Greeley-Evans School District 6 Board of Education Work Session 10-13-2025

001Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] glory. [Music] Aha. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Hey, [Music] come. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Thank you. [Music] Morning. [Music] Yayoo. [Music] Hallelujah. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey, Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Uh, welcome to the work session for the Gley Evans District 6 Board of Education. Uh, Miss Lemon, will you call this to order? Will you give us a roll call? >> Absolutely. Director Ozari, >> present. >> Director Bentley, >> present. >> Director Campus Spitzy, >> present. >> Director Mash, >> Director Matthews, >>

002present. >> Director Norwood, >> present. >> Five board members, present. >> Thank you. Um 2.3 we're going to do the calendar review and community engagement. You should have a calendar in front of you. Um the Evan City Straight of Address is this Friday the 17th 7:30 a.m. The usual place. Always good to hear how our partners down there are doing. Um cultural day 22nd, Discover D6 Academy starts on the 23rd. I think there's been a bunch of emails out about that. Did you get all your responses? >> We have. And so who plans to attend from the board of education? >> We'd like to have some of you here at this first one if we could. >> The discover well the >> discover district on the 23rd. >> Okay. >> I think I will be

003out of town that day. >> I think I signed up to be there so I should be able to do it. >> Thank you. >> I will try to be there as well. >> Thank you. And what about the Evans state of the city? I am not able to attend that. I'm out of town Friday. >> Um I I can be there. I think I RSVPd. >> Oh, good. >> Yeah. >> And I saw Anthony I think is going >> I will cabinet. Yeah. >> Yeah. I I will get there as well. >> Yeah, I can I can put that one in unfortunately. >> We'll be represented. That's great. Thank you, Mr. Mintley. >> Yep. No problem. uh museum night at Fred Tartis Chartis uh school of innovation the 24th and then our next board

004meeting uh well community foundation spread the good lunchon fund and then school visit to Gley West and that'll kind of get us to >> what's that >> that's a big one >> that is a big one yep >> um that'll get us to the election and the next board meeting so we'll see what that brings Um, guess we'll go to board member comments and reports 2.4. We'll start with Dr. Kempo Spitzy. >> All right. Um, so first of all, everyone, happy indigenous day. I always bring my show and tell. So, I'm reading my kids children of the earth and sky right now. Native American children. Um, it's about Native American kids from the Hopi, Comanche, Moakin, Navajo, and Manden tribes. Um, and about how they help their families at early ages. So, we're doing this

005and talking about chores. Um, and, uh, um, other than that, I had a few shoutouts. Um, we have an online security system called GoG Guardian, um, that monitors our kids when they're doing anything online that's like under the district. And so I recently had a parent tell me how quickly um, this GoGardian system caught his um, senior, high school senior um, who wrote an essay, a personal essay about something that had happened in in their life. Um, and it did have a lot. It was a heavy topic. Um, and the father when he was contacted by the school, he said he was contacted by like three different people within a matter of like an hour of like your kid has written some things and you know that are worrisome. He knew exactly where it was

006coming from because he had talked to his kid about the prompt that he was going to answer for this essay. Um, but he was just floored at how quickly the, you know, our online surveillance system picked up on some words that could indicate a child in distress. Um, so just a cool shout out for that. I, you know, some some of these things happen and we don't even know they're happening and so it's cool to to hear about it. Um, reading and writing. So this is from my um perspective as a parent of elementary school kids. Um, so I know that we have this renewed focus on early literacy, on our um, early grades for reading and math and writing. And I was so impressed with my six-year-old. Um, she came, she did this over

007the weekend, and I just thought they were fun colors, but no, she said in her first grade class, they're being taught about um, paragraph structure. And so green is the topic line and then yellow is like an information line and then orange are details and then more information and more details and then the final color red is like your concluding sentence. First grade guys and yes I do have a gifted child but she said this was not her GT. This was her whole first grade class of like 30 kiddos. So super proud of that. I was like dang that's like high school material. And then this also came from her class, but my five she teaches my my six-year-old teaches my 5-year-old everything she's learning. And they're freaking doing algebra. Like she's like, "Mom, we

008do this." Like we do 8 + blank equals 12. And then we have to answer what the blank is. And so then they they were doing this at home. And I was just really impressed. Like here you can see 8 + blank was three or equals 11 and the answer was three. Um and so anyway, just really proud to see that kind of level happening in kindergarten, first grade. So cool. Um other more district related stuff, we got to do our Fred Chartis School of Innovation visit this past week. Um we had a a student panel and then um a tour of the school. They are a very unique school. They're a micro school. They have 124 students. Um they were established in our district in 2017. They are highly soughta um and shared with

009us unfortunately have few openings every year but that's a good problem to have. Um I think on our yes on our calendar we have museum night. So that's the culmination of their forest loop. Um it's really impressive. The kids all give presentations. So, if people want to make it out to the Cameron school building, that's where Fred Chardis is to see the kiddos presentations. Um, the same night, actually, Heath Middle School will have their diia Muertos open night open to the public as well. Um, so I'm hoping to try to make it to both of those events. Um, this last Saturday, a lot of us got to go to the Bright Futures Benefit event um through the World Legacy Foundation. Um, just a reminder to students or parents who might be listening, um, the Bright

010Future scholarship application is for seniors from Weld County. Um, you can apply. There's a deadline in May 15th, but if you miss the May 15th deadline, um, you have another opportunity until November to apply and that second application opened October 1st. Um, it's a very easy application. You just have to be a senior um, in a Weld County high school and have maintained a 2.0 OG GPA and do 12 hours of community service. Um, so I encourage you to apply. You can get up to like $14,000 of college scholarship through the Bright Futures program. And I encourage parents and um residents in our county um to give to Bright Futures. It's a really great great way to support our students. Um, I know we'll get to celebrate more of this during the business meeting, but

011uh, a lot of us got to participate in our big news that we were able to award Mr. Steven, well, not we, the state of Colorado awarded Mr. Steven Pollson, um, one of our high school teachers at Gley Central, um, the Colorado Teacher of the Year, and we're going to have a video during the business meeting to celebrate him. Um, and um, I keep telling everyone, we not only have the best teacher in the state of Colorado in District 6. We, as we all know, have the best superintendent and we have the best school counselor, uh, Claudia Kesler won best school, high school counselor of the year, and she'll be recognized as at our business meeting as well. Um, but it was so cool. We had the commissioner of, uh, education come out, Susanna Cord

012Cordova. Um, and just a huge huge celebration and so proud um for Mr. Pollson. And um, yeah, let's see. I think those are my things. I I talk a lot, but I I missed the last meeting, so I had more to say. >> I don't I don't have a gabble to shut down, so you're not too safe. >> Uh, Mr. Norwood, thank you. Um, had a chance to sneak out and watch a little bit of wildcard baseball uh, in New York. I was hoping Mr. Hansen would be here tonight because I owe him an iced tea. The Tigers did take two or three from the Yankees, but I think I left that with Officer Corass. So, that was fun. It was a It was a good opportunity. Very electric out there. It was really exciting.

013So, came back. I had a chance to go to Dos Rios uh to the color run with my grandson, Madden. Uh Miss Buster and her staff put on a great community event there. Um and thoroughly enjoyed it. got covered with chalk dust, but um it was really a lot of fun. So then, uh this past Friday night, snuck out to watch a pretty good football game between Northridge and Central. Um I think Northridge snuck that one out as well, too. So, and finally, um I went to UNCC soccer yesterday to watch one of my former students, Sunonny Jarnell, play. And then I come to the meeting tonight and I see another former student here, State Representative Ryan Gonzalez. So, it's very good to see you. >> Thank you, Mr. Norwin. Mr. Zaryi. >> Okay. Thank

014you, Vice President Bentley. So, yeah, I attended quite a few of the things that Brenda has spoken about. The Prairie Heights celebration. I was uh speaking with our superintendent, and that was uh the first school that Dr. Pilch opened up in this district, one of many over the years, and it's hard to believe that it's been 10 years. To me, Prairie Heights still seems like a new school, but they have their own traditions now. And it was so evident at that event. And I'd like to thank the the uh folks there that worked with the students to showcase some of what the students do, including the chair uh leading team and the orchestra had a chance to play and then the students took folks out on tours around the building. So uh kudos to to

015Prairie Heights for their success over the years that they've been open. I also attended the High Plains Library District lunchon. That lunchon uh showcased a a program that the library district has called we will build it better. And it's basically a STEM program in which they have a kit uh which students can use in order to uh develop their science, technology, engineering and they include the arts in their um uh abilities. Uh so you know these partnerships that we have with these local organizations really help support uh kids throughout the community. And that was a that was an impressive uh demonstration from the library and I thank them for all their work as it ties into our STEM programs throughout the community. I am the school board representative to the wellness policy committee and I

016went to their meeting on September 30th and and this I do need to report out to the board. Uh several bullet points that they wanted me to share with you. So, I'll just go down the list here. Uh, there are five of them or so. So, I'm not I'm not an expert in any of this, so I'll just report out. If if we have questions, we do have wellness experts in the district that I'm sure can can answer those for you. Surveys are showing that we're doing a good job according to the wellness folks and communicating with our families and staff, and we're about 5 to 10 percentage points above the state average. That's pretty cool. However, we are a bit below the state average in using our cafeteria spaces. This was new to me.

017Our cafeteria spaces as learning laboratories, and that is something that our wellness team will be looking into. I'm not exactly sure how that works, but that sounds pretty darn cool. The cafeterias are used for that for those purposes. The meeting also provided updates regarding uh many of our programs and in this and the wellness folks do a very very good job of putting a lot of information into a fairly short meeting. And one of the uh one of the programs they reported out on was UC Healthy Hearts and Minds program. uh again one of our community partners that come into our schools and with parent approval uh help give the students more information about their heart health. Now it has provided uh 1,259 of our students with extended opportunities to learn about handsonly CPR and

018they're trained in that with certified professionals. They also had a briefing on our farm-to-school program which encourages the use of school gardens as learning environments for education about nutrition, food, and sustainability. And we currently have 11 school gardens at 11 schools in our district. And the nutrition services staff has extended an invitation to the board, Dr. Pilch, to visit those school gardens. So, that might be something in the future that we might want to look at. And finally, our students uh from the Student Health Advisory Council will be speaking as I'm not sure which students, but several of them, I'm presuming, will be speaking at the Student Health Association National Conference, which is happening in Denver uh on October 17th. So, that's this week. uh they will speak to why they are a part of

019our student health advisory council, what they do as members of the shack, and how they see the wellness policy enacted in the school district. Very impressive uh group of kids as as we'll notice our student leaders tonight in the boardroom. Uh these uh these kids do a lot for our school district and and I look forward to continue working with them. And that's all I have, Mr. Bentley. >> That's all. >> That's it. >> It's always amazing how much time and effort you put into that door and really appreciate it. Um, Mr. Matthews, >> uh, yeah, it definitely is after the first few weeks of the school year where we don't get out too much, uh, we've definitely done a lot more in the last last three weeks. And so, uh, I also went to

020the Prairie Heights 10y year anniversary. Um, just Dr. You made a a point at that is how important building Prairie Heights was uh to passing a larger bond issue and regaining the trust of of this community. And so very appreciative of of the board that that went after uh the grants to to help build that school that uh that put that together. That's been and and one less school to do. I think everybody knows we let all of those uh round buildings that were built have to be have to be redone and that was the first one. John Evans was torn down and we built uh Prairie Heights that were so it was technically a replacement school but um yeah just can't thank our community enough uh for for taking a chance that board that

021went after those grants to put that on the and for putting that on the ballot. um also went to the High Plains Library Foundation, another great partner uh for district 6 and um just continue to hear and we got to see just all the different things they do at the link library and what a resource for our children in this district and and I hear that again and again and not just from from kids in our district and not just from kids in in gley all over Weld County. Um so we appreciate their work. uh also went that week to the greater uh great education uh Colorado lunchon down in Denver and I know a number of us have been to that to that lunchon before but the success foundation was honored at that lunchon

022and so it's just a great chance to uh to congratulate the success foundation again another great partner and we appreciate all that they do uh for our district in terms of providing uh so many of the things that have been uh that our parents sometimes can't provide in terms of instruments and athletic. Um um u and also we have what do we call the what do we call our our STEM labs? >> Smart labs. Yeah. Our smart labs. Uh I mean we have more than than anybody else in the country and and a lot of that is due to the uh to the effort of the success foundation. also was there for the Fred Chartis visit. That was um it's great to see them in a permanent home and and how well they've adjusted to

023that permanent home and all the opportunities that building enables uh Fred Chartis uh students to enjoy and then uh got out to a couple of different arts things. uh Gley Central band concert and Gley West choir concert and just uh those are do appreciate the the arts and the impact that they make on our on our students lives and yeah they're both fantastic concerts. So it's been been a lot of fun in the last three weeks in District 6. >> Agreed. Thank you. Um I don't have a whole lot to add. I just I just wanted to mention the teacher of the year assembly that we got to go to for Steven Pollson. It was it was just pretty touching to to watch the entire gymnasium chant we love Pollson and and just see the

024difference he's made in their lot their obvious the obvious difference he's made in their lives. So uh wasn't wasn't a lot of dry eyes in the room but it was it was pretty pretty cool to be a part of that. Um moving on to 2.5 uh legislator engagement. Looks like we have few guests here. Representative Scott Slaw, Senator Scott Brightite, Representative Lorie Garcia Sander, and Representative Brian Gonzalez. We'd like to welcome you guys and um I'll let Nate or Dr. Pilch walk us into this. >> Thank you. Thank you, Vice President Mley. Welcome to all of you. We're so glad to have you. uh we have a little bit of information we'll share with you and then um what I want to do is let each of you introduce yourselves and and the board will

025introduce themselves too but if you all would share u what your role is and what your relationship to the Glean School District is um when you introduce yourselves but I want to give you some information about the district and just a little overview of who we are you know it's the former English teacher of me I got to hand out stuff >> thank you not grading these Right. And I will not do this. >> No. No. >> But we do require participation. Um we're really really uh pleased to have you here tonight. We have not had a session like this with our board for many years. Um partly because of the pandemic and and we just moved away from this. But uh my experience has been that it's really valuable to bring uh our legislators

026into the room with our elected uh schoolboard officials and have a conversation around your priorities for the legislative session, our priorities um here in the district and really for you all to be able to put a a name with a face so when you want to reach out to a schoolboard member, you can remember like, "Oh yeah, Dr. Campos Spitzy that helped. Maybe I should call her and and see what she thinks." And so you you know you have access to us um when and so we can be a resource to you as you're down there advocating for our community because we know it's really big work you're doing and that things come at you really fast and um we we want to be a resource to you. We want to support you and we

027want to thank you for your service um ahead of time. So with that, Representative Gonzalez, you want to start by introducing yourself? >> Yeah. So good evening everybody. Representative Ryan Gonzalez, House District 50, which is East Gri Evans. I am District 6. I graduated from district 6 in 2013 from Northridge High School. So, go Grizzlies. Um, I have a very soft spot for Grizzlies itself. So, you know, the STEM magnet program, I was part of the STEM magnet program in that school when I was there. So, I actually did my capstone project on suicide awareness, which kind of did a snowball effect into kind of going out in the community and helping other causes with nonprofits and just kind of seeing what I can do in the community myself make a positive change, right? Um,

028it's good to see all of you, the board members. I've spoken to each of you. Um, I know my first session already under my belt. Uh, wanting to make sure I do the stakeholdering done right, especially my district. I want to make it clear I vote my district and I will never ever ever ever apologize for that. Um, when it comes to education policy, I've reached out to Dr. P saying, "What do you guys think about this bill? Um, what are some concerns? What are some things that, you know, we can do better?" Just making sure I'm in tune with my district. So, education, schoolboard members, higher ed as well. um business people, business policy, I go to my small businesses community in my district. When it comes to healthcare stuff, I go to some

029healthcare people in my district as well just to make sure I'm in tune with the subject matter experts who are dealing with these policies. You know, I have a saying, we vote and we write these policies, but you guys have to deal with it. So, I'd rather make sure I'm in tune with the concerns and priorities and challenges that face my district overall to make sure I vote accordingly. And so, um, with that, I also just want to justify that, um, the healthy school meals for all vote. I want to explain my no vote because, um, I did mention to board members my why. Um, and it's not just this district per se, but I did get a lot of people all over the state who students and kitchen staff who are concerned about the

030amount of food being thrown away. And my constituents, my district cannot afford to have their tax dollars being thrown away. And so, that was part of the reason why I voted no. Not because I don't want to feed children. I do. We all want to feed children. But I just wanted to clear the record and go on record why I voted no on that specific bill. However, I did vote for the um school finance act which guarantees district well not guarantees but gives district 6 at least 11 more million dollars here down the road making sure we have the resources, equipment and just overall uh support that we need for our students, for staff, for the board members for the community. um this upcoming session as you know the budget so we will be facing

031some cuts again and I want to make sure I have a saying that we should be funding the big three that's healthcare infrastructure and education we should be funding those three first and foremost and if we have wiggle room then we can talk about other offices departments agencies FTEES whatever it is but we should not be funding stuff at the expense of our students of our healthare of our roads, of our infrastructure, and of our housing. And so I made that clear to the legislature, to some of the people in the capital, that that is my priority. I will not be cutting higher ed. I will not be cutting K through2 ed. I know that's something that the governor has had on his chopping block is Medicaid and higher ed. And so I am very

032opposed to those cuts that the governor has considered to make. So, I just want to go on record that I will be fighting for K through2 higher ed, Medicaid, and healthcare as well as infrastructure. Um, so I'm just looking at affordability issues right now. So, I know affordable housing is something that's big. I'm proud of my work in construction defect reform. There's a lot of work to be done, but you know, obviously cutting some red tape and things like that. Um, we have a lot of work to do in the housing aspect. So, I'm working with some people in that process to make sure we have affordable homes and affordable economy. You know, getting rid of a lot of these fees that you see everywhere. Um, it's it's does a lot of undue burden to

033our constituents, my constituents, as you know. Um, low-inccome, not a lot of high-income people in in my district, but I want to make sure I'm in tune to their needs, their concerns, their priorities, their thoughts. Energy. I'm proud that we passed nuclear this last session. So, as we phase towards more renewable, clean energy, I think we can't do that without nuclear. And I think that's something that we should all consider down the road if we want to phase away from traditional methods. Let the markets do it on their own, but not without the expense of nuclear. So, um, I look forward to the conversations with you guys. I'm here for you guys. Tell me what you need. Tell me how I can help you guys, how we can have a partnership. It's part of my

034job. you know, I answer to my constituents in my district, not the capital, not the leadership, not the people in the powers that be. I have to come and explain myself to my people. And so that's the the foundation I stand on. >> This one. Hi, I'm Lauri Garcia Sander and um I live up in Eaton and I represent House District 65. So there's just a few precincts that are in district 6. Um I do have a family member that's still in district 6 and uh I grew up in Lasal and uh went through UNC for my bachelor's and masters and so uh background in education. I've been watching district 6 and part of district 6 family in the um kind of in in the adjacent worlds for a really long time. Um I was

035a teacher, a principal and a district administrator. I still work a little bit for Alt Highland School District um on contract and so I am very aware of what's going on in education have been for the last 30 years. Um my goals at the legislature are always going to be can we stop putting more on our teachers and principles and admin. Um I'm looking forward to trying to find ways to unwind the uh burdensome paperwork that we have going on. Um, I worked on a bill last uh last session that attempted to do um to do just that. There was a big price tag slapple on that. So, I've been working on that for a while. Um, looking at my own auditing for paperwork that we're asking um schools and districts to produce. Um, an

036example is uh I do the office of civil rights and English language development programming for Alt Highland School District. um when they're asking me to report for CDE and for the Office of Civil Rights, I'm filling out that paperwork twice a year, multiple times for different people, different departments, and it's kind of ridiculous. So, if I do that for a district of less than a thousand, I can't even imagine what that's like for district 6 and our larger districts in the state. Um you know, there's just bigger departments, more kids that were doing the same work. So, um I'll continue looking at ways to unwind um the bureaucracy and um obviously school funding is always another priority for me. Um I'm here to listen really and I'm looking forward to just continued conversations. I know

037Dr. Pilch has been wonderful. I've reached out I think maybe to um to Miss Overton also in the past year about just kind of some things that have come my way, but always looking forward to just the conversation. and let me know if there are bills that you think that might help in the world of education cuz that's really the fire in my belly and why I'm down there. So, um please uh let me know how I can how I can help. Thanks. >> Awesome. This on it's on. Okay. Uh thanks everyone for having us here today. We really appreciate engaging with District 6. It's the core uh core school here in Northern Colorado and it is the shining example of how to do it. We really look to you guys uh as the example

038of how to do school best and how to best serve families uh in Northern Colorado. Well, um so Scott Brightite, Senate District 13, which includes um half of Gley and Brighton and the Highway 85 corridor in between. So, um my first engagement with District 6 was in kindergarten at Cameron Elementary, um which Fred Chartis is there now, I believe, in that in that building. So, I won't tell you what year that was, but uh that was my first first uh uh exposure as a student in District 6 schools. Um I am the owner of ABC Child Development Centers, which has been a big partner with District 6 over the years. Um some of the the highlights of that relationship was um my mother, previous owner of ABC, uh worked with Dr. Tim Waters back in

039the 80s to develop the Colorado preschool program and became one of the first contractors with District 6 uh for some preschool slots through the CPP program back then. Um one year later again with Dr. Waters uh we developed after school programs that are on site at the elementary schools in district 6. Since then it's become a model that a lot of other communities around the state and around the country have used as well. So, uh, we're proud to partner with District 6 schools, with, uh, District 6 community as well as other school districts around and doing, uh, that after school care on site for those kids. Uh, families really appreciate having their kids in a safe place and so happy to do that. Um, uh, happy to serve on lots of district 6 committees over

040the many years and decades that I've been engaged here. um moving things forward and and watching uh watching the continuous improvement of the school district and amazing um was part of the small team that got to uh work to hire our current superintendent and uh really happy that that has played out even 10 times better than we could have imagined. So uh awesome there. Uh so I serve on the Senate Education Committee, the Senate Health Committee, and the Senate Finance Committee. and I'm ranking the ranking member on Senate education. So, um you can tell that that is my um that is definitely my focus. Uh and I lead our caucus in any conversation when it comes to education. They all look to me for uh advice on which way to go on education issues. So,

041happy to represent the school district and I look to to you guys and Dr. Pilch as well. Um, every time we hear an education bill, um, she's she's getting texts from me and I'm like, "All right, what do you think about this one? What do you think about that one? And how about this provision? And what sort of amendment do we need here or there?" So, uh, District 6 has a voice in the legislature uh, via those uh, conversations. So, um, as we look forward, uh, the state of Colorado is definitely in a budget challenged place. Uh just like Representative Gonzalez, uh I am here to protect education and protect uh health uh health coverage for our more needy families in Colorado. I will stand up for that all day long. Um to me, it's

042a conversation of wants versus needs. Um and we have, as uh Colorado has stepped into funding, a whole lot of wants for a lot of folks. And I'm sure a lot of those programs have great merits. Um, but we really need to to focus on the needs that Colorado has and I believe that those needs are high-quality education and high-quality uh health care for for those in need. So, we'll be focusing on that for sure. Um, some of my initiatives going forward are uh streamlining and making more efficient and effective the department of early childhood. So, I engage with those folks a lot. Uh, it's my specialty. uh was part of the different committees and whatnot that brought the Colorado Department of Education to be and want to see it thrive and to see it

043be successful. Um and it needs u a little bit better level of accountability and a little bit uh better um uh efficient process with which to work through its goals. So those are the things I'll be working on going forward and again uh we'll be highly focused on anything education related. So thanks for having us today. My name is uh Representative Scott Slaw and if our time to speak is proportional to the amount of time that we've been in office, I will not talk very long. I'm I'm a relatively new member uh to the general assembly. I replace representative Ryan Armagost for in house district 64 which comprises me birth at Johntown Milikin and a huge part of Gley everything basically west of 35th Avenue in that direction. So I have a number of schools

044from district 6 that are in my district. Uh I also so I grew up in Milicanin Johntown area. So I'm from that area but because Melikin and Johntown are very small. A lot of my friends and a lot of my interaction with a lot of things were here in Gley in district 6. And so most of my good friends as a kid were district 6 students. Um I also be you know education is super important to me and I grew up around it somewhat as well. My mom was a school bus driver for 35 years and uh yeah, she's a she is a saint compared to me. I I and as are all of you, I I don't know that I could do that. Um I taught at UNC in their ROC department for several

045years and so I've been tied in a little bit with the district when I was there from 2010, 2011, 2012, those three school years over that kind of period of time. But education is something that I really hope to focus on. I've been uh really lucky to have kids in really good schools. Uh and then a as an Army reserveist, I've also taken time where I have gone away from home here in District 64. And I so I've had my kids in a couple different places. And so I have recognized how important schools are to kids. And so I appreciate everything that you all do to make sure that our kids throughout this district um get the education that they really need. So and that's all I will say. Maybe next time I'll have more

046to say, but uh we'll be working for you all down at the Capitol. Thanks. >> Thank you all very much. I appreciate um giving us a little bit of background. What you have in front of you is just some demographic information about the school district. And then in your folder, we've provided you with our brochure that is our strategic plan, Innovation 2030. I believe I believe Scott served on the committee to help develop develop this probably 10 years ago. Eight years ago. Yeah. Um but and we appreciate you being involved in that. But uh this really is the the driving structure of the district. It is the work that we do every single day in the district and behind this are very extensive plans that are monitored on a regular basis that have data tied

047to those plans. Um all that can be found on our website. But this really is a working document for us. And then we just put in a couple of other pieces for you. One is our career and college readiness information. We're really proud of this work and and I believe we're a leader in the state around this work with our career pathways and our concurrent enrollment and our the numbers of our students who are earning college credit while they're still in high school. And then finally, uh you probably received this at your home pro maybe you did not, Representative Garcia Sander, but the rest of you should have. Um, but this is our report to the community that really gives you our annual report of of how um how the district is doing and what

048the district is doing. So, I wanted you to have a little bit of background as you walk away tonight. So, with that, I'm going to introduce our in-house legal counsel, Nate Fall. Uh, he's my partner around all all things legislative. um and and is often the person when when you text me and ask me what I think about the bill, then I text Nate and say, "Tell me what this bill is. What is this and what what do we what do you see in it?" Um so, uh he's really a big part of the work that we do with the legislator, the legislators, and um and the work we do with our board when our board decides to take a position on certain legislation. So, with that, Mr. Paul, I'll turn over to you to

049share some information that you have tonight. Thank you, Dr. Pilch and members of the board. And uh thank you all again for being here tonight. Um it's really nice to see you here in this room. Um I know that we got to have Representative Gonzalez a few weeks ago. So thanks for coming back. Glad we didn't scare you away. Um so as Dr. Bch mentioned, um I'm more of a boots on the ground uh liaison when it comes to this school district and our work with our lobbyist Suzanne Barkcus. Um I actually read the bills in the laws. as I know not many people tend to do that but that is something that I do uh get to do. Um and then I work back with the board of education in terms of what laws

050are we seeing out there, what concerns might the board have, and then of course we can always bring that back to you uh when concerns arise. So um the board just asked me to provide uh a few of kind of the big bucket areas that this board is concerned about for this upcoming legislative session. Um, and then I'll kind of stop between each bucket, so to speak, and then we'll give an opportunity for, uh, you to add anything to that, and if the board has any other questions that they might want to have, um, and we can get through it that way. So, the three main buckets uh, for this board of education would be unfunded mandates, uh, return to local control, and ensuring school finance is continued um, with the current atrisisk formula um,

051that's been developed. So um when we're talking about unfunded mandates, what we can say is generally these are laws with great intentions. They're written for all the right reasons. Um but they create things like financial strain for us, resource drains, uh and then increased costs. So in terms of financial strains, you know, oftent times when laws come in, we're forced to reallocate funds into other areas. Uh we're diverted from um staff taking their core duties and transferring them to another task. uh or increase costs to which could potentially lead us to needing to reach out to our voters for more money, which nobody likes doing, right? Um and so I just have a few examples of that. Um just so you're aware, right now we have currently have seven uh trainings that we require every

052year for all of our staff to go through. I'm sure Representative Garcia Sander uh can empathize with the fact that we have to do so much training uh for our staff. And again, these are all on uh important issues like non-discrimination or accessibility, CART, uh child abuse response training, right? Those are really important areas. Um but again, these are things that we need to do with uh thousands of staff members and find a way to coordinate all that information to make sure that they're getting it. Um that's just an example, but specifically with bills, uh House Bill 241216, this was a bill called Supports for Youth and Juvenile Justice System. This was passed a few years ago. Um, and it's really for justice engaged youth. So, students who are in detention or on probation, uh,

053are currently going to jail perhaps for whatever reason that they're have the right to continue educational access. Right? That's really important work and we want to make sure that we're doing that. A kind of a key proponent of this bill is that we are to identify a justice engaged point of contact for our school district. And that individual serves as a liaison between the school district, between all of these justice uh agencies like probation, the courts, detention, you name it. Um as well as working with the families to making sure that these students are connected back with the school district to make sure that they're getting uh a provision of educational access that they have a right to. Uh it also created a justice engaged bill of rights which includes among other other things providing

054students with a graduation and promotion plan. Uh appropriate credit for coursework completed while justice engaged prompt enrollment or reenrollment no later than 10 days upon request and so forth. So again these are things that districts should be doing or probably doing. We don't know but essentially we got lucky. We already had an individual in our system who is doing a lot of this work. Her name is Tammy Sigura. She's excellent. She was our atrisisk coordinator. Now she's our justice engaged point of contact and that takes up a significant portion of the work that she's doing. She's having to attend hearings. She's having to talk with families. She's having to connect with probation. She's having to do all this extra work on top of the job duty that she was already assigned which was a full-time

055atrisisk coordinator for the school district. She's phenomenal. I don't know how she does it and how she finds the time to do all that she does. Uh and we're fortunate, as you can see, we're a large school district. Um, and so we can move around some folks if we need to, but it just adds more onto the plate of the employees that we already have. I know that many of you represent some pretty small school districts, some rural school districts that don't have that same level of access to ensuring that these folks, uh, can identify that point of contact and do all that work that they need to do. Um, another example, uh, last year, Senate Bill 25276. This is called protect civil rights immigration status. Again, it's a great bill. important uh to ensure

056that we are protecting student information. This is something that we're already doing. I think what was challenging for this bill is that it required kind of policy adoption plus training plus compliance by September 1st of this year. So, the bill was passed last May. We have to change basically all of our student information systems to adjust to this new data collection process um surrounding student information so that we're not overolcting information. So, our student information services team uh had to do make a ton of adjustments over the summer uh just to make sure that we're up to compliance by September 1st, plus the board policy adoption after we've only had a few opportunities for the board to meet. Uh you can just understand how significant of a challenge it is for us to kind of

057get up to compliance with a law like that. Um and then the last example, I don't need to belver this too much. You've heard enough about it, but House Bill 21110, that's our Colorado law for disabilities. That's our accessibility law. We're not alone. The Colorado General Assembly is also part of this. All all government agencies are. But what I can say is that getting to compliance with those WAG standards has been a tremendous overhaul. I think we've spent I don't even want to ballpark it, but it's been in the tens of thousands of dollars. And I'm looking at our director of finance just to make sure just to do an audit of our website. That that's in addition to all the vendors that we have to work with. Uh this is an educational institution in

0582025. Most of what we use is technology. It's not patent paper anymore. So, all the vendors that we have to work with have to be in compliance with these standards as well, or else we could be subject to a statutory penalty. Um, again, we're not alone in this, but it has been a tremendous amount of overhaul. Some districts have been fortunate to hire a full-time accessibility kind of guru. Uh, we weren't so lucky. Uh, again, we did get lucky in terms of some staff just really devoting a ton of time and attention to getting up to speed with compliance of these accessibility laws. I give a huge shout out to Terresa Myers, our director of communications. Uh, and one of her directors, um, Kim Desmond, has become extraordinarily knowledgeable about this law, just on her

059own time, you know, and she has become kind of the point of contact for the district to make sure we're caught up to speed with accessibility. She's not trained in this. She had to train herself really. Um, and this is just kind of another example of an if I may, please. >> So, when this all first started to come out about two years ago, the accessibility stuff, um, I I meet with a group of Weld superintendents every month and they're all from much smaller districts than ours because they're all small. And, um, they they just were, you know, had no idea how to even approach this. And so, we actually they came to some of our trainings. Teresa and her team worked some with with Windsor. um the superintendent from Eaton came, the superintendent from

060Fort Morgan came to one of our trainings because they just didn't even begin to know how to be to implement this with you know with their staffs and and we have um you know the Centennial Boseies and so Boseies was getting up to speed to help the superintendent as well. But it's um I think what we're saying is what we would really appreciate is if you would just ask a question of like this sounds like a really important law and a really important thing to do and who's going to do it? Do they have the resources to do it or should we should should should we be thinking about additional resources for K12 and we know there are no more resources um if we're going to ask them to do this this thing. So that's

061just what I think we're asking is to be mindful of that like somebody's going to have to do that job. who's going to do that? >> And if I can interject, I do want to give kudos to Representative Lori Garcia Sanders. I saw that one of the bills, I forget if you it was primary sponsor co-sponsor was the tech accessibility liability. So that we're not liable if it's a vendor who is um not meeting the accessibility laws. Um so thank you. Um also I think speaking to your point from earlier, I saw that you did the data reporting requirements trying to streamline that for K through 12. Um, I just appreciate that. And to Representative Gonzalez, I love that you supported the protect civil rights immigration status. I think all Nate is saying is the

062September 1st timeline was a little a little um small, but but I think if as a board we all would have been in are in support of that. Um, yeah, just wanted to clarify. Um, and if I just may add, um, I do we do ask those questions in committee sometimes in in our debates and hearings. Uh, Representative Garcia Center has a saying it's like it's a it's a problem for tomorrow or the solution for tomorrow's problem or what's the saying you have? But, um, we have those discussions of course, you know, as you know, they still pass it. We try to introduce some amendments to make it at least some less burdensome. But the unfunded mandates aspect is something that we highlight especially all of us can agree is an issue in the legislature

063to especially when it comes to local control. We don't want to give you guys more burden because it just has cost and with resources being so strained right now. I just don't think it's fair and as what was mentioned it's it's well-intentioned. All all these bills are well intended, but the the unintended consequences, the unfunded mandates is just a big problem. >> Today's solution is tomorrow's problem. >> Sounds like a really good idea and it's like now how are we going to implement that? Right. >> Thank you. >> Do we have any more comments from the board? >> Well, well, just one um I just want to touch on uh and maybe you can address this a little bit. We every year um and it's it's not a legislative uh question. It's just a it's

064agenda question. Every year we have students go down to the capitol for the legislative uh session. And uh from the students perspective, it is uh it's really a great opportunity if they get a chance to meet you and talk with you. And so that that is scheduled. I just looked on the Colorado Association of School Board website that's scheduled for February 12th. Okay. Thursday, February 12th in the morning. It would be just wonderful from their perspective. I usually go down with them and it's just great to have them have that opportunity. >> Absolutely. >> To meet with you. >> Okay. Thanks, Nate. >> Thank you, Representative. Thank you, director. >> Don't don't don't. >> And I usually travel with Director Aari to that and it's an awesome opportunity. I know we were kind you were

065had a very busy day. Representative Gonzalez last year. So, so um certainly understand that and hopefully we can get that opportunity this year. >> Uh the next one bucket I wanted to speak to is local control. Uh I know that this is a hot button issue. It's as highly valued in this school district like it is in so many other ones. Um really at the end of the day, we want to make sure we're responsive to our community, right? We want to make sure that any curriculum and instruction that we're adopting uh reflects the needs of this community. We want to have flex flexibility in that regard. Uh we also want to be innovative in our own ways. Right? That's something that Colorado I think really uh respects and and encourages in many way with

066its public education system. Um and at the end of the day, this board of education is held accountable to its citizens in the same way that you are. Um and if we're not able to adopt and pass policy or pass curriculum that meets the needs of these students and we might not be serving them uh to the extent that we can. So again, and I appreciate Dr. Campo Spitzy's comment earlier. This is by no mean an opportunity for me to throw shade at any particular um lawmaker here. I I understand um that there are many many reasons and factors why you may support or oppose a certain bill. Um but just know that just kind of the impact that some of these examples have on us can be challenging. And so just a few uh

067House Bill 251135 that was communication devices in schools similar 2563 library resource decision standards. Those are two bills that essentially required the board to adopt policy in alignment with statewide standards. Right? This is a cell phone policy and a book review policy. Um, we had already been working on and developing a robust cell phone policy before this law was enacted and we had already gone through a very significant and robust book review process uh before this law was adopted. Um, but again, this is just requiring districts to now adopt and align themselves with state standards that might not necessarily reflect the needs of our community. Uh, I would say our policies are better than what state law requires. Um, and that's because I wrote them. We also have uh House Bill 231291 procedures for expulsion

068officers. This made significant changes to the expulsion officer hearing process. It required a 5-hour training that all expulsion officers need to take. Um and it also required that we engage in policy adjustments related to expulsion. Uh again, this is just kind of an issue surrounding kind of the safety needs of our district and our community and how we respond to certain acts of violence, for example. Um we just want to have that discretion and flexibility. our goal is never to expel kids, but sometimes it's an unfortunate thing that you have to do um given kind of what that student may have engaged in, right? Um and so just knowing that these types of laws can serve a way that they're taking away some of that local control from us and that can make it a

069little challenging. Uh a good example I will say on the flip side, we're still kind of waiting, but the uh Senate Bill 20 or House Bill 251192, that was that financial literacy requirement bill that we were originally concerned that we were going to have to hire uh full staff to complete that financial literacy credit. We were going to have to do trainings. We were going to have to adopt new curriculum and go through a curriculum review process. Ultimately, the state board is going to develop standards that hopefully we can fit within one of our existing courses so that students are getting that financial credit. uh prerequisite for graduation and that's something that we can more work with rather than kind of requiring us to follow these certain standards and of course we want students to

070get financial literacy right we wanted them to get that education uh but just so we can kind of adopt it and align it with our own curriculum I think is a huge benefit >> question please >> um regarding the cell phone bill and then the other bill that you mentioned >> library resources bill um I remember being in some negot negotiations on that. Um and and that bill came to us initially with a whole lot of mandates and a whole lot of fiscal notes and stuff like that. So we worked pretty hard to peel that off and say we can't have a fiscal note. Um so therefore pull off whatever is requiring the fiscal note first of all and then second of all let's uh leave this up to local control and say we understand

071that cell phone uh use is an issue at schools. uh we want to make sure that schools have a policy because what we're finding is you know a third of schools around the state of Colorado just didn't have a policy at all so they weren't addressing it and so as I was in conversation with um many folks including district 6 uh it was like okay you guys have a policy so this kind of already passes through your test um let's just get those other third of the schools on board with regard to making sure they have a policy so that was where we negotiated to I hope that that's satisfactory Um, yeah. >> Yeah. And Senator Bright, thank you so much. So, yes, that's exactly what we're hoping that you're able to do while you're

072down there, right? Because, you know, we'll see a bill that's originally something that we just cannot work with. >> Um, and thanks to the work that you're doing kind of on the ground and kind of, you know, lowering this set of requirements or standards so that we have a little bit more local control and flexibility is exactly what we're asking for. So, you know, at the end of the day, they some lawmakers really wanted to push forth a bill that said this and we were kind of stuck, you know, with with something, right? And I think and I would agree very much uh that both the cell phone bill and the book review bill uh were toned down enough for us to all kind of work with it collectively. So, yes, >> I remember too

073that Senator Wright when you contacted me, you said, "Does it help you if you have a more strict policy? do you need do you need help from us to to implement something that is stricter? And um we had that conversation and and I felt like we were landing in a pretty good place here at the time. And >> I know that you you worked to get that to a place that we could all work with it. >> Awesome. And I'd prefer that you guys that district 6 and all school districts be allowed the opportunity to de develop the own rule their own rules that work for their own communities. Um, and I, you know, I'm I'm not in favor of the state mandating things, but, um, you can only hold back the tide so much.

074Uh, so we just work as hard as we can to make sure that only the best things get through. And, um, this is a case in point of where we negotiated to an acceptable spot for as as many as we could. So, >> yeah. >> Awesome. >> And and you did have a board who who fully wanted a cell phone ban. So we we we had the reason the work had already been done here is because many of your the board directors were passionate about that work happening. >> Um but yes, I'm glad that the other third that hadn't done that yet is now being asked to >> and I I I feel like to your point like that is up to you to decide. You know, you need to decide the issues that are

075going on in your school district. Um the state doesn't need to be uh legislating that for you. So thank you. Thank you. Do you have any other comments? Okay, the last one and then we can open this up for more of a conversation. You can stop hearing me blab. Um the bit the last one and really this is probably the most important one is school finance. Uh and that kind of continued need to push forward the atrisisk funding that was adopted several years ago. Uh I know it's a little awkward but behind you is a demographic that we wanted to show you uh just for what this district you know these are students that are within each of your jurisdiction as you pointed out and this is kind of the makeup of this school district

076right so our percentage of students who qualify for free and reduced lunch uh is 30% I'm sorry 20% higher than the state average uh 8% higher for multil- language learners were kind of on par with students on IEPs are students with identified disabilities. And again, same thing with homeless population, our percentage is really similar uh to what the state has, if not just a little bit higher. Um and that's important to think about because the new atrisisk formula uh really provides more funding for these particular students, right? The new funding formula uh at risk funding is kind of at the top, right? And if you can see there, we just have a significantly higher percentage of students uh who are considered at risk compared to the statewide average. And again, we're the 13th largest school

077district in the state. That's 23,24 students. So, you do the math. Uh that's a pretty significant sum uh percentage of students who need support. Um uh English language learning funding comes second. Again, you can see that we have 8% uh almost 8 and a half% higher uh than the statewide average when it comes to multil- language learners. Third is special education funding. Um and I should have added that homeless percentage is a categorical ad to at risk now. So it's just if you are uh identified homeless student, you are considered at risk. Um and so we support more students um who meet that categorical standard along with foster and migrant students as well. Um and then there's also cost of living factor, size of the district, and then the contribution of local funding. Um but

078just know that these are the students that this district rep this district serves and these are the students that we need to support. It takes a little bit of extra resources to support these students. Uh and it's just really important to keep in mind. >> Question please on your data collection there. Um with the state funding school meals for everyone um has it been a challenge to collect data on free and reduced lunch counts? >> Yes. Yes. Without so we don't So in addition to not collecting we were just talking about this before the meeting. In addition to to not collecting student information for students who would qualify for free reduced lunch, we don't we don't do that for food now. And we don't charge fees in district 6. We're a fee free district. So

079we don't do it to wave fees. Whereas like my former district, we need that information to wave the fee for a student to to be involved in extracurricular activities, for example, or to pay their AP test score. So um we believe that number is probably 71% or so actually. Um, and we we do still try to collect the form. We do still try to collect the numbers as as best we can. Um, but it's it's a it's a bit of a barrier, but but we also get it. So, we're we're working our way through that. >> And, um, just asking open-ended question. Um, I know that the USDA CSCFP form has been used for a long time to identify uh the income level of the students within the district. Um, is there a better measurement

080tool to identify the needs in this area? >> I don't know. That's a great question and I don't have my experts on this here tonight, but um, let me let me let me get some more information on that. Is there a better way to do this? >> I mean, if the state should be using a different metric. Well, you know, they used to there there was a time where our principles could actually designate it because they had enough information about the family that a principal could say yes, they qualify even though the family had not provided that information. I get why that went away. I mean, I get that there's human judgment in there and human mistrust, too. So, but let let me let me look into that and with my team and and get

081back with you, >> Dr. Pilch, wasn't there something about um because you know people weren't reliably completing the lunch forms anymore that Medicaid was going to be used as a substitute >> there? Yeah, Medicaid is so you know if you re if a family receives SNAP benefits or Medicaid benefits then they that they automatically qualify. >> Got it. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> So on the issue of disabilities, um I know I mentioned to was talking to Dr. Pilch about um this the dyslexia screening bill that was just passed. Um I'm really working with the nonprofit um center for dyslexia here in the district to partner with district 6 to kind of see how where it goes. So to maybe be potentially first in the state model as to you know making sure we

082we attend to these type of needs for our students. Um we are just want to provide an update on that. There's a little roll back on funding for them but I'm working on getting some kinks there. So, you know, obviously working with these public private partnerships, um, I think is a way to go as well as an alternative source of like funding, per se. Um, so I'm happy to continue these talks and conversations to get these partnerships going just to, you know, I think District 6 can truly be a model for the rest of the state when it comes to stuff like that um, for our students with dyslexia. So, um, I'm happy to provide you an update when the time comes, but we're working out that kink right now. >> Thank you. Yeah, I

083think speaking just as an individual board director, not for the the full board, um I think universal dyslexia screening should happen, right? Like there's so many kids that we can catch that we're we're not catching. The problem is is really we're not we don't have enough funding to then support them. And so to give a family that diagnosis and then nothing else feels unfair. Um, so it comes back down to that K through2 funding. If if we could be more fully funded, um, we would love universal dyslexia screening. Yeah. Just today, I was having a text message conversation with um our director of assessment about about our early literacy testing, all of it. And um the possibility of looking to another tool that would also do dyslexia, universal dyslexia screening, because right now um she's

084telling me it takes up to 45 minutes or so per student to do that screening. And so that's that's significant time when you have the numbers of students we have. Are you using dibbles right now for your Are you using the dibbles screener also or? >> Yes. Okay. Yes. Yeah. >> That's the one that takes up to 45 minutes. >> Yeah. >> And I don't know if there's a a better or a different one. >> Um she thinks there may be that some districts are using. So we're we're beginning to explore that. >> Okay. >> It's all money. Just money. That's all it is. Just money. I'm curious if we're opening up. >> Yeah, please. I just open up the rest of this time for the board to ask some questions or comments. >> So,

085I know um I forget if it was I think it was early this year that the adequacy study results came out of what it would take to fully fund K through 12 in the state of Colorado and close some of our achievement gaps. Um I'm curious your thoughts on it. I know it it feels like this like a you know crazy dream to to be able to fund K through 12 at that level. I think I forget what the exact number was but I know there was a B for annual additional funding. Um but yes, I'm just curious your thoughts on the adequacy study results. Um again, uh just I mean Colorado is a unique state, right? We um tend to vote socially and then um and then budget u fiscally conservative and it's it's

086kind of a challenge to play with that because you're given like two different sets of rules, two different priorities, right? Um and then we have uh different limits on the growth of government. Um but then we also have a vehicle of funding things that maybe fall outside of that. Um and that that monster has gotten bigger than than the general fund budget already. Um and so it's it's interesting to me the way that we go about solving our problems. Um we go about uh funding the things that we want to go after. Um, you know, I I have to go I have to side with the will of the voters. Uh, and because they can they consistently at the ballot box choose to keep the size of government um limited in in its funding. And

087so it's a challenge to go about then, you know, funding all the things that we need to fund. uh a cost of living in Colorado and I hear this I hear this everywhere I go is exponentially higher than every any other state that we're at. And so how do we weigh that cost of living versus what we want to pay for the services we want to get from the government? And that's again a big push and pull there. Um it comes back to to me every single time it comes back to our wants and our needs. Um and I feel like there's probably a billion dollars worth of wants out there that we're funding. um there's probably a billion dollars worth of needs that we have that we're not funding. And so, uh it's those

088hard discussions that it's not just going to all come in one conversation. It's going to happen in small conversations here and there and here and there. Um and it's a constant uphill push to try to get it there. So, uh I believe the state of Colorado is unified in prioritizing education as well as health concerns. Um, and we just have to uh wave the flag of that initiative and get folks to to buy into that as well. So, it's a long road. I'm not sure there's one clean, easy answer. Um, I mean, case in point, you look at, uh, the state of New Mexico and they just uncovered a oil and gas fund, uh, severance fund that now is funding free child care for all folks in New Mexico, right? So, um, the only other

089state that I know of that has that capability in that in that area would be the state of Alaska, maybe Wyoming, right? Um, Colorado just doesn't have we've tapped out every single extra reserve that we have and every extra possible tax increase we can put together. So, uh, under our current law, I mean, this is kind of where we're at. We just again have that wants versus need conversation. >> So, and to that point, I've said, you know, since I was a teacher, um, number one, we always will never have enough money for education, it seems like. Um, but our oil and gas pays for our education in Colorado. And we really really need to make sure that especially from Weld County, that we defend our severance taxes, that we really I I mean, we've

090got to def defend oil and gas in Colorado. It is what pays for our education. And when we start um attacking oil and gas and restricting permitting, that's just hurting education. um you know we have put so many burdens on on education over the last since I've been in education 30 years it's every year it's more and more and more and they're unfunded mandates and you know I spoke about it a little bit ago that we need to try and unwind the things that aren't costing us money or that are costing us too much money in education that that we can cut from somewhere else. I I remember in January last year we had what we call smart act hearings and smart I was like I know what smart goals are right and so I

091go into these smart act hearings and they're asking us um to really look at each of the departments and what they're spending and I'm listening to each department come up and say here's where we're at and we're asking for more money in our department and after about the third one I kind of put my hand down I was like okay Wait a minute. I was a principal during the BS factor years. And every year we were asked to cut back. As a teacher, I was told we're going to have to cut 15% from our school budget. As a principal, I turned around and told our teachers, "We're going to have to cut 15%." And you know what? As an educator, we did it because teachers do what we're supposed to do. Because principles do what

092we're supposed to do. Because school districts do what we're supposed to do. We follow the rules. And now I'm finding out across the across the state, all of you departments aren't cutting. In fact, you've added to your budgets. I had a really big problem with that because every single department that came to these Smart Act hearings were asking for more money except for education is just asking to be funded. And so, um, you know, as Senator Bright was talking about, you know, there's wants and needs and our state budget, you know, the biggest the biggest pot of money is is Medicaid. The second biggest is education and then after that we fund all the other things that's infrastructure and everything else. And when we're looking at the other, you know, the the second biggest pot

093of money being education, we have got to prioritize. And when we say prioritize, we've got to look at what what are our priorities and figure out like when we are putting mandates on our schools and our districts, does that align with what our what our needs are? Is it a want or is it a need? And you know, last last session we had bills coming through. We want this in our education system. We don't want, you know, this to be taught in our standards. Is that a want or a need? And that's another another unfunded mandate. So, um, you know, I will I will argue till I'm blue in the face. As a teacher, as a first grade teacher, you're asking me to do this. As a principal, you're asking me to do this. And

094every year, you know, I didn't think I was going to get into politics, but the fire in my belly was, you know, you're every year we're being told you have to or you can't, you know, and and as a as a teacher, as a principal, that kind of stinks to have these legislators who don't know what it is to walk in our shoes telling us you have to and you can't anymore. And that's really frustrating because ultimately, these are the kids that pay the price. these are the kids that we are sent down there to work for. Um, and so, you know, adequate funding is is it ever going to be adequate? I don't know about that, but we will do what we can to defend and get as much funding as we can for

095education and make sure that the money means something that it's not going to the priorities that, you know, Joe Schmo doesn't really understand because they've never walked in the shoes that you're walking or we are walking. I would just like to add um kind of what Senator Bright and Senator or Representative Garcia Senator said is you know we have a lot we're growing more government with offices agencies departments that takes resources that takes money that takes more FTEES which takes from education we make the point why do we need this you know what Mr. for fall set as well as you know these unfounded mandates increase costs and more resource and constraint resources I don't think they they look at the full 360 scope of well this is our goal but they don't look at

096you know what are some pros and cons like a costbenefit factor so to say you know we have our fiscal analysts that do all the the fiscal notes and stuff but we don't necessarily look down at like the whole cost bet factor you have a cost right but what are the benefits to it are there is there more cost and benefit is there more benefit to cost I mean weighing those particular options um working with Senator Kirk My Joint Budget Committee and Representative Tagert to look specifically at what we're specifically funding line by line by line. And if I'm there long enough, I would like to sit in that committee so district 6 can truly have a voice in helping me shape education, especially K through 12 in the specific itemized issues that we have

097here in the district. Um local control, I think that's also part of the other issue is while these policies are well intentioned, you know, nothing against Denver, but what works in Denver doesn't work for district 6. What works in district 6 does not work in Denver. what works in Grand Junction does not work in G really and vice versa. And so I don't think they understand that these cookie cutter policies that the legislature is passing has a lot of these severe consequences when it comes to you know the good well-intentioned um goals that they want for education. You know our teachers are strained and you know they deal with a lot. You know our our staff you know I call them a team. I don't call them staff. I know some of you saw my

098email. We're all a team. you know, district 16. And so, you know, the the the back of house, front of house, whatever it is, it's all convoluted to make sure that we are striving for the same common goal. And I don't think it's fair that we had these more expanding government at the expense of our teachers who should be getting paid more. I think we can all agree our teachers deserve and should get paid more. You know, that's something that we've all highlighted at the expense of, you know, well, you guys are creating this office, adding more employees, but we could be funding our teachers. You know, we could this be going towards students. you know, making sure monies go into the classroom itself to make sure district 6 remains competitive. Part of the issue

099again is, you know, the the very the the views on on energy at the state capital. You know, the severance tax here in Weld County is huge and that pays not only for our teachers, education, but our roads, our local municipalities, our fire districts, things that our communities really, really need. But we're literally hurting them when we're shutting down an industry that's vital to our community. That many of the students whose families work in that industry, you know, they go for a job, they're bluecollar, and they work in these industries and they don't feel they have a voice and they're concerned. We hear about it all the time in the capital. I hear it here in my community. They're worried about this this view in the capital that's so anti- oil and gas that they're

100concerned, you know, and I think that we should consider at least we do, you know, making sure we we fight for the seance tax, we fight for our jobs, we fight for industry that's so important here at Weld because we're sitting on on money essentially and that money could be used in return to fund our teachers, our schools, our education. Even if it's just here in Weld County, you know, each each place is different, right? But I think we should use the resources we have here locally. >> I got to quit going last. Um, you know, so I haven't worked on any legislation yet. Uh, and the thought that comes to me when I think about a lot of the things that um other legislators have said so far is is something that's important to

101me just because I spent a lot of time um a lot of time now uh in the in the army doing some things and I think you know I did that to serve America and to protect you know values that I believe were independent are are important and some of the things that were said it made me think I think our nation that we live in. It was founded uh before it was founded uh on a huge amount of individual independence and self-reliance. People came here to be able to provide for themselves and to improve their their station in life. Uh not necessarily to just, you know, have it easy and to and to get from others. Uh they they didn't want that. Um, so when we look at the things that we're funding in

102the state, I am all for looking at what are the wants and getting rid of massive amounts of them because needs are the most important thing. And as has been said many times, education is at the very top of the list, you know, in the top the top tier of the most important things that we've got to have. It's education because all of the the children uh and young adults that are going through and getting an education in 20 years, 30 years, 50 years, they're going to be the ones that are carrying on and accomplishing work and making our economy and making all of us be able to live and have communities that are sustained. And if they aren't able to get a sufficient amount of education and all the way across all of the

103different things that they need to learn, they will be behind in being able to do that. So, I just um again, I haven't been able to be involved in the legislation yet, but I look forward to being able to this year hopefully uh do some things that will that will push some of that funding away from some of the extras that you know what, maybe that's nice, but education is is just so critical that that nobody's going to want to let me nobody's going to want to turn me loose with the pen to like start crossing things off of a budget and redirecting those funds. to education, healthcare, infrastructure, a handful of other things like that because there probably a lot of programs that people would be disappointed to see go that are great things,

104but taking care of our kids and making sure that they learn the things that they need, there's nothing there's very few things more important than that. So again, I I haven't been involved yet, so you know, maybe that was super blanket general obvious statement, but um yeah, definitely looking forward to working for uh education in a huge way. >> Thank you all. Do we have probably enough time for one more question or comment from the board? >> Uh I would just like to say thank you for your support on that funding formula. um that has been uh will be huge for this district. I remember when we were having that debate in the in the house and have other districts commenting on on the bill and uh saying, you know, we we have we have

105teachers that that provide food for for students and and I just had to chuckle a little bit. We we have entire we have every school in this district has food pantries. Um when we talk about 67 uh% at risk students and 22% uh multilingual learners, I mean that is it's not just something here or something there. Those are programs and and people and so I appreciate your support on that. Uh I know I know you guys uh did and appreciate your continued support as I imagine um that debate is not not done. Just know that it makes a huge difference to this district. Is there anything that we can do to support you all as you go into this legislative session as you're about to start the season? What can we do to support you?

106First and foremost, thank you for having us. Um really appreciate just making sure that we have the open lines. I know that, like I said, I've spoken at length with you and a few of you in the room um before, but just any of you when bills come up and you know, we all have different flags around how things might um affect your different departments or education as a whole, um please do reach out. Um, again, I think all of us are are willing to carry bills for education. Um, when you see things that are coming up that might help support or things, especially when you think here's a bill that we really need to put some brakes on. Um, the way to help us would be just making sure that you're available to show

107up for testimony. Um, that that matters a lot. Your voices are huge. Um, you know, we will especially Senator Brighton and myself working in education still. Um, you know, we take this very personally and um, just want to be the best representatives that we can for for all of you and our our state's kids really. So, thank you. >> I would say just point of contact just make sure things can change very fast as you know with amendments and everything and next day it's up for a final vote. So, just um making sure if something changes, I know we can't be like that cuz we all got lives, right? We got things to do. We work. Um but, you know, I just want you guys to know that I was that at risk student in

108District 6. I was um you know, my family, we had Medicaid, we had SNAP. Um but we didn't depend on it. It was it was a hand up for sure. Um so, it it is it is personal to me. this this what I represent this community making sure I'm in tune with the needs especially when it comes to education cuz you know there's people who were like me and people who are in worse situations our students and people that we may not even know about that we work with who are in maybe a predicament or some sort of dilemma and I just want to make sure I'm in tune to their stories and in tune with your guys' priorities and needs. I know last time I was here the CASBY stuff was very interesting to

109hear about the fun and baddies aspect. So stuff like that I think is something um that we're in tune to make sure that we are representing our constituents, our district um to the best of our ability. >> Awesome. Um great comments. Thank you guys. Um three things I wanted to point out. uh when when the school finance bill was being heard the adjustment to the formula given the budget circumstances um we were anxious in the Senate Education Committee to see who would come down and testify and I can Dr. Pil was the only superintendent from the state of Colorado that showed up to testify on school finance and that was huge and I was so so proud. Um so proud um and I've said that at a state level too uh recogn recognition for that.

110I can also uh I also really appreciate the nonpartisan attitude that this board has uh and that we can work together in this space. Um, we're all headed to the same goal. We might have different ideas about how to get there. Um, but we are all headed for the same goal and we can always have I can trust this group will always have constructive conversations about how to get to that common goal that we have um and and we will always put aside our differences um u in affiliation and we'll work towards those goals. And so I really appreciate this board um and I appreciate my colleagues for for holding that line too. uh that's a standard we definitely want to to atone to. The other thing that I would mention is uh it revitalizes

111my energy and my dedication towards anything education related uh when I get a chance to tour a school. And so that is really important if you want to know something right that's very tangible that you can do right away and that is just continue to invite uh your legislators to come visit schools. um the more we can get in there the better, the more personal stories, the more things we can view with our own eyes and ears, uh the more we can talk about it the well on things that are pro- education. So, um those are things that uh that I wanted to say here. >> I'm last Danny stole my most important point. Um as the new guy, uh what I need most is education myself. Like I need to learn more district six

112district six district six things. So, I need to reach out and reach out to me, please. I would like to visit schools. I would like to talk to educators. I would like to talk to principles. I would like to talk to all of you. I would like to really know. I mean, I I've got the map and I drew all over it of all the schools in District 6 that are in my district, and there's a lot of them. Um, and so there's there's a lot that is important to me. This is one of the most important issues to me and it's one of the mo education is one of the most important issues on my list of things that are important to me because I have personally seen um the impacts of it in

113my family and so if if I see those things I know everybody else is seeing those things. Absolutely. So please please help me be more educated on how I can serve you all. We are so grateful that you all have given up your time to be with us tonight and to get to know you a little bit better and to hear from you. And I I am honored that you are as dedicated to education as I am. Thank you. Um you're welcome to stay for dinner with us if you'd like. We have our nutrition services actually prepared dinner tonight. So you're you're invited to stay if you'd like and continue the conversation if your schedules allow. Um I I hope this has been time well spent for you. Uh we really appreciate hearing from you

114and and just getting a chance to connect. And I'll see if the board has any other comments to make. >> Yeah. I'm also impressed with your connections with D6, you know, like just real personal connections and we're not just a district in Northern Colorado. Um we we mean something to you and and that's that's really important. >> Good. We're debriefing, correct? >> Yep. Debriefing. Yep. We will start. >> We can throw in whatever we want. >> Anything else for the legislators? All right. Start with debriefing. Uh we got six minutes, so catch up a little bit and keep Brenda on a leash. Um start with let's start with Mr. Matthews. >> Uh just thank you for being here tonight. Uh we understand we get invited to a lot of lot of different school events. We

115can't we can't make them all and know your time is precious. I can only imagine the number of things that you get invited to to do and so thank you for being here tonight and for listening to us. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, I would say the exactly the same thing. You guys are are busy folks and to give up an evening to come up here and uh share your insights and thoughts and feelings with us and for us to uh hear what you have on your mind is extremely valuable. I it's very very good for us to hear that we have a lot of respect and um appreciation for our legal counsel uh Mr. Fall and all he does for us and working with you folks. So thanks for that as well as we

116continue down this road of taking care of our kids, right? That's what's that's what we're all in it about. And they probably are our greatest generator of economic wealth in this state. So we don't lose anything by putting money towards them. Okay? It will come back. So thank you, Mr. >> Thank you again to all of you guys for coming. Really appreciate it as a former educator myself. Um, thank you for fighting for the school finance bill and for understanding that the greatest investment that we can make is in our kids and our students. Thank you. >> Yes. And I think I already expressed my gratitude, but um it is wonderful to have Scott Bright representing us on the education committee at the Senate level and representative Lorie Garcia Sanders representing us at um at

117the House of Representatives level on the education committee there. So, thank you for bringing your perspectives. Yeah, I just echo everything they said. Thank you guys for your time. We know it's very valuable and you guys are very busy. Um, just good to hear you guys' perspective. We we get Nates and and try to understand a fraction of what you guys have going on, but it it really is valuable for us to hear how not only what you deal with and and what you have going and what you want to have going, but what we can do to support you guys, too. So, um, thanks to Dr. Pilich um, for putting this together. I know this was this was pretty high on her wants and wishes for this, but um you know, it's nice to

118hear Scott say the difference that Dr. Pilch made in in the Senate down there and talking to you guys. Um there's there's a reason she's superintendent of the year and we're pretty proud of her. So, um thank you guys and um I think with that we'll journ and have dinner. See you guys back for the business meeting. >> Thank you. Heat. Heat. N. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music]