001[Music] What's [Music] down? [Music] Oh yeah. [Music] feel I don't feel [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] I know it. [Music] Hey. [Music] Hey. Hey. Heat. Heat. [Music] Good evening and welcome to the board of education meeting for Gley Evans School District 6 on Monday, August 25th. This meeting will now come to order. Please join us for the pledge of allegiance. I aliance 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 Zari, >> present. >> Director Bentley, >> present. >> Director Campos Spitzy, >> present. >> Director Mash, >> present. >> Director Matthews, >> present. >> Director Norwood, >> present. >> All board members, present. Thank you. Well,
002our school year is off to a great start. Um, I think we've all been attending some back to school events and getting our own kids um into their into their classes and into their sports. Um, I just wanted to share a story about meeting a district 6 graduate in the wild, so to say, or um in in my job as a nurse. I had this lovely CNA that we worked with me. She was friendly. She was personable. She did excellent uh performed excellent patient care. and we just got to chat the whole day. Um, she is enrolled at CSU. She graduated from Gley West High School in 2021 from the IB program and she's graduating in three years and going to be a physician's assistant. And it was just fun to to hear about her
003experience in District 6. And um, you know, that wasn't the point of our relationship, but that that came out. And so um, I'm not surprised. I am pleased to to meet a person, a young person with so much future, so much um to look forward to and um that she got a great start here in district 6. So um and that will bring us over to our superintendent's honor role. Um we have a short and sweet meeting this evening, but it's all about students. So excited to hear um who you're going to honor this evening. >> Thank you, President Mash. And we have had the privilege of honoring uh the this program in the past as well. Um, I am excited to honor three Northridge High School students tonight. Maddie Adams, Avery Crawford, and Stacy
004Kedar, along with their sponsor Joanna Fedor. This team of three won a national gold medal in food innovations at the FCCLA National Leadership Conference in Orlando, Florida this summer. The food innovations event recognizes participants who demonstrate knowledge of the basic concepts of food um food product development by creating an original prototype formula, testing the product through focus groups and developing their own market strategy. Participate demonstrate their knowledge of food science, nutrition, food preparation, safety and product marketing. Through this event, students learn creativity, there's my microphone, teamwork, responsibility, time management, decision-making or problem solving and public speaking. And we are so proud of Maddie Avery and Stacy for their hard work and their dedication and and I'm so proud that they represent Northridge High School and District 6 and they did so at the national level.
005And so as you talked about the student you met um at work who is a former uh district 6 graduate and you think about her future. Imagine the future these young ladies have here in district 6. I'm I'm so proud they've chosen district 6 and I'm so proud that they've dedicated uh their work in this way. I'd like to invite them up now. I think we have at least a couple of them here to speak. Um, I'd like to invite them up to share a little bit about their project and their work. And then I also have um a certificate for them. So, come on up. >> Yeah. >> My name is Stacy Kedar >> and I'm Maddie Adams >> and we are part of the Northridge High School Family, Career, and Community Leaders of
006America chapter. This summer, my teammates and I attended FCCLA Nationals in Orlando. For two of us, it was our very first time on an airplane, which made the experience even more memorable. We competed in food innovations where we created a low sugar drink called Boba Bliss Mango Tango. We tested it with our peers, refined the recipe, and even designed original packaging with help from our engineering teacher. We were proud to bring home a gold medal at the national level. We want to sincerely thank the success foundation for the Delia and John Hayley opportunity fund grant which helped make this trip possible. We are also very grateful for the support of our adviserss, Miss Engle and Miss Fedor, Northridge High School, and the school district. Thank you for continuing to support opportunities like this that help
007students like us dream bigger and achieve more than we thought possible. Thank you, ladies. Would you introduce your sponsors again and see if there's anything they would like to add and then I will come join you. >> This is Joanna Fedor and Carly Engle. Do you guys want to come and say something? >> No. Okay. >> They're just they're just here for moral support. >> Yeah. Right. Right. Okay. I think I have the right ones. Right. >> And I have the third one. Do you want to take it or should I give it to you, Donna? Okay. Congratulations, ladies. >> Thank you. who had never flown before. Me and Avery. Oh my gosh. >> Yeah. And then I'll get the other certificate. >> Perfect. Thank you so much for coming. I love that you wore
008your medals. If you don't have that many opportunities to wear medals, got to show them off. Our next item is to approve our agenda, which is an action item. Requires a motion. >> I move that the board of education of Gley Evans School District 6 approves the agenda as presented. >> Second. >> Is there any discussion on the motion? Seeing none, Miss Lemon, will you give us a vote, please? >> Director Zari, >> I. >> Director Bentley, >> I. >> Director Campos Spitzy, >> I. >> Director Mash, >> I. Director Matthews. >> I. >> Director Norwood. >> I. >> Motion carries. 6. >> Well, this evening we did not have a work session, so we have moved our board member comments and reports over to the business meeting. Um, so this evening I'll start with
009Dr. Campos Spitzy. Let us know what she's been up to. So, um, we have been staying out of schools and classrooms for the first few weeks. I think that's appreciated by our teachers and buildings to let them um, kind of get into their groove. uh before we come in. Um but I do want to give a shout out to nutrition services for our great school lunches. Both my kids and even my 16-year-old exchange student really enjoy them. Um my 5-year-old said the the strawberries are better than the ones growing in my garden and the peaches are better than Palisade peaches. So, I don't know what you're putting in that fruit, but um I wanted to give another shout out to our district 6 educators, Matt Cox, also known as MC Squared, and Gio Reford, also
010known as G Real, um for their inspiring new track, um called Story Unfolds. You can just Google it or YouTube it. Uh it's a song that encourages listeners to rise up despite being faced with difficult circum circumstances and to reach out rather than to isolate in hard times. Um so such a great message for for not just our students but all listeners. Um I wanted to highlight that in yesterday's eek um so as I've mentioned in other board meetings our board receives a weekly newsletter from our superintendent. Um, we received ours yesterday for the week. Um, and it gave us a sneak peek into our Dibbles data. Um, and our Dibbles, for those of you who are not in education like me, is an acronym that stands for dynamic indicators of basic early literacy skills.
011Um, so the highlight is that our kindergarten kindergarteners through third graders are at grade level in literacy with our kinder and second graders in the high 80th percentile and our first graders in the 94th percentile. Um, so just kudos to our elementary school teachers and um our team that makes that has made that possible. It's really great news to start the year off with. Um, as for the other end of uh our K- through2 education, our college readiness efforts, I was pleased earlier today to receive an email from the Gley Central High School counselors that was sent to all 11th and 12th grade wild cats inviting them to UNC's college fair on September 17th. Um, so the students will have the opportunity to walk to UNCC to participate in this event that will include a
012walking campus tour and even Spanish services if needed. So just shout out for that. Um, and speaking about college, just a reminder to students and family about UNCC's tuition promise program. It allows students to go to college tuitionfree if their household income is $60,000 or less. And for students whose household income is less than 90,000, there is the Colorado Promise program that offers a refundable tax credit to reimburse tuition and fees for the first two years of college. So, I've been doing the math on this and the Colorado Promise program, which is the two years of free college for any um university in the state of Colorado, it doesn't they don't count concurrent enrollment before kids start. So, if our if you have a high school student who wants to go to college and you
013are a household who makes $90,000 or less, um you can really help your kid get their first two years of college done at in district 6 through concurrent enrollment and then have the next two years free um with this uh refundable tax credit. So, um shout out for sec postsecary education. Um lastly, uh last board meeting we had public participation from Don Pearl. Um he spoke about initiative 22 which would have allowed uh for public dollars to be funneled to private schools. Um there were not enough signatures collected for this petition and so it will actually not be on the ballot this fall. Um so um a celebration there. Um, and while we haven't been in schools for the last couple weeks, I did get to go to a really cool event on Friday night.
014Um, it was uh held at the link library and they presented this book, Our History, Our Voice. Um, it's for the Mexican-American History Project of Gley. Um, and it's uh 44 different Gley historians are documented here. Um they are documenting the contributions of Mexican-Americans to the city of Gley. Um I'm really excited to read it. I didn't get to get to it over the weekend and also excited to have our students have access to this. So um yeah, thank you >> Mr. Norwood. >> Well, I've been busy trying to get a business going or dodging around the rain and the hot weather, but in the meantime, I'm readjusting to mountain time. Spend a little time on the East Coast. um did get a chance to take in a few baseball games, which um I love
015to do, especially this time of the year. And when I got back, I shook the cobwebs off and went over and watched a little UNCC soccer and saw one of my former students play. She plays over at UNCC. So, that's about it. >> Mr. Aari, >> thank you, President Mash. I will um report to the board and the community tonight on the uh recent meeting that we had last Thursday, August 21st with the Colorado Association of School Board, the region 4 regional meeting. I attended that event along with Vice President Bentley, Dr. Pelch, and our board secretary Amy Lemon. The meeting was held at Toon STEM Academy and was attended by many superintendent and schoolboard members from across our area including from Windsor, Loveland, Fort Collins, Johnstown and many rural districts, just to name a
016few. I'd like to thank Twinton's principal Justin Angahau and the school staff for making Twiton such a welcoming place for the meeting. This school was a shining example of the excellence that can be found throughout our school district. In fact, our school district and its programs and outreach to the community were of interest to the attendees and served as positive examples for other districts. Among the many topics of discussion at the meeting included school funding and accountability, teacher recruitment and retention, and how school districts build trust in their communities. Again, District 6 was a focus of a lot of that discussion. Much discussion centered around an explanation of our current statewide system of assessing student achievement, how the accountability system was developed over the years, current measures of student learning, and how statewide test data
017is analyzed and used to evaluate school districts and schools throughout the state. Dr. Dr. Pilch's insights and her broad spectrum of knowledge and understanding helped in clarifying and focusing the discussion concerning all of those topics. She was a central leader in that discussion. The group was interested in many of our programs found in this school district, including the development of K8 schools, magnet programs, our CTE programs, and our publicized materials and outreach that our communications folks put out into the community. Dr. Pelch also clearly presented information regarding all of those programs as well. And that u is my synopsis of that meeting. Uh pres Vice President Bentley might have some other insights. That's all I have. President Mash, >> thank you for attending and for such a thorough report. Mr. Matthews, >> thank you, President
018Mash. Um as Dr. Kempo Spitzy said, we haven't been able to uh get into classrooms just yet. We're uh excited to do that and uh and I am sure uh that teachers and principles appreciate not having us uh disrupting things in the ne in the first few weeks. I have gotten to see quite a few athletic events. Uh though one uh this last Friday was a citywide tennis tournament and um it was at Centennial. I think Gley Central, Gley West, Northridge University all played. It was it was a fantastic event and and and in the different things that I've gotten to see, golf tournaments and tennis tournaments and back to school night. I'm sorry I could not make the the CASBY event. I was at back to school night for Gley Central. Uh but I
019have gotten to talk to quite a few high school teachers and this is early and anecdotal, but this is what I continue to hear is that this year feels different. um it feels different in their their freshman class, different than the last few years that that the behaviors seem better that there there's just a a difference in the group. And I I asked um uh uh Principal Green as I was walking in if if he if he could say if that was if he was seeing the same thing. He said, "Yes, I I uh that is what what we're seeing." And so uh it does appear maybe and again it's early and it's an anecdotal but it does appear that that maybe you know co really is in our rearview mirror and um we are
020starting to see some of the some of the good fruit and so I think it's an opportune time just to remind everyone that in it was just five years ago but but in the fall of 2020 when when most large school districts stayed shut down um that our teachers ers and our food food service um our nutrition specialists, our bus drivers, uh our custodial staff, our administrators, our office staff. Um we all said we're going back. And I' I've never I've never been more proud than uh to be associated with anyone at at any point in my life as I was in that moment to to be associated with uh our teachers. And uh because when we said we need to go back, uh the people that actually were in the classroom or on the
021bus, they they never batted an eye and they said yes, we need to go back. And again, when when most every large school district in this state was was staying closed, um uh our staff made made the sacrifice to to serve students. And I think it's because of that that we we are seeing, you know, some of the results that we're seeing now and some of the things that we um some of the good fruit uh and the and the behaviors that we're starting to see. And so again, um, very excited for this school year, very excited to think that, uh, that that might be in our rearview mirror. Thank you, President Mash. >> Vice President Bentley. >> Uh, yeah, thank you guys for all that. There's not much I could add to Dorne's report.
022Um, outside of just some some common themes I see when I'm at these kind of meetings. Casby Region 4, we I think we were the biggest or the second biggest one in the room as far as student population and I'm on the the Boseis board, but um there's always a common theme that we're we're we're really lucky to be in district six. Um just to see some of the stuff that other districts and u teachers and administrators are dealing with really makes you kind of uh sit back and realize the stuff we take for granted. Some of it's the economy of scale where we're afforded that luxury. Uh, but the the majority of it is just our great administration and staff and the people running the district. So, um, as I as I go to
023those meetings and just kind of take it all in, it really it really makes me proud to be part of D6. So, I don't have much else to add except uh just ready for Friday Night Lights. So, good luck to everybody this season. >> Thank you. Um, I also have just attended um events, I guess, as a parent. Um, I am the the representative for Gley Central. got to go to back to school night both as a parent and as um the board representative. But it's always great to see just the pride, the excitement, everyone coming back in their colors and um being excited to see their their friends and their and their teachers. Um I also thought I would take the opportunity. We always shouted out the nutrition services program. Um but for those
024of you who don't know, we have a wellness program um through Gley Evans School District 6. It's both for students and for staff and we get a report every year. um they set up their goals and um uh similar to our innovation 2030 plan. So um it's great for us to see all the different ways that we are serving our students. Um our you know our mission as a district is a well-rounded education and I think that um includes physical and mental health and and nutrition as well for our students and our staff. So, um I'm sure that there's access to this on the website, but if you have any questions, um we have a robust wellness program here at District 6 as well. Our next item on our agenda is to receive um an
025update on what? Oh, just kidding. Superintendent's report. Sorry, Dr. Pilch. >> Thank you, President Mash. I'm going to start with introducing um some of our new administrators who are in the room tonight. So you all can put a a name to a face um and the role that these folks are serving in. I first want to introduce to you David Bolish who is our new dean of students at Jefferson High School. Dave, will you stand up and give everybody a wave? Uh we welcome Dave here. We actually uh stole him away from zero dropouts uh who you all know is a a big partner of district 6 and he was the program administrator at the next program and they were very disappointed to see him leave. Um but he wanted to get back into public
026education uh working working in public education where he has has worked previously. He comes to us as a former high school teacher um and head coach and assistant athletic director and he also has some business outside of teaching uh as a as a business manager and supervisor. So he brings a lot of experience and we're really proud to welcome him to District 6. Welcome David. And then I want to introduce Aaron Turman, interim assistant principal at Franklin Middle School. I got to start my day today at Franklin, so I got to see Aaron and her principal Susette twice today. But, uh, we're really excited to have Aaron in this role. We had a we had a late resignation, uh, with our former assistant principal who decided to stay home with her new baby. Um, but
027Aaron comes to us having been a eighth grade language arts teacher at Franklin Middle School. And prior to that, she was a middle school intervention teacher in New Mexico. Um, and a department head at an alternative high school in New Mexico. Welcome, Erin. We're glad to have you and thanks for stepping up. And then I want to introduce to you Brian Devo. And uh Brian doesn't feel like a new face to us. Uh Brian has been in District 6 for a while now is I think his whole career. Uh he started with us as a as a an English teacher um and then an instructional coach and a PE teacher as well all at Jefferson High School and then finished as dean of students at Jefferson High School. And Brian will be serving as the
028assistant principal athletic director at Girly Central High School. So, he's taking on a a big big responsibility there and we're we're proud to welcome him to Gley Central High School. Thanks, Brian. And then I want to introduce to you Victoria Baker um who is our new assistant principal at Madison Steam Academy. Again, another internal hire, which I'm I'm so proud uh to be able to hire within. Uh, Victoria was most recently our lead kindergarten teacher at Madison Steam Academy and prior to that, she was a first grade teacher at Centennial Elementary. Welcome, Victoria, and we're we're thrilled to have you in the position. And then finally, I want to introduce to you uh Lisa Hudson. Um, and Lisa is our new business and community partnerships administrator and and she's been on staff here uh for
029several weeks. and we're we're going to put her uh to the test tonight with her first board presentation. So, she's meeting you for the first time and she's going to help present tonight. Uh we are so excited to have Lisa. She comes to us from the University of Northern Colorado Small Business Development Center where where she served as an associate director, an executive director um and really really built up that program there and and comes to us with extensive business and community partnership relationships. Lisa also serves on the chamber board of directors, the United Way board of directors. So, she brings a wealth of experience from the business world into this role and she seems to be adapting well to education. So, welcome Lisa and we'll see you at the podium in just a few
030minutes. And then um I'll just real quickly I want to give you a little update on the start of school because we met uh I think we met the last time on the very first day of school. And so we we are in week three um of our new school year. And President Ma or excuse me, Mr. Matthews, old habits die hard. Uh Mr. Matthews, I would agree with your comments about it does feel different. It it was certainly a very smooth start to school. Uh students are very engaged. uh and teachers are very engaged and I'm hoping like you that uh CO is in the rear view and uh the the data we're seeing from this spring's testing data is certainly an indicator that that things are are back on the right track here
031in District 6. I'm also pleased about our enrollment. We um we are still enrolling new students, but we have especially seen an increase in enrollment in kindergarten students. And just today I approved to another hire of another kindergarten teacher. So I think we've hired five uh since school started. Mandy's nodding her head. Yeah, something like that. Um so our kindergarten numbers have come in much higher than we anticipated. Uh which is which is really good. Uh we are out of space now though to add additional teachers. I think we've taken up about every extra classroom we have and and in some cases they're being really creative um to figure out the space issues. But um I've often said to you when our numbers come in higher than predicted, that is a good problem to have
032when many of our neighbors, many who were at the CASBY uh meeting last week spoke about the woes of of declining enrollment. And so we are so fortunate to not be in that boat and and to see students still coming. We're over 22,300 students in the district. Um and I I don't believe that number includes preschool students. So, um, we're we are we are happy to be growing and we are still enrolling students. So, I want to welcome everybody back. I want to thank our staff, all of our educators for all the work they've done for such a a smooth school start from custodial to grounds to transportation uh to our health services teams to our clerical teams and of course to our teachers and administrators. It's been uh you know it just continues to
033be truly an honor to serve here and to yet welcome another group of students into district 6. So welcome back everybody. Thank you President Mash. >> Thank you very much. Um now we will have our innovation 2030 strategic plan update student learning and achievement um CTE and workbased learning. Good evening, President Mash, members of the school board, and Dr. Pilch. I'm Jenny Schilling, the director of career and technical education. I am joined this evening by Jordan Carlberg, our career pathway specialist, and Lisa Hudson, our business and community partnership administrator. We are pleased to provide an update on our work within career pathways. Before we begin, we would like to express our sincere appreciation to our community for the passage of the mil levby override, which has supported and advanced much of the career pathway work
034that we'll discuss this evening. The career pathway work is aligned to the district 6 mission and vision of engaging students in a well-rounded and excellent education, preparing them to be college and career ready, and lives in our student learning and achievement focus area of our strategic plan. under the first goal which is to provide a personalized learning experience so all students graduate on time and are career and college ready with the objective to increase student participation in career pathways and meet industry and community needs. Our outcomes are to provide career pathway exposure and awareness across all grade levels and to actively engage with industry and post-secondary partners to expand work-based learning opportunities, concurrent enrollment and career pathways that align with current and future workforce needs. Career pathway awareness is introduced at the elementary level through
035smart lab experiences, exploration activities, and the use of Zello. In middle school, students continue this journey with expanded exploration opportunities, discovery lab, and smart lab in more indepth use of Zello to begin identifying interest and potential careers. At the high school level, students engage in career and technical education pathways, participate in skills events, continue using Zello for planning and ga and gain well realworld experience through work-based learning opportunities. In district 6, we provide programming in 14mmies and 28 pathways across our high schools. All of our CTE teachers also have industry experience in the pathway they teach and many of them are endorsed to teach college classes within their program. At this time, I'd like to turn it over to Jordan Carlbrook who will share more about the specific programs and student opportunities within our career
036pathway work. >> Thank you. And uh good evening. Enrollment in those 28 pathways have steadily increased with last year having approximately 58% of our high school students enrolled in at least one career and technical education course. Additionally, enrollment at the C district 6 career and technical education center has increased every year since its opening in 20 324 school year with welding, construction, electrical, cosmetology at capacity and teacher prep and IT cyber security still growing. The pathways at the CT center are two-year programs where students spend half their day at the CT center. Due to its due to this extended time, students earn a total of four high school credits per year, two of which are CT electives and two are aligned with appropriate core credits that have been crosswalked to each pathway. Additionally, all the
037instructors at the CT Center have both secondary and post-secary endorsements, providing students the opportunity to earn educational and industry certificates through college courses that are offered with within each of the pathways. Also, District 6 provides high school students with the opportunity to participate in concurrent enrollment through our post-secary partners listed here. students are able to earn or able to get an early start on their post-secary plans for earning college credit while in high school. Here's some of our preliminary concurrent enrollment numbers for the school year as there are usually some uh student schedule changes happening within the first few weeks. Currently, there's approximately 1,152 high school students enrolled in a college course this school year with the highest enrollment in college algebra and trig and the second highest in English composition offered through both UNCC
038and as community college. Both of these courses are taught on a most of these courses are taught on a district 6 campus by a D6 instructors that have been that have been endorsed by our post-secondary partners. And I'll hand it back over to Michillian. Over the past few years, our work-based learning program has evolved into a vital component of our students educational experience. It offers meaningful real world work opportunities that help students build professional habits, develop practical skills, and explore potential career paths through internships, apprenticeships, job shadowing, and similar experiences. This work is rooted in Colorado's work-based learning continuum with a strong emphasis on learning through work and learning at work, effectively bridging the gap between classroom learning and future employment as will be shared by Lisa Hudson. Good evening. Well, I'm really excited to
039be here tonight. It is a true pleasure. Thank you for having me. I'd like to talk to you a little bit about the D6 internships and how we turned out in 2025. Um the program consists of 150 hours across a 10-week period in the summer and it's designed for current juniors. We encourage um and have it as a minimum wage um which has been really helpful to our students across the district. The idea is to have students have the opportunity to gain work experience and lifelong skills which were demonstrated in a lot of our results from our survey from the students and from our hosts. During this last summer, we had 179 paid internships for the summer 2025 and 45 employers in Northern Colorado. We had them in all different types of industries and um
040we're really excited to expand that even further in 2026. Here are some data from the surveys that we collected so far. 69% said this was their first job experience for students. 100% feel better prepared to enter the workforce after this experience, up from last year at 89%. 100% agreed internships provided a meaningful learning experience. 88% have a better understanding of their career goals. And 100% would recommend internships to other students. Say those are some pretty good figures. These are some quotes that we collected from the surveys both from the students and as and from the hosts. Um the first one is from someone who learned how to read a site plan um municipal building codes, research buildings, and learn more about Gley's municipal code. The second I found really uh touching about learning how to
041create lesson plans and adapting lessons to children on the spectrum with different needs, adjusting to learning speeds as well as to work the register and communicate with customers. On the host side, um the second quote there um really neat. They also included in um their quote that they had hosted over 96 interns um over their time with the district and with university. and he said that the individual that he worked with was more skilled and job ready than most. So, it's a true testament to the students that we have here at District 6 um and the how they're representing us out in the community. Uh we have a video here to showcase our students um during the last summer. We have um three successes here to present to you. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music]
042Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] As we continue to advance our work within career and technical education, Our focus remains on supporting students from an early age by building awareness and encouraging exploration of opportunities aligned to their future goals. We are committed to recruiting and retaining highquality CTE educators, expanding pathways that ensure students are both career and college ready, and strengthening our partnerships with industry leaders to enhance work-based learning experiences and enrich our career and technical education advisory boards. Thank you for providing us this opportunity to share our update and we would be happy to take any questions. >> Thank you very much for the presentation. Welcome Miss Hudson to District 6. Um our first question comes from Mr. Ozari. >> Thank you President Mesh. Just a couple of things. Uh first of all, thank you
043for your work on behalf of our students in uh getting them out there into the community and thanks to all the business leaders and the other government agencies that provide a place for our students to learn. Uh the question I have um as I looked at our young uh person who was involved with the uh fire department, the rescue services, when students intern in those types of fields, uh do they actually participate in the real world uh work that could put them in some sort of safety jeopardy? I'm just wondering about that. >> Um they do actually get to participate in the real world. um they go on um I think it was a 24-hour a 24-hour uh cycle of uh when they're there and they get they stay at the fire station and they
044work um right alongside of them and experience exactly what it looks like to be a firefighter. >> Okay. Well, then uh then I have a follow-up question to that and it doesn't have to do with safety. It has to do with just uh what happens after these field literally in that case field experiences. Do we track in some way, shape or form? And I think I ask this all the time, don't I? I mean, it's just constant. I always ask this. Do we track what happens after graduation? For instance, a young person who is involved with fire and rescue, do they end up working in that field? Do they have a better opportunity maybe of landing a position with the fire department? the those services and other students that are involved in these sorts of
045uh activities. That's the question. >> So, we do not track them into um specific um industries. We do provide them the opportunity to create a career path plan that helps them accomplish what they're hoping to um achieve. So, um, with the individual that did the firefighting, um, position, we would help connect him with concurrent enrollment in the fire in the career academy at Ames Community College, um, with a student who might be interested in nursing, we would help connect them with a certified nursing assistant program and help them get their foot in the door. Um, a big part of this is also about networking. And so, yeah, I would think that that might give them a foot in the door. >> Mr. are we don't we do not have a mechanism once students leave us
046to really to to follow their employment or their career path. There's no mechanism for that within the within our system or within the state of Colorado. We do have email addresses and and we maintain those for a year after graduation, but rarely do students respond to us and let us know what they're actually doing. What we are able to track, as Mrs. Schilling indicated is who who and how many credentials students are earning. So, we do know who and how many fire safety credentials are being earned while students are still in high school. Um, and and we often know who is accepted into a fire safety program, say at Ames Community College. But I I know it's frustrating. I mean, I'm frustrated by it, too. It's very difficult to track post-secary information on the graduates
047for all of us um in the state of Colorado and maybe that's something we should push on our legislators to figure out a way to do that statewide. >> I would also add that we do ask a question in the satisfaction survey to the hosts if they've offered the students a position after the internship. So we do get some responses there. Um as well as it does open some doors for other opportunities whether it's a job or an additional internship that they can go through. Um Banner Health offers a program called heel which is an additional internship. So if we have students who have already gone through the D6 internship um they do have I think a leg up when they put in their application for the heel program. >> Dr. Campo Spitzy. >> Um
048I was I have two questions. One, I don't think I've seen the Zello um pop up before. Can you explain what that is? >> Yeah. So uh Zello is our um really our IAP work um for our students. It's a K12 platform. We went away from we had a platform called Naviance in the past and we've gone away from that. it wasn't very user friendly. And um Zello is really designed to help students start creating their personalized learning plan um all the way at the K2 level. It's very gamified um career town and then they start um doing aptitude tests and the goal is that it really follows the students K all the way through 12. Um there's a a profile feature where students can upload their um like exemplars of of their work and
049that also stays with their um account throughout their time with District 6. Um, we're also exploring some ways on uploading the students can upload industry search so that way again it tracks with that student all the way through as well as ways for them to develop resumes. Um, and then there's also a financial literacy piece part of Zello um that's rolling out um in in the spring. So Zel is really um all-encompassing K12 IAP personalized learning plan. >> And then my second question about the pathways. So happy to hear that the majority of students, 58% are now in one of our 14 Academy pathways. I'm curious which is the most popular. Yeah. Uh our most popular is business and marketing. Um it's offered in all of our schools. Um Jefferson High School and then all
050three of our comprehensives and so there's a lot of opportunity for students to connect with our business and marketing. >> Vice President Bentley. Um, I'm a little disappointed you didn't say welding, but I'm not surprised. Um, I I just wanted to comment more as as from my point of view as an employer. Um, I I did participate and I have participated, but uh I got an email update from my COO. I get weekly updates from him and uh unbeknownst to him that this program exists. He just knows that he's an intern, but he he specifically put in his report to me that um one of the interns, that's what he called him, but he called my name. Um can I share their name? Is that appropriate? >> Julie Hills son is in in our program,
051Wyatt. And he specifically named Wyatt as the top performer in that in that line that he's working. So with guys that have 20 30 years experience, you know, Wyatt during the summer outpaced and and and outperformed, you know, even uh industry professionals. So from an employer's point of view, you know, cheap labor, a lot of value, and and and a really productive summer for us, you know, and you know, Wyatt will probably get a job offer if he hasn't already. I'm not sure where they're at with that. I I I didn't keep track, but uh he he probably is going to end up somewhere better than than than my company, but it has been very successful and and we've been we've been fortunate to have uh interns. The the industry as far as my industry
052has been very hard lately to get applicants on board. Um, I think this summer we're running in roughly one out of 10, maybe one out of five, um, people that we offer a job to actually get hired just because of different reasons, mostly failed drug analysis tests. Um, but that's kind of the the environment we live in. So, um, we we definitely need more tradesmen. >> Vice President Mley, I might ease your worries over, uh, welding not being the top career pathway. Uh so uh much of enrollment in the career pathways is driven by capacity and so we keep our welding programs at a lower capacity as does and so we have weight lists at Gley West at the current techch ed center for welding and as has a weight list for the welding programs
053often is the case with the more technical careers. Um, the business pathway does have a a greater variety of courses that students can access and and we don't have to keep quite the the class size load down in a business pathway like we do in a a lab class like like electrician or construction or welding where where kids are using, you know, power equipment and and there's some requirements around actually capping the class size, but lots of interest in in all of our skilled traits, too. Good. Mr. Norwood, >> I just had a question comment for Miss Schilling. Did you say 45 employers participated in the internship program? >> That's correct. Yes. >> In future years, planning on expanding on that at all or as many as you can get, right? >> Yes, that's correct.
054>> So, I just had one one one final question. Do you have because I come from a radio and television background, do you have any areas where people might want to get into broadcasting? I still have a lot of contacts. Good buddy of mine does the rock voice of the Rockies. So, >> um I'll jump in and then I'll let Lisa finish. But we do have students interested in audio broadcasting. We do have um Ames Career Academy where we've got a handful of students every year that apply to the Ames Career Academy audio production um that get in. And so, um, yes, we do have a handful of students. And then, um, let Lisa wrap it up. >> Uh, the answer is yes to any contacts. We're looking to grow this program. Um, I've been
055hitting the streets and making contacts. We've got a leads list already of over 50 that we'll be connecting with to grow this program. So, we're really excited to hopefully create more placements for our students. >> What a great opportunity for students. I just have to say thank you to all of you for working so hard and doing this. And feel free to reach out because I still have a lot of contacts um in the radio industry. So please if you if you want contacts, please reach out. I'll try to help. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you very much for this presentation. I think it's always a favorite. We enjoy hearing what our students did over the summer. Um I appreciate Mr. Bentley's perspective as a business owner. um as a parent both my
056children have been privileged to have an internship and um it's been extremely beneficial to both of them. So thank you or excited to see where the program grows and um again welcome. Thank you all for being here. >> I believe we do not have any public participation this evening. So that brings us onto our consent agenda which is an action item requires a motion. I move that the board of education of Gley Evans School District 6 approves the items as presented on the consent agenda and authorizes the offer 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 Zari, >> I. >> Director Bentley, >> I. >> Director Campos Spitzy, >> I. >> Director
057Mash, >> I. >> Director Matthews, >> I. >> Director Norwood, >> I. >> Motion carries 6. >> All right. And that is all the business we have for this evening. So, thank you all for being with us. Um, welcome back to school and we'll see you in a couple weeks. This meeting is adjourned. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music]