001[Music] Good evening and welcome to the business meeting for Gley Evans School District 6 Board of Education on this Monday, September 22nd, 2025. This meeting will now come to order. Please join me for the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge algiance >> to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Miss Lemon, will you please call the role? >> Director Ozari, >> present. >> Director Bentley, >> present. >> Director Campos Spitzy. >> Director Mash present. Director Matthews >> present. >> Director Norwood. Ford members present. Thank you very much. Well, a couple of weeks ago, we declared this week to be UNCC week. And so, happy UNCC week leading up to their um homecoming game this weekend.
002Please attend and celebrate the amazing um higher education we have here in Gley. Um I also wanted to introduce this evening our student our council of student representatives um president Sarah Venegas and Representative Abby Tobar. Thanks for being with us. We always appreciate your voice in the room. Um so it was a festive couple of weeks um as all of our high schools celebrated their homecomings I believe. Um, and the board appreciates the yearly invitation to participate in the Gley Central homecoming parade. Um, it was great fun to see two middle school bands, Chapel and Heath, marching with the high schools and to have three elementary schools get to cheer along the parade route. Um, a huge thank you to all the staff who helped to organize the parade and the festivities at each school
003and to chaperone the dances so that our students can have a fun and safe time. Um, we apologize for the delay in this meeting. Earlier this afternoon, we convened an executive session in order to have the opportunity to share with Dr. Pilch our appreciation of her continued innovative, collaborative, and solutionoriented leadership and to provide our recommended topics of focus for the coming year. I would like to share our deepest sympathy to the community of Evergreen High School and to Jeffco School District after the shooting that took place on September 10th. There are no words that can describe the loss, the sorrow, and the disruption this type of tragedy causes. Instances like this allow time for us to continue to examine our own safety and security, and to thank our chief of safety and security, Wade
004Corass, and his team. They are innovative and proactive, securing additional funding for our command center and for other equipment. They are relational and they train our school resource officers and techniques to deescalate and to build relationships with students, staff, and the community. We want to thank our voters for providing the bond and mil levy override dollars which allowed the construction of secure vestibules at every building, updated locks and additional cameras to improve security. I want to thank our social workers and counselors who work tirelessly to support our students and to improve mental health. All of these pieces, staff, technology, and secure buildings, help to keep our community safe. But perhaps even more importantly is our focus on student engagement. One of our stated values and beliefs is that we build positive relationships with students, families,
005and communities. Students who feel seen, safe, heard, and valued, those students help to build a safe environment. So my encouragement to every student, staff, and community member is to go the extra mile to reach out, to smile, to encourage, and connect. We are all in this life together, and kindness can help to keep us safe. With that, we will move on um to our superintendent's honor role this evening. Thank you, President Mash, and good evening, board of education. Um, I am so honored this evening to yet again honor the Northridge High School Marine Corps Junior ROC program. Uh, I am honoring them tonight in my superintendent's honor role for being named a naval honor school here um in in Gley, Colorado. Northridge is just one of five schools in the region 2 for Marine Corps
006Junior ROC programs who have been named the Naval Honors School who have been named a Naval Honors School by the Commanding General of the Marine Corps Training and Education Command for their and this is for their outstanding performance this past school year. They competed against 244 schools nationwide and we are the only school in Colorado to be selected and it is the 11th year that they have earned this prestigious honor. So I'm I'm so proud of Major Kinsley and uh his team and his cadet cadets out there at Northridge. Um they're also uh reaching down to eighth grade and doing some mentoring and and coaching with eth graders and and bringing them up um to begin to explore the program a little bit. I'll let him talk a little bit more about that. Um, Major
007Kinsley, I'd like to invite you um and your cadetses if if if you'd like to come and tell us a little bit more about this honor and about the program and about the work you're doing with our eighth graders. >> Thank you very much. Appreciate that. Board members, I appreciate you having us tonight once again. Although this time we're not talking about the shooting team. Uh we pretty much lost our whole shooting team except for one. Uh but that's okay. We got a lot of freshmen in there starting to build it back up again. Um so what Dr. Pilt is talking about is for the National Honors Program. It's a little bit with instructors. They inspect us, make sure we're doing the stuff that we're supposed to do, but 99% of it is these young
008cadets. And today I have Michelle Logos. She's our battalion commander. She's in charge of the the whole program from the cadet side. And we have our battalion executive officer, Robert Schultz. Um, and it's amazing. We have meetings like this, but with their their staff meetings, they run it completely. Uh, and you'd be pretty impressed with how it's run and and how smooth it is. Um, she looks pretty innocent, but I'll tell you what, she she holds the feet their feet to the fire. Um, keeps them on point, holds the standards, um, with the whole intent that their character continues to be built along the way. So, um, and I won't go into everything. If you guys have questions about what goes into an honors program, um, there's there's quite a bit there. Uh, one of
009the big things that I'd like to mention the most is that you understand that a program is working well when when the kids hold one another accountable and not just in our class but throughout the school. So when they're in other's classrooms and they see, you know, maybe one of our cadets putting their heads down or something, they're like, "Hey, that's not the right thing." And that's when you know it's a fine oil machine and it starts here with the leadership that we have here tonight. Um, another initiative that I like or one initiative I'd like to talk about is you mentioned the eighth graders coming there. So, we have uh right now 11 11 eighth graders coming from uh Winterrad. This was something we had thought about doing for a while, but there's actually
010one parent that kind of pushed it a little bit with Winterrad, which was pretty nice. I appreciated that. Um, and it's it really helps the program. So, they're they're integrating really well. They're super motivated. Um, so I think that's going to be a nice transition from them and I I noticed that nine of the 11 that we got are failing at least one class in Winterrad and you know talking to them about the importance of academics and everything. I talked to the assistant principal down there and she said since you spoke to them I see more effort by them and so I I think when they have something to push them in a different direction maybe they're up there hanging out with some high schoolers and stuff I think it's a little bit motivating for
011them. Uh they are wearing the uniform so they get to go back for that. It was really cute because they I guess cute's the right word for me. I don't know if you hear me say that very often, but um they got their physical fitness clothes and when they got it issued, they're like, "Can we wear these back to the school?" And I said, "Knock yourself out." And so they all went down there really proud to do that. So um that's one of those things I'll keep working um with the district and and Winterrad and see if there's I'm going to talk to the regional director and see if there's a way we can branch out even more to maybe a couple other schools if the the logistics work and timing works. So, uh, I
012would also like to recognize our district 6 facilities. So, one of the things that we're trying to build up is our physical fitness team that we have, but not just that, but use it also for for all of our cadetses. And so, we went out and got a lot of the supplies and everything without blinking an eye. Facilities stepped in and put this whole idea that we had into um a really nice product. And Mr. Allen, our principal, knows he went out there and exercised with all the cadets one day with a couple of the the staff up up in the front office. Um, but we really appreciate um one the craftsmanship and the planning and the workability with them. It went so smoothly. So, um, we thought about getting you a plaque, but we're
013like, well, how many people have plaques hanging around? You know, you know, you come and go. Uh, but what we did do is we got we know you guys work outside a lot, so we wanted to get you something to cover the sun a little bit. So, we got some hats for for you, one for you and for the the workers, and then one you can give them over here. One of our challenge coins for each of you as well. But we really appreciate everything you did and to make such a fine product for these kids and for for all the future kids that come through this program. So, thank you very much for that, sir. You bet. Um, and lastly, we have u the 250th Marine Corps birthday is coming up. Uh, we are
014older than the United States. Uh, so se uh dece or November 10th, 1775 is the birth of the Marine Corps. And obviously we know July 4th, 1776 is the United States. Uh so we are older than that. A lot of traditions in history. Uh and so I'd like to invite you all to to join us for this um I guess a milestone. Although what's the difference between 249 and 251? But um it is the 250th and we're trying to do something a little extra special. Getting a lot of alumni uh coming as well. So, um, our our warmest invitation for you all to attend, and I'm this is going out to anybody in the community would like to go, but, um, we always like when we see teachers, staff, board members, superintendent, uh, if you're
015available, please check your calendars for that. Um, any questions for me? I appreciate that. >> Oh, absolutely. They they were scared about talking, so >> they would love to talk. Yeah, look at this. >> It's nice. >> Thank you. >> Say whatever. >> Um, I think I'll just give an appreciation for the students just cuz they give their all to the program and it's really nice to see that they have so much fun and are able to have like really fun experiences with each other and yeah, it's just really nice to see. for this program. Um, I've really like grown up through it. It really helps me get through um, high school especially. It teaches you a lot of like it teaches you a lot more than you would learn in just your classes alone
016because math, English, all those you'd learn. But this program definitely gets you out there. Gives you a lot more skills like speaking out. Of course, not everyone would do this, let's be honest. But >> yeah, it definitely helps you, gives you that courage to just talk amongst everybody and I just really have liked it the past four years. >> Thank you very much. Congratulations. Thanks. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Pilch. I always enjoy seeing your honor role. Um, the next item on our agenda is to approve the agenda. This is an action item that will require a motion. I move that the board of education of Gley 11 school district 6 approves the agenda as presented. >> Second. >> Is there any discussion on the motion? >> Seeing none will can you give us
017a roll call vote please? Director >> I. >> Director Bentley >> I. >> Director Mash >> I. >> Director Matthews >> I. >> Motion carries 40. >> Our next item on our agenda is a proclamation celebrating National Principles Month. Um, this is an action item, so we'll require a motion. >> I move that the board of education of Weld County School District 6 adopts the resolution declaring October as National Principal Month as presented. >> Second. >> Thank you both. And Mr. Matthews, will you please read the proclamation? >> Certainly, President Mesh. Proclamation of the board of education of Weld County School District 6, National Principles Month, October 2025. Whereas school leaders are tasked with the immense responsibility of serving as educational visionaries, instructional leaders, and assessment experts. Their roles extend to being disciplinarians, community builders,
018public relations specialists, and budget an analyst, all while managing facilities and ensuring compliance with a myriad of legal, contractual, and policy mandates. Above all, they are entrusted with the well-being and education of our young people, our most valuable asset. And whereas a principal's leadership is instrumental in establishing a school's academic culture, they work collaboratively with teachers to develop and maintain high curriculum standards, define those schools mission, and establish clear performance goals and objectives. And whereas the vision, dedication, and determination of a principal are the driving force behind successful school improvement initiatives. And whereas research from the Wallace Foundation confirms that the leadership that leadership is the second most influential school-related factor after classroom instruction in contributing to student learning. And whereas the observance of national principles months is a tribute to principles at every level
019recognizing the vital role their leadership plays in ensuring that every child has access to a highquality education. Now therefore, be it resolved that the board of education of Weld County School District 6 does hereby declare October 2025 as National Principal Month, given under my hand and the executive ski seal of Weld County School District 6, this 22nd day of September 2025. Natalie Mash, President. >> Thank you, Mr. Matthews. Um, are there is there any comment or on this proclamation before we have someone come in? Um, accept it. Miss Venegas. >> Thank you, President Mash. Um, I just wanted to say I'm very glad that District 6 continues to celebrate the hard work of our principles. Our principles are truly amazing people who continue to work closely with our staff in order to create a safe
020and educational environment for all of our students. I am very thankful for the principal at ECA, Mr. Fern, who continues to build up our school spirits through so many new fun additions to our school and just continues to support both his students and staffs regularly. Thank you once again to all the amazing principles at District 6 and for all your hard work. >> Thank you, Miss Venegas, Miss Tovar. >> Thank you, Mrs. Mrs. Mash. Um, I think this proclamation is great. Being able to recognize our principles and their hard work is essential to the growth of our students and staff. As an example, my principal at Girly Central, Mrs. Zulof, she does a great job at being involved with the students and she goes out of her way to actually try and know her students.
021Dedicating the month of October to our principles is a great way of recognizing their hard work. >> Thank you very much, Mr. Matthews. >> Yeah, I will just echo our students comments. Um our our principles are certainly un unsung heroes in in our district. Uh when I read read off everything uh that they do, all of that is true. They are disciplinarians. They have to uh they build community with the with the neighborhoods in which their schools reside. They uh are public relations specialists. They are on the front lines many time when many times when there's something controversial uh that some of the things maybe that we see in our boardroom our principles also deal with uh they are budget analysts uh managing their uh their buildings and and those budgets deciding how and and
022where is the best place to to put uh monies they they have to manage those buildings. Uh when we talk about ensuring uh compliance and legal, contractual and policy mandates, um it it is an immense job um that our principles do. And and it's very easy often for us to to sit here and say we we would like for for the school district to do this um uh such as such as cell phones. uh when we said we we would like to have uh less cell phone use in in our schools and certainly that's a good thing and a and something we should strive for and that it's our principles that that make that happen. And so uh we we are so appreciative of the work that they do, the impact that they make uh
023in in their buildings, in the in the lives of of the teachers and staff that work for them and certainly in the lives of our students. So, uh, thank you, uh, so much to to our principles that are that are in the room, our principles that are watching. We appreciate the job that you do. >> Thank you, Mr. Matthews, Mr. Bentley. >> Um, yeah, I agree with everything that everybody said so far. I I just I just wanted to comment on the the stark contrast I noticed in our principles compared to, you know, the only other public education experience I have, which is when I was in public education as a student. Um, growing up I you you you basically at all costs avoided your principles and they were some polarizing figure that walked around
024the school once once a day and and and that was it. But through the four years I've been on the board and just seeing the the relationships that our principles have with the students and staff, it just it's really mindboggling and I think uh to me it's one of their their greatest assets and and one of the reasons we're so successful as a district just, you know, on our school tours and seeing um them welcome the kids and the the personal relationships they have with almost with every almost every single one of them at some shape or form is very admirable. And I and I just want to tell them, you know, from from all of us up here, just thank you for what you do day in day out. the the the technical tangible
025items that that Michael touched on and and the intangible, you know, side of the of the job that you guys are are are very good at. Thank you guys. >> Mr. Aari, >> well, since these two guys made a comment, I will too. Uh, I was a I was a teacher in school district 6 for many many years as most people know and and I got to say um I I can't remember a time that I I didn't have a principal that was supportive. They were all were very supportive of what I did in the schools and I would often notice that uh they were often consulted only when there were problems going on. Uh very rarely do folks go to the principal and say, "Hey, I really like what's happening here. Uh I wish
026it would happen more often uh throughout the district, but I really appreciated the fact that they were solution finders and not problem makers." So again, I I fully support this uh resolution that we're making this evening for our building administrators. >> Thank you all. I will just echo what my colleagues have said. When you see this list of all of the roles of all of the attributes of a principal, it just sounds like a superhero and like a mythical creature. But we have they are they're unicorns for sure. And so we are so um thankful for each each one of you here in district 6 and we're pleased to honor you in this way. Miss Lemon, will you give us a vote, please? >> Director Ozari, >> I. >> Director Bentley, >> I. >> Director
027Mash, >> I. Director Matthews. >> I. >> Motion carries 40. >> And I believe Mr. Erin Allen, principal at Northridge High School, is here to accept this proclamation. >> Thank you board members. Thank you so much for this honor. Um, speaking on behalf of all principles in district 6, we appreciate your support and we of course feel very lucky to have such wonderful sta staffs uh and then also to have such wonderful students to work with. So, thank you so much Next is our superintendent report. >> Thank you, President Mash. I have two announcements and one um just a reminder that tomorrow at 5:00 pm we will celebrate the 10year anniversary of Prairie Heights Middle School. It's it's hard to believe that they've been open a decade, but um it's a very exciting time for
028us to celebrate them. And I'll I'll just remind you all that uh the passage of this bond issue uh came at a time where district 6 really needed to begin to build trust of the community and and passing this bond and partnering this bond with a a a state of Colorado best grant allowed us to u build a beautiful school and and to demonstrate to our voters that we could be trusted with their dollars and I think helped lay the groundwork for uh the much larger bond issue that came in the future. So, I hope you'll join us tomorrow evening at 5:00 pm at Prairie Heights Middle School for a short anniversary celebration. And then I also want to announce that uh we just released today uh the possibility for applications to our new Discovery
029District 6 Academy. This will be a monthly academy for seven months um that will be conducted October through April at different sites throughout the district at schools and district sites. Uh the program will be run from 11:30 to 1:30 uh once a month on a Thursday. Uh you do have to fill out an application to participate. To get to that application, you go to our website and just keep scrolling down and then you'll see discover District 6 Academy and then you'll see a link to get to the application to apply. Uh we hope to take up to 25 participants in the program. Um and our and our hope with the program is really to get community members involved in the district to to help um them to discover and learn more about finance in the
030district and and how the the money is spent in the district. Learn more about elementary literacy and early learning for students. We're also going to talk about focus schools in the district and and the offerings at the different focus schools. We'll talk about graduation rates and the graduation initiative and and what that work has been around getting to nearly a 90% graduation graduation rate. Uh career pathways and college prep preparation will be uh one of the sessions, special education services, safety and security. And then of course we'll we'll spend some time looking at operations, visiting the centralized kitchen uh and learning more about nutrition services and human resources and technology and probably much much more. Um when participant participants are done uh we hope they'll have a clear understanding of our strategic plan um how
031that's being implemented districtwide and have an overview of the daily operations of the district and of the schools. Um, and we just hope that we we can further our relationship with the community by offering this academy and by having folks come in and learn about the district who maybe haven't had the opportunity to do that, learn about committees they can serve on or a task force they could serve on or maybe even run for a board of education position at some point in the future. So, um, I hope that you'll go on our website, learn more about the District 6 Academy, and apply for participation. You do have to have your application in uh by end of business on October 6th. Thank you very much. That's all I have tonight. Thank you. The next item
032on our agenda is our innovation 2030 strategic plan update operational and organizational effectiveness goal two recruit, hire and retain. Welcome Mrs. Overton. here. Thank you so much for having us. We're excited um uh President Mash and um school board members and Dr. Pilch, we're excited to be here to give you the information that we have around our organization, our operational organizational effectiveness goal two. As you know, it's all associated with innovation 2030 and we focus our efforts on the mission um that's listed here and also the vision of the district. And um looking at the values that we have here, there are two that we are really committed uh to that really find our work. We're grounded here. Um we commit to hiring and retaining quality staff and we commit to excellence, innovation and continuous
033improvement. Um here is the focus area in light of all of the areas that we have. Ours is the operational and organizational effectiveness in that bottom um that bottom quadrant and that is the district 6 ensures innovation, transparency and accountability to our community through measurable outcomes and continuous improvement. So our goal really is focused around maximizing recruitment, hiring and retention of all employees in the district. And I'd like to invite Scott Gray, one of our directors in human resources, to come and share insights into our recruiting from last year. Good evening. Sorry. I'm excited to be here tonight to discuss the innovation 2030 recruitment efforts. Our goal is uh to advance a comprehensive plan that builds a workforce that reflects the Gley Evans community. This will help strengthen our schools with professionals who embody the
034values of those we serve. All actions tied to the recruitment plan are designed to expand the overall candidate pool of those interviewed. Our human resources team in collaboration with partners is focused on increasing the number of applicants and interviewees for district positions. Recruitment efforts include local local university and statewide career fairs, plus expanded social media and job board use to reach wider audiences. We are also strengthening talent pipelines through future ed educator programs, university partnerships, and community c uh collaborations. This past year, District 6 attended 18 recruiting events. Highlights include our own classified staff fair, major uh career fairs at several area colleges and universities, and statewide events such as the Colorado Education Recruitment Fair. In total, we reached more than 2,000 candidates and had 355 direct interactions, uh many of which included on-site interviews.
035As you saw in the detailed breakdown provided in August, these events not only are helping us hire now, but are also creating lasting connections. For example, example, after speaking with a student at a recent career fair, I received this email. Mr. Gray, it was truly a pleasure to talk to you yesterday at the career fair. Hearing about the K8 Academy of Pre-Eering was very intriguing. Thank you for the details on alternative and substitute lentures. That was one of the most valuable takeaways from the whole day. Could you remind me again when would be the right time to really start looking at applying to District 6 for a teaching position? This message highlights why our presence matters. These events spark interest, build relationships, and position district sick as an attractive place to work. We've also expanded
036our online job board postings to include 22 free and paid boards to reach as many potential candidates as possible. Our social media efforts are showing measurable impact. Engagement across platforms is growing with users reached up uh with users reached up 29% link clicks up 24% page visits up 3% and page follows up 13.5%. This demonstrates that our goal of celebrating staff while tying posts to recruitment is resonating with our employees and the and the broader community. Social media continues to be an important tool for both employee recognition and our recruitment efforts. District 6 continues to build strong talent pipelines to develop future educators and strengthen our workforce. Our CTE teacher cadet program continues to give high school students hands-on classroom experience and teaches them the importance of self-esteem development in the in education. This year,
037level two cadet students are working in several uh programs, while our uh cadet level one students uh have had the opportunity to create and read children's books to kindergarten through first grade students. Our teacher job shadow program led by Lauren Applehans involved 26 students, 30 teacher volunteers, and 15 different schools. Survey results showed high engagement with 88% of students uh would say that they would participate again and 92% rated the program uh experience as either excellent or mostly excellent and three students have applied to teacher prep programs. District 6 has expanded university partnerships with Rocky Mountain College of the Art and Design and Western Governor's University to host more practicum students and student teachers through a D6 UNC uh grant uh partnership. Three D6 pair of professionals received full fundings uh to receive their master's
038degree in special education and are currently enrolled in UNCC. The I2030 recruiting committee also recreated uh excuse me, also created a guidance and checklist document for schools hosting student teachers and long-term subs. This will help ensure consistent support, help student teachers feel valued, and increase the likelihood that they'll stay within District 6. Administrators and mentors praised the resource for providing clear expectations and uh giving them some confidence in hosting these uh student teachers. These initiatives collectively strengthen our teacher pipeline, build connections with future educators early, and support long-term retention within the district. I would now like to introduce Miss Crane to talk about our recruiting and hiring uh actions and outcomes. Good evening. In the past year, the hiring team's focus and actions have been forward- facing. We anticipate seeing the impact of these actions
039in the coming years. District 6 job descriptions and postings are getting a facelift this year. Our team partnered with legal council and the District 6 communications team to ensure our job postings fulfill all legal requirements and they'll be easier to read, more inclusive, and more accessible to candidates. They'll debut this coming spring during the upcoming hiring season. Another committee has been working on creating a help document for district leaders who are responsible for hiring. The guide includes step-by-step instructions for each step of the process in addition to tips, tricks, and best practices. We intend this resource to be helpful to everyone from brand new leaders who are hiring their first employees to our experienced folks who are just looking for a quick reference or need a refresher. The third hiring subcommittee has focused on the
040candidate experience specifically around creating a candidate checklist and contact sheet and their work has expanded to streamlining all of our candidate communications. The hiring satisfaction survey has continued to guide the work of these three teams. Feedback from the surveys reviewed weekly so our team can respond to feedback in real time. This is very exciting. The 2025 feedback we've received from our new hires, rehires, and transfers continues to be positive. Our big celebration this year is that 100% of survey respondents would recommend District 6 to a colleague or friend. That percentage increased from just over 90% last year. In fact, responses in every single survey area went up this year, and a vast majority of respondents are very satisfied or satisfied in every area. Uh when we asked about the most helpful parts of the process,
041the most commonly cited aspects were clear communication, the support provided by HR staff, and having a smooth and efficient process. Comments indicated that most respondents viewed our district's hiring process as better than other districts, spec specifically in friendliness and efficiency. We've received many positive comments, and we know that we still have opportunities to improve. The most common frustrations identified by new hires were related to delays in the process, the length of the application, and unclear or inconsistent communication. While most people were satisfied with no changes needed, a few suggested changes in salary placements, of course, and better access to employee documents or resources. In addition to the survey, HR staff completed focus groups this fall with newly hired teachers at most of our school sites. One piece of feedback that's consistent across schools and levels
042is that they appreciated the employee basics session that was added to our new professionals academy this fall. Uh that was requested by the GA negotiations team. Thank you. Uh our new teachers received information from HR payroll benefits and student information services and left feeling better prepared to be a district 6 employee. As we look at our outcome data, one measure of the effectiveness of our recruiting and hiring efforts is the number of applicants in for each posting. Over the past five years, we've seen steady growth in the number of applicants per posting. Two years ago, we were at five per job. Uh and this year, we're currently at 7.2 applicants per job. Having more candidates per posting means having deeper pools from which to select and a better chance of finding the right fit for
043our schools and departments. Another critical metric for evaluating recruitment efforts is the time it takes to fill positions. Over the last five years, we've dramatically reduced our hiring time to just 33 days from job posting to onboarding. A substantial improvement. Shorter days to hire are important because they support the candidate experience. We can secure top candidates before they accept other offers. Uh we minimize staffing gaps, reduce recruitment costs, and support smoother operations and workforce planning. Thank you for your attention to the recruiting and hiring efforts and Dr. Thompson will now speak about the work of the retention team. >> Right. Thank you. Uh we have two main retention outcomes uh to outperform the state's average retention rate and to improve retention rates across all of our employee groups. Uh this is the second year that
044we've been using a new reporting uh method that allows us to better compare our data to the state data. Uh to support these outcomes, uh we're doing the following things. We're continuing with our exit and stay interviews. Uh we're finding ways to better support, train, and recognize our substitute teachers. We're honoring all employees through best practices and building leadership skills among operations staff and offering career uh career lad opportunities for all groups. And finally, improving mentorship for new uh teachers primarily in their first three years and then also new to special education teachers and future leaders who reflect our community. Uh we now have a full year of our exit and stay interview data that we've had an opportunity to use to guide our actions. Uh you can see on the screen uh some of
045what we've collected with our exit interviews and our stay interviews. The exit interviews show that employees are more likely to return uh when they see opportunities for career growth, when they get feedback, uh recognition, and fair treatment in their work, and when they strongly believe in our district 6 mission. Uh stay interviews show that our employees are more likely to stay uh when they feel like they're making a difference when they experience a close uh supportive team focused work environment. Uh when they value the one-on-one meetings with their supervisors and uh they really appreciate our health and wellness programs. Uh from what we shared last year, we've seen strong improvements in areas like training, which have increased from 64% favorable to 74% favorable. Uh communication from 60% to 84%. Supervisor feedback from 56% to 84%.
046workplace safety from 36% to 85% and clear expectations from 73% to 97%. Uh we do still have work that has yet to be done and that includes uh future supervisor development for feedback, support, communication and employee recognition as well as uh improved uh operational uh organizational communication for all of our employee recogniz recognition. Uh some of our next steps for that in development will include how we select, train, and promote our substitutes uh into full-time roles. Uh rolling out our D6 leadership essentials to promote better communication, performance management, and team collaboration. Increasing opportunities for employee recognition. uh offering more professional development especially for our classified and trades employees and as Miss Crane mentioned earlier enhancing the employee basics sessions uh for new staff through our new professionals academy. Uh we are meeting our retention goals.
047Uh in this graph it shows a five-year comparison of our retention rates versus the state average. Uh the state is shown in purple. uh district 6 is shown in dark blue. The graph zooms in on the rates uh for a range of 75% to 85% for more detailed uh comparison. Uh and despite a small dip of less than 1%, district 6 continues to outperform the state and has now for the past four years and our retention rate remains over 80%. In this graph, uh, we're breaking down retention by employee group. Uh, we measure retention from December 1st to November 30th, uh, just like the state. And the bar graph compares retention um between our district, which is in the light and dark blue bars, the state, which is in the lavender and purple bars. Uh
048the graph here zooms in uh to 60 to 90% for a more detailed comparison. Uh some of the highlights here is that district 6 is above 80% in seven of the nine employee groups that we outperform the state in six of nine groups and that five of nine groups showed yearover-year gains. Now I'd like to talk there's a noticeable drop in retention within our prayer professional group. uh the group is smaller and so losing even just a few employees impacts that data more than it might in larger groups. Uh and the calculations do not differentiate between resignations uh retirements and promotions from within. Uh this is also true for the state and as you can see pair professionals are also one of its hardest groups to retain. Our I2030 retention committee uh continues to use
049this uh data to guide our strategies. Uh as a result, we've conducted listening sessions to learn from uh high retention groups uh low retention groups and groups where we fall behind the state um such as with uh paraprofessionals. So we focused on uh listening sessions to gain a deeper understanding of their challenges which has led us in the last year uh for workplace improvements uh a significant pay increase for both special ed and pair professionals and quarterly retention increase. Uh these changes were implemented in late fall of 2024. And with that uh model ending in November of uh each year, November 30th, uh we'll expect to see better results when that data comes out here in a couple months. So, and at this time, I'd like to hand things over to Miss Overson, who will
050close out her presentation. Thank you. So, looking at um our next steps, uh both or all three of our directors here have talked about a little a little bit more about what we're doing, but just to give you um kind of a overall caption, we have good work to do with our classified staff around training um for our classified employees in in Weld County. Students can practically attend college for free. You all have heard that and have said that before. We're working with school leadership to make sure that our staff understands what that looks like and how we can motivate students from a very young age to um know that their college dream is real is a reality for them. We've heard employees say that they'd like to have the opportunity to meet face to
051face to learn more about how to be a good District 6 employee or how to be an employee in District 6. And so we're continuing to work, payroll, benefits, and um human resources will continue to work to refine that employee basics session that came out of negotiations. And um we want that to be really delivered in a meaningful way and in a variety of ways that can meet the employees needs. Uh we have the one year as Dr. Dr. Thompson talked about the beyond feedback data and we know we have work to do to get that word out so that people can better understand the culture of district 6 supervisors as they um uh manage their sites or their departments and um human resources analyzing how to best target higher ed um institutions so that
052we can provide the best candidates for our student success. All right, we'd like to we'd be happy to entertain any questions that you may have. >> Thank you very much. That's very thorough pres presentation, Mr. Ozari. >> Yeah, just a couple clarifying question. Actually, one clarifying question, one kind of open-ended question. Uh, when do applicants fill out the hiring satisfaction survey? So, they they get hired and then what's the turnaround time on that? It's four weeks after they on board with the with the human resources office. So, they've already begun their position. They should just be getting into into work when they fill out the survey. >> Okay. And then the uh next question is a a while ago, maybe a year ago or so, maybe longer, uh we were concerned about the housing costs
053for our employees. Has has that in your opinion as HR has that continued to be a block toward people applying for positions and and going after positions in not just Gley but all over this state. >> Mr. Zari, I'm not sure that I would say that it's a block, but it it definitely is a concern. So, we've had we still have our partnership with UNCC in order to be able to maintain some of those um apartments that are in Lawren Hall. And then we've also met uh Doc um uh Mr. Gray has met with um a real estate agent that could help uh manage some of the financials or help support financials for new employees that come in. But they that is something that um they talk about. I don't know if it's ever um
054um deterred people from applying in gley. >> Okay. Thank you. >> You want to address that? >> Yeah, I can just add a little bit to that. We're looking to find partners such as real estate companies that can help uh offer our potential employees guidance in relocation support with that um appropriate housing. We've even worked around uh having conversations around if somebody's coming into a community and they're looking for a very specific type of community or neighborhood um so we can give them advisement on on finding the right fit for them when they come into the community so that they can start to build those community relationships quickly as well so that Gley becomes their home that much faster. I was um most struck by the the graph that showed the decrease in the time
055to fill positions. So I assume that that somewhat refers to those hard to fill positions. Do you feel like some of your efforts have have helped us to fill hard to fill positions and maybe or maybe define what hard to fill positions means? >> Sure. Uh hard to fill positions are negotiated each year with the Gley Education Association. It's anou that is completed every spring during the hiring season and uh the team looks at positions that went unfilled the previous year, takes those types of things into consideration and the list does change slightly from year to year. I have a little sticky note in my binder that that stays right there and moves from page to page every week. Um, but those are positions like science and math, CTE, world languages. Um, I'm trying to
056think off the top of my head, special education, all of our, uh, school supports, SSPs, um, uh, preschool would fall into that category as well. So, we do have all of those areas identified annually uh, based on the data. And then, um, as we look at those hard to fills that does actually or excuse me, the time to fill that is for all positions. So all of our time has decreased for for positions across the board. >> Okay, that's excellent. I also saw for next steps um enhanced mentorship program. I know we introduced the mentorship program for new teachers a few years ago and it sounds like it's been really successful. Can you speak to how you're going to enhance it? >> We talk through we've been working um Dr. Thompson and um GA President
057um Snyder and um Erica McNichol and I we meet together to talk about how we can really make a mentor program for teachers better and to expand on that is looking at what they can do um at the school level how we can really support and um shore up our mentors so that they can provide more support for the new mentors as opposed to just assigning something. that's really training them up in the summer to make sure that they've got some good skills to help support um teachers. We're also open to what principles say that teachers need that they see that they need. And so we're flexible in what we need, what we provide and what we offer through the professional development and um under school leadership. So >> great. Well, I don't see any
058additional comments, but thank you very much and keep up the good work. >> Thank you. Thank you very much. The next item on our agenda is public participation, but I don't believe we have anyone signed up to speak. Next is um a motion to approve our consent agenda. >> I move that the board of education agree school district 6 approves the items as presented on the consent agenda and authorizes the officers to sign any and all contracts. >> Second. >> Is there any discussion on the motion? Seeing none, Miss Lemon, will you give us a vote, please? >> Director Ozari, >> I. >> Director Bentley, >> I. >> Director Mash, >> I. >> Director Matthews, >> I. >> Motion carries 4 Z. >> And our final item of business is to approve our superintendent evaluation.
059This is also an agenda item and will require a motion. >> I move that the board of education of Gley Evans School District 6 approve the superintendent evaluation as presented. Second. >> Thank you both. Is there any discussion on this motion? Mr. Matthews. >> Well, our now it's on. Um wasn't staying on. Um, no, I our evaluation certainly speaks for itself and I encourage uh our public to go into to read that eval evaluation, but um it is it is a positive evaluation and uh as it has been for for 10 years and um I think our public also would would recognize the excellence that our superintendent pro superintendent provides for our school district. Um I know that she has been recognized even just as recently as this last week at the Gley Dream Team
060as the educator of the year. Um she's been recognized throughout the community throughout the state as she's superintendent of the year. Um and and with all of that, I would still say our our community probably still doesn't know the half of it. and um we just as a board member, as as a parent, um as a community member, and I just appreciate the job that you've done, and so thank you, Dr. Pilch. >> Thank you, Mr. Bentley. >> Yeah, I just want to echo what Michael said and just uh make sure that you know on the record that Dr. Pilch gets the recognition she she deserves. It's it's pretty hard to uh find anything uh as we go through these that we want to change or advise her on. And she's also always so receptive,
061you know, throughout not just during the the evaluation period, but all throughout the year of of our wants and wishes and and um just to to watch her as an executive of a of a operation like this and see the uh the amazing job she does day in and day out is truly impressive and uh we're very lucky to have her for as long as she'll have us. So, thank you Dr. feels worthy. >> Thank you, Mr. Ozari. >> I fully endorse the evaluation that we've given Dr. Pelch and all the words that we had said about building level administrators apply to her position and the words that I said about administrator finding solutions rather than problems definitely extend to Dr. Pelch. So, I just want to let you know that for the record. >>
062Thank you all. I also agree with my colleagues and um three words that I chose to put in her written evaluation are innovative, collaborative, and solutionoriented. Um she continues to see where the needs are, what can be um added to or subtracted from to create something more efficient, whether it affects our entire district or whether it affects a very small number of students. Collaborative, we all agree that um the partnerships and the relationships that she's built in the community are in are so imperative for the success of this district. we can't do it by ourselves. Um she can't do it by herself. She also surrounds herself with excellent leaders and helps to to bring them up. And then solutionoriented. Um one of her famous quotes is we can't do it. We can't do we can
063do that. We just can't do everything. But anyway, um she's always looking for the solution. It's always yes, we can do that. We might have to tweak something here or there. Um, so yes, I also um I'm in full support of this positive um evaluation. Thank you, Dr. Pilch. Will you please give us a vote? Miss Lemon. >> Director Ozari, >> I. >> Director Bentley, >> I. >> Director Mash, >> I. >> Director Matthews, >> I. >> Motion carries 40. >> Thank you very much. Thank you for attending our meeting this evening and have a great week. This meeting is adjourned. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music]