001[Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Applause] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Are you happy? [Music] Good afternoon and welcome to the work session for the board of education for Evans School District 6. Today is the 24th of March, 2025. This meeting will now come to order. Lindsay, didn't even recognize that you were there. I'm sorry. Will you call the role for us, please? Absolutely. Director Aari, present. Director Bentley, present. Director Campus Fitzy. Director Mash, present. Director Matthews, present. Director Norwood, present. Director Sullivan, five members present. Thank you. First on
002our agenda tonight is our calendar review and community engagement. And so if you would just take a minute and look at the calendar that's in front of you. We have a few more work sessions and business meetings taking place in April, but as we said last time, April's pretty pretty clear for our calendar. And that's because all of our all of our students and schools are pretty busy with testing. And then the first big thing on our calendar is our retirement celebration on May 7th. and then the Frontier House breakfast on May 14th and then we get get into graduations and so I'm sure that we'll need to get those to Miss Lemon pretty shortly which graduations we can attend but do do start making plans because it's we're getting close. We're into to our
003last nine weeks of school. Any questions, comments, thoughts on the calendar? I have one to add. Yes, sir. President, um, April 22nd at 6 PM is the Northridge Marine Corps Jerotc Awards Program. Okay. April 22nd. Yes. 6 p.m. 6 p.m. All right. I'm sure we probably got an invitation to that somewhere. Yeah, I think so. Amy, we'll just add that for people. She may have sent She just missed it on the list. Invites. Yeah. Oh, I did miss a school visit to Jackson Elementary. Sorry, guys. On May 8th. So, we have the retirement celebration on the night of the 7th and then early that morning. 7:45 we'll go to Jackson Elementary. Anything else? Somebody else had something I think. Um, tenatively I probably won't be here to the 14th meeting. Okay. Thank you for letting
004us know. Not sure 100% but as of today it's scheduled for the 14th. Okay. for my trip. Anything else? All right, we'll move on to board member comments and reports and we'll start with you, Mr. Rosari. Thank you, President Matthews. Like many of my fellow board members, I had the opportunity to to attend the Success Foundation uh breakfast on March 11th. And I just like to thank everybody for the support of our schools and specifically at this event the uh opportunity to raise money to provide musical instruments for our students throughout the district. I think that that's just great. I also again my fellow board members to attend the negotiation sessions and I appreciate the invitation for board members to join in on those discussions. I know that this does not happen in many districts
005and I appreciate being in a district where board members are welcome to participate in that process. And finally, this was spring break. Uh so not much else to report, although I did have the opportunity once again to be the MC at the annual Kuanas Club Stars of Tomorrow talent show that's hosted down at the Union Colony Civic Center. We have students from all over the county uh compete and then participate in that show. And um I was happy to see that many of our students uh did very very well and in fact we earned the runner up in the first place awards and one of our high school students won the highest award that evening. So, uh, that just shows that our district is still out there. Strong competitors in the arts. That's all I
006have. Thank you, Mr. Ozari. Mr. Bentley. Yeah, about the same for me. Uh, negotiations u went well. It was it was probably probably the strangest one that we've had just with the uncertainties in the in the in the government with the funding and stuff. So, that was just kind of right. We'll wait and see. So that was that was just different that that but I think it went well and and I was glad to be a part of that also. And then on that Friday I also got to go to the community council on education. Um it's just the chamber of commerce puts that on between Ames and um UNCC and D6 and it's just kind of the community focusing on relationships between the three and the and the community to to better educate and
007and see what they can do to help us. So um always enjoy going to that. It was kind of fun to hear the the three different entities and and how they're kind of working together. So, thank you, Mr. Norwood. Well, I've been on the IR, so I haven't had a chance to get out much. Um, so I did get a chance to catch up with some of the um Northridge Hall of Fame inductees. Had a chance to uh sit down and visit with them when they uh got inducted to the first class of the Northridge Hall of Fame. And that's really about it. So, kind of been laying home, he eating up. So, all right, Vice President Mash. Um, yes, very much enjoyed the success foundation breakfast again. Um, it was wonderful to have um
008perform performances from each of our high schools, I believe. And um and I think it really helps folks when there's a a focus, it helps them to wrap their mind around where exactly their dollars are going. So excited for our students not to have to share their clarinets with each other anymore. Um, and then yeah, negotiations. I guess it did have a little bit of a different vibe just having new folks in the room, which I really appreciated, new ideas, new energy. Um, and yeah, uh, usually we're not worried about our federal funding or even our state funding to this degree, but we know we have the best minds in the room to to figure that out. So, Yeah, not much to add. Um, always the success foundation breakfast is wonderful event. I do like
009how they they take a different focus every year. Last year it was on elementary sports and this year on on instruments and getting instruments into the hands of our students. And I I can just say our students know the difference. in we we have great some great musicians in our in our district and they know the difference in in good instruments and and not so good instruments. And so we're very thankful that that the success foundation has chosen this to uh to prioritize and to put in front of students and so that our students know that when they when they want to sign up for orchestra or band that they they're going to have good instruments to play on and and that they're they're not going to be limited by their instrument. So so thankful
010for the success foundation also uh negotiations always um smooth and encouraging events always I appreciate the people that that take time away appreciate you guys for taking off of work to be there. appreciate uh our our teachers that write sub plans and take so much time out of their week uh to negotiate with us and to meet with us and um and doing that on behalf of everybody else. So, we certainly appreciate everyone who was there and it was a very smooth and rewarding week. So, next on our agenda is our portrait of a graduate. So, I'd like to invite Mr. Osmus to come and share. We've gotten a report already, but so this I think will be our second report on a portrait of a graduate, but love to see where you are at
011this point, what's been accomplished in the last month or so. Yes, sir. All right. Thank you, President Matthews, members of the board. Dr. Pilch, um you're right. This is an update on where we are. This is a big project that we are um undertaking as a system to identify working for graduates. So just more than just academics, but what are all those um different attributes that fall underneath there? And so I um am going to go through just very quickly the work that we've done to this point. And so if I'm going too fast, just feel free to stop and and ask a question, but but I've already presented this to you once. And so I just want to you to know kind of where we are. And then at the end I'm going to
012give you an update on um how we've synthesized this work down into actual language and that I'll give you a chance to look at today and give us some feedback as we go forward. So this is our work with portion of a graduate um grounded in our mission and our vision district as well as our values. Um this work is in our strategic plan and um one of our f focus areas mainly our student learning and achievement. So objective for this is align our system um to meet grade level requirements and meet our graduation competencies through personalized learning and getting to know our students and and specifically our outcomes will know are successful when we see scores um for our state math and English language arts assessment improve annually as well as increase on time
013graduation and also um have our personalized learning plans include career career college pathway work or academ doing course um work to meet their individual goals in this project. Um just a reminder, we are partnering with the Colorado Education Initiative, the CDI. You probably see the CI quite a bit. We do have a nice relationship or partnership with them um to help us with this work. They are doing this around the district. I think when I talked to CDI last about 50 districts they have worked with personally and so we are we are one of those. And what is portrait of a graduate? It is a tool that we as a school district um can use to communicate those cognitive, personal, and interpersonal skills that that students should have when they when they graduate. And we
014try to do this with our community. So, this is not just something we're doing, but we have reached out um to our students, to our community members, to our teachers, to our parents, um and trying to build this together as as a whole community. And um once created, this will be our guide. This will be our guide for teaching and learning through all of our um all of our schools. and it will provide that shared language um that we need. Additionally, you know, um this will help us create a unified vision in our system on what we want our students to be able to learn. Um yes, acchievement and academics, but also um those other skills that they that they possess. And then um such as critical thinking, collaboration, resilience, and then u knowing that
015those are things that we need to be college and career ready. And then most importantly, I think is just an opportunity to get our community together to talk about our students and what we want for our students. We um I showed a few examples of what a portrait of a graduate will be upon completion. We don't have the picture part done yet, but that part is coming and so I'll be able to share the graphic with you the next time we're together. We have worked on what's on the back side of this. And so what's on the back side of these is language. And so when you think about all of the surveys that we have done, we collected those, we put them into themes, we took the themes and the words and what people
016have want and we created what goes on the back side of this. And that's what I'll show you today, but these are just examples of what other DS have done. And then this one down here with Littleton, you can see that they put their language um in more detail on the front side. Um I think we're probably going to end up with maybe more of a front back unless you tell me to go a different way on this one. Just a reminder um what we've done here for creating this process, we um we have already gathered the information. We sent the surveys out to parents, to our community, um to our students, to our teachers, and we've gathered um all of the data and we've actually themed the data and we've analyzed the data. Um
017just reminder, the questions that were in it were something along these lines. They were tailored specifically for either students or community um or our teachers, but it's essentially it's one of our hopes and dreams. What skills do you want our our children or students to have in our district? Um, if you could go back in time, take back when you were in school, like what did what would what would you have like to learn in school or what would what would be different about your education if you could predict that in today? And then what are the most important skills um that we need to to live in today's world? It's so much different than when I was in school or when we were all in school. themes. Um, so once we and then we
018collected all of the data and put that into a program, came up with some themes. And so some of the themes that came out were achievement. So achieve a achievement scored high, student well-being, personal growth and independence, values and character, overcoming challenges, belonging and inclusion, support and advocacy, and then language and communication. and all of the different uh comments that fit underneath there as well were themed and kind of brought together. So then this is new information and so what we've done is we had a workshop not too long ago where we invited community members, teachers, students, um we have members of our GVA that were there and we we sat and we took all of this information. So we said, "Okay, we we've got all of this these attributes. Let's try down. We need
019to narrow. we can't have 12. And so we need to narrow this down just a little bit. And when you think about all the different things that our community is saying, we've got to try to um condense this into just some bullets that live inside here, but we also don't want to just eliminate something. We want to make sure that our community feels heard and they've got to find their responses inside of this. And so we were there about two hours. And in those two hours, we um helped create what a visual might look like, but we also looked at all the themed responses. And um you can see here this the uh some of the students and the teachers and the principles and the community members working together. And then we presented we presented
020what we think um what what represents district 6. And so we had six different tables and six different ideas obviously. So, we'll work on creating the graphic based on all of that, but we were really close on what the language might be. And that's what I'm going to um that's what I'll have you look at today in the language. And um just know that we today after before you share the language, let's see if they have any questions about where we are so far in the process. Sounds great. And then do we do next steps or we'll save that? Go ahead. Yeah, let me finish this one here. So, so next steps because this is not done. This is this will be multi-year and so this is just year one. So what we'll do for
021this year is we'll take these themes get some feedback from you uh feedback from our deck. We've already got feedback from our uh chamber when when the went out and then we'll also get uh some graphics done and then we will continue to bring you along and and then um gather more information and then this then once we finish up this year is we we want to make sure that we go into next year it's are looking at how we can roll this into um some of the work that we're doing districtwide but we um we're just scratching the surface next year. So, what does that look like inside of our classrooms? How does this fit in with our lessons um with some of our our small group work and our large group work? And
022then um and then probably that third layer of making this um how we do our business inside our classroom. So, happy to take any any questions that you would have and then I want you to see kind of where we are here and get some feedback from you. Yeah, I've got a question uh real quick. Um so we've we we obviously are acknowledging that other school districts have already moved forward with this. Um do we know how they have measured the success of all this within their schools and classrooms? Yeah, there's actually part of our work next year will be to create rubrics that will um gather some baseline feedback and and the growth of our students in these rubrics. And so we'll need to continue that into next year. That's why I said we
023not sure you'll see a lot of this next year other than the graphic, but um so that will get our community on board with this and we'll continue to spread that um that good word, but within our classrooms, we'll need to pull more people next year to create the create the rubrics um those connections in the classrooms um and then look for those those ways to track growth of our students over time. I think Mr. Rosari is asking though of those districts that have already done this, do they have outcomes that they can now report? Do they believe it's that what you're asking? Actually, that was exactly what I was just thinking as he was presenting the material. What since they're ahead of us in this process, I guess the biggest question is has it
024made a difference? Have they noticed that their work that they've put into this has resulted in positive? Yeah, our according to our CI um person that's helping us with this, she has um led this work and some districts are down the road 5 years and they have some they have some positive data and actually have some of that data and would happen to even share that with you sometime in any week if you'd like. That would be great. Yeah, I will share that. Thank you. I have a question. you said on there that you've uh sent surveys out to parents and stuff. What kind of response are you getting back from parents? Percentage just rough. I mean, I realize we're a district like any other survey. So, it's um I'm not sure the exact number,
025but we had um we had mostly student responses and then we had teacher responses then short behind right behind the teacher responses for parent responses. But still still a good number. Good. Yeah. So here's what I would like for you to do here is you just take one and pass it on. Surf. So this is the result of our workshop. And so remember this is about um 30 or 40 people in a room and trying to condense and synthesize um all the responses and try to work these into themes or attributes and um cleverly the groups um that night came up with six and they said what if we call this the district six. So, um, so when we think about the district six, um, six of the of the major themes that came out
026that night and then what will our graduates be able to do at the when they graduate with us? Um, and you'll see that on the slide. And so I'm just going to read just the themes, but the lifelong learners, engaged problem solvers, confident communicators, contributing citizens, courageous courageous change makers, and well-rounded individuals. And then what we did on the right side is we tried to condense all of the different um language that we've collected into just bullets to make sure that we captured all this. And so if you just want to take a little bit of time and go through each of those, Anthony, and this is this done or are we still taking feedback? This is our feedback. We're still gathering feedback. So the board has an opportunity to give feedback on this tonight.
027Yep. And then I've got I'll get feedback from Dak um next week as well. Okay. and other groups. How does some of this tie into what's already being offered in the district? For instance, in the IB programs at West, I know they do a lot of this and also in AVID throughout the district. We you'll see this a lot throughout the district. What this will do is it will just give us some common language and so we'll have IB and we'll have AP and we'll have AVID, but um this will help us with just that con that consistent and common language through all of our programs. But that won't change what's being offered in those other programs. It's just is it over bringing it together? Yeah. Anthony, where does this where will this primarily reside?
028And forgive me if you've already answered this, but but I think when we were talking about um financial literacy, well, we already have that and it resides here and it resides here and it resides uh here at high school in in history, US history, right? So where when we're getting this to kids like where does it primarily primarily reside which teacher says I'm responsible for making confident communicators or is that is that every teacher and then how do you do that? Yeah, I think it resigns in a lot of different places. And so when you're up in front of your class and you're giving a speech, like that's that confident communicator. But I think it lives in our some of our social emotional lessons that we would have. And so our counselors and our small
029groups and um in our middle schools and high schools during um during their home rooms and their Grizz hours and I think it resides in the classroom and so this is not just one place where it's just it is just going to be taught in one area, but we would like this to be infused um with everything that we do. Okay. Mr. Ross, will there be specialized curriculum or is this just going to be built right into what's already there? Yeah, a lot of it lives in Yeah, sorry. A lot of it lives in our in our curriculum already. Um it it's just it we will need next year as we create rubrics and that alignment. We'll just need that time to pull it all together. And so you'll be able to um see that
030um work grow as well over the course of next year for like communicators, confident communicators. I'm have a lot of friends that run businesses in the business world and they they say that's the number one issue. They'd rather have the C student that can can communicate rather than the straight A student that can't. So, and then when they take the time to create a a rubric that has all of the criteria of what a confident communicator looks like. So, stand up straight people use your use your strong voice. I do think that out of this will come additional programming and additional standards possibly um or why do this other than to say to our community this is what a graduate looks like which is a big part of what this is this is what a
031graduate looks like but I do think there will be I think we're naive to think there won't be any impact on programming or curriculum standards if we really mean that every graduate is going to match match these 18 bullets. It'll force us to look at what we have and what we need. Well, each one of these areas are focus there's a focus on each one of these areas throughout our system. For instance, when students take a speech class, for instance, or if in in all our math curriculum throughout the district, we we tackle several of these in in our English language arts. So, I'm just wondering what makes it different, you know, what is it just another added thing or or does it really stand for something that is unique and special that we haven't
032done before? That's just my overall Yeah, I like what you're saying with all of these because we do have these live in different live in different areas. What we don't do is we don't assess it. And so what what we will try to do is then create the rubric that gives more detail in each one of these. And so we can actually then have conversations um with parents and with students around where you are and where you where you still need to grow. And I'll share that data with you too on the eweek on what shared with me from CI with other districts and what they've done and even examples of rubrics that they have that they've done with other districts. They might help you see that um kind of where we're going. Okay. I
033think my my feedback is that I just speaking as a parent, I think my children have experienced um encouragement and teaching in all of these bullet points. Um I think maybe this will help us to expand it. Um like certainly there are students who gravitate towards these things. They're maybe more motivated or they find their niche in school better and therefore they're going to be stronger at these things. Whereas the student who doesn't gravitate towards a leadership position or maybe an extracurricular activity, it will help us to really ensure that every student fits his portrait and not just those that kind of maybe take a lot of those steps for themselves. So just be a question of how do you see it playing out in the district? That's the big uncertain question, if you will.
034It is. And when I think about about this store, and I I think that it's um it's multiple years of work. And I mean, it it even could have an impact on bringing folks together to look at graduation requirements. I mean, so I'm not saying we're doing this, but some districts, as a result of something like this, have implemented a a community service requirement for their students. Um, so that's just an I, you know, an example of there, you know, it could have a greater impact than these 18 bullets here to ensure that every student is is is truly a portrait of a graduate. What we said, um, I I think the the brochure um that you see other districts have adopted, they're attractive and they're um interesting to look at. Um, and I think
035at the end of the day, for decades, we've said, so we know that a graduate means you've met these graduation requirements, but what else does that graduate have that we we promised our community besides those graduation requirements? The ability to communicate, the ability to meet, you know, work with the public, to be able to speak publicly. Um, and I I think that's at at the heart of this. And to be fair, the the idea is we're developing who we believe a student should should be, what they should look like and be able to do in terms of their skill set when they leave District 6. And then there is still work to come around, how we do that and how we measure that. Um I I would not I would I I believe that our
036strategic plan has been the guiding force for that um you know for many years of what what a student looks like. We look at the vision, the mission, the vision of the district. That's been our our our the guiding post for what you know we should be putting into what a graduate looks like and what a graduate is able to do. And um now we're we're looking to go a little deeper on that and to codify that more in terms of feedback from our community. I think I think Dr. Pch, do some other schools still have community service projects or there's some still in the district that do? Yeah, there are. Yeah. And it's still a part of capstone for for many graduates. Yep. What other questions are there for Mr. Dossmus? I'll just say
037similar to what Rob said, Kyle and I were at the community council of of education and this was presented and they we heard very much uh similar comments to what what Rob was saying that we we'll take the C student who can communicate, who can look people in the eye and who can um who's not just attached to their phone all all the time rather than than the A student. Um, so, so I'm excited that that we're doing this work and so thank you. And I'll take any feedback that you have. It doesn't have to be today, but just take this with you and you can give that to Dr. Belchure. Is the QR code for feedback still open or if we stop that phase of that was more for the question to gather all
038the information so that we could theme and then come up with the descriptions. Thanks, sir. Next on our agenda is our legislative update. So I invite Mr. Fall to come and bring us this update. Thank you sir. You Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks. All right. Thank you, President Matthews and board directors, Dr. Pilch. Um, my name is Nate Fall. I'm in House Legal Counsel for the school district and we are doing a legislative update. Um, I just want to share that since the last meeting, um, at least according to our bill tracker, which I do trust that Ann Barkcus, uh, is including everything that's relevant for our purposes, there really only were two new bills added to the bill tracker. Um, one of which had to do with AEDs and another one had
039to do with dyslexia requirements. I didn't include them on this document, but if you do have questions about that, I can provide you with more information later. Um so we can start with board priorities. Uh the first just so you know that financial literacy bill um has still just been referred amended to appropriations and we just haven't seen any further progress. There were a number of amendments that were passed uh during the House Education Committee um and it's just kind of in limbo at this point. So we're continuing to monitor it at this point. Uh it's my assumption that we can integrate financial literacy with um another subject, at least my reading of the law. Um and so whether or not we actually have to implement or add a full class, I think is to
040be determined. Um but we know we at least have a full year if if that's the case. We'd have a full year to prepare for that. So are they saying that you have to teach these standards because they've already said the standards won't change, right? So the standards, it's it's the same standards. So there's already a statute that includes the financial literacy standards and right now it's recommended that we have curriculum that includes these financial literacy standards. Now it's no longer a recommendation, it's a requirement. And so whether or not we can integrate that into one of our current subjects, we're already doing that. Yeah. So, I think we we may be okay and and I think we just need a little bit more direction from the state board of education because ultimately they'll be
041charged with developing curriculum for meeting this financial literacy requirement. So, it's not actually now it's not proposed as a financial literacy course. No, just a a a requirement. It's just a grad requirement that you have to take. You have to get at least um le and I can just read the language so I don't mess this up. So it says that um satisfactory completion of a course on financial literacy as defined by 2232135 that's the financial literacy uh statute I was describing which incorporates the standards on financial literacy developed by the state board of education is a condition of high school graduation in in the public schools of this state. So, it's a little ambiguous, isn't it, whether it's going to that first sentence sounded like it might be a course requirement, but then the
042rest is not. Can it be a mini course inside of a course? I don't know. Did that satisfy it? I I I think so. If the if the stand if the state board develops standards, I think it's possible that it could be incorporated in a current course like uh economics I think was the one you were talking about earlier. Um and then and that students can earn that credit in 9th, 10th, 11th or 12th grade. So they don't have to just earn it in 11th or 12th, which is another amendment that came forward. I get confused personally because I was under the impression that we already have standards surrounding financial literacy embedded in other curriculums um in within the state standards. So when we talk about writing standards for this I think that's just going
043to be duplicating what already exists out there. I don't know, but it could very well be the state board of education just checking a box and saying, you know, if you meet these things, then you're good to go. That this this would count towards your financial literacy requirement. So, I think we just need to wait to see what the state board has to say about that. But it it still could open the possibility that we do have to develop a standalone course for financial literacy if it can't be embedded in something else. Is the FAFSA still a part of it? the FAFSA is still a part of it. Um it has been substantially amended um essentially that students can decline to fill out the FASA if they affirmatively decline to complete it or authorized school
044personnel determines it is not feasible for the student to complete an application. So which is pretty flexible. Students can just decline or or a school official like the principal can say it's not feasible for this student to complete the application. But it's still expectation that all students would complete it. So now you just have to affirmatively decline it as a student. Any other questions on that? Okay. The cell phone bans um that did pass the House. So it's been moved to the Senate Education Committee on 326. I should say communication devices in schools, not cell phone bands. Um and and just know that we are already in compliance if that law were to pass or that bill were to pass. Um I do want to spend some time though on federal law. Um it's possible
045that you have read the news. It's possible that you have seen that the uh president issued this executive order. That's at bullet point two improving education outcomes by empowering parents, states, and communities. Um President Trump released that last week on March 20th. Um and President Trump directed the Secretary of Education, which is uh Secretary Linda McMahon, to take necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education. We know that later that day uh Secretary uh McMahon released a statement on that executive order um essentially stating that education is fundamentally a state responsibility and that you know they're going to begin the process to close the Department of Education. uh they made some promises or when I say they uh Secretary McMahon made some promises that they will continue to fund schools, they will
046continue to fund students for special education services pursuant to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, that they will continue to support college student borrowers uh and others quote who rely on essential programs end quote. Um that through the end of the fiscal year September 2025. So yes, it sounds like that will be happening within this next within this year. Um and so and then if you go back to the first page that uh dear colleague letter on February 14th, I had I had kind of briefly mentioned that at the last board meeting, they also issued a an FAQ uh on this dear colleague letter. Uh all this is linked into and I'll make sure that you all get an electronic version if you do want to read these. Uh but this is just another area
047that um this administration is really eyeing is discrimination on the basis of race preferences and stereotypes um which came through these US Supreme Court decisions around um racial preferences for admissions into universities um and the US Department of Education has essentially taken those decisions and applied them down to K12. Uh that we can't be treating others differently on the basis of their race. um we need to be looking at them as individuals. Um and that race cannot necessarily mean something about you, right? Um and so that is they they have mentioned that they're going to issue additional guidance on this. Um but really what it seems to look like is uh reverse discrimination or kind of the types of programs that they're going to be reviewing. Um the US Department of Education is on. So,
048um, again, still a little unclear, um, unclear about how funding will continue to move forward, um, and what the world looks like without a Department of Education. I will say that it is one of our newest agencies in the federal government. Um, it is important, but, um, without it, we'll just have to kind of figure out how the states are to address education. I mean, this really brings us back to local control, which we often um argue about wanting more of. So, um I I just I I don't know if you have any specific questions about this, but what I can do is I can start to put together kind of a memo of all of the executive orders and kind of their alleged impact kind of moving forward and I can share that with
049this board. Um and it can kind of be a living document ongoing. Um but other than that, I just don't know if you have any specific questions or concerns about kind of the state of the union. Well, I just have an operational question that I'm sure other folks in the community would wonder about and ask who may not know. How is funding accessed for our schools? Is that through the state or do we go directly to the federal government? And will these changes in your kind of vision, uh, superintendent and the folks in charge of the budget, will these changes, um, truly cause some hardship potentially down the road or do we or or does the federal government really play that big of a concern for us as an individual school district? I'll have Miss
050Sponsor join us at the microphone. So everybody can hear it cuz it's pretty confusing. It's very confusing. It's very complex. It is complex and I will say it depends. Yes. So we have many grants from different agencies and so each agency handles their grants differently. Our big grants like title one um all titles and then IDA currently go through the state. So the federal government allocates money to the state. The state then calculates through their magic calculation how much each district gets and then we have to work through the state. The state then works through the feds and back and forth to get the money. There are other grant programs though that we do work directly with the federal agency. Um some of the safety grants for example we work with those agencies directly. So
051it kind of depends. I am preparing for disruption in the process. I think we need to just go into this next fiscal year knowing that reimbursements for federal grants might be slow. I think that we will still get reimbursed at some point, but I think the process is just going to take time. So, I think we as a district just need to be prepared that we might have to float some of these grants for a while. We currently do that because grants are a reimbursement basis anyway, but we might have to float them longer than we currently do. Megan, what about USDA school food? So, that also goes through the state. Um, and I'm looking at Danielle. She's going, I don't know. I think that's the question. I don't know that anybody really knows. Um
052there are some programs through the USDA that we know have already been cancelled. So we know that there will be some things that we won't be able to do. I think um school meals, which is obviously the biggest grant that we get through the whole district really, I think that will continue in some form or fashion. I don't know that we know what that looks like going forward, but I think to make a change to a program like that will be challenging, but it is possible. Megan, what about title one? So, title one, um, because title one is written into law, I believe that they will have to continue to fund that. What has happened in the past is the rules around how we spend that money is have been changed. So it'll be interesting
053if these are kind of given to the state as a block grant. Will the state get to have more control over how the funds are spent or will there be certain asurances that the state has to sign to get the federal money? So I think and my grant team and I were just having that conversation this afternoon. It's possible that we might have more flexibility in how we use our Title One money. It's also possible that we might have to sign that we promise to do X, Y, and Z and we might actually have more constraints on how we spend the money. It's I think it's too early to tell, but I think we are anticipating there will be a change in how that process works. So, and then the other big one that I
054remember is IDEIDA. Yes, that one I think will probably have the least amount of change. At least I'm hoping. Um I think that even if the program is moved from the Department of Education to Health and Human Services, I don't really see the program itself changing significantly. Um I think the the hoops that we have to jump through to get reimbursed for the money might change will change. Um but in terms of that program getting cut or changing significantly. I I don't see that for that program. That's just my own hypothesis from what I have seen in the past. I think that program would be really hard to to change. That one's also a law, right? Yes. Yeah. But it has never been fully funded. Correct. So, in general, in some cases, the district may
055have to assume some added um responsibility prior to seeing the money coming back to us. Yeah, that's what we have to prepare for. Yes, I believe we should be preparing for that. Okay. Can you respond about Medicaid at all and Medicaid reimbursement, Megan? I know there's a lot of worry about Medicaid statewide because of the state Medicaid budget, right? Um and that we're over spent in Medicaid and will be over spent significantly next year statewide, right? So, and we do receive Medicaid reimbursement um for services to directly to students, right? I don't know that we have a lot of detail yet. I think there is some concern that certain services may be no longer funded. Um I know Tom and I have had some conversation about um private duty nurses, for example. Um currently those
056are covered through Medicaid, but those may not be in the future. And so if a student needs that level of support, does that mean that we as a district need to provide that support? Um so there may be additional costs that we would have to incur just depending on what services are still covered and what services the ch child really needs. So, um I think in terms of funding, we're planning right now on level funding for next year in terms of how much Medicaid money we would have. Um we right now use our Medicaid money primarily to pay for a lot of our nurses salaries. So, if that funding goes away, then that would be a huge challenge to overcome. The other um kind of kind of significant bucket is our after school programming called
05721st century. So we have we have 21st century programs at many of our schools. How many do we know? 11. 11 of our schools. Um and those are federal dollars that flow through the state of Colorado. Um, so that's, you know, another a big bucket of money we're watching and looking to to see what the decision will be made there. I have not heard anything about 21st century. So, I hope that that one is safe, but I don't know. I I think we'll just have to watch over the next few months and see see how this unfolds and see what kind of guidance we can get. And to add on to that, the JBC did finally release their revenue forecast and uh they're looking at potentially a $ 1.16 billion gap. So we're facing budget
058constraints from the state, too. I've heard that school finance act may be introduced by the end of the month. Fingers crossed. End of this month, the end of March. Yeah. Well, such a challenge that like when we get our budget and we have to and then the federal fiscal year and there's I mean I guess that's why we have to do the it doesn't line up perfectly. I think it would be able to take May off. I wish. So what So right now we're filling those hard to fill in critical positions. um but really holding on the hiring of other positions in the district. So let's say you're a you know a a subject area teacher I don't want to name my middle school that is not a a world language um or special education
059position and you're retiring we may not be ref may not be filling that position at this time. So, every position is being looked at before we we post it to fill it just because we just don't know. We just don't know enough. Um, schools are very anxious to hire. I'm very anxious to have their staffing to be able to hire. Do you want to add anything to that, Miss Sponsor? Well, so just for my own internal budgeting work, I have kind of used a proposal that has come from the speaker um Julie McCcluskey and her proposal is basically to go ahead and implement the new funding formula but at a reduced rate. So really according to the current law, the new formula would be introduced at 18%. So they would calculate what you get under
060the new formula and then take 18% of that instead of the 18% they would do 10%. So it would still be an increase in funding just not as much as we thought under the current law the law that was passed last year. Um so that does help us because given our demographic the at risk students and those different components of the new formula gives us additional funding. So I am kind of proceeding using that proposal. I think that is likely to be introduced. I'm hoping. Um there has been some disagreement though that some of the triggers for pausing the implementation have been met. So I don't know where that's really going to go. But from what I'm kind of gathering, if the speaker of the house has got a proposal that she's ready to introduce,
061then I think that's probably what we'll be moving forward. We have in the past planned for growth um as we built the budget. We won't plan for growth for next year. We're we're going to budget flat flat number of students. Um at this point we just there's just so much unknown to really be certain that we will see growth um with with so much so much confusion right in the comm community around um just really where things are. What other questions around school finance? This is the time of year I wish that I had a crystal ball that actually worked, but I do not. You're pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. This one's Yeah, I got added challenges. Yeah. Well, I usually forewarn Miss sponsor when I'm going to call her out on the spot like this,
062but Dr. Pilch is the one who did it, too. So, it's not my fault. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, the rest of these bills um are just bills that we have talked about. Um, there hasn't really been much of an update. Just know that the accountability bill will be reviewed by the House Education Committee on Thursday. They did have kind of a listening session last week just to get a little bit more information about what this bill does. We haven't been a big player in this bill. Um I quite frankly just don't think it does enough. Um but you know, I think it's a step in the right direction, but we just haven't been super involved in this legislation. Um the housing development on faith and educational land has been assigned to the Senate local
063and government housing that did pass through the House and um actually a few school districts ended up joining in support of this bill including the Colorado Rural Alliance which I thought was pretty interesting. Um and then the other proposed legislation that we have the the data reporting requirement uh did pass through the House. Uh it's onto the Senate. It has been fairly substantially revised. Um, but nonetheless, they're going to try to create a streamlined approach for all of the data collection and reporting that we are required to do. And then the last the modifications to the Colorado Open Records Act that did pass the House second reading or I'm sorry, the House second reading was today. I didn't check and see uh where the vote came on that. Um, but by all accounts, I can
064assume that this bill will be passed. Um, I did update all these hyperlinks as well, just so you can see the most recent amended version of the bills, so you kind of follow along and see the changes that have been made. Um, I don't know if you have any other questions about the remaining bills or other bills that are out there or just questions generally for me. Any other questions, guys, on these bills? Is there a bill regarding um charter school charter schools being able to enter districts without board approval? Mhm. Uh is that the Boseies? No, they would be direct they would be d I don't know if it's Boseies, but they'd be directly chartered through um the League of Charter Schools, which they can do now anyway. So, I don't know I don't
065know what the difference is. Um maybe the way it's currently written is you have to approach your current district initially and then if your current district isn't interested in charter and you go to the league. I don't know but that's what it already exists. I thought so. Yeah. So I don't know either. But there is some there is something there's been some media about that Natalie. You're right about charter schools being able to go to be directly chartered without going through the local school district, which um frankly, unless they change the funding formula that the league offers, that has not they they pay they they recoup more PPR from our local district than they would from the league if they went through the league or the institute. I'm saying it wrong, right, Regan? It's the
066Charal Institute. I apologize. It's CSI. It's not the league. The league is the group that supports charters. CSI is a chartering school institute. Charter school institute. I will um I'll get some more information on Okay. Are there other questions about legislation you all are wondering about? Anything else, guys? Good. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Paul. We are for a debrief of the work session and we'll start with Mr. Norwood. It is enlightening to see that we have such great leadership uh not only in finance but in our legal council that keeps us updated. Um it's uh every every time I come to a board meeting, it's it amazes me how much that uh they can really help the district and help us. Mr. Bentley. Yeah. Thanks to everybody. Um, you know, from my seat,
067it's just frustrating to to have you guys be in this. I don't know. And I know it's not your guys' fault, but it's just it's hard. It'd be hard if it was me running my business. So, I can't imagine how hard it's making your guys' job. So, just thanks for being dedicated and keeping up to date, Mr. Ozari. Yeah. Uh, thanks uh to Mr. Osmus and all the folks that have worked on the profile u of a graduate. It's not profile portrait. Portrait uh kind of similar words in a lot of ways, but portrait of a graduate. and and uh I agree with uh what some of the other folks around the community have said that regardless of GPA, all our students are are um looking at those six bullet points and being successful in
068our schools. And then finally, once again, um thanks to Nate and Megan for all the work uh surrounding school finance. It is very frustrating, but I'm glad that you folks are in the trenches working on that for us. Very much appreciated, Vice President Mash. Yeah, I really like the the district six bullet points and um it's I was looking at that and I was like, "Wow, I I hope that I could achieve this for myself someday." So that's really encouraging if that if those are the the values and the skills um that we instill in our students, the the future looks bright. So thank you for all that work. Um I was just looking at the bullet point that says create measurements and metrics to bring the portrait of a graduate to life. And that
069seems like that's the next really big work. So yeah, thank you for for working on it. It seems like a a good compliment or added piece to our strategic plan. and thank you for helping us to try to see into the crystal ball. But again, as as Mr. Norwood said, that we've all we're just so blessed to have such um knowledgeable people. It it doesn't feel like, oh, how are we ever going to figure this out? I have confidence that we will um no matter what we have to do to make the balance the budget balance. But yeah, nothing nothing much to add. Again, thanks. we do have excellent people working on on these things and we thank you all. Um and thank you for for keeping us updated, keeping us in the loop on
070on all the different things. So, Mr. Matthews, if I may, I have um a couple of updates I'd like to share. Oh, absolutely. Go ahead. Thank you. Since we time will Yeah, we've got time. Uh first, I would like to introduce to you all I I think a lot of you know Mr. Jeff Curtley. Um, but he uh you approved his hire here a few weeks back and he wasn't able to be at a schoolboard meeting. And then tonight I am actually sending Mr. Curtley and Mr. Henson to another meeting which I'll tell you about in just a moment. So he won't be in tonight's meeting. But Jeff Jeff is our new hire as director of just facilities. Just director of facilities. Um so uh he oversees um a significant part of the work and
071as I understand he has hit the ground running. Um and he he'll sit in in our meeting tomorrow. President Matthews and Vice President Mash um when we meet tomorrow, he'll sit in as well and and and in our later meeting as well. So, welcome to Jeff. We're glad to have him on board. He may be a familiar face to you all. Um he should be a familiar face to you all as uh he was the lead on um our bond issue as our outside manager. So, in that outside manager. So, welcome John. And then the meeting I'm sending uh Jeff and Kent to, so they won't be on our schoolboard meeting, is the county is hosting the last of their listening sessions around the um where the their justice center should be rebuilt, whether that
072should be downtown Gley or out on O Street. And so there the last um open forum for that is tonight from 6:00 to 8. And so the two gentlemen will will go on behalf of the district to be a part of that that forum and to hear the conversation that that goes on there. We're still um the county is still in uh listening phase with the community trying to before they make a decision on where they might rebuild the justice center, whether that would be downtown or out on O Street and the other county offices that are downtown as well. Um so we're we're still engaged in those conversations. um we'll bring you in in the next couple of days and show um more detailed information with you all and give you a chance to
073ask the individual questions you might have and then we'll bring that to the full board for public view um here either at the next board meeting or the following board meeting depending on where we are with the city and the county and conversation then we'll be able to bring it forward to the public. So looking forward to sharing that information with you all. That's it. All right. Well, thank you. Well, our work session is adjourned and we'll see everyone back at 6 o'clock for our business meeting. [Music]