does not have to worry about exceeding approved expenses so I would like us to keep that in mind for future and the actual T budget reporting monthly is a key requirement for us

098to carry out our fiduciary of obligations and while I understand what's going on in the finance department it does not negate our fiduciary responsibility to manage and oversee taxpayer money so let me make sure I understand are you offering this as a suggestion moving forward it's simply my commentary on this um discussion and this Amed budget that we're getting ready to vote on all right so have motion and second is there any more discussion lley would you call the r pleas St boy hi Denise Chapman hi Amy Doran hi Don Kirk hi Barbara Cruz Alexander Lon hi NY reld hi okay thank you all right and that passed also 6 to nothing we're going to move then to newly numbered approval of contract as presented and the associated project budget for Mountain View High School

099which is now numbered as um discussion action number 7.3 and we'll do what we did foran here the one that asked that this be pulled up so would you uh give a justification for pulling it off and then we'll see whether Todd has a presentation or if you have some remarks You' like to make honestly I mostly pulled this uh based upon Robert rfi's comment which we all know is my husband um and contrary to belief I never know what he's going to say when he comes to the microphone so I thought it might benefit to just explain why um there wasn't a bid process um You and I discussed it a little bit in your office this afternoon and I think it might just be helpful for the community as a whole to understand

100that go ahead Tod thank you uh yes on this specific contract um first I'd like to back up and say whether it's this contract or other contracts we have a purchasing department that make sure we advide by State Statute and um our board policy so as in other contracts in this one uh this was run through our purchasing department we do have policy of the states within our Professional Services um that that or that this contract is considered a special service because they actually engineer the system um the specialized system to be installed so this fell underneath a professional service so then we could work um with the vendor and then acquire the design um in that process so um it is a more um it's a pretty common practice between all school districts if

101we look at board policies you know here are friends to the north friends to the South um it is a pretty common practice to have um Engineers Architects um soil Engineers any type of kind of Professional Service um ask them when you can go work um oneone with but regardless of policy um this still goes through our purchasing department to do the check to make sure we don't Bypass or miss anything in board policy and or state statute so also their policies kind of little outside this but to expand on it um we have a construction man manager general contractor that the board has seeing quite a bit that's also under Professional Services that um typical in bond work um you know is a typical contract type that is used throughout the state and actually

102by the state itself so all right we'll proceed then to rotation of the board members joh i' like to begin with you do you have any questions or comments Denise no Alexandra no Nancy you have a question or comment I already asked sorry name all right and I don't either so I believe we're through with um the rotation at this point so I'll entertain a motion of approval of the newly number 7.3 then a second and then we will have an opportunity for discussion some someone has something else to say thank you thank you Nancy second okay thank you is there any further discussion okay let's proceed to the vote then Laur St I Denise Chapman hi Amy Doran hi Don Kirk hi Barbara Cruz Alexander Lon hi n hi all right this one also

103passes six to nothing we're going to proceed then to discussion action item newly numbered 7.4 approval of the EPA electric bus Grant contract Nancy as we've done before if you like to speak just briefly to why you've asked for to be p and then Todd you have a presentation on this one I did not this was just a memo all right so after Nancy uh offers her reason for asking for it to be pulled I'll ask if you have any remarks that you'd like to make I pulled it from the consent AG agenda simply because it is known that I do not support this EPA Grant nor the state one that was already passed I know that there will be a funding gap of what size no one knows and especially in light of the

104executive orders that have been signed um I'm not sure of the exact Verge but ending ending the green energy um and so forth and also hearing members of Congress talking about rolling back the funding for electric vehicles and other green energy programs it just gives me even more concern that we will be left with a large funding grab and so that's why I pulled it sorry would you repeat what you said we would be left with a large funding what a large funding Gap because we won't have the Grant oron and and or the grant won't cover all of the cost all right Todd remarks um between as we see right now whereas we project both grants um projected cost is covered by the grants um when you have both the cdph and this one

105together between the bus and then just the Chargers that it means to AO Transportation um it is covered if it's not staff would will come back to the board as it's over the board approved amount so um if for some reason as we go out to actually this being a federal project as we go out to bid these pieces um if they do come back over the board approved amount and Grant amount we would come back to the board um prior to proceeding so as far as the cost you know that's that's where right there um as far as the you know I don't you know between executive orders and what that means actually for us you know I can't speak to that what I do know is um our contract with the state and

106language within the contract does provide protection each way um in saying that there is I mean if there's risk of fing being pulled we have to be where we're at in the process compared to the termination Clauses within the funding termination Clauses within the contract so there are some pieces that if that were to happen we would definitely have to um be aware we're in the purchasing process and or payment process versus the reimbursement process from the grant for example there's um you know Clause States you know if the state if if funding gets pulled it doesn't mention how it gets pulled but if there is no funding um re you know the district we get reimburse after that after that reimbursement spot you know so we have to kind of just be aware of

107that um well it's that that risk that there is some Clauses within that um contract that um are in there so at at this point you feel that the grant that or the grants themselves are solid is that what you're saying yes the grants themselves I knew from what um the process that these funds already been allocated from you know the funding is already been allocated from Yes um but no one has a first all all right thank you so um going to the rotation then of comments Alexander I'd like to start with you do you have a question or a comment for to about this no I was going to ask kind of question you asked so at this moment Nancy you make comment or question yes I still have concerned about the funding

108Gap especially on the buses the original ballpark es that was 310 the last time that we had a presentation on this it was thinking there was the thought that the cost of the buses might be 350 350,000 or more which 350 * 3 does exceed the state Grant and then we still only have the EPA Grant to cover the Chargers the infrastructure training software Etc the EPA contract was or the Highland contract was very clear that if we submit reimbursement and the EPA has paused funding we won't get reimbursed or if they terminate funding we won't get be reimbursed so I appreciate that we you are aware that we need to be very cognizant of where we're at in the process but again this is why I do not think it's in the best interest

109of the district to move forward with us anything Denise and either um so I could to proceed to a motion unless Todd you have any other comments that that you would like to make all right so I'd entertain a motion then we're talking about newly numbered item 7.4 approval of the EPA electric bus Grant contract a motion some moved and a second any further discussion who seconded that I'm sorry no further discussion then Laur Le would you call pleas St boy hi Denise Chapman hi Amy Doran hi Don Kirk hi Cruz Alexander L hi Nancy r no all right the vote this time is 5 to1 all right we're now going to move to the two items which were originally part of discussion action um approval of the 2023 2024 annual comprehensive financial report known

110as Acer it is this is now numbered as 7.5 um is there a presentation connected with this there is not there is not okay you have um all right Nancy do you have any U remarks that you want to make in regard to why you ask for this one to be pulled this one was there she I'm sorry it wasn't isn't the yeah so I was going to provide um yeah so as the were previously uh review the audit on January 8th um you know tonight is the approval of that uh we do have plan Moran here to answer any questions that um the board would like to discuss with them this time all right all right hi thank you for having me um my name is Jamie asamer I'm with C Rand I'm the

111lead audit engagement partner and with me today is um the one of the leads on the audit his name is Marcus Mar Marcus Martin wingren thank you all right um would you like to do the presentation first and then we'll follow with questions is that what you have in mind pres Bo we're just going to go into po discussion and questions on the yes all right then let's see on the rotation um Nancy we're going to start with you this time in regard to comments or questions for the Auditors um as as I've said previously while the audit findings were a little unnerving uh I do also see this as an opportunity it is good news for a way for us to change maybe the way that we operate here and proceed with our budget

112and financial reports I have a couple questions for you the first one would be and I think you've been listening to some of the discussions especially around the amended budget process and so forth from your perspective from the audit perspective as the expert here in the room what would you recommend that the Board needs should ask for to be more effective in their role in their completing their fiduciary obligations and not have that happen again from a budget perspective perspective you're asking for from just a an audit compliance statutory perspective what do you what would you recommend we as a board do sure so I I'll add a couple comments to that so I think within our audit report there's a section there where it talks about auditor recommendations and we've discussed those with Todd

113and Mark as it relates to each of the applicable findings so I think those comments would still stand as are probably the most critical actions to currently take um I think in all cases where we see opportunities for board members to continue to get Education and Training on school finance and and budgeting and different items like that so they're able to um when they're presented with documents you know be able to review them properly is also something that we commonly see and also do with various boards across there I know there's other great associations out there that provide training and and other items for board members as it relates to continuing to get that education to bring um those types of minds or being able to look at you know an auto report and kind

114of work through that with with leadership and would you agree that would you do you agree that the number one root cause for all of these things that you discovered is lack of time and bandwidth from the finance departy I think there's probably a number of overall arching items that probably created The Perfect Storm and sense of of what happened and I think working closely as we did as things kind of transpired throughout the process um is a way you know to continue to learn from that and obviously we're the district is is trying to move forward in terms of that um you know I do think again in the recommendations it does discuss resource allocation it discusses training and those items and so I do think overall arching themes throughout those findings do do

115relate to those items and one last thing do you think in your opinion that it would be helpful if the board had had a better structured had actually even had a fin finance committee to help assist with the citizen oversight of this process of our financials and budgets I know that this is what every person thinks the CPA's most common answer is but I think it depends it depends on each district and what they're looking for and and what they you know their their focus is we do work with a variety of districts across that potentially don't have a finance committee but we also work with ones that that have a very intense finance committee so I think collectively working together to figure out what's best for the district and and what makes the most

116sense is is the answer um as a defense okay thank you you're welcome all right Amy Don okay I'll give you a second your thoughts since it's 160 page document and it clearly was confusing some people I wanted to summarize the findings and recommendations and Rec cause so there was inadequate segregation of Duties internal controls processes and procedures that need to be updated or created uh supervision training resources time capacity turnover and Key Personnel uh Grant reconciliation done throughout the year instead of just once or twice documentation and evidence uh reviews which is related to supervision uh creating a checklist and that was only said for one thing but you know best practice is to probably have it for many of the things that were listed here and then um searching the system that was

117mentioned earlier so um you and knowing that there was confusion with some of that I to clarify um and I think um I'll be honest of all the things and I've got like seven or eight pages of notes here tonight the one thing that I'm really having hard assignment is how none of those um include some of the disparaging things that have been said this evening at the expense of people who are working very hard or have very hard nowhere does it say that so thank you for being professional I appreciate that very much um and uh this is something that we could go into great detail on there but I just really wanted to that out and thank you for finding Solutions opportunities because that's important a good deal um I also point out

118of millions of things here that where we have 19,000 of expenses onsite for just one reporting period And so when I think about six findings out of 19,000 lines in addition to all the other Financial and intricacies that happen with the district our size I just think that is amazazing um and albe it now that things have been found the corrective actions are going to be put into place so they'll never be issues these issues again ideally because we do have amazing competent people um and there is also without a doubt every single person on this board has said once about the integrity and professionalism of staff and so I'm not doing well stumping the idea that somebody is going to dis people this evening so um and yet at the same time it was

119approved as an unmodified opinion can you talk a little bit about how how those two work together sure the system time so ideally so there's really two items so the unmodified opinion is the opinion that planar is hired to state that the financial statements are in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles and then generally accepting and we conducted our audit inance with accepted offing standards so that means that throughout the process we worked with management as items were identified in terms of like transactional and and if they they were need to be corrected they were and we got the report to a place where essentially it is materially correct in accordance with with those standards when we speak to some of the findings that were identified or that were noted those that relate to internal

120control items and has to do with more of the processes that exist throughout the district that maybe Rel that cause some of the transactions to not move as they should so um I we adjusted the books where we helped or not we help manage work with management to get the books to a place materially correct and then we're we are at that point you know put our opinion on which is unmodified and clean but under those auditing standards how the finance process kind of works we still required to report them and then those internal control items there so while we have those items that were identified um the report itself is is in compliance with all of the appropriate standards for theyan on modified opinion which is essentially what she hired us to do is

121that it do so what would be like what would what would it me were if to not get that unified opinion what would the that ever happen like what would be the circumstances under which that would happen I can honestly say in my 24 years I've never given an um like a not we call a qualified or an adverse opinion um I I don't think we would would get to that point um just because that wouldn't I I don't think the CDE would accept a report that an adverse um opinion as such as it relates to those items I've never really been in that situation before so but so hypothetically if that were to happen it would mean that like these problems were identified but nothing was done to fix them or they means that

122the financial statements would not be in accordance with generally accepted Accounting Standards or aing standards okay thank you all right um comes comes to me then I want to share some things that I read in the report I spent a couple of hours reading the audit findings and then I will arrive at at kind of a conclusion and um what I have here is fairly brief it sounds like might be kind of scary you spent a couple of hours reading this is he going to go through like pages of notes no everything is in about five paragraphs so I want to quote something that I read which was was in the OR is in the opinion section page 25 paragraph two of your audit report um this is a report that you signed and I

123soon submitted to the district on the 16th of December of 2024 in our opinion based on our audit and reports of other Auditors the accompanying financial statements referred to above present fairly in all material respects the respective financial position of the governmental activities the aggregate discreetly presented propon units each major fund and the aggregate remaining fund information Thompson School District RJ is of June 30th 2024 and the respective changes in its financial position for the year then ended I'm going to stress this because this is what stood out to me in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America so as board treasure for 3 years before becoming vice president of the board I was a member of the audit advisory committee I heard praise from hle and Company Auditors who

124were your predecessors I saw the awards year after year that the district received certificates of excellence and financial reporting from the government Finance Officers Association also from the association of school business officials because of that previous experience I was surprised at the report that you submitted at our study session to my knowledge Thompson School District was never asked by state or federal governments to correct errors and if we were the deficiencies must have been corrected because we never heard anything about it Nancy I want to thank you for something that you provided us thanks for sharing your blog about this topic with the rest of us in your blog I found this sentence it's important to note that when changing audit firms the first year audit will most likely find issues not found by the

125previous firm and I appreciate that that was part of that blog now in terms of conclusion we know now that plant lauran found some deficiencies while conducting the audit the district immediately hired them to address the deficiencies and they've already been addressed or are in process I want to point out too the district did nothing illegal the district didn't know that the existed because the previous auditing firm didn't identify them nor were they identified by state or federal sources my impression from reading the report and hearing what was said at the study session is that the deficiencies identified are as a result of a variety of Errors which do not include lack of transparency mismanagement or anything illegal on the part of Thompson School District so I wanted to share those thoughts with you after

126I had read the report and had a chance to think about my previous experience as the board treasure um and just to close by saying we now know that there are deficiencies and this company which is highly regarded has now been hired to fix them so that's all that I have um so um unless someone has a particular additional comment that you'd like to make uh I think we're ready to proceed to a vote on a newly numbered item it was 7.4 when it was originally part of discussion action item it's now 7.5 are there any additional comments or yes vice president yes go ahead um at the audit committee meeting last week director Lon asked you to rank each of the findings to their SAR and you've responded with their all ninepoint C how

127would you help us understand what how that what that means in light of everything that you heard us discuss I mean this is in my opinion as an account this is serious and to talk about it doesn't mean that you are disparaging any of the staff in the finance department it means you're acknowledging there's an issue and in talking with the finance department which I know you did in great detail many of the staff were aware but were unable they were unable to get the necessary support that they needed to affect change I know you speak to that but can you at least address your comment about their all 9.5 in severity sure so I think like when you take a step back and think about if there's an area in which there's a gap

128identified as it relates to internal controls that opens up the district for risk whether it be and again I would like to also add my audit does not cover fraud legal activities or anything like that but it opens up the opportunity to present that at a higher level so as those as that is identified it it opens up that opportunity to have sign potential serious items like those things to happen which obviously in in any setting public or private impact tax operations and puts you knowx in this case taxpayers dollars out there at risk so when I see those types of items identified or we identify those types of items um in order to address them and make sure that it is understood that it is a concern and because in our doing this a

129long time everyone and again like it's never it's kind of like a Cyber attack you never think you're going to get attacked until you're attacked and then you have to figure out how to how did this happen what did we do where was our holes right so poten hopefully this is a way to put that out to the district as a way holes that have been identified now let's put some pieces together and work together to make sure that those holes are put you know in place and proper items are put in place so that the the risk it's you know mitigated and and appropriate so that it's it's there's Comfort at all levels leadership for public as waits as it equites to you know the management on the on the dayto day and what

130that money is being used for so I hope that helps at least go through maybe why those you know I I said that in in that fashion it's just in a matter of it's more about the r that it's open that's there and and making sure that it's understood that it's the risk is there thank you very much comments or questions from any of the other board members all right then I think we are ready to vote on newly numbered um item s right I'm going to ask for the after I read this on newly numbered item 7.5 approval of the 2023 2024 annual comprehensive financial report um is there a motion so moved I'll second all right any subsequent discussion all right good Ste boy hi Denise Chapman hi Amy dor hi Don Kirk

131hi robt Cruz Alexander L hi r hi thank you very much thank you all right we're moving now to the newly numbered 7.6 approval of the city of lelin consent to lease Tod are you in charge of this one too this is a show yeah absolutely all right um so you have a presentation for us the memo here um all right yeah this item was put on to uh action discussion tonight the city of leveland is um going for cops for their Fourth Street um improvements as part of that process they were actually in the final um parts of closing cops um as part of a cop you have to put land up for collateral um when they put the land up for collateral they saw that we were on part of the title from

1321986 so back in 1986 we signed agreement with bublin we actually had a shared use agreement of the facility on first in Wilson um to where we shared maintenance shops um since then this uh lease the original lease has been vacated both parties have um finalized and vacated the lease as far as agreements between payments have all been complete um what didn't get done when we vacated this agreement um back in I think it was early '90s is no one actually went to the title company and said okay this agreement is done we were never taken off the title uh so what this does is basically release us from um the being the lease partner on that and it actually is the city's property so this is to um really just a cleanup item for

133the city to say can the board approv to take us off that title so they can then proceed with their CCE for the four Street Improvement Amy we're starting with you this time for comment or question no Don anything Denise Alexander what happen if we said no like we we don't have any claim to that building or anything like that right by contract we don't we are so we said no they would have to goer to do that they have goal process and they would close on their CPS but but we don't stand like gain anything either way or lose or lose anything either way right for us it's just a correct the original contract was already it's been completed for decades now and the payments back and forth have been done for decades um

134either so I think we're ready to proceed to a vote this is the ruling number 7.6 approval of the city of L for minutes to all right so and Alexandra is there any further discussion or any discussion actually let's proceed to the vote St I Denise Chapman hi Amy dor hi hi Cruz Alexander Le hi hi all right 7.6 passes six to nothing before we move to discussion items board colleagues do you want a short break anybody feel need for a short break yes so we'll take about a 7 minute break is that okay so we will come back at 7 and6 e e e the agenda discussion items not discussion action just discussion items beginning with 8.1 uh summer school update so you're on good evening Mr Vice President members of the board and

135Dr schaer Melissa Schneider assistant superintendent learning services tonight as usual at this time of year we present to you a proposal for our summer school programming this coming summer so I am going to without further Ado turn it over to Tiffany Jones who is our director of curriculum and instructional design good evening Mr Vice President and Dr schaer TIY Jones director of curriculum anding so tonight we have for you a short presentation and some updates on our summer Scholars Program so in front of you you have your connection distri 2025 and we wanted to make sure that um you remember what we discussed in the fall so below our items that we had a recap I believe it was October um that I came in Ed to update you on our 2324 experience so just

136to refresh everybody's memory uh summer Scholars we really wanted to make sure that we had a solid focus on our academics and making sure that we have an opportunity for uh students K through 8 in the summer we wanted to make sure that staff utilized our district curriculum and make sure that there is alignment with everyday academic language and we have a theme each week for students to engage in and then each site had access for breakfast and lunch that was definitely important for us and that we wanted to make sure that every student in Thompson School District had access to our summer program so we also went over in October what we've learned and so we really wanted to make sure that um as we continue forward with Summer Scholars that we're providing those

137day-to-day lesson plans we want to make sure that's cor tight across our district and making sure that we're really sticking true to those standards um and not leaving it in the hands of our teachers who might not always have those literacy interventions or interventions because of course we open it up to all District staff and outside um to teach summer school we also wanted to make sure that our game and our enrichment opportunities we're going to book those on our end so they're consistent across each of our sites to make sure that nobody gets left out of seeing the bear cat or the fire engine or the ambulance um we want to make sure that students have their workbooks if a Chromebook does not go home because remember an elementary school is a choice for

138parents to allow that chomebook to go home we are going to provide that for them just so there's no barrier again when they come into summer Scholars we'll also partner with its and transportation and ESS we want to make sure that we have access to a full-time sub we know that um just because it's summer it doesn't mean teachers aren't taking some time off but we just want to have a rotating sub um and then we knew we needed to do something different with middle which you were going to hear about in a moment and we also had a great floating counselor last year and that was really key to make sure that that counselor was there to provide support and given moment so here's what we've done since our last meeting we did listening

139sessions with middle schoolers asking them why they were not as excited as I am about summer academic opportunities and so we listened we asked a ton of questions they gave us a lot of suggestions um a lot of it was ring or gift cards or pizza um and then we also met with Leah Howard to determine our summer school options um for sites because of course we know during the summer there's a lot lot of construction happening on our buildings we went through ideas of hey with middle schoolers would this work or wouldn't that work what do you think and then we reviewed all of our I ready data for summer scholar students so one of the asks I believe was how do we track these students to make sure we're getting a good return

140on our investment and what we've done is through educ climber and Infinite Campus we've actually identified anybody who's been in summer scholar so we can track and monitor their progress over the course of the year we also reached out to all of our teachers who had a summer scholar student in their class and asked a survey questions around do you feel like that student was more prepared did they come in with um a smaller Gap and list uh maybe things that they they don't remember in the fall um and then of course we uh developed a job description for the summer Scholars curriculum writer to make sure that of course that is being done now so again when teachers start they're coming in with a full um curriculum design for the summer we've also met

141with our it so that we can be ready to go for online registration and that is already in the works ready to go so some update what we're planning for K through three which is a change we have looked at Four elementary sites birth at Al we want to make sure of course do that we do have a birthed site available for our families that was one of our largest sites last year and that really we want to make sure um continues to happen BFK Brian Edmonson and then PVA the other thing we're adding this year is a strand of DLI we know that they're um through our pack committee for our families our parent advisory committee this is coming up as a need and so we're certainly going to offer it this year we're

142going to do a three-week program from June 9th through the 26th we'll continue to hold Elementary hours from 800 to noon and of course serve breakfast and lunch at our site the one thing that you might find here that is um different compared to last year were really going to reach out to those read plan identified students and have a targeted focus on those who have a read plan or who have received a springbridge letter which means those students who may have not done well on one assessment but their other assessment was pretty strong and so it's those kids were just kind of keeping an eye on um especially in kindergarten first they receive a Spring Bridge letter so that's what that means those families we already have all of their emails we will reach

143out to them on February 1 inviting them through parent email along with all of the information on how to register so we're going to Target those re plan string springbridge excuse me um students so we can get them to sign up first then what we will do is we know that conferences are coming up and so we will make sure that between February 1st and March 13th that those families are getting consistent communication from us on how to register so we hopefully can get those students uh registered first then we will also make sure that if those students have not signed up we already have that list that they will receive a letter to go um the schools will receive that letter to go home at parent teacher conferences with that information so we're trying

144to hit them at every possible access point that we possibly can to make sure and encourage that they are attending we also know that parents through Infinite Campus will acknowledge their commitment to Summer Scholars when they register and that commitment really just says we acknowledge that you're holding a seat for us we really are going to um make sure that the three weeks we were there and that parents understand the importance of coming the entire 3 weeks we're going to make sure that registration is based on open seats and then once those seats are closed we've got um a maximum them of 20 seats per teacher two at each grade level so two Kinders 2 first 2 second 23 at each of our sites but once those seats are at capacity um that classroom will

145be closed but then any open seats will be open to all of our district families and that will happen on March 17th a wait list will begin if needed and of course if any seats um if somebody decides to decline at last minute we will call those families right away and get them right in um and then what we'd really like to do is hire site leaders in February so we can start planning and making sure that our site leaders are ready to go so you might be wondering what's happening with fourth through 8th grade so what we are going to do is we are doing an intermediate secondary site um and we are going to host it at TCC as long as facilities approves that one we're going to make sure that with the

146construction in the new edition with our um pathway that we're safe um but what we've been told right now is that we're good to go for TCC love high is our backup plan but they're also having roof work but our goal is TCC and so it's like a 95% J Todd's going to make Happ um we're going to follow the same timeline with June 9th through 26th the hours are going to be staggered 8:30 to 12:30 but of course have breakfast and lunch part of the reason we sagger those hours is for transportation to make sure because we want to make sure that the elementary students are dropped off first same bus drivers then are doing the exact same routes for our secondary students students and our intermediate students what we are going to do

147is we're partnering with Mike pinart which I know most of you know um we are going to really Target fourth and fifth graders are going to have seven to 10 options they're also going to connect directly with careers and our Pathways and our TCC Pathways so we're going to expose them at a younger age on how to get um really excited about their upcoming Futures and then what we will do for Middle School is we've got some pair courses four to six because they're going to go deeper it's not just um kind of an intro they're going to really get into those Hands-On deeper level courses and then parents of course will register through Parent Portal just like they are the um elementary students so of course there will be a literacy and math component

148um in each of those courses we're also going to follow that design cycle we want to make sure that some examples for you for fourth andth so you're seeing our um brainstorm is color culinary because that's one of our Pathways we know that candy making might be really exciting for students we know that coding and Robotics we also know that we have um a an interest in making sure that our students are exposed to instruments in fourth and fifth grade and so I know I've already had an email from one of our very excited music teachers to do an intro to instruments and musical careers for the kids so that when they're getting into Middle School they're already exposed to all of the interest um or instruments that they're interested in and hopefully to grow

149with that um program even further with music we know that uh for sixth and e8th grade we're looking at a graphic arts with animation business they're going to do a sharp tank pitch um construction we know we've got construction management we know we've also got geometry and construction they're going to do a BT house and then we also know to follow our health pathway we're going to do some intro to CP R because a lot of our students are starting to get into babysitting Etc um and we really want to introduce them to CPR and Healthcare so we also know that that is really tning our kids into those Pathways but we're trying to get some early exposure to all of our district Pathways along with those TCC courses so our next steps is we

150will hire our site leads we're going to hire our teachers and then determine which courses will be at TCC because again we want to see what that interest level is and some of that interest might be by the the staff for hiring um and so we want to be very strategic around who are hiring and what pathway um option they're going to bring we'll also work with Transportation on locations for pickup and drop off to make sure that communication is really clear for our families what questions do you have right let's see let's look at the rotation Don would you like to lead on Denise I just love the connection to TCC and the pathways really just a com no questions alexandraa so I'm curious you mentioned at the beginning about how you've been looking

151at the i r ready data and the teacher question about if there same differences can you give us a sense of what you're finding yeah overwhelmingly the teachers that responded to the survey said kids definitely were coming in with more academic vocabulary and kind of that sense that they haven't forgotten those routines in school um the other piece with ir data we we knew we missed our Target with the student that needed to be there typically when we pulled our data that I shared with Dr Schneider and Dr schaer a lot of our students were actually already on grade level and so that's why we're really focusing on those K through three read plans we also know that is a really important um group that we need to make sure that they are at gr

152level by the end of third grade and so when we started really diving into the data I believe it was 90% of those students were already at gr level okay so no that's that's no that's good I mean that's that's good to hear and it's good to hear that you looked at that and our our making the changes to you know Target the kids who need it more than more than the ones who maybe have been going there already so cool thank you than you I love this program and oh I think it's great that we were able to find the budget the other 200,000 because I looked up and it looks like we were basically like 189,000 so now you have a lot more room to really make it a robust program and to

153follow what uh director Lon asked is so what you're saying is that the program for those who are already at gr grade level you realize that you need to like up it so they a little getting a little more challenged and then also identified that you needed to focus more down here on the K through3 reading we knew we needed to do something different for k through3 for 4 through we needed to engage them in a different way if they're going to come to academic you know summer school we really want to make sure that we're engaging and enriching and we knew we have a huge priority to get those K through three back gr level so that was that's our primary focus we think about that enrichment opportunity the other piece that we hear

154from our students especially in middle school they don't always know those Pathways which is why we really wanted to make sure there's a strong connection where kids are starting to be introduced at a younger age to what we really can offer so on the music pathway what you're offering at this through the summer is this the same as or different or in addition to the music in addition to in addition to the music okay I think that's really awesome I I always loved going to music camp um I just think it was fun um I I couldn't play ch right now to save my life but I did have fun when I was in school with it so thank you it's great it's great alexand actually asked my question all right um one question and

155then some comments have you established a number of students that you could handle 680 680 how many did you have last year we had about 600 okay we just want to make sure we keep those ratios low we want to make sure that we're truly providing what they need over the summer um and if we're going to do those enrichment opportunities clearly if kids are working with buns and burners and grills and um you know those things that uh I get very nervous about sometimes we want to make sure that we're supporting them as well so we also wanted to be very you know a great experience for kids where it's a 1 to 20 ratio yeah then four quick comments of all the things that I like about this program I think there's nothing

156I like more than the name of it calling this program a summer school program summer Scholars rather than summer school or some of the other options that undoubtedly you had thought of I think that's brilliant I congratulate you on the Fidelity of the program and on the analysis that you and your team did of last year's program identified where you needed to beef things up maybe what you needed to drop what you needed to change um I spent most of the last day of summer Scholars at Turner Middle School last year and the kids who were there um as a retired teacher I'm used to being around kids kids on the last day of school and a lot of times it's like let me out of here I did not get that feeling they were

157engaged up until the up until the last and that's that's a tribute to your leadership that's a tribute to the teachers who invested so much the parents who felt that it was important and of course the kids so I guess I'll just close by saying keep up the good work this is such an important program that Thompson School District offers thank you Tiffany thank you anybody else want to jump in there's a comment from back there or somebody wants you want to come up to the microphone so we can all hear you um I was just curious if there is anything similar to this at above eth grade levels you want the high school H yeah so we do our transition program from 8th to 9th grade but they do credit recovery focusing in the

158high school Theo I don't know of any other high school specific though kind of AC Focus do you so it's it's exactly what you said and maybe so it totally is at the high school levels they do their own individual credit recovery systems and we do the eth and nth grade fresh transition program over the Summers and she said ear going to do similar thing for transition issues anything com like stereotypes and contion that kids might already have that's part of why we Chang the name to be summer Scholars and it has that kind of Camp Adventure piece um and then we add an enrichment every single day for that reason so that way it's not just you know I'm here because I'm not doing well it's really we're here to make sure you're successful

159good question thiss like amazing thank you and a closing comment for you um thank you for sticking with us student uh Emily I'm sorry I didn't remember your your first name until the better end um that's quite a commitment and we as adults up here uh we acknowledge we know that you're here and and it speaks volumes about who you are and what's important to you and thanks for coming up and asking uh Tiffany the questions that you did and also for the others who uh have stuck with us through this long board meeting that dealt with a lot of different topics so thank you thank you all right um we're ready for item 8.2 which is a nutrition services update and you want to introduce your team Todd yes uh vice president um for

160operations yes we have another exciting presentation tonight um we are inviting our nutrition service department up to give an update on what they do so um it's been a little while since they for update and all that needs to Kindle up to walk through the presentation and just share the services that uh they provide our students good evening vice president Boyd members of the board Dr schaer kendle director of nutrition service I also have Chef Sarah who is our she has a very long title um culinary F school and sustainability specialist we are happy to be here I was happy here a few hours ago but I'm still happy to be here thank you for having here I'm usually um so just a little bit of general information so uh we are operating under the

161healthy School Ms for all program um which means means that all students have access to breakfast and lunch regardless of hustled income or other eligibility so that is um a cool program that we've been operating under uh right now we're doing about 12,000 meals a day so that uh just keeps increasing uh since Co really we we see increases uh month over month and year over year um all of our meals I think probably everybody knows this but um we have to meet very strict us nutrition guidelines on things like sodium and fat uh there are some new things coming down about added sugar and some other items too so and then our department is primarily funded through USDA urement reimbursement sorry so healthy school Mill for our program we are in year two of

162that program as you know that was um something that was on the ballot in 22 um and so um unfortunately there has been a funding shortfall um I guess the good thing was there was a lot more participation um in all of the school districts than they anticipated um but it did create a funding shortfall uh this year um it was planned for some additional funding for um wage increases or senss for um kitchen staff specifically and then some additional money for uh local food purchases which is something that is near and dear to our hearts um having that access or everybody is is amazing um it does come with some challenges which which we anticipated some but now that we are living it um some schools have literally you know doubled or almost tripled

163their participation and they just you know the the actual square foot up the kitchen it was just not really designed for that they may or may not have you know the proper equipment or enough equipment it's taking um a toll on some of our equipment too um so it has um definitely definitely we've seen some challenges um our our labor situation we have struggled with Staffing and labor for um gosh as long as I can remember it feels like and so um you know having that additional volume is is more challenging um with that increased volume and then time to eat um not only time to you know prepare food and all of that but just time to eat too getting you know 600 kids through the line and and um having that time to

164still you know eat their eat their meal especially now with the salad bars and those kinds of things too you know it takes them a little longer sometimes to make choices um and also to just those items you know takes a little bit longer than sh the TJ in your mouth so um so yeah the future of that program the funding for that is a little unclear uh I know there's been lots of advocacy uh on the part of school districts in Colorado and the legislature has um really you know taken a lot into consideration as to how they can continue to fund the program um I I really don't see some of those things happening but but just you know the meal program itself um they're looking at you know how that can be

165sustainable um so we are waiting to see and you hoping for the best so I'm using my already so some staffing updates we are knock on wood have minimal vacant positions right now we have four four open positions which is it's kind of unheard of for us um absenteeism does present pretty frequent challenges for us um obviously when people are sick uh they can't be on food so that's kind of an added thing uh in Food Service um there are some regulations about being out you know at least 48 hours and all that um but sometimes we have as much as you know 25% of our staff that is out and so it's hard hard to fill those positions times and often uh the office staff is out in kitchens helping to serve so um

166one thing that we've been able to do this year is to increase our subpool which has helped a lot um and the you know there are some days where where it's still pretty challenging but our staff does amazing amazing things um in kitchen sometimes to just make it happen no matter what and so um sometimes I think that's to our but uh they they make it happen they know it's important those kids are coming and so they want to make sure that they get fed so um we did add a driver this year um we are doing internal milk delivery um the in the past when we had milk delivered to each individual school um it costs a lot more money to do that but also um there were some security issues because they are

167potential security issues I will say because they were coming you know at 4:00 a.m. when nobody else is in the building and um it there were just some concerns about that and so we made a decision uh to do that internally a couple of years ago um and right now that's working out really really well for us so um also with the increase in the volume of meals we've had to add some hours to the driver positions as well some of the schools that are have a very small kitchen or very little space are having to get multiple deliveries a week um because they simply cannot hold the food so um that has been been a big help too so as I said uh Chef Sarah here is our culinary and pharmacist school and sustainability

168specialist she was hired last year and has done some really amazing days which I will let her speak to in a second and then we also uh created an position um for special diets allergens meal modifications that is something that we have just seen uh really increase not only due to you know added participation but just um I think some of it I think it's based on Trends and different things but also um there's just there's just a lot of allergens and a lot of real modifications to manage and we needed that could really be dedicated to that instead of it being you know an added responsibility on somebody else's plate so um that is that's she's been in place just a couple couple months so um we're still working through some things with that

169but we're really excited to have that position so that we can you know be very protective of the students that have especially the anaphylactic um allergies and all of that um another that we have uh reinstated recently is um the perfect attendance for our department that was something that we were doing back when I started and then during Co um we eliminated that because when you had to quarantine or whatever it wasn't really fair to you know hold people to Pride attendance so uh we reinstated that last year and we do it by semester um to give people a a little easier time to accomplish that um because I think that's something that's really hard to accomplish especially a lot of our um K staff are moms with students in the schools um and dads

170too we getting more which is great um but uh we just had uh 20 recipients for um first semester so we'll do that again second semester and then we will have some people that will make it all year long and they get an additional Cent for that too so so a couple of highlights and things that we've been working on and continue to work on um were changes for us too so uh we did have to go out to bid uh for new software um and we ended up going with a different company um than we have had for many many years um and it has been you know challenging of course to learn new software and Train everybody on all of that and we still come across some some things uh with the new

171software but it was much much uh needed and we're we're pretty happy with it so um and then we have a new website too like you a little District under went and changes with um the website and stuff so um that has had a couple challenges too but it's got some really neat features that we are are pretty happy about um we also the the buying Co-op that we belong to um they' went out to bid for a new distributor um so as part of that Co-op um we also have a new distributor um so that has been an adjustment as well but I think uh they they've done a pretty good job for us so far so we've been pretty happy with it some of the supply chain issues and that uh you know

172everybody has those so it's not something that is you know a problem for this particular uh distributor um the health department is uh has a new requirement for a higher level food safety certification certainly we train all of our staff on food safety um and I know it was mentioned uh earlier tonight um about students being certified so uh our kitchen staff now has to be certified at the manager level not the food handler level so we are in the process um we are proing those exams internally we just did the first one at the PD day in January so and we had a really good um passing rate for that so I was pretty happy about it our next one will be in February our next exam so it'll just be an ongoing you

173know thing for us to to do but really important um we did buy a new refrigerated truck which works out really well since we are deling our own milk right now every truck is a refrigerated truck this weather but um it it's nice to have on that really is truly a refrigerated truck and uh we have been fortunate to get some new equipment through the last Bond to simp we've been able to replace some aging equipment um or that equipment that has really you know taken a toll with the increases um or expand uh some capacity at some schools too so that has been awesome um we have increased well the purchases that's something that's very near and dear to our heart and um one of the reasons that I hired the fabulous Sarah um

174and again she'll speak to that in just a second a little bit more but um we do receive some grant funding for local purchases uh through some other entities and that is really helpful but it is something that you know we're committed to do uh regardless of of whether we get additional funding for it so uh We've also been able to to increase um some scratch items and quick scratch items uh that's something if you remember the last time we presented uh you know during Co all that was paused and so now we are back on Char with some of that stuff and we have also been able to reduce packaging uh there was um I don't remember when but Styrofoam had to go away I can't remember was that last January I think so

175it was the opportune time for us to do uh more service on the line and really eliminate as much packaging as we can we're using uh washable reusable trays um in some schools uh where they're able to wash the trays um during service or or immediately after service so doesn't work well in some situations but we're doing it you know as much as we possibly can um and then we are about to launch some vending machines here we're piloting in a couple of schools um where students would be able to put their number in and get a meal out of the machine so they they refrigerated machines so obviously we're just going to have cold you know salads cold sandwiches so maybe protein packs or smoothies or things um and it'll have a little bit

176of alart too um but I'm hoping that it will um alleviate some of the weight at uh we're doing it at Thompson Valley High School in Mountain View and hopefully um in the next few weeks we will have those up and running so we're pretty excited about that and we'll see we haven't done that before so it's a it's a brand new thing for us so I'm going to turn it over to Sarah which is a good timeing because I have F okay good evening thanks for having us um so kind of my my part in nutrition services is um you know culinary and farm to schools so um through before healthy school Mills for all uh we went and lobed at the capital and um created the local food program and so the local

177food program is where we get that grant funding for local purchases and um that was supposed to become part of healthy school Mills for all like that reimbursement uh this year but of course that didn't happen however the state was still able to find funds to um continue with local food uh program funding and so we were given a grant um again this year and um we just really went for it so um this year we have increased um the farmers and um and Distributors that we purchase from um so we have a really fabulous relationship with Hoffman Family Farm um and um we've also been using Rogers Mesa fruit uh for a number of years now um in addition this year we are purchasing all of our tortillas globally from Colorado tortilla company um

178ready Foods is a manufacturer in Denver and they produce um our green chili and we have a delicious um breakfast sausage gravy that we purchased from them um East Denver food Hub um has been a real game changer for us so they are um they bring in food from farms and ranches all over Colorado and distribute to schools and restaurants and so we've made a really nice relationship with them um and uh this is something I'm very very excited about is that we've done a lot of um local beef purchases this year so um we have been feeding our kids you know local ground beef in their tacos and sloy Joe's items like that so um and we did ground beef patties um for Colorado croud day so um we also are uh using Royal

179crust Dairy for our milk and um that's that's been like a really cool thing too so it's my goal to continue to grow our local food purchases and I think that we're doing a really good job um we're trying to incorporate some of those locally ground Foods into our menu um such as like potatoes we can get potatoes all year long and so we have like a loaded baked potato on the menu now um you know things like that so uh just trying to continue with that um and that is pretty much it okay any questions for us today all right um let's see Denise start with you comments or questions I don't earlier I'll tell you what if it occurs to you you can ask at the end okay Alexandra comments or questions so

180a comment I have is that I think there's been a lot of sort of new and different food choices um that I think kids are really liking for the most part um and I think I mean I've heard you know that there's some popular popular things that are different um this year so that's great um and the Local Foods is great the question I have is I know that there's a lot of foods that gets thrown away um and that by you know by law you're not allowed to keep it or give it to other donate it to other things or stuff like that is there with like your sustainability work is there um work or things that are being done to try to reduce the amount of food that is Wast um so there's

181a couple of things on that the when we first started with healthy School meals we weren't really sure what the participation was going to be and when we have lots of choices that is helpful but students want what they want and we we get phone calls sometimes from parents um that you know they their student tells them that we ran out of food well we didn't run out of food but maybe we ran out of you know whatever entree they wanted so you know the hopes of having lots of choices is is to be able to combat that but it is really really hard for us because people don't pre-order in most cases there are a few schools where they will do that they will send down account but we we don't attach a meal

182to a student so we don't know when students change their mind so it's it's certainly not an exact science I hate that we throw food away we have tried to um I I've had a few conversations um with some local entities about um food recovery or food rescue um and it's really hard for them to to find somebody that they told me basically they'd have to have someone on call we never know what we're going to have you know it it changes from school to school from day to day as far as what is left over um certainly there would be some quality concerns and some food safety concerns um around that but it is something that we hate um as part of the program and we are constantly trying to figure out a better

183way to um reduce the waste thank you they yeah I mean I think I think kind of a little another piece of that is just like um you know going in and and being there you know while the kids are kind of like are selecting their food and saying oh my gosh that's a lot of peas are you sure you're going to eat all those peas you know just things like that to get them kind of thinking like yeah you know what I can't I can't eat you know two piles of app sauce or whatever that is so and and then they you know just to I kind of get them thinking about like oh I really don't want you to throw that in the garbage um and then aside from that um there's also

184been a little bit of discussion about um trying to maybe purchase some big digesters um that are like just big small coasters they're very very expensive um that's that's um it would have to be Grant funded um and so that's that has just been kind of a little discussion but I think that that is something to kind work forth thank you answer um so I I think it's a great update I don't envy your challenge of trying to figure out all the different um food allergies just with our daughters when we're trying to do holiday we have yeast and gluten so they it's difficult to figure out how to make a biscuit or a roll or anything but um my question is on the one of them is on the meal vending machines they use

185their student ID are they charged for it or they just it just allows them to get it how does that work with the healthy meals for all so just like they would at any other school we have little pin pads where students come in and put their number in and it accesses their meal account and they receive their meal for free everybody receives and then you just use that for the reimbursement uhuh so it would be the same thing they just punch in their number into the vending machine instead of the little pin pad at at the normal serving line and they will be able to access their account and get the meal for free the out part it are not free they're never free and then I was curious so I know when we

186go to Cosby every year and you go through the vendor hall there's always it seems like it grows every year the number of those suppliers who will come in and you know cook and provide and deliver and all that kind of stuff um is that ever is any of that ever a viable option to to use like when you have some of these schools with small space or I still have a lot of the brochures that I picked up this last time I can drop them off sometime but like a pre-made meal or no they actually cook it fresh it's just they they bring it in they're the ones doing all the ordering and cooking yeah yeah is that ever a viable option or no no no of course you're like no I put us

187out of our tops but I just think when you're talking about the schools that have really small space what we' really like is a central kitchen so for the next so that we can centralize production and and you know free up that space so that they're just finishing it at the school so that would be our dream to be able to do that what we do right now is we satellite meals out of six of our larger schools to our smaller schools so those schools that can't hold all of that food they get a cart each day with their food that will they'll be using the next day so that's kind of our our me right now yeah all right well thank you thank you for the update just wow I mean you guys do

188so much I mean and yeah how how do you know how many students are going to be eating that day I mean it's just it's always a mind to me um but I one year when we were able to do our um you know when we had when they were able to um go work with I had a day down at Turner Middle School um in Food Service it was wonderful I mean what you guys do is just phenomenal so just so much gratitude and gratefulness for your department um and yeah just thank you and wow we have an amazing group of people for sure um I just I love hearing from students about the impr improvements like just organically it's been really fun to get these updates that are like H was so good

189today you know I mean like as a teenager who can leave campus and often does it's really fun when she's like no I really liked it and I just love that that's happening more and more often you know cuz they're tough consumers know um and I really appreciate that uh very very much and I I know that a lot of that came from just being willing to listen and like be opened and carrying the feedback and knowing that like at the very beginning that was very overwhelming and you know like you guys are asking for things that just like how do we make this happen and somehow you are making these just constant progress and doing that work and I I really appreciate that because I know that you are also meeting all the other

190requirements that ones the adults have um and then you're making food that kids like and that's never easy as any parent knows who's trying to feed their kids so thank you for doing all that and everything else that goes into it um it's really it's really awesome and I appreciate it a lot and I think the like vending machine ideas is super fun like I appreciate the inventiveness of that and how you could be putting in things that are honestly already part of the mix but just makes it like so much fun that they can get it themselves like that Independence is really great so thank you for all you've done to make this work and keep making it work and doing all the good stuff just couple things quickly for me congratulations and thank

191you for continuing to innovate to look for new ways perhaps new foods things that you do to increase interest and uh educate kids about nutrition and and things like that I certainly hope that the state can continue to fund this um at at some level how many total employees do you have uh depends on the day how many it's about 100 in the in the department including you Warehouse delivery and you mention you wish that you had a central cooking kitchen how many cooking kitchens do you have does each school have a cooking kitchen sort of I mean some of them certainly are more well equipped than others um there are some that have what we call RMS um not a real oven um although the manufacturer would tell you something different but you know

192the infrastructure wasn't there because you have to have hoods and all that that so RS are um you don't have to have a hood for that so we were able to put uh there were eight or 10 schools that had no cooking ability uh previously when I first started we were we were shipping hot food um which you know the quality suffers and it opens you up for potential food safety issues when you're doing that and so uh we were able to get some of the woods was um Capital project then and grants to get at least refs in in those schools so now we do have at least some level of cooking ability at every SCH okay just one last question what time in the morning do you two have to be at work

193tomorrow in a couple of so I think we're finished asking questions thank you thank you again for your fine presentation and for the very important role we play in our kids education thank you so much thank you important to us we can tell all right item number nine is written reports uh we have the families pie report that's uh available do we have any requests for information this evening we're adjourned