001[Music] Woohoo! Heat! [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] behind me. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey. [Music] Yeah. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Good evening. Welcome to the work session for the board of education of Gley Evans School District 6. This meeting will now come to order. Miss Lemon, will you please call the role? Director Zari, Director Bentley, present. Director Campos Spitzy. Director Mash, present. Director Matthews, present. Director Norwood, present. Director Sullivan, present. Five board members, present. Well, thank you for joining us this afternoon. Um, this will be a candidate informational meeting this first part of
002our work session. Um, Mr. Bentley and I will go through um just some important information. You may have uh have that in front of you. Um, please feel free to uh ask us questions. Um, I think we'll probably just do that at the end. Um, but this this can be a little less formal than our usual work session. We want your questions to be answered. um for you to have a a good idea of what it means to run for the board and how that works. Um Miss Lemon will be our elections secretary. Is that your official title? Designated election official. So um when you collect your packets and you collect your um signatures, you'll be returning them to Amy, to Miss Lemon. Um she can be a resource um for some of that legality
003as well. Um, I also found the Secretary of State's office to be very helpful. Oftentimes, you can call and just talk to a real person right away. Um, they can help you with, again, if you have a legal question, if you have a finance question, how to file, um, if you're working with another candidate, you know, those are some of the questions that came up of of how do we split, how do we report, how do we do things like that to make sure that we're performing everything in the correct and legal manner. So, um you can see from your packet the eligibility requirements. Um a candidate must have lived in the district for 12 consecutive months and been a registered voter voter. Uh no person who has been convicted of a sexual offense against
004a child is eligible to serve on the school board. Um this is a nonpartisan race. So on your ballot there will not be a party affiliation listed with you. Um and candidates may not campaign as members of a political party. Um, you can see those important dates. Most things just kind of get started towards the end of the summer. August 6th is when you would pick up that packet from Miss Lemon here at the administration building. And then you have about three weeks to collect your signatures. Um, Miss Lemon, can you remind me how many signatures are required? Yes. Um, you need 50 valid signatures. And so we recommend that you get at least 70 because inevitably some will not be valid. So that something that would invalidate a signature would be if that person
005doesn't actually live in the Glyan School District 6. Um perhaps you collected your 17-year-old nephew and he's not quite 18 and so he's not registered. That doesn't count yet. Um so yeah, get someone who's moved. Um things like that. So or even a misprint. they I don't know some something's not readable. So, just make sure you get extra signatures um so that you can be absolutely sure. Also, if you're able to turn them in, you know, a week prior so that when Miss Lemon tallies those signatures, if there's any error, you still have time to to fix that. Um so, those are due back to her by August 29th at 4:30 p.m. And then, of course, election day on November 4th. Um all candidates running for school board must file a candidate affidavit um electronically
006with the secretary of state um within 10 days of becoming a candidate. Um so that means if you have made a public announcement, you need to file with the state of Colorado with the secretary of state within 10 days. Um and then there will be monthly financial disclosures that are due. Lots of candidates choose to have sort of a treasurer or someone who's going to help them with those filings. You certainly can do that yourself. Um, I think you have to enter your name then as your registered agent. Um, but from my experience, it's great to have someone to help you with some of those details. Um, unfortunately, there are some fees or fines that are associated with filing late or misfiling. So, it is very important that you have those things done correctly. $50
007a day. $50 a day. So, Ask me how I know. Yeah. Right. So, we want to keep this a fair and clean election and um that that's for the benefit of your campaign as well. Um so, just going over the requirements and the time commitments for being a board director. Uh we have regular meetings with a work session. Usually the work session is from 4 to 6 and then the business meeting. Sometimes we get out in in an hour, sometimes we've gone three or four hours. Um, so second and fourth Mondays of each month, except for over the summer, this this summer we're having one meeting in July or in June and we were able to cancel the second one and then we take the month of July off. Um, weekly preparation for meetings, reading
008materials, um, meeting with the board of education leadership or superintendent as needed. So definitely um the week leading up to a meeting you'll need to make yourself familiar with the agenda. Sometimes you might have questions about something. So you want to make time to either meet with the superintendent, have a conversation with her, or reach out to board leadership. Um and then we also have a weekly bulletin that um just gives pertinent information, updates, things that are going on in the district. Um then most of the time on the off week that we don't have a meeting we try to have a school visit and that's usually about an hour and a half um when we have new board directors we kind of try to work out a schedule so that um you know if
009everybody's available on Fridays we can try to schedule those are on Fridays. If we're unable to capture everybody on one particular time for a week then we'll try to alternate that so that um somebody can come in the mornings and somebody can come when we have an afternoon. Um those are really special uh special look into our schools to see what's going on. It's um most often studentled which is really fun. You know, you're in elementary school and so those fourth and fifth graders who um feel that leadership and ownership of their school take us around and tell us what they're working on, what they're excited about about their clubs. Um and and then the administration will also tell us how a curriculum or a a new program, something like that, is is going. Um
010meetings with the superintendent. Uh Dr. Pilch likes to have monthly check-ins with each board member. This is really great opportunity to learn, to ask questions. Um this is the time where your neighbor has said, "Hey, is this something that's happening in District 6?" and maybe you don't know or you want to learn more about it. Um this is a time to build that trust and that relationship with your superintendent um as she is um the board's sole employee. So we want to make sure that we have full confidence in her leadership and and the things that are going on in the district. So making time to meet with the superintendent is also vital importance. Uh, another thing we do a couple times a year, I think we've been doing them once in the summer or
011spring and then usually CASBY we have a a work session, but they're they're full day half or full day work sessions. Um, these are these are very valuable for us because there's not a lot of time we can really sit down and just dig into issues or or agendas or planning or anything without like a you know within an hour there's only so much we can do at a normal work session discussion wise. So those are pretty important to come to. We've we've done some really fun activities like team building uh or personality assessments, right? Yeah. And and it just gives us a a clear a more clear vision into each other because we we don't really spend much time together outside of these meetings and and the uh the school visits. So those are
012very valuable. Um make sure you plan on being there. you, like I said, one the one's usually the first day of CASBY and then we we do one at I think it's been in the spring lately, hasn't it? Sometime. Yeah. [Music] Um schools enroll the board member. Uh we we assign board liaison to the to the schools. Usually roughly get a high school and and a couple of of the elementary schools or the the middle schools. Um those those are those are pretty fun because you you are kind of the the sole representative. It's kind of, you know, you get invited to all their special parent nights events and um parent teacher conferences and stuff like that. Um the the schools really value them and and they they like it and it's um just a
013good way to kind of get involved and see a little bit deeper what what the schools are doing. Um and like Natalie had said earlier, school visits typically two a month. I think there's roughly 36 schools, so it's hard to get around to see all 36 when you're only doing two two a month. And that's if you can make all of those. So, um I think I've seen all the schools now. Maybe maybe right. I'm almost four years in and I think I've seen all the schools now. So, it takes a while and and and then they like Natalie said they they're probably one of outside of graduation one of the most rewarding things we get to do just to see the interaction with the kids and and see actually how impressive they are and
014the fun things they're doing. and it it kind of makes you feel insecure about your elementary experience compared to, you know, watching fifth graders talk about math that you don't understand, you know. So, um, lot lot of value there. So, uh, just kind of keep that on your radar and and, you know, put it up high on your priority list when when those come around. I think um, I forgot to talk about agendas. So, um, the agenda is set for each meeting with Dr. Pilch and um, board leadership. Um, typically we go through um things that are specific to like a date in the calendar. So like we always review this certain policy, we always do the budget in June, we always do the superintendent evaluation at a certain time and things like that. So
015so some of those um big rocks, I guess they are just sort of predetermined. Um, but then if a board member wanted to bring something specific forward, they could talk to board leadership or to the superintendent to have something added to the agenda. And then I don't know if you mentioned negotiations. I didn't mention negotiations. Um, negotiations are probably one of the things that I get the most value out of as as far as like being able to contribute and get work done. A lot of new board members want to come in, they really want to make a difference fast. and you'll kind of find out there's a big ship. Um it takes a lot to kind of get it to turn. So that there is a feeling of not helping enough. You know, you're
016really gung-ho, but the negotiations are the one spot where you really are heard. You can really contribute the most in in my opinion to making a meaningful difference quick. Um we do that with the the Gley Education Association. We get in a circle. It's called the consensus circle that Dr. Bilch brings in u uh the moderator. She's she's amazing. She's a personal friend now and I've used her in my own business and that process has just been very very eye openening and and very fruitful. Um been it's been really nice to go in with administrators and teachers and staff and learn what's going on and what they want and what they don't want and what's what's works and what doesn't work and then apply that to what we can do. Dr. Pilch always tells in
017there all every every year she says we we can do anything. We just can't do everything. and and it's been very good to just get in there and have everybody know that and it so it's it's very very valuable to the the way that our relationship with the GA is established and continues and and very important that you guys make sure you make that in February, March, whenever they are usually uh two to three days um depending on what's going on. They've been fairly painless lately. I I haven't really been in a painful one since I've been on the board. So, I hear I hear the horror stories, but um the the new system and the relationship strong. So, hopefully we continue that for the indefinite future. Um and then as board members, we are
018often invited to community events. Um the library fundraiser, the food bank fundraiser, um various nonprofits invite the school district to be a part of their work. Um and those are also a lot of fun, very rewarding, great to see the ways in which other entities are serving the same families and students that we are serving and collaboration comes out of that networking um and yeah a lot of lot of just really fun events and um get to know Gley a little bit better. Um I think it is difficult sometimes to understand exactly what the role of a board member is. Um takes everybody probably at least a good year to kind of figure out what is my job, what isn't my job, what level of governance and um paying attention, you know, is required of
019me as a school board and what uh director and what is the role of Dr. Pilch and her team and the folks that are in the buildings every day. Um, so just in our little packet it said, and this is from our board policy BBBA, it is important that the candidate be sincerely and honestly interested in serving the whole school district for the best interests of all children. Board members shall be nonpartisan in dealing with school matters. The board does not wish to subordinate the education of children and youth to any partisan principle, group interest, or personal ambition. And we are serving 23,000 students and their families. So that's a very diverse group of folks, diverse in every way you can be diverse. Um, race, religion, diversity of thought, all of those kinds of things.
020And so I think Mr. Bentley has made the point that we're trying to cast as large a net as possible to to capture the needs and um the well-being of as many people as possible. Um, so just the role of a board member, your your power is in the group. So the group makes a decision. One board member obviously has influence, can bring their values and their desires to to the table. Um but we make decisions as a collective board. Um we're responsible for mission, vision, for the budget, for hiring and firing a superintendent. Um but your neighbor says, "I'm really concerned about my my daughter's teacher and what can you do about it?" that is where you say you need to speak to your principal, you need to speak to this superintendent. Um those
021those everyday things. Um not at all that we don't care about them, but that isn't where our job lies to solve those problems. Do you have anything to add to that, Mr. Bentley? Um no, no. I mean that those sort of things come up way more than I expected. You know, I didn't know I had so many people that cared about the school district until it's on the school board. Excuse me. But, uh, Dr. Pilchure and team do a a great job of addressing concerns quickly, so there's not much we can actually do or or know about. So, it's it's been really great to be able to pass it off. Mhm. And in this packet, um it does uh we have um resources from both CASBY that kind of talk about the role of a
022board member and then all of our policies um just regarded regarding powers and responsibilities, our code of conduct um and just all of the those kinds of expectations. And it is a learning curve especially because you're also learning about all the programs we have, all of the curriculum that we have, all of the acronyms that we have um and trying to kind of find your way of the way that you um behave and participate and and and um act in the community. So, it's a steep learning curve. Um, and we always um assign um our new board members sort of a mentor, somebody who's been on the board for at least a year um who can help you walk through some of those expectations. Did you have something to add? I wondered if you wanted
023to talk a little bit about um you know you talked a little bit about you're going to hear things and you're surprised that talk a little bit about email and how how we've typically managed email u because we all know email is its own monster right absolutely um so we receive emails as a group a lot of times somebody will write an email to all of the board directors oftentimes Dr. Pilch is already um copied on that email and if it is a a concern um you know Dr. Pilch usually responds and says I'm I'm assigning this to this or that person to to meet with you and and address your concern. um if you receive a um a concern that's sent just to you, which often does happen, um if you're the board liaison
024to a specific school and someone wants to speak about something, they'll often just, oh, my board member is Mrs. Mash, so I'm going to send it to her. Um in those cases, we usually ask that the board members can respond with, "Thank you for bringing your concern forward. I will pass it on to Dr. Pilch or um yeah, usually we just send it straight to you. Occasionally if it's like this is a safety issue, I will send it to Dr. Pilch and our chief of security or something like that. But if you send it to Dr. Pilch, you're always right. Um and um you know, cop copy her on your response. Um, you know, we are still individuals with our personal opinions and that is okay to express that to folks, but you just always
025need to be um making sure that it's clear that you're speaking as an individual and um not representing the will of the board unless you're speaking to a a vote that has happened with the board. And um there are times that an email does require a a response from the board of education and and in those times typically the board president will respond on behalf of the board. And um and those are cases that are really complex that have multiple emails have come in multiple times with multiple concerns and then the board president will typically take those and and respond to those so that no individual board member feels like they have to to take that on. Um is that fair? Yeah. Yeah. I think so. Yeah. The vast majority of our email duties are
026are information gathering for ourselves. the the the I mean 99% is just FYI. Hey, this is what's going on. This meeting's coming up. We're just pre prepping ourselves for a meeting or a visit or or just staying in the know. So, it's just you make sure they're read and addressed and be ready for the main. Why don't you take questions? Yeah, I think we've made it through our um all of our topics. So, are there any questions that anyone would like to raise? Okay, I think Miss Lemon's going to bring you a mic. Yeah. So, when you talk about emails, is it is there an email that is a collective email that is for everybody and then our own individual emails or your own? We all have our own individual emails. Can someone just write
027to board of education at Gley Schools? Yeah. And then that would go to everyone. Okay. Yeah. So, you have a you'll have a district email, you'll have a district um uh calendar, you know, you'll have you'll have full Google access, you'll have um Google documents that you have access to. We communicate some things in that way, too. And so, um but there will be times that individual board members are emailed and then there's there are times that every board member gets an email and sometimes I am not copied. So, you want to look and and be like, "Oh, did Dr. Pilch get that?" And if not, I always appreciate it being forwarded to me and then I can take care of it or get it to the right staff member who can solve the problem
028and address it. And what we see with most things that come in, you know, that somewhere between the emotion that is gathered around that concern and someone saying, "Oh, no, that's taken care of." is work we need to do somewhere in the middle of all that to still take care of that individual or or that issue. Thank you. You're welcome. So, just to clarify, so if we were to get something on our individual email that had to do with an issue that's going on, we would just say, I you know, thank you for making me aware. I'm going to forward this to Dr. Bilch. Yes. And oftentimes board members will also copy the the board president and say, you know, I'm sharing this with Dr. Bilch. And then and then also they'll copy the board
029president so president just knows that you've responded and and maybe they've heard from the individual also. Um and there will be emails guys. We serve 23,000 families and a huge community. So it's there's community emails, there's parent emails. Sometimes students will email you. So there there will be emails. And we know that people who choose to run for the board of education are problem solvers. They want to help. They want to fix things. And so of course you want to be like that sounds terrible. I'm going to get right on that and have you tried this and what about that? And you never did that mismatch. Never. Um so that is just that's the impulse. Um but we want to make sure that that isn't happening. And that's not to say that you don't then
030follow up and ask Dr. Pil say you know I sent you this email. What happened with that? Were you able to to work through that with the family? And um yeah, and if I handled it on email, I will copy you. Many things I don't handle on email because you don't have you don't have a dialogue on email. You don't have you know you don't really go deep in solving problems on email. So a lot of things I'll do face to face. And so then in our next check-in I'm happy to just you know if you'll remember to ask me about it um I'm happy to to share with you how it was resolved and what we did. And it it says in here there's a meeting once once a month. I would say that's
031a minimum. Uh there are times when uh you know that's just a standard check-in, but then there's times where stuff is going on um and things are moving quickly in the district and I want to bring in board members and just let you know so you're not surprised by it. Um you know by like for example the downtown development project. Um that's one of the things that you know I I wanted to bring each individual board member in and say hey I'm in conversation with the county and the city on this so if you hear it in the community I don't want you to be surprised. And so I I try to do that so you're not caught off guard um with new things that are coming. And then and then sometimes I miss something
032that I didn't think was that big and it feels big to a community member and they catch you at King Supers and want to know what you know about this and um and I think it's just really important for board members know it's okay to not know everything be like I don't know about that but let me share that with the superintendent. Let's you know I'll learn about it too and then I'll make sure somebody gets back to you. Yeah. Uh we we frequently get um texts from Dr. Pilich that says, "Hey, please check your email. There's an important message about this or that, especially if there's a safety concern. Um we often are alerted to things like that." Yeah. I I mean, I try not to have board members be surprised. I mean, I
033I don't I don't get it perfect. Um, but I try, you know, if if there's been a big um incident near a school or in a school or um something that I think is going to hit the news, I try to let board members know so you're you're not learning about it on the news. But there sometimes, you know, sometimes I'm still surprised. We had one a while back. Natalie's like, "What is this?" And I'm like, "I don't know. Let me find out." I didn't know what it was either, so or how it had come to be. But um but we'll we'll do our best to get you the information that you need. my and I you know my team is really good about getting me the information I need so that I can make
034sure you all caught off guard. I have another question. Um so as a person becomes a board of director how are the schools um aligned or how does a person become a liaison? Is it you draw a name out of the hat or how does that um I think I guess maybe board leadership and Dr. Pilch have sort of well and so we just kind of slid the schools up. We we rotate them around and we um we don't typically give new board members schools that are going to be a heavier load initially. We wait until you're in year two, three or four to give you the heavier load schools. Um but we just we we slide them around and and and sometimes a board member will say, "I'd really like this school for this
035reason." And so one of the things we've tried to do is when a board member is going to have a senior who's going to be graduating, we try to give that that board member that school to be a an ambassador to if if it works out because we know they're going to be attending a lot of events at their their students, you know, high school. There's a double-edged sword to that in that we don't want board members also like over, you know, over involving themselves because it is their child's school. So, we balance that, but um it's usually works out. We just assign it usually. Um and so you'll and we move them around. Um we don't move them every year, but we move them every election. And so, and and sometimes we'll make a
036change annually just because something has changed within a school and it seems appropriate to switch a board member. Thank you. Um, one other thing, I think it's probably in this packet, but um, there are a few committees that board members have the opportunity to sit on. One is our student wellness committee. Um, board leadership serves on the DAC, which is the district accountability committee. That's a one parent from each school that kind of gets together and gives us we give them updates on what's going on in the district and they give us feedback as well. Um, the Council of Student Representatives is like a district-wide student council. Um, that's also a board leadership position. Um, what else am I forgetting? What do you want to talk about? Casby. CASBY. And the legislative leazison and stuff
037and Bose. Yeah. Bose is another Yeah, Kyle serves on the Boseis board. Um so so there are some again opportunities maybe once you get your footing um to be even a little bit more involved. Um so CASBY Colorado Assoc Association of School Boards is our professional organization and when we go to the CASBY conference I kind of think of it as like our professional development. Um there's lots of team building that happens. We do an all day work session that day and it's pretty soon after the election. So it's the be first week of December. So that's the first time that we have our um all of our new board members together. Uh we talk thoroughly about some of the legalities of being a board member about kind of roles and responsibilities, things like that.
038And then the CASBY conference has all kinds of of breakout sessions for kind like school finance um board governance policym um and then they have really dynamic speakers that are just inspirational about how to solve complex problems in your school districts, how to reach out to the community. Um and so we there there's the one major conference in in December and then there's a a winter one. And so like in February where you actually get to go to the capital and speak with some of our representatives and senators and talk to them about what educational proposals they're excited about moving into the legislative session. Um and then there's a fall conference as well. Um so we have in the past always had a board member who is kind of interested in that policy that governmental
039piece. Um, so, so you can go to as many CASBY conferences as you'd like or just the main one. Um, so anything you want to add about CASBY? No, CASBY was probably the the thing, especially for me not knowing much about the school district that got me up to speed the quickest. A lot lot of lot of good information there. Um, they've got their their thumb on the the pulse of of public education in the state, in the and in the country. and and a lot of our policy governance comes from recommendations from CASBY per the new state laws and and it's it's pretty dynamic how everything moves so much every year every every legislative session there's so many laws that are changing it and between Nate and Casby and and all those people that
040are working non-stop on that it's it's it's really nice to have them as an asset and they do a lot of that down there we we with the with the big conference in December they they really do a good job of addressing like local and current issues and stuff that really matters to what's going on in Colorado and and been a lot of value there throughout some of the trickier things we've had to navigate in the last, you know, four years. So, lot lots of value and and it's and it's a beautiful place. So, it's kind of a win-win. Any other questions? I ask if any of my other board members do any of the other sitting board members want to add any any information. All right. Well, um so yeah, again, uh Miss Lemon
041is our elections official. Um her email address, I'm sure, is on our website as well. So, and maybe in some of these documents. Um, so again, she can be a resource for some of the filing time frames and things like that. And she's who you will visit to pick up your packet for signatures. Um, any of us, I'm sure, is is welcome or is happy to um to answer any additional questions that might arise. So, um, at this time, we will take a recess and we will reconvene with the rest of our work session upstairs. [Music] Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music]