001Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Thank you. Heat up here. Happy birthday to you. Heat. Heat. Heat. Good afternoon and welcome to the work session for the board of education. of Gley Evans School District 6. It is January 12th. This meeting will now come to order. >> Um, Miss Lemon, will you please call the role? >> Director Ozari, >> present. >> Director Bentley, >> present. >> Director Campos Spitzy, >> present. >> Director Edmonds, >> present. >> Director Lemos Garcia, >> present. >> Director Mash, >> present. >> Director Roi, >> present. All board members, present. >> Thank you. Our first item on our agenda is to review our calendar. Looks like we've got a full second semester starting off with lots of exciting um events. Let's see. Our first school visit will be
002to Christa McAuliffe on the 20th. And then um for new board members, we can highlight a few things that we school visits always try to attend. Those are um the some of the best work we get to do. We get to see what our schools are excited about. We get to interact with students. Um but also the success in six awards is kind of like our Oscar ceremony. Um it's really fun to get to um acknowledge all of our amazing educators. Um I see GAP winter graduation and just a reminder to always give your RSVPs as soon as you can to Miss Lemon for some of these things requires how many seats for the board are they gonna have out there. Um, a few of you are planning to attend the winter legislative session with
003Casby. One, two. Oh, Doran, you're going to Okay. And do you know that, Amy? >> Yes. I have three um submitted RSVPs. Um, legal counsel is going to attend as well. >> Okay, sounds great. um you'll get to potentially, you know, go down to the Senate floor, the the House floor with the legislators that we got to speak with today and kind of see what they're working on and see how the process goes. Um Matt Cook, who is the CASBY lobbyist, leads that, you know, a lot of that work. There's also special speakers as well, but it's yeah, it's a really rewarding um little session. Um, other highlight is our recognition of Nicole Peterson, middle level principal of the year on the 3 and then I'm sure we'll talk about February again at the next
004meeting, but um I would like to bring up if that's okay um on February 12th, we have two events. One just um was added to your calendars today, the Casby Student Day at the Capitol and the Gley Central High School Better Together Culture Assembly. And so I need to get the student day of the capital RSVPs finalized. We have three students going. Um two chaperones I think um Nathan Paul is going to go as well. Um so we just need to I need to make sure I get RSVPs solidified. So because we have two events on that same day. I just want to make sure everybody realized that. >> So for the student day at the capital right now um director Zari, Director Lemos Garcia and Director Roi have um RSVPDS. Director Bentley was a
005navy. Um and then for the culture assembly, um directors Garcia was a question mark. Um and director Bentley was a question mark as well. So um within the next day probably I need to get those um tickets for the student for the CASBY student day at the capital. >> And just I thought I would give a little overview about graduation gap graduation since we haven't had a graduation yet with all of you all. Um, so, uh, we will typically meet, um, they'll typically watch for you in the lobby and then take you, uh, backstage. Um, and then, um, we'll walk in together probably with the staff, but they'll we'll all be there to give Anthony and I'll be there and there'll be other staff that give you guidance and then, um, they'll have seats assigned
006for us on where we sit on the stage. Then we sit on the stage. So you want to dress um business professional. This one we do not wear gowns or caps to >> um is it you Weston? So they'll give you the speech. You'll have it. So you don't have to prepare a speech >> of any kind. It's you're accepting the class on behalf of the board of education and the school district. >> Um and basically declaring them graduates. >> Yeah. >> Um that's us usually a pretty quick graduation. um and a pretty intimate graduation and a really exciting time. These are some of the students who struggled the most in our system and we're actually getting a diploma. So um at that graduation we will also have um GED completers from the next program
007and so you'll the administrator from next which is a a contract program we have um you're doing GED completion and um their program administrator will be there also as a part of it and those students will be recognized as well. >> Do you have any questions about the graduation? >> I would just point out they're the gap gators and their color is green and often if you're amazing like Doran Nazari, he will wear a green tie. I assure you. Are there any others that you need an RSVP um in the next before our next meeting? >> Well, the chamber dinner is we're probably okay by the next meeting, but that chamber dinner fills up quickly >> and so I need to know like do I need to get another table or is one table going
008to suffice? So that's when we need you to RSVP to >> pretty quickly because it sells out and it's on February 19th. All right, moving on to board member comments. Um, and I just wanted to say we're also going to spend some time actually having a discussion and a conversation about our CASBY experience. So, if that's what you were primarily going to speak about, you can you're certainly welcome to, but you could also save it for the CAS. I would recommend waiting because the students are going to join us really. >> Okay. Gotcha. Cool. >> Okay. So, talk about other stuff. >> Okay. Um Okay. Let's go alphabetically just for fun. Mr. Go first. >> Sure. Be happy to. A very very short report. Uh had a good uh holiday break and I hope everybody
009else did as well. Uh with the exception of some family issues. Um but uh for school board I I attended two events uh involving legislation uh legislative affairs. Uh, one was the CASBY legislative re revolution resolution advocacy committee uh, orientation meeting that was online and u, pleased to um, you know, represent our school district uh, in regards to some of that. And I also along with several of you attended the UNCC legislative preview today and it was good to hear that school funding is in a good place right now. Although I know that a lot of uh work needs to be done ahead and I'd like to thank our state legislators for their ongoing support of the school district. So that's all I've got. President Mash want to go next >> I can. Yeah. Uh
010not a lot on my plate either. Uh holiday break took up the majority of of everything since you guys have last seen my glowing face. I did get to go to the community council education Friday. Um we had a an update on the career internships pathways right part of the career pathways program. So that was pretty interesting. Um she uh she did a really good job on that. And then we went right over to Brentwood and got to see our middle level principal of the year. Always fun to be there. It's a great school and a great program. So that's about all I had. So, um, I wanted to start my comments by honoring Bob Twiton, who passed away since our last board meeting on December 27th, um, at age 92. As you know, he
011and his wife Betty were champions of the city of Gley. They were champions of education. They were champions of downtown. Um he founded the Twiton Institute for Educational Change at UNC which continues to um help train our school leaders and giving them high yield skills to be effective in their schools. And as we all know uh because of his commitment, our very own Twit Academy of Pre-Engineering was named after Bob who was a civil engineer. Um the school opened in 2022 with an emphasis on increasing underrepresented populations in engineering. And fast forward to 2026, we see that 63% of the students at Titon identify as non-white, which reflect the diverse demographics of our region, and nearly 60% of the students at Twitton qualify for free and reduced lunch. Um, so I think that's such a
012testament to to Bob and his legacy. On a personal note, I got to sit with Bob while I was campaigning for school board um at his dining room table. Um, as you can imagine, I talked his ear off. Um, and whenever I saw him at gatherings and events, um, after, he would always remember me as the girl who talked a lot. Um, on a different note, more for students, just reminding you that you have 18 days left to complete the World Community Foundation scholarship. It's one scholarship application and it gives you access to over 65 um, opportunities. So definitely worth doing, but a difficult application to do in one night. So 18 days is just enough time to get your letter of recommendation and um and all the other documentation required for that one application.
013Um let's see, I had some CASBY comments, but I'll skip over those. Um this month I did get to enjoy the middle school art show at the Riverside Library. Um so our kids artwork is displayed um from all of our middle schools. It's really impressive. Different media. There's like the black scratch art. There's like ceramic 3D stuff. Um, you know, black and white sketches and and just beautiful, beautiful artwork. It's open until February 13th, so you still have time to check that out. Um, and then earlier today, as director Azari mentioned, um, I was able to attend the UNCC legis legislative preview. Um, our three legislators that were on the panel were Representative Ryan Gonzalez, Senator Scott Bright, and Senator Barbara Kirkmeer. Um, and our lobbyist uh for District 6, Anne Barkus, spoke. Um, they
014spoke of the financial challenges the state is going to have during this legislative session, although they reassured us that K through 12 was safe from cuts. Um, that said, Anne Barkcus did point to a few areas of concern. Um, she talked about uh 504 plans, which are specific learning plans that are generally enforced by the federal government, but whether they were going to be able to enforce them correctly and whether the state needed to fill in that gap. And if the state were to parallel the 504b enforcement, whether then the district would have double work to comply with the federal um mandates and then to comply with the state stuff. So it sounded like that could could be difficult and challenging in general. Um Ann Barker spoke about um questions in K through 12 as
015to whether the state will make up for federal budget cuts, if there are f federal budget cuts, whether the state can make up for those. Um questions around title funding with the current administration, um whether those dollars are safe or not. Um she spoke more locally about well actually it's not that locally it's an early policy that's written into HR1 which would allow states to opt into a tax incentive which would open the door for funneling of public dollars into private and parochial schools. Governor Jared Polus has um opted into this uh but the question was whether the state legislators will step up and uh form some guard rails around around this in order to protect our public dollars for public schools. Um she spoke about changes if there were to be changes to parent
016contributions and the way health insurance is done, how that can impact the D6 budget because such a large part of our budget is our personnel. And then interestingly, while we were being told that um K through 12 was safe, um there was a question of the total program funding. And so total program is education talk. um all it means is the total amount of money each school district gets from um local and state. And so it sounds like the state is trying to push a little bit of that uh more into the local share so that the state can pay 3 to5 million less to us and whether we can actually make that up locally with our local ownership tax revenue is is questionable. So that could mean a reduction in our um total program.
017Uh the good news as uh doc or director Azari mentioned the governor is respecting the current finance law funding and the budget stabilization factor is not being put in place this fiscal year. So for now those things are things um that are highlights. Um they talked about other things that interesting I think we'll talk about with um Mr. Nate fall around his legislative update that he's going to give us, but he talked about AI and school safety and um local control over curriculum enhancements. Um there was some talk that at the state level they might mandate if a student succeeds on an assessment test that they should automatically be enrolled into certain classes. Um but that is very state level and and it doesn't allow room for local control. So um it was an interesting
018conversation. I I love that event. I like the preview. I like the wrapup um that we get to go to in the spring um just to hear what's going on, where the dollars are, where the concerns are, and and what we need to be on the lookout for. >> Thank you. >> Um yeah, not not a whole lot to report boardwise except to say that um really excited about especially seeing this full calendar of things. I will make one comment or a couple comments about the legislative preview we had today. One, I had actually a community member come up who is involved in the discover district 6 academy and she had just commented about how wonderful of an opportunity it is for her. She's a realtor. She's been in the community for a long time
019and she's learning things about our district, about what we're doing that she never knew before. And sometimes it's insights that you know you kind of don't get if you unless you run for school board or you work for the district. And so it's more of just a comment of appreciation um and encouragement to the community, anyone watching this or hearing about it to really consider doing Discover District 6 Academy just to learn about the great things we're doing because she said she's like, "I'll always support you guys, but like it's it's great information for folks to know about where the dollars are going, where the focus of the district is." Um and so I just wanted to pass that word of encouragement along um for what the district provides through that. and then just kind
020of echoed shared concerns about what we heard this afternoon. There's a lot of work to be done being told uh public education funding is safe, but then also being told that cuts will need to happen across the board, including in education. So, just kind of some of those mixed messages. My my big concern uh was the rural teacher recruitment and retention program um and just what that could mean not just for our district but some of our neighboring districts um that really do depend heavily upon this and trying to get teachers to stay in those smaller communities or go to those smaller communities. Um so I I'm just interested to see where that goes um with the hopes that UNC does not lose that program that they offer there. Um, but I also at the
021same time I'm just encouraged just to know to see that room so full and to see people really interested and they're not just sitting back to say, "Well, whatever happens happens." To really see how they could be a part of that conversation. So, I'm excited to hear Nate's update. Um, I think it'll be a little less uh this way or that way. I'm looking forward to just a straightforward discussion. >> Thank you, Director Limos Garcia. >> Yes, thank you. Um I as had a wonderful break um took some time off and uh decluttered part of my home. So that was a nice refresh. Um the weather was great so it felt like spring break for a moment. Um but for me what I have to report is um I had my first school visit um
022to Brentwood and uh it was so fun seeing all the students um engaging in the interactions that we went to to all of the classes and how they even approached us as as adults and people and seeing the students present and how proud they are of the school that they're in. So it wasn't something that they made up. It was truly from their heart and you could just tell that every one of them wanted to talk and speak. So I am looking forward to other visits um school visits and uh the calendar that we have throughout the year. So excited about that. >> Thank you Director Roi. >> Well, I too had a uh wonderful break. I really en uh enjoyed Casby so much. So I'm looking forward to the discussion about that. Um but
023we we did not have a relaxing time and I did not declutter. Um but we had grandchildren there and it was a busy time but it was really fun. Um so the uh just on top of what director Limos has Garcia has said um just the visit to Brentwood was just really fun and would have been both of our first visits to a school. And so the um Nicole uh Peterson is just such an impressive uh young woman and we really just and they just really showed off their school and we had uh students meeting us at the door and uh escorting us in and they were obviously um proud of their school and it was really uh and I really enjoyed getting to go into a couple of the classrooms and just noticing um
024just you know even from when I went to school or when my kids went to school, just the approach is so so different and so um I was just so impressed with the teachers and just their professionalism and uh just their way of getting the students to interact and be active in their learning and that was very very impressive. And the legislative preview was really interesting for me this morning. I really enjoyed that. Um just for me really learning what the issues are. Um I you know it's the kind of the first time I've heard about the rural rural teacher issue and some of those things. So that was for me really eyeopening to sort of um see what uh the things are that our legislature even deals with. So it was it was a
025good morning and a really good experience. >> Well, thank you all. Um yeah, it feels like it's been a long time since we were all together. Um, but happy holidays to everyone. Happy New Year and yeah, excited to to get to get into the buildings and um really see all the wonderful things that are happening. Um, I unfortunately miss the Brentwood visit. Um, I make my work schedule quite quite a ways in advance. Like I have it through at the end of February, so I'm not always flexible once it's already set. But I'm glad that you all got to go and congratulations again to Principal Peterson. Um the legislative session today was just like so much to take in and um unfortunately not a lot of good news I guess on the financial front but
026yes glad that um so much work was done last year um to change the funding formula and it sounds like we're stable with that for for this year. So I think we will move along to our CASBY debrief and love to invite our council of student representative students to join us. Got mics for you and everything. Did you have any kind of format in mind Dr. culture at the students. >> I think it'd be great to start with the students. >> Yeah, sounds great. >> I'd recommend. H >> you guys okay with that? >> Yes. And will you both reintroduce yourselves to the board, please? >> Yes. I am Sarah Venegas. I'm a senior at Early College Academy and president of the Council of Student Representatives. >> Uh I am Ali Medina. I'm a junior
027at Northridge High School and I am uh the secretary of CSR. Excellent. Well, um, you want to go first, Sarah? >> Yeah, absolutely. So, CASBY this year, I was able to go last year. Um, so this year was another year for me and it was it was different this year. Um, I think the workshops were very nice. They tailored a lot to us as leaders, a lot of advocacy, a lot of understanding other students. Since many of the students that attend CASBY are usually the leaders in your district, it's not usually those students who are struggling or maybe those background students. So, in those workshops, they taught us a lot about how we can include those students who might feel like they're in the background, who might feel like they're not as supported or as
028heard. Because many of the times when our students in the district see for example council student representatives or those leaders in their school, it's like okay, they have all the attention. What about us? So that's what we're trying to advocate for. We're trying to say you have our attention and we're going to make sure you have that. Um, one of the things that I really liked about smaller districts, which there's a lot of smaller districts within Colorado, we're definitely one of the bigger ones. Um, they have a very tight-knit community, which is definitely easier with those smaller districts and harder for us as district 6 with the amount of students we have. Um, one of the things I really enjoyed from a smaller district was they have something called a student a superintendent um council
029which is very similar to CSR. However, they meet with their superintendent once a week and they communicate about what's going on in their schools and um what they can bring to superintendent any new ideas. If they have something they want to present to the public, they will have a section in the um board meeting in order to discuss that out to the public um part of the agenda. So, I think that was really interesting. Another thing was within that council, those students were able to visit a lot of other schools like middle schools and elementary schools because I think that's very important. CSR hasn't had the yet the opportunity to visit those um middle schools and elementary schools. I think a lot of times we focus on high school students because we're all high school
030students. Um, so I think it's difficult to connect with those younger kids, which I think we need to, especially since those younger kids might be in CSR one day and they're going to be able to know how to connect with the board better even though they're smaller kids. >> Um, I wanted to add on that. Uh, I remember last year we really tried to do that. We try to connect with the um middle schools and elementary schools and we did a whole thing on it and we were trying really hard to be able to actually reach out to these schools. Um but unfortunately it never went through. We struggled very hard with like actually getting in touch with principles and making plans with them and just planning in general. Um, maybe we're going about it
031the wrong way, but I feel like a little bit more help in connections because principles aren't really just going to answer some random kid who's saying >> let us in our in your school that that's what I wanted to talk about on your thing. But other than that, um, I was also there at CASBY last year. Um, they did two different work sessions actually. One of them was the same as last year except they shortened it for some reason. Um, I really liked that work session a lot more last year because we had a lot more time to go about it. Um, I didn't really enjoy the first work session actually. Um, they talked a lot about advoc advocacy and I feel like if you're a student who's above and beyond and doing all this
032stuff and actually going to CASBY, you're going to know how to advocate for yourself. Um, I don't know. I That's just my personal opinion. Um, but I really did enjoy um the second work session. Uh, let's see. What else did we do? We did a wild hunt chase hunt, right? >> Yes, we did the scavenger hunt. So, we went all over the Broadmore looking for clues, unfortunately. >> And the career thing. >> The career thing. Oh, the acting. Is that what you >> No, no, no. We went to different little career people and they were telling us like >> yes, we >> so in the breakfast there was different booths and each of those booths had different companies of course which apparently helped school districts and we went to each one having a little bingo
033card. I believe you all had the opportunity to also do that little bingo card. Um, a lot of those booths were very helpful. There was one specific one that I really found interesting. being asked a lot of questions in that one. I think the guy was kind of thrown off by the amount of questions I was asking. Maybe he just thought, "Give me my stamp and I'm gone." >> Yeah. Yeah. >> But it was a mental health booth and they were advocating for mental health. So, free therapy for students, for families, um very accessible online as well. And I thought that was really interesting. um with insurance, without insurance, they're able to provide therapy for both students and families and really anyone in the district, which I think is very important because in Early College
034Academy, we do have a front-range therapist um a few times a week and a lot of our students do utilize our therapists, but I don't believe other schools have that opportunity, especially those middle school and elementaryaries, which I think is still important to implement therapy and mental health even in those younger students considering life is hard even at a young age not just teenagers are struggling kids are struggling middle schoolers are struggling so I think it's important to advocate for maybe counselors and therapists in my opinion are different counselors are more school-based I would say like yes if you have something maybe mental health struggles, you can go to them and they might refer you to someone. But I think having a therapist specifically who has a degree in their job and knows what they're
035doing and knows how to handle students and knows what how to listen and what type of advice they need. I think that could be very important and very different from what a counselor can offer. Um, so I think that could be really good to add >> for me. Um, during that little scavenger hunt, um, sell yourself to the district little thing. Um, I found it really interesting. Um, the quantum physics program, um, they said they're really new and their booth just really stuck out to me. I'm a science person. I really like science. I enjoy science. Um, and I feel like, well, at my school, I'm not really sure about other schools. I know other schools major in different things. Maybe not science. Um, but they were a quantum physics program and they sold themselves
036on how I forgot what it was, but I just really think that it would be a good opportunity for us because I just really want to advocate for our science programs. I feel like there's not enough science in Northridge specifically. >> Let's see. What else did we do? You >> want to talk communication? >> Communication. So, a lot of our smaller districts, of course, they have an easier time connecting with their schools because a lot of them are just K12s and they're in a huge building compared to our school districts, which we have so many elementaryaries and so many middle schools and we still have our charters and our private schools and whatnot. Sometimes I believe a few of our schools might get overlooked. Um maybe those other like schools who have maybe better opportunities
037for example Brentwood has their IB program has I believe it's the STEM program and those schools that have those more prestigious programs compared to maybe other middle schools or other elementary schools might get overlooked a little bit compared to maybe what they offer um and what other high schools offer. I went to Bella Romero Academy and sometimes I think that school might be a little bit overlooked just because it's so tiny and it's a K8. So it's kind of like we don't have many K8s in our district anymore. So I think it's important for there to be more connection within our district. Maybe have more district events, something that can bring our community closer. I know that's also CSR's job, like trying to bring our district more closer, just as we mentioned earlier, it's a
038little more difficult to connect with those middle school and elementary schools as those other districts in Colorado have the opportunity to do. >> I feel like we went over. >> Other than that, Kazzy was really enjoyable. >> Yeah. >> Oh, it's different your second time. Yeah, it's definitely different going a second time. You think you know what to expect and it's like, nope, everything is different. Like, every year is different. There were students I met there that it was their third time going and I'm like, third time? I'm like, okay. Like, that's really cool. >> I think I think it's cool to have the opportunity to go multiple times, but I would like to open it up to more students. I think CSR does like to have our officers go. That's why we have the
039opportunity to go multiple times. But I think it's it would be nice to open it up to more students just so they have the opportunity to also experience that and they might look at it through a different lens and bring in more ideas and other point of views that us officers might not even consider sometimes. So >> yeah, I feel like um definitely open it up to other people. I know I met people who weren't really on their school boards, um the district school board, >> um and I feel like that would be a good idea. I really did appreciate the opportunity at first. Um but I feel like it's a little bit of a waste um to go a second time, especially learning all I did the first time. I don't have as much
040to speak about because I spoke about it a lot my first time. And yes, the activities are different, but it's just it's just not a whole new experience, you know. >> Um I really would like to um go again. Yeah, of course. But I just feel like it would be nice to give somebody else that opportunity. >> I think I went over a lot of that already in my head. >> May I ask you a question? Of course. >> Were you able to give your feedback to CASBY about your experience there? So the positives and the things that you would change. >> They did send us a survey. >> Okay. >> Um the survey is very simple. >> Didn't ask the right questions. >> It did not ask the right questions. It does ask was
041the work did you think the workshops were good? And it's kind of like strongly agree or strongly disagree. I don't think those are very strongly worded questions. I think they're very broad. Um, and maybe if they were more openended where you could maybe type or just what was your experience? I think that would be more broad question where you could kind of type out everything and anything you're thinking about, not just a little like survey of multiple choice. Um, I do understand that students do plan everything. So, it might be a little bit difficult to come up with something new every single year considering I believe this was their 85th anniversary. I might be wrong. It was around there and I'm like having to do that 85 times in different formats is very difficult. So,
042I can understand why they kind of repeat a few things. Um, but just opening it up to different students would definitely be something to advocate for next year. Um, a lot of the students that I met there, I had met last year. So, I think this isn't just within our district. I think with it's within a lot of districts, maybe they think, well, we're officers, we're leaders, we're going to do great. We know the ropes. That's right. But a lot of the students who might also be interested they're or who just might not have the time to be an officer because they have so many other things that they're leaders in and they might want to have the opportunity to go. So I think we just need to open it up more Colorado wide and
043have students maybe go once and um that way there is more difference in each experience and not just the same back >> since I believe last year we we did do a Kazzy presentation to the board. >> Pretty sure. Yeah. >> Yeah. And it's it's like it's very enjoyable. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> I have a question. So do you think that be since you've attended once that maybe the second round you could present? So if you feel like if you went the second time and you were a participant that may be opportunities for you all to share out to others might be a good opportunity instead of so attending there as a presentation or a presenter rather than an attendee. >> Yeah, I actually think that would be a good idea,
044but um I'm not too sure. I feel like I gained a lot of um knowledge on how they do things. I didn't actually think about that. >> Maybe I should try that. I don't I don't know what the roles are. >> Um being one of the people who organizes it. >> Yes. So, you do have the opportunity to do that. Um the application comes out around February or March, I believe. I was going to apply to be one of the organizers. However, I decided against it because the application is very lengthy and very complicated. And I looked at it and I was like, um maybe maybe not. But there is an opportunity for students who have attended CASBY to be one of the presenters to be one of the organizers. Um many of the I
045did notice this year that some of the organizers were the same as last year. So I think that comes back to just having maybe different students maybe have like you can do it one year and then next year maybe not have more students. Um, so that way you're having different voices, different opinions, and different point of views because a lot of the organizers were the same as last year. So I think that's also why there's a lot of repetitiveness in the workshops because they're the students who have organized it for the past few years. >> Any more questions? >> I love that you brought up uh that the vendor that stood out to you was the one focused on mental health. And I don't know if you guys will stay for the full work session,
046but one of our um updates is on community schools. And so I think that would be a presentation you would enjoy because that's part of that community school integrative model is to bring in mental health and uh physical health services like um so that's cool. And then I love that you guys are trying to reach down to middle school and the K through fives. Um we do have six middle schools in our system if we include uh D6 online. Well, actually, if we include D6 online, I think there's seven. So, we do have a lot of K8s. K8s. >> Yeah, we've actually increased Kates since you guys were in elementary school. We've actually um Mclliff, >> Fred Chardis, Madison, we moved to a K8. So, it's >> it's really a pretty popular model. Now, >>
047the other thing that I think is different since when you all were in elementary and middle is that we do have a north range therapist at every site. >> Okay. not necessarily full-time. And then every site has either a school psych or a school social worker as well >> presently. So now several of those social workers are paid for on federal grant dollars that we understand are going to be cut next year. >> So but I think it's an interesting idea about um who should attend. And so I think that's a conversation that council student reps can certainly have like how do you how do we want to determine how do you all want to determine who attends? I I do know CASBY wants some they want that leadership from the officer kind of level
048or the you know the school leader level. They do want that because you got to have leaders in the room that naturally lead. Um but you know a lot of districts don't have a council of student reps. They just pick the kids to go. They don't actually serve on a council. >> Um, >> but we should be able to help you to reach down to elementary and middle more if that's something that the council of student reps wants to do and even think about a mentoring program maybe or something. >> Definitely don't. >> We No. Yes, we we tried to implement that last year as Aaliyah pointed out. It's just very difficult to do it on our own. >> Yeah. So, that's something we should be able to help with maybe. >> Awesome. >> I'm
049excited. Well, that's for next year. So, >> we're really glad you guys went. Thank you for going. >> Yeah. >> Appreciate that you're you're not greedy to have that experience again for yourself, but you want to share it with others because you felt like it was >> it was so fun. >> Helpful. Yeah. And fun. >> Anytime you get to just get away and so pretty there. Yeah, for sure. So, thank you for for wanting to share that experience with us. you. We always enjoy our breakfast with you and you guys are all like fired up about what you just learned. >> Oh yeah. >> Yeah. You attend some of the general sessions as well, the big speakers. >> They didn't do that this year. >> They didn't have them do that. So that was
050different than in the past. >> Yeah. They, you know, in the past they've sometimes had the the the general session speakers then go, you know, K the students would come for that session and then they would sometimes that speaker would go work with the students on a workshop, but they haven't they didn't do that this year and I don't know if they did it last year either, but they didn't do it this year. >> I don't believe they did it last year. >> I Yeah, I think they've changed that. It used to be though that students would be in the general session. There was even a session where students used to be on a panel in the general session. So, they've changed some of that up. They probably just always Yeah, like you said 85
051different times. Let's try this seemed popular. Oh, that seemed like a flop. >> I think the student panel was very popular. I think that would be very >> worthwhile to rein implement. But >> yeah, and they were usually on like a specific topic. >> Yeah. And you'd even kind of like do little breakout sessions where you speak with a smaller group. So >> yeah, student panel on their perspective on artificial intelligence. or sometimes they just do all all >> know multiple questions. >> Well, I think that Casby does seek feedback from from us as well if there's things that we want to see. So, >> I can always send that their way. So, yeah. Um, do any other board members want to share their experience of something that stood out to them at Caspby? I
052could just share that um I was you know people kept explaining it like a fire hose experience which I mean it kind of was but I expected that to be the case but what I gathered mostly from CASBY was an appreciation of what we have in district 6 mainly seeing those smaller school districts of they're the ones that have to meet about the paging system or they're the ones that have to do their budget and so just to see what district 6 has in terms of in-house support and expertise just made me realize how much um I don't want to say easier of a job, but like a different job we have than the smaller school districts to know that we have so many great people that we can rely on their expertise whether it
053comes to budgeting or whether it comes to um legislation and counsel and all that. Um one thing that I I really appreciated the vendor hall too just to see all those different things and being at the food bank and and really always just having food and and hunger is kind of the forefront. going to meet with some of the vendors who offer their meal services and kind of I don't know maybe play koi a little bit just to hear about what they offer but then to hear all the things that they offer to know that my friend Daniel Bach just does so well here and just to see that um again another one of those in-house resources of just like oh well we offer this and we offer this I'm like yeah Daniel does that
054so that's just it was just wonderful to see all that I'm I'm excited to go back next year to not have that you know first year experience of like Okay, I got to go to all of these new board member ones so that I can maybe kind of focus on some other things. Um, but all all in all, it was great to get to know my fellow board members or board directors. Um, and just to it made me excited for the next two years. Um, especially the of what the work we get to do. Um, and yeah, so it was just it was a great time. And I stole a pair of antlers on accident. >> Oh. From the photo booth. >> Oh my gosh. Um, so I might just have to steal things every
055year. >> Well, I go ahead. >> I'll go next because I was only there for one day, so I have uh, you know, limited to report. So this year, um, CASBY landed at the same time as my UNCC board of trustees meeting and so I only got to go for Wednesday and then had to come back home for the rest of the week. Um, but Wednesday was a really important day. We got to have a work session just our board. So, D6 uh board directors, it was a dayong session. Um we obviously onboarded and welcomed our new board directors. Um but just reviewed our board protocols, Robert's rules of order, um best practices for how board directors are supposed to interact with stakeholders, which means like parents and teachers and community members. And um so
056it was a really good reminder of that and kind of I I I think this was my fourth CASBY maybe. But um just being reminded of what our role is as board directors and it really boils down to three things. And one is our budgetary roles serve fiduciary duty. Making sure that um we're not in the red. Um that we are being faithful to our mission, vision, and strategic plan and that we're you know holding everyone accountable to that. Um and then to make sure that our reputation um that we have a good reputation in our community in Gley and Evans and so being ambassadors for our comm community for our schools in our community um and and really that's that's our job that those three things you know there's a lot of extra that
057we get to do like that are fun and things like that but really it comes down to the budget mission vision um strategic plan being faithful to that and um upholding our reputation in our community. So, um it was great to be reminded of all that and and get to meet you guys and get to know you a lot better and um yeah. >> Are we doing round robin or >> I think we're whoever wants to talk. >> Zigzag. >> Um I certainly enjoyed the time at CASBY. It was of course my first time there as well. The first day we did meet as a team as Brenda mentioned um Dr. Compass Spitzy. Um, and it was great getting to know how everybody's brain works and how we can work together as a team. Um,
058I enjoyed that piece. The piece that for me I was so intrigued with all of the workshops. I wanted to attend them all. And of course, you know that you can't, right? You have to divide your time. And it was so great just really taking it all in. And I'm a notetaker, so then I took notes and I reviewed them when I got home. And so just continuing to learn how we can provide the best that we can for our district. Um and knowing that we're in the best district anyway, right? Um but to be able to continue that and to learn more as we move forward, I think is so important. So I truly enjoyed um every component of the CASBY piece. I was sort of thinking about um reviewing in my mind kind
059of a lot of the things that we went to and kind of the two things that stand out to me are the two keynote speakers that I that I listen to and the first one was the skateboard principal and he was really fun but I just could not relate to him at all. I just was like, "Oh man, I you know, that takes a very specific person going to a very specific place in in my opinion." But I thought he was really really interesting and just, you know, the building of relationships with kids, with teachers, with uh the community and and that was I think the really the strong message he had. And then um and I don't have the name but the elderly gentleman that spoke um I went to a workshop of his
060>> Constantin was his last name. Stephen. >> Yes. Yes. Yes. Steve Constantin. And I loved his um kind of his focus on communication uh with families and that the the family is the number one educator of a child. And I just thought that was such a revolutionary thought for me. Um that that is so true that that is the those are the people that are there and as much as we sometimes think you know parents don't care uh they do care they just are stressed and have a lot going on and sometimes don't have the time and energy to do what some other parents do. So finding ways to tap into those kinds of parents and families I thought was um really unique and uh thoughtprovoking. So I I I kind of those were the
061two things that really stood out to me. >> Do uh oldies have anything to say? >> Um this >> I mean seasoned. >> I'm the the youngest board member just for >> Okay. >> Um this one was a little different for me. It' be my fifth time. you know, I have heard the school finance act in class a couple 101 a couple times and um I guess one thing I guess I I was I was hoping to to hear more maybe about the federal board of education and anything happening there and it I think the lack of information that we got about that and the lack of clarity just probably explains where everybody really is and nobody really knows what's going on. So, um, that seems seems to be the the the topic every time
062we're waiting and see and look looking for guidance or something. So, I was a little bit disappointed to to to not hear anything, but I also understand that I think it was just a lot of unknowns. So, um, but but the the breakout or the the speakers, the keynotes were were really good this year. They they kind of had the same theme to a degree, you know, connecting with your community. Um, the one the one M Constantine speaker in his breakout session before he He did it backwards. He said he did his breakout session before his his keynote speaking. And so we got a little bit insight first and he he he said something that kind of struck home where he said, you know, you can't just have a pizza party and expect the community
063to show up. And I think uh you know, me and Dar were sitting by each other listening to that and I think a lot of that stuff kind of hit home of how we can connect with our parents and our families better. So it was a good it was a good week for sure. >> Yeah. And like Kyle, no matter how many times I go to the school finance, I leave I think more confused and this year I'm very confused because again, as Kyle alluded to, so many things are happening at the federal level and and the state level and that goes hand inand with the legislative review session today. Uh it it does make your head spin a little bit and wonder what is going to happen. But again, we're in a we're in
064a good place. And I always leave CASBY or have left CASBY with a feeling that we're doing the right things in school district six. It's a verification and I think our student leaders would would concur with that. Um I think the the most important element of this CASBY convention for me was our our first meeting as a board. And I really want to thank uh Brett Miles and Susan Meek for their work. Um they're good team builders and I think it really sets the tone for how this board is going to work and get things done on behalf of the district. So very good debrief by the way. You hit everything that was on my mind. >> I mean it was just >> I just say ditto when they do that. >> Yeah, ditto. Thank
065you. I like the word cheat sheet. >> I know that's a good one. Yes. Yeah. >> Yeah. It's always beneficial to work with um Miles or Brett Miles and Susan Meek. Um they just they make it fun, they make it engaging, help us to to learn about each other and learn about the work. And um yeah, I went to a few of the more new board member type of breakout sessions and that was just a good refresher and not necessarily maybe new information but to help me know how to maybe further help you all understand if you but yeah it's it's it's always um rewarding to like be in a room full of like like-minded intelligent people who are all working towards the same um solutions or the same trying to find solutions to the
066same problem. So, yeah. But yeah, I'm so glad you guys got to go and thank you for passing the torch. You're you're a junior, >> did you say? Yeah. So, you could go one more time or you can tell all the younger, you know, the lowerassmen how great it is. >> Have them come back and tell you what they did. >> That would be fun. >> Yeah. All right. Well, thank you. Is there any I think we'll I think we'll move on. We're a little bit behind, but that's okay. >> Okay. Um, so the next item, yeah, you guys can be dismissed. The next item on our agenda is an update on our community schools project. Thank you, President Mash. Well, we're we're transitioning this. I'll just um set it up for for Anthony and
067team to present. Uh we we began exploring the concept of community schools seriously last spring last almost a year ago now um particularly with Brian Lamos who's coming to join u Mr. Osmus and uh with Ramon Reyes at Maplewood Elementary School. And interestingly, 10 years ago, I went to a high poverty, high performing schools uh conference uh where we had the opportunity to learn from folks who had worked very closely with high poverty, high performing schools. And um and one of the things that they spoke about at this conference was the importance of community schools and and schools being a a hub of the community and bringing all the services in one place for families to access and and really helping families to feel like this is their school so that they want to be
068in the school and that they have a meaningful role in the school and and that the work they're doing in the school makes a reference to to the school success as well as our child success. And so, you know, some things just take a long time for to catch on. It took us a decade to get here to where we really had a principle and um and leadership in place to to really go into this with a full head and heart. Now, I want to say that we have several schools that have really strong pieces of community schools. uh you know with our community health centers at three of our schools I mean that's a big piece of community schools uh the partnerships that our schools have with our churches partnerships they have with community
069agencies like Weld Food Bank those are important pieces of community schools the food pantries are an important piece um clothing pantries are another important piece and many of our schools all of our schools now have the food pantries and many of our schools have clothing pantries we do have laundry facilities at a few of our schools now that's a piece of this as well. Some of our schools have had parenting programs where they're teaching parents how to be better engaged in in like the SAC committee um or in how to better advocate for their children. So, we've had lots of these pieces in our schools, but we have not gone full in comprehensive in a school. And so, we are doing that. That is the plan now. So, I'm going to turn over to Mr.
070Brian Lamos, who is our director of multilingual learners and cultural excellence, and uh Mr. Anthony Osmus, our assistant superintendent. Oh, family engagement. We keep changing his title. >> Family engagement. And then uh Mr. Osmus, who is assistant superintendent. You do not see Mr. Tuttle here because Mr. Tuttle is on a Caribbean cruise. >> Oh, shoot. >> Funny how that is when you're halftime that you get to do things like that. the Caribbean, >> but he is he is working behind the scenes on this uh with us as well. So with that, I'll turn it over to you two, gentlemen. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um Dr. Plet, I'll kick this off just a little bit. So, President Mash, vice president Blay, members of the board, just want to um introduce myself. I'm Anthony Osmouth. I'm
071an assistant superintendent of secondary schools with Brian Lamos here, our director of uh MLS and family engagement, multilingual learners and family engagement. and we're excited to just share a little bit about around about around uh community schools. Now, I'll start a little bit because like Dr. Pch said, we have done some work in the past and in the past I was an elementary principal and we did dabble a little bit with community schools and and we just we just did not have a a district model that we went after. So, I'll share a little bit of that experience. And um I was a principal for several years at Centennial Elementary, which is a high poverty school. And what we know about high poverty schools is um they do serve students with tremendous potential, but they
072are impacted sometimes with um factors that we can't always control inside the school. Research around community schools says it's effective because it recognizes that academic success is closely tied to student well-being, family stability, and strong community connections. And we really find that to be true. So, let me tell you a little bit about what we um what we did at Centennial and how we're taking that to the next level um here with our community schools. And so, at Centennial, we were very fortunate because we did have a school-based health clinic in a partnership with Sunrise. And let me tell you how beneficial that was. Families would come and they could check out their students, go right go right on site to a doctor's appointment and come right back to class. You're not missing school, helps
073with attendance, helps with engagement, all of the things. And we also um they also partnered with um a dentist here and there. And so um students that did not always have access to a dentist, they could have that right on site. Uh one of the things that we prided ourselves on was our monthly parent meetings which filled our cafeteria and we wanted to get feedback from our parents like what do you need parents? What do you need? One of the things that we heard um over and over is parents need a job. They need help getting a job. And we also at the time way back when we had um our newcomer center at Centennial. So we had all these parents that were new to the country, students that were new to school came to
074our site. And so they needed a job. And so we partnered with Otterbox to help support this. And we had several opportunities for parents to come to our computer lab, create resumeumés. Otterbox would help them with some interview skills. Uh it was a great partnership we had at the time. Um, we also heard from them that coming by a washer and dryer was sometimes difficult. So, we actually installed a washer and dryer at Centennial and open that up to community use. Um, another partnership was our wild food bank where we um created a food pantry before we had food pantries. We had a food pantry. Um, and we also had our the food truck that was on site just often. And so, a lot of times it was just responding to our community because we
075know that academic achievement and um community support go hand inand. So to talk a little bit more about this is Brian Lamos. Um and I'll turn this over to you. >> Yeah. What um I just want to say thank you for the opportunity to present and to speak here tonight. This is something that I think all of us are very passionate about serving our communities, serving our students and also our families. And this is really an approach that integrates all the services to meet the needs of our children in our buildings. But the core spirit of the community school model is student achievement. So we want to be very very clear. We know through research that there are some things in pla that things have to be in place for students and families in order
076for them to support each other and to ensure that students get the best education from us and you talked about that earlier uh director um Brenda and we you know you said about the integrated supports around mental health um medical assistance and we also know that dental assistance and all those things. So there's really uh from the national view there's five pillars that um I'll briefly talk about that encompass the community school model. One is powerful student and family engagement. The other is collaborative leadership and shared um voices and power um expanded and enriched learning opportunities, culture of belonging, safety and care and integrated systems of support. All these pillars integrate so nicely with our I2030 vision. There's nothing in here that does not connect with our I2030 vision. And so that's where it was
077like we are teed up for this to happen at our schools that we've identified. When we think about pillar number one, right, just do the space bar. >> Well, let's share this. The pictures are always good, right? When we see students that are uh smiling and we see our afterchool programming, we see parents involved and just really when you think about the pictures up here, you see integrated services by just our community, our teachers, our parents, our students involved together and really really having a good time. The what we're going to talk about deeply is now the five pillars. And when we think about our powerful student family engagement, families and students are key partners within the decision-making process. And so families lived experiences and form approaches and as Dr. Poach talked about it really
078becomes a hub of the school and some examples of that are like where uh students might not where families might not be speaking English and then they feel supported through the schools and the services that they get. And we also see that as assets rather than as a deficit. And so how do we work with those families? They can inform us on a lot of different things such as how to best communicate with them. What are the things that they are challenged with within the current school system. So having their voice is very very important and this model really really brings them to the table to really have that shared leadership. When we talk about the second pillar of collaborative leadership and shared power and voice, they co-create um a culture of professional learning, trust
079and shared responsibility. There's formal teams that are put in place such as a shared governance where uh parents are co-creating school improvement plans, reviewing data together, and then uh vote on priorities and resource allocations within that school. So those are things examples that could happen within this pillar. When we go to pillar number three, we're really talking about um you know our expanded enriched learning opportunities before and after school programming, weekend programming that happens and also our summer programming. How is it all aligned to ensure that our students feel safe, our parents feel like they are involved in the learning opportunities? Just not the afterchool programming just for our kiddos, but also what are the things that we can do with our parents? Maybe there's English classes that we're offering, whatever it may be. But
080really going back to pillar number two, saying what what is it that the parents are saying within this decision-making process and how do we make that happen in our after school programming? Um classroom support that is uh supported from the community connections. We have a lot of partners within the community that help with our uh pro current programming such as soccer without borders. They come in, they help support us. They help uh not only with enrichment activities but helping students develop English. And then they also work with our parents as well. And then we talk about um just really the cultural, you know, identities and how important it is for these schools and students to feel like they belong and they're part of this decision-m and part of that is there's a lived experience. And
081so how do we create opportunities for students to be engaged in things that are happening out in the community but also in our enrichment programs at the school. So elders are a great example of that. They have stories. They have lived experiences. They can come in partner with teachers and tell the stories of what's happened locally. What's the history that's happened? And really gives the the you know identity of our students here to hear from their elder to say this is me. This is who we're talking about. and it validates their experience here in this community. Thinking about culture uh belonging, safety and care, we talk about this in I2030. It is, you know, very very prevalent that we want all students, staff and community members and parents to feel like they belong, that they're
082part of the decision-making process. And this is uh pillar number four that really really uh amplifies our um CC1 goal in I2030 which is connecting families, students and staff and community partners to safe and belonging environment. And then the integrated services as you can see from the picture up here we have the uh mobile unit from the public health department which goes to Maplewood currently right now and other several schools and really it's around that health support that they give but really it's consolidating services making sure that community partners or the school system with counselors uh social workers are not duplicating services and we have clear alignment in how do we support our uh families and students and just really we really want to amplify this as Anthony was talking about as Centennial they have
083a health center there on campus. I was in um I had the privilege of being a principal at two community schools. One was an elementary, one was a high school. And the difference that that made in our attendance was huge because if a student was having some maybe dental needs or was sick or just need some support, we could send them over there and they could come back and we could make sure that they were getting the proper support that they need. Mental health services is another one we had on site there. And we want to duplicate those things. With our current partnerships that we have with community members and so forth, we are teed up perfectly to implement the community school model. As Dr. Pilch talked about earlier, we have the resources. We have,
084you know, um, funds at these schools. All of them are 21C schools. So, the afterchool programming could be really aligned closely. Our parent engagement activities. So, all the things that we are currently doing through the family center, um, just multiple multiple uh, pieces that we have in place. Now, it's just really looking at that and saying what are the priorities and how do we make it happen? And so, um, the five schools that we're looking at for implementation, as I said earlier, they currently are recipients of the 21st century grant. They also are all title one schools. And right now, year one, we're in the um exploration stage with Maplewood and just seeing, okay, what are the pieces we have in place, but we'll be doing a survey to see what the needs are as
085we go further. and then really going into uh the exploration after that and installation. And the next schools that we're thinking about um that we're proposing um would be Centennial Madison. Both of them have health centers on site, so they are very well positioned to uh implement a community school model. And then Romero and Scott would be year three. Um anything else you want to say? No, I just um just thank you for um for listening. We're looking to answer any questions, but we are super excited to think about going all in with this and connecting achievement uh and student support and community resources. >> Thank you for your presentation. Um I had just a couple clarifying questions. So this year is exploration. Year one would be next year of like full imple implementation for
086Maplewood. >> That That's our hope. >> That's the hope. Okay. And then um is there like a director that would manage the community schools program either at one school or all the schools or do we know about that yet? >> Yeah, you're you're looking at him. >> Yeah, that's you. Okay. So all of the sites, all the community school sites would have a community school um facilitator on site and so they would do all of the work and then uh Mr. Lamos then would be the director that would oversee this and support the work. >> So we shuffled or shifted some um some of the staffing at Maplewood this year and then supplemented it a little bit so that they could have a community schools coordinator on the site. So, they do have a full-time
087employee, uh, a classified employee dedicated to supporting community this community schools program. And then David Reyes also is critical in this work, of course, with the family center and and he's backing up Brian. And then, um, Anthony and Wes as as the assistant superintendents who are over these schools that we're looking at will, you know, will ultimately be the ones to make sure that Brian gets the job done. The other the other thing you saw 21st century grant program in there that's an afterchool uh program that that we run through state grant dollars that actually flow to us through the federal government. Um and so those schools are a natural fit with that after school program. They're a natural fit um for helping to fund community schools. We've also uh applied with the Weld Trust
088for some additional support >> in uh launching our programming and and it looks very optimistic that we will we will receive some support from the Weld Trust >> to launch. >> What's our third school that has a community based? Is it Jefferson? >> Celita Deloul. >> Oh, Celita. Okay. >> Um and I think that the healthc care center is enormously beneficial. Would that be a necessity for those other three schools in order to fully >> either the on-site uh community health center or the or access to the mobile on a regular basis. >> Yeah. So part of what we've done at Martinez and um it was really getting up and running before co but what what has happened at Martinez is their contact is right there at the clinic um close to Martinez and then
089they can they can call they have the health clerk trained to be able to call over for additional support. >> So there's some different ways we can build the model. >> Absolutely. >> And what you don't see there are years four and five. you see the first three years. So ideally um pending the availability of funding we we would desire to have uh this as a model in all of our title one elementary schools. >> How about the uh K8s? Is there a different feeling tone to the community schools with the middle school level being in association with the K5? I'm I'm just wondering if there's a difference in feeling tone. >> Well, like Dr. Bill said, "I think as we get these schools up and going, even K8s such as Madison is well primed
090to be a one of our first K8s to to get in place here, too. Um, they've got the the school-based health clinic." >> I think what you have at a K8 is that opportunity to work with a family over nine ages of their children. >> Um, and that's a really powerful model. >> Um, when we move to Bella, we'll see this, you know, something similar. Y >> as well. >> Do we have preschool at Madison? Yes. >> 10 10 years. >> 10 grades. So really 10 years. Yeah. >> Right, Natalie. Good catch. >> And then uh the 21st century grant uh that's not in jeopardy of being lost, is it? >> Yes, it is. Uh uh Director, it truly is. Um we just we just don't know. And those dollars don't last forever. So that
091there's a there's a deadline on them um when they are granted to us. Do you want to talk more about that, Mr. Lammo? >> Yeah, it's a five-year uh plan. um that we are eligible for dollars. After year three, they assess if we have implemented the grant appropriately and then they will award us year four and five. Uh we don't we do know that um right now it is one of those programs and working with main sponsor that is up in the air right now. Last year they told us that our funding was not going to be refunded. Um not because we didn't do what was uh supposed to be done through the grant. We did everything and in fact we're an exemplar in the state. we have been uh for many years and that's
092why we continue to get the grant. Uh but it was just through the different policy changes through new administration. It was some one of those things that was just on the the block to not be refunded. Um but they did come through um and we worked with the team here to say what are we going to do so that we ensure that it does not go away with the program we have offered and so we had a plan around that. Um but then it did go through the funding did go through. Um not sure about the details now regarding if it's going to still be on um a reduction for next year. Uh all indication is that we're going forward. And so that's what our plans are, but we will always be planning if it
093doesn't go through. >> And the goal of a 21st century program is to create sustainability, create programs that you can sustain. And so we feel like with MLO, with our partners, that's what we are securing right now. so that we know even if we don't have 21st century that we can continue this work. >> I um I'm very excited about this work. I remember when we were touring Madison um Dr. Pilch talking about her vision for community schools as we were going through those halls and the school was being built. So really cool to see it come to fruition and um yeah just I am excited for these schools and and for what that can how how it's going to bring community and I loved you talking about elders. I always I'm on Facebook and
094like there's a lot of um community members who have a lot of extra time and who are very interested in education. I'm like they they need a project. It would be awesome for them to be able to volunteer that time in a a very productive, positive way. So anyway, just really excited. >> Great. >> Right. Thank you very much. We'll look forward to >> the update next year or in six months or whatever. >> All right. And at this time, we will invite Mr. Fall for a legislative update or digestion of what we talked about this morning. Thank you, President Mash. Board of Directors, Dr. Pilch. Uh, my name is Nate Fall. I'm legal counsel for the school district. Uh, nothing like a last minute meeting before la dinnertime to talk about legislation, but um,
095I do want to share that, uh, this is kind of one of my favorite presentations to give. I did not give it last year uh just because we had the same board. But now with three new board members as well as a half awake director Bentley at the last time I gave this presentation uh I felt that it would be uh in our best interest to just give you an overview of process uh and how the general assembly works kind of what my role is uh what our lobbyist role is in all this. And so I'm just going to throw some terms out for you and then at the very end we can go over just some of the big topics. But uh many of you already heard that today. So um this is the
096one slide with a lot of words on it and there's a lot of terms but I just kind of want to walk you through how this works. So a bill comes forward and it's brought by a sponsor and it's brought in one house and that's called a house of introduction. So I'll just walk us through a hypothetical and we'll say that uh uh somebody from the house of representatives brings forth a bill. So then the house is the house of introduction uh and they do their first reading meaning they read the bill out loud and then from there uh that bill is assigned a number and then it's usually assigned to a committee. I would say by and large most bills get assigned to a committee. The committee that we're generally most concerned about is
097the education committee both in the house and in the senate. Uh at the hearing at the committee hearing they really there's really four things that can happen. The committee could vote to amend the bill. They could refer it to another committee, which means they pass it or they just refer it to another committee. They could kill the bill. Um, or they also use the word postpone indefinitely, which basically means that the bill is not going to move forward. Or they can pass the bill. Uh, I will say that the committee is where the magic happens. That's where we get our amendments in. That's where we can connect with the committee. I often will go down and testify at the education committees um because again that's really where most of the work gets done. Once it
098moves into the house of the whole uh it becomes a little bit more challenging to introduce amendments and things like that. So again, we'll just say for the sake of this hypothetical, a bill was introduced. It went to the uh education committee. They passed it. Then maybe they made a few amendments, but then they ultimately passed it. Then it goes to its second reading, and the second reading is made in front of the committee of the whole as it's called, meaning it goes in front of the entire house. So um and then at the committee of the whole it can fail and they call that a loss bill or they can pass that second reading. And then oftentimes when you're reading, if you're following along to all the bills and the drafts and the amendments,
099usually you'll see this thing called engrossed on the side. And that means it passed its second reading. And if it passes second reading, then it goes into the third reading. Uh and then again, they'll discuss it on the House floor. And if that passes, it's then called re-engrossed. And then it moves into the Senate where it does the process all over again. uh generally so if a bill goes through the House Education Committee, it's more likely to go through the Senate Education Committee. Um many times bills can uh then go to the Appropriations Committee because it involves money or there's a fiscal note that's attached to the bill. Um and so usually for most bills, we end up going to both the education committee and the appropriations committee. Uh then after that if it uh
100assuming it passes both chambers then it goes to the governor uh who then can enact and pass the law or can veto it which we dealt with last year with a open records bill that was quite frustrating and involved a lot of stakeholders in time made it through both chambers and then Governor Pulse vetoed it. So I'm not frustrated. I'm just expressing some uh facts here. So uh there's also an appropriations bill. Those are usually bills that are not permanent. They're for one year kind of one source funding type bills. That is opposed to the long bill which is an appropriations bill, but the long bill is kind of that school finance act bill that we spend a lot of time talking about um and digesting. Um that's it. There's also uh if it goes
101once it goes to the first house, the house of introduction in the second house instead of ingross and reingross, we use the terms revised and re-revised even if there's no revisions. But that's just the kind of term of art that they use. So kind of any questions about that? Um the late great John Hafley uh called this my schoolhouse rock presentation. So we'll go. >> I was hoping you were going to sing. >> Uh lobbying. Uh we do have a lobbyist that works at the district. If you attended the UNCC event today, you saw Ann Barkcus. She is the district's lobbyist. She represents several school districts throughout the state. She is phenomenal. Um she knows a lot about school finance. Um she knows a lot about what her clients kind of need and she really
102knows what angle that we want to approach things from. Um and these are really what a lobbyist does. And then of course ultimately and this is most of most interest of this board are the positions uh that I'll work with our lobbyist on you know proposed positions and then I'll bring them in front of this board. Uh, and so the way it works is I'll share with you a list of bills. I'll share with you kind of my proposed position on the bill, and then I'll let you all kind of tell me what you think. Um, so these are really the positions we often end up taking. By and large, we uh just monitor most bills. Um, there's there's some value in kind of reserving our political capital to focus on just a few bills
103rather than trying to put our voice in on every single bill that might be out there. So, any questions about that? These are your state legislators. Um, a few changes. I wish I had remembered. I know Scott Slaugh took over for Ryan Armagost. Um, Dusty Johnson just took over. I'm so sorry. I wish I could remember some of these. Um, but you you know that some of these individuals were in attendance today at the UNCC event. Um, and so these are the folks that we often work with um, when it comes to bill drafts or questions about bills. Um, and these are folks that you all I encourage you to connect with um, if you feel like uh, you need to get your voice in the room on any of these particular bills. >> Can
104you remind us which ones are in the education committee? >> Yes. So, uh, Scott uh, Senator Scott Bright is on the um, Senate Education Committee and then I believe uh, Representative Gonzalez and Representative Garcia Sander on the House Education Committee. So um again I won't spend a ton of time here. We don't have any actual bills. The general assembly starts on Wednesday. Uh we have seen some kind of proposed bills come forward. We know with school finance the budget does support K12 finance uh to the extent that we need it to be funded. We know there's now some questions around how they're going to maybe make adjustments to the local share with that specific ownership tax. Um, if you do have any questions about that today, I'm going to defer that to our chief financial
105officer, Megan Sponsor, because she can answer kind of more specificities on that. Um, but as uh Miss Barkus pointed out, that could lead to a pretty significant shortfall in um funding from the state level and then we would have to make that up at the local level. Um she had also mentioned this kind of disability and discrimination oversight that uh there's a bill that they're attempting to kind of create a new office for civil rights through the state level just given the concerns that the office for civil rights at the federal level is going away. So they're not going to be able to uh an individual is not going to be able to bring a disability discrimination claim um through OCR. And so they're attempting to kind of create something similar through CDE. I've reviewed
106the bill proposal. it it's workable, but right now it just doesn't mirror what federal law requires. Um, and it's just creating a lot of confusion. And so, uh, we're going to be working really closely with the sponsors there. And, you know, ultimately, if this is something that that they want, uh, I'm guessing it's going to there's going to be a pretty big fiscal note that's attached to it because they're going to end up having to hire four or five more investigators just to address these disability claims. Um, and with the budget that we have, it's I'm I'm doubtful that they are going to be able to pass something like that, but we'll see. Uh, academic achievement, we know that there's kind of this autoenrollment for gifted and talented students. If they pass a certain score,
107uh, the next year they're automatically enrolled into an AP class, for example. And that's really just for rigor purposes to make sure that students are getting the highest level of education that they can get. and also that some students don't know that they might be capable to enroll in some of these classes and those tend to be kind of more the disenfranchised student groups um that typically don't enroll in those AP classes. So, there is value to that. Uh I just think we need to think a little bit more about how that might work. Implementation for that wouldn't come for several years. Uh, I did throw the core bill on there, the Colorado Open Records Act, because I know that the bill sponsor is going to be making more attempts to to look at that
108um with a little bit harder of a lens and maybe Governor Pulse will um accept or pass uh this version. And I don't know if there's anything else from this board, but um if not, I'll leave some time for questions and comments. >> Would you be able to just share this? >> Yes. because that first slide was super was >> Yeah, we'll post it for you. >> Yeah. And I can also um I'll link to you a couple of pages on the general assembly's website and they give some pretty helpful overviews of this process. So, and I think even Great Education Colorado has some pretty good information. So, >> again, I'm just grateful for you that that we've got your expertise that you can really know this language and the pressure is not on all
109of us to try to figure out all that out. So, I really appreciate you. when we come back for our next legislative update, um perhaps we can dig in a little bit on where we are with the scholarship granting opportunity um that Governor Polus has opted into, although it isn't legislation right now. We believe superintendents believe and advocates for public education believe that there may be a legislative action that stops that from being implemented, but once the governor pushes it through, we don't know that there is. And so the superintendent last Thursday or Friday whenever I met with the front range superintendent, there was some question about would this be something that um attorney Phil Wiser could take on in terms of legal action to to stop the flow of public dollars to private schools
110is the idea. >> Seems like is I mean I feel like we got an education. It was a breakout session at Casby one time about all of the different attempts for voucher programs and that they've always been determined to be unconstitutional. >> Yeah. Uh unfortunately the this there's a situation now where um the federal administration has made an opportunity for governors to grant to opt in or to choose to not opt in to the the scholarship granting opportunity for their state. And I think we've known we've known long all along and for a long time that our governor is is an an advocate for private and charter schools. And he is he has not been able to get a voucher program into the state of Colorado as a result of these other lawsuits. And this
111this may be an opportunity for him to make that happen on his way out. And that said, if if he's replaced next year, well, in 2027, well, he will be. He's term limited. Um, can the new governor replace? >> We don't know. The rule making has not been written yet on this and and is not required to be done until December of 26. So, the rule making could go as long as December of 26 and then it would be implemented on January 1. So, what we don't of 27. What we don't know is could the rule making say once you're in you're in? Could the rulem say once you're in you have to stay a minimum of x amount of time? We just there's very little we know. >> And I think it's it it's
112possible that the way the legislation at least is proposed that that that money could flow to public programs and so maybe the general assembly could do something about that as well. Um so I just think there's a lot of unknown. It seems to be supporting private schools and private schools only, but at least the way that they're messaging it is that this money could be used for public purposes >> as well. So, >> well, and I it seemed to me just reading about it in the paper, it's it's worded very deceptively. Um, so you read it and you think, "Oh, that's a good idea." >> Yeah. It's hard to understand. It's kind of hard to understand what they're what the >> It talks about school choice and about supporting after school programming and supporting school
113choice for families and then it talks about a tax break and so we all like school choice. We do in Colorado and we like tax breaks >> in Colorado. >> So, yay. >> Yeah. So, we'll have to really pay attention to that one too. >> Yep. >> All right. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> All right. Let's debrief so we can eat some supper and we'll do reverse alphabetical. So, we'll let you go first, director. >> Um, yeah, this has just been uh really interesting and helpful and um sounds like there's uh kind of a new concept for me anyway is the community schools. Um that is very exciting and I'm it's I go to um these listen to TED talks and the the guy that I heard at Casby and then I
114find out that our district is already doing it. So uh that's been really exciting for me. >> Director Limos Garcia, >> who am I next? >> We're doing reverse self. >> Reverse self. Um gosh, great meeting. Um lots to absorb. Um, I didn't think I was a processor, but definitely with the legislation information, it's a lot to process and a lot to learn. Um, I'm looking forward to getting the copy of the PowerPoint and, um, the links that'll be attached just so I can learn more. >> Um, but good meeting, >> director Edmonds. >> Uh, yeah, grateful for the our student reps. Thank you again so much for sharing your experience and being honest with us. um especially when it comes to just standing up for your fellow student which is very encouraging to me
115to see just like I have such pride in my community and my district but to see that from the students as well is amazing. Um community schools I'm all for it. I mean that's that's that's my heart for this community. I was very excited about pillar four and pillar five, but knowing how all all five pillars will be very important to just provide a resource for our families who are struggling in a high risk community, especially like Gley Evans area. Um very just encouraged. I loved when I walked to understand now when we walked by Madison Ear rebuilt and to see that sunrise sign there and be like, "Oh, that's really cool. What's that all about?" Now I now I know what that's all about. But just those little things that we often take for
116granted for those of us who do own a washer and dryer, who can go to the doctor, who don't have to wake up in the morning and realize, oh, there's not enough food for my family. So to see that we can provide that for our students and their families, it's just goes back to the skateboarding principle. Um, I know it didn't hit well with a lot of people there, but the idea of telling our students every day that I love you, um, and that that this is a way we can do that through community schools is just great. and then legislative uh update. Yeah, it's I think that's the part that I'm really looking forward to just learning more of that process to just better understand it. Not to be the authority or to be
117able to to do anything that Nate does, but just uh grateful for the for that presentation. >> Yeah. >> Um yep. So, ditto, as Kyle would say, um I work in a community-based health center and that is the model we have is wraparound services. So, on site I'm the doctor, but there's also an optometrist and in our system there's a dentist and we have social workers and we have therapists um all in one spot. And I know our families trust us so much because of that. and they'll often come to us instead of going to the emergency department, which is often where they should have gone. Um, but I know it does build these communities of trust. Um, so I just I love that we're expanding that into into education and thanks Nate for the
118update. I loved your what did you call it? Rocking >> school of rock. >> Schoolhouse rock. Well, >> school of rock. School of rock would still be just next. >> I can go next. >> Okay. >> Uh yeah, the thanks to um you guys for the the community updates on the schools. That's um one of the things that those guys talked about and it you can kind of see the importance and it's it's a really cool feature and I think it's going to have a tremendous ROI. So, I'm I'm fully on board there. And um I think Nate, if you you do the math, four years of uh being half awake, I've got two solid years of info in now. So I appreciate everything you do and keeping us up to date. So looking forward
119to it. >> Yeah, I agree all around. Um I am interested in knowing more about the scholarship program that you spoke about, uh Dr. Pelch, and how that's going to be how that is going to be facilitated. >> Me too. Yeah, I and the impact it's going to have. I think that's going to be a big issue. So, >> yeah, it was a great meeting. Thank you to our students. Thank you for sharing. Thanks to hear um all about how you enjoyed CASBY and um it is really our team building and our professional development opportunity. Um thank you to Amy and Deerra and whoever else organized the legislative preview. It was so well attended. um which also is just exciting that so many leaders in our community are hearing the same information. >> Um community
120schools and like I think you said Robin like it's fun when we're already doing some of the things that we're hearing about at CASBY. So um it seems like we were yeah halfway or more than halfway there towards the community school. So excited to have like a very um specific plan and then yeah the legislative session is going to be interesting and um I always appreciate those updates and we have robust conversation on that. So thank you all. Uh this meeting is adjourned. Go get some dinner. Heat. Hey, Heat. Heat. Heat.