001[Music] [Applause] [Music] n [Music] n [Music] you oh [Music] m [Music] n [Music] oh o [Music] [Laughter] [Music] n [Music] n [Music] n e [Music] n [Music] he [Music] he [Music] now [Music] he [Music] [Applause] [Music] he [Music] [Applause] [Music] welcome to the Board of Education work session for gy Ev school district 6 today's the 13th of May 2024 this meeting will now come to order M Lon will you call the role for us please director Zari present director Bentley present director Campo spitzy present director Mash present director Matthews present director Norwood present director Sullivan six board members present thank you Miss L first on our agenda tonight is a calendar review and Community engagement so if you will take a look at the calendar that is in front of you much of our calendar
002or our graduations are um week are we on some of that's this week um then most of it next week Miss lman do you have responses from everybody do we know I did not as of earlier I'm still waiting for responses from one board member okay who do you still need responses from Miss lemon uh from director Sullivan okay we'll follow up with her okay pres Matthews if you one of us can okay yeah well um everybody else then hopefully knows where they're going which graduations we're attending uh just a reminder please please be early to those graduations for our bigger graduations we will have working secured for you uh but but please don't make uh text you at at 5 till and say where are you are you are you coming uh please dress
003there should be something telling you if it's regalia or if it's a business dress for graduations these are honoring events please dress in ways that reflect that um I'm trying to think of other any other questions you guys have about our graduations and those events wear sunscreen sunglasses I forges sunglasses and sunscreen yeah there's usually water for us and it can be very hot and it can be very cold it can be very windy I me just so just think about your dress under your robe for those outdoor graduations um they can you never know if there is inclement weather just a reminder you know we'll keep you informed if we're if we're postponing or if we're going forward there are times we do go forward in the rain uh so we'll you know we'll
004make those decisions we do not have alternative locations for the graduations we're ready to go ready it's here school year M but that's much of what's on our calendar noticed there are a couple special graduations the United Way community leaders luncheon also is this week at 11 o'clock hopefully you know if you're attending that um then we have one more one more board meeting we canceled uh the second board meeting of June but so we just have the one board meeting in June on June 11th any questions about our calendar comments is the board meeting on the 11th a Tuesday I don't know does the 11th maybe I'm on the wrong year that is the typo on my part should be that Monday 10 was like okay thank you a cur me a curve ball
005too good catch Mr okay thank you so it's the 10th right all right well moving right along to board member comments and reports we'll start tonight with Dr Campo spit sure so I think it's been three weeks since we've met so lots going on in the last three weeks um some highlights for me were the D6 retirement celebration um I wish I knew how many cumulative years we celebrated that night but I mean obviously upwards of a hundred um we did Miss mayor gates at the ceremony um he was on his way back from vacation um but I just asked him and he served for 21 years in district 6 I just want to honor you as well um uh outside of the D6 retirement celebration got to go to a couple of school visits
006um we went to Fred chart's School of innovation um learned so much about Fred chartis that I didn't know um got to hear their origin story which is really fun um learned that it was a a micro school I didn't know that that they cap their school at 124 students um and really capitalize on curiosity as being um the the way to teach children to to just engage their Natural Curiosity and um and integrate Reading Writing and math through that so that was cool and actually this last Friday they had their their uh Museum night which is when all the students get to present um projects that they've been working on um had to miss it but the theme was community and I got to see some pictures online that looked really fun um we
007also got to visit the D6 on Online Academy um also a smaller school around 300 students enrolled in in that program K through 12 um and was really inspired by The Passion of the new principal there Jorge Gonzalez and Cassie Gonzalez who presented to us and um and would love to get the word out about their school to to more parents who who they think might be a good fit um so so that was pretty pretty awesome my favorite part of that school visit is they told us we were going to go go visit a Kindergarten class or like an elementary school class and a couple of us started getting out of our seats and they're like no no no no no sit down we're going to put them on the screen um so really
008an online school um and then it got to help um represent district 6 at the annual fundraiser for Frontier house they do a breakfast um fundraiser every year um highlighting that may is mental health awareness month um and getting to hear some really heartfelt stories about how um while we have community members who struggle with mental illness that there is uh a way to to live well with mental illness and um was proud that we we were there um helping represent our school district Mr no well I got a chance to go to the Marine Corps award ceremony which was um quite eye opening they've got a lot of really great kids that go to school there it's uh one one of the really good programs that uh you know major runs out there and
009at the last minute their speaker hurt his back so I got a short text and said you were on the hiring committee can you speak so I threw a two minute speech together and and then read it but it worked out pretty good so um that was that was good left there and I went directly to a soccer game got a chance to see uh Northridge play their last home soccer game which they won and from there um I went to a couple College signings uh got a chance to see some of my former students um get a chance to head off and continue their skills in college so Mr Bentley yeah it's been busy couple three weeks um like Dr Brendon said uh me and Natalie actually got to do uh a little fun
010thing on 424 we went to Billy Martinez in their third grade class and did a present presentation on um school school board and what we do and why we do it and how we do our job and what what we are and we end up having a lot of fun little side conversations that had nothing to do with why we were there but we had a lot of fun Natalie Natalie actually got a proposal and and got to give an autograph she was she was famous was a great day it was a lot of fun uh the Boys and Girls Club annual dinner was all always fun uh it's it's really nice to be able to attend that with you guys and then um also with Mr norward I attended the Marine courts jrtc Awards
011night they always do a good job with that it's well ran and they've have a lot of really remarkable outstanding kids in their programs so it's fun to see them succeed uh year after year the D6 retirement celebration on 51 is also one of the highlights of the year for everybody I think um just kind of it's it's it's bittersweet to see those guys go with their um you know their institutional knowledge but happy for them at the same time so they can kind of go enjoy their lives cuz you know they sacrificed so much during their careers so um 54 which was last Saturday um we got me and Michael and dear draff got to golf in the Dream Team tournament um it was really fun to see those kids and and see them
012out there it was freezing cold and they they all sat there and toughed it out so um crudos to them um Fred JIS was also awesome that's the first time I've been there um it it's fun to see their their school of innovation and how they do things there uh quite different than a normal school so it was it was fun to just see that the way that they operate with their Project based learning and stuff um Frontier house breakfast is just one of my personal favorites every year um if you if you don't tear up you better check your heartbeat because they they do some cool things over there um and then right after that we went to uh the D6 Online Academy got to see all the great things they're doing so um
013it's just just cool to see how many different choices and options the kids here have so I think that's about all I got to do Mr Oar well in addition to the um activities that several of the other board members had talked about Frontier house and the visit to the schools um I also had the opportunity for the third time this year I think it's third time maybe fourth time of attending the the uh a visit to the Capitol I attended the gy day along with Amy lemman um and several of our community leaders including mayor Gates our city manager Raymond Lee and president Feinstein uh gave us the opportunity to talk about some things that going on in gley one of them being of course the osteopathic medical school which uh will have a
014very big impact positive impact on our community and we also talked about uh the state school funding formula during that day and that to the result of which we'll probably have a very positive impact on our school district and our community in like matter I also had the opportunity to attend uh the Colorado State School Board Association with President Matthews as we welcomed in a couple of representatives from the United Nations and we have the opportunity to engage in discussion with them and I'll let president Matthews speak more to that uh during your presentation and then finally last week I had the opportunity to participate in the gy uh history Museum's uh history Fest that they put on down at the Centennial Village and and once again I was thrown into an opportunity to work
015with students I taught uh elementary school kids this time about the history of gy and specifically the historic architecture around our community as being part of the historic preservation commission and um like I said students from all over Northern Colorado but it really stood out to me our kids that came in from the district schools uh very well behaved uh very uh good classroom management as well on behalf of our staff it just really showcased what we do I really enjoyed working with them was fantastic kids so that's all I have President Matthews thank you thank you Mr aari Vice President mesh um yeah so I also enjoyed attending the retirement celebration and I think we've got to be at hundreds of years because if mayor Gates was 20 years I think there were at
016least five people who were over that 20y year mark but um yeah I agree just so much fun to hear some people's history of how many buildings they've been there they started as you know a health Clerk and then they became an office manager and then they became a teacher or you know whatever so I very much enjoy celebrating those folks um so um Michael and I got to um attend an event at toon to um yeah uh welcome uh far farita Shahed she's a special rapur from I don't know if I'm saying that right from the United Nations who's um doing reports on a number of different countries's Educational Systems um which I think would be fascinating to read the other reports about what is done well in other countries and and what is
017different um but it was really it's fun to get to just hear I mean it was about an hour presentation of all the things that we do in our district so when you kind of um boil it down to hear all the things that we're doing um was really it's really encouraging and just like oh yeah oh wow yes um and she spent a lot of time with just a group of students and with just a group of parents um so really wanted to get get the full picture of um of our school district who's visiting Colorado and Indiana so whether or not that's going to be an accurate cross-section of the American education system I'm not sure but um pretty fascinating to to speak with her um I'd like to congratulate the men's swimming
018and Diving team um officially they're under gy West but they have swimmers from all the different schools and um there were a couple of individuals who placed in the top eight and a relay team um and one diver that went as well so um congratulations to them on all of their hard work and I've been attending a lot of senior events at gy Central but I know that that's um that's what's happening at all of our schools so um well done to our seniors and as I've been telling my daughter runs strong through the Finish Line I know um that you all are probably feeling like you just like to be done so um there's a few more AP exams I think so good luck yeah lot lots of AP exams going on that change
019change the schedule this time of year I hate to every year I miss the front tier house breakfast and I would love to to go to that but it always seems like it falls on a on a morning where where I'm taking kids to an trying to get kids to an AP exam which is different sometimes they their their examinations are not at their schools so um I hated to miss that but did get to see a few things as cyle said we we got to play play golf on a on a chilly morning but great great time um with Dr pilch and her husband and just again see seeing our our students they they they're all out there many of them are are seniors and to to be able to um see them one
020one last time and congratulate them uh before before they walk across the the stage that that's always fun uh retirement celebration one of the best best events of the year you just appreciate our teachers so much and when you hear their their stories and everything that they've done over the course of their careers um it's great great to get to honor them in in that way and appreciate those teachers that uh that come to that event and all the people that that put that on I don't I don't know who all puts I don't know Miss lemon has a role in that I don't know who all to think but it's always always well done um and then yeah United United Nations that was um was a great honor for our district to be I
021mean I don't know how many schools they looked at in Indiana but they looked at two schools in Colorado so we're we're potentially four schools one of four schools that is representing the United States uh for for this report so uh it was a a great opportunity and a great honor to be chosen uh for um to represent the US in in that way so enjoyed getting to present with the other board board members that Gordan it was he said casby but it was how many probably eight 10 of us that were that were there it wasn't there weren't a lot of board members that that were invited to go and and then uh to be one of the schools and get to present uh what we're doing um and ton did a fantastic job
022showed showed very very well and so great great last couple of weeks um moving right along we are to our curriculum adoptions see Mr Andrews coming forward battery welcome thank you thank you we appreciate um you're giving us a little time do you just want me to launch in and okay fire away okay well fire away sounds good uh giving us a little bit of time prior to the um actual board business meeting where we can present to you these curriculums and maybe go into a little bit more detail and and uh potentially ask or you can ask any questions you may have even in advance of it then coming to you tonight as an action item um so that you have a thorough understanding so we have two actually com coming to you this
023evening you probably saw that on the agenda both uh Middle School English language arts as well as AP1 course and so you know that there we've actually been do many of you have been a part of um Doran I think this is your first time doing these curriculum uh review processes with us and and uh thus hopefully approving this tonight um but uh for AP we've actually been doing this over the course of the last six years um so because we're just keeping up with the changes that they're doing at the College Board level and so then we are keeping in alignment and in Pace with that so it's just AP French tonight um for that so um couple of those that are coming to you tonight so the purpose the reason why we really
024needed to bring this to you um this evening is it's actually been also six years since our last literacy adoption and as you know we're on that 67-year rotation cycle what we did learn um this so we are making sure that we are staying in alignment with the Colorado State Standards our current curriculum is as well but we also want to make sure that we have that authentic and complex text um since the last time that it's crazy but these uh you know the materials have just gotten more sophisticated and better over time um and so certainly what we're bringing to you tonight is indicative of that yes for sure do I have to no um those of you who were with us seven years ago will recall that the very first curriculum adoption we
025did after passing our first M Levy override was six or 72 communication arts and so um or language arts so this is now bringing it back up to speed at the middle level right and it had been years since we had done it at that point like I think 12 years or something prior to that right before we'd had a language arts adoption so so these are all of the different uh people that served on this keep in mind we're talking sixth seventh and eth grade language arts only and so you see really on the right side uh most every building being uh represented across both k8s as well as our uh comprehensive traditional middle schools and we have a D6 online because knowing that that's a little different we want to make sure that
026we are meeting the needs of all of our Learners across the system so we are incredibly grateful to all of these folks um and what they brought to the conversation the depth of um you know really going deep into these resources and really selecting the very best one so Dean's going to share he along with I want to um say with Mr Bill Fern um really did a lot of the heavy lifting with this committee and making sure that we were dotting eyes and Crossing tees and um and choosing the very best resource as we move forward I will say as he gets into the process outline the current resource was one of the final got down to that final the current resource that we have with just some upgrades but there were some very
027intentional moves that they made and and um things that they determined were needed um as they're bringing forward the recommendation tonight so with that I'm going to turn it over to you Mr D Andrews thank you so much for all the work that you've done yeah Dr D that's right I got get used to that yeah that's right thank you uh well thank you Dr D um before I share with you the recommendation as Stacy talked about I'm going to walk through the process a little bit so we have a good understanding of what our committee did and engage with as we went through the process so our first state step is always to look at Ed reports which is a nonprofit thirdparty reviewer that's very highly regarded and so with that we only choose
028resources that are of the highest quality and so we already narrowed down to seven because they met in every single category on Ed reports so we started with those seven uh sets of instructional materials at the same time we were selecting committee members to make sure that we had a good divers first group as Dr D talked about uh on the previous slide uh we also did a scan across the state of Colorado to look at what other districts were adopting at the same time uh so we could get a good sense of that and as we rolled into December uh we reviewed the best practices and literacy and that helped us draft the district philosophy statement around this and that becomes kind of the North Star in terms of the adoption of what's critically
029important that we really must have in an Ela adoption to really support our students and our teachers as well um we also always start with our a our analyzing instructional materials rubric we start with a very with one that we start with and then we customize it for each of the different contents to make sure it lines up exactly with the unique um content areas and how the standards progress within those as we move forward into January uh we discuss the three shifts in literacy which have been around for a very long time um but our materials as Stacy was talking about can continue to get better and better at supporting the three shifts in literacy um we reviewed the anchor standards and reading writing speaking listening language uh and then began our materials review
030with the aim rubric and so once we started on that process we started with seven and then we narrowed it down to the top three uh resources and those top three resources we had a chance we sent the resources out to schools and people had an opportunity to Pilot those materials see what student engagement looked like and how teachers felt as those lessons were implemented in the classroom as well um those sample lesson Pilots were really Illuminating and gave us some great information as we move forward into March and so from there uh we brought in our vendors Publishers uh to come in and give us even more information so it gave us an opportunity if we didn't see something in the resource to be able to ask questions uh and find out uh answers
031to those questions and then from there uh committee members were also uh able to uh actually adust their scores within the rubric to reflect the new information they found and so that was being updated as well we also um from March 1st through April 1st uh we provided our materials we sent it out on social media so was here in Nightshade so that people could come in look at the materials provide feedback uh we also gathered feedback from additional teachers so 22 of our Middle School ELA teachers who are not on the committee also provided feedback uh the great thing about it is all of those different sources really started to coales uh in the same direction with the same reviews across all of these uh stakeholder groups then in April um selected and proposed
032recommendations of resources through a consensus process so I was able to get in a circle with our committee members uh we put our philosophy statement up there we put the key criteria we walked through those pieces and we went through that shared decision- making and arrived at consensus um through that process once we were there they was then taken to District curriculum Council and then District curriculum Council unanimously uh voted to move it forward uh to you all this evening as a recommendation um for our Ela adoption the final selection of the committee uh that we bring to you tonight uh was El education which is Imagine Learning uh who provides that uh you can see that all three on a fivepoint scale of these resources scored highly but you can see an impressive 4.4
033out of fivepoint scale for El education uh this particular recommendation um that we are providing you tonight for El education the total cost is 96,97 15 uh that provides all the materials including teachers manuals student consumable work uh workbooks digital licenses for seven years required and recommended books professional learning for teachers co- teers and building learner uh building leaders and what that provides is our core classroom teachers are going to get very specific training our teachers who are co-teachers who support multilingual Learners and students and IEPs they're going to get a separate training that focuses on access and the built-in supports that are within the resource to help all students read grade level and engage in context uh complex text and so our building leaders will also have special training where they will learn the
034key leadership moves and how to support implementation as well I'll also add that this is um the same resource that we have adopted in our elementary K5 so now we have a seamless aligned curriculum for English language arts from kindergarten through 8th grade while that is good for all kids when we think about them going from say one Elementary to a comprehensive middle it is really purposeful and good in our K8 schools as well um as they are in one school and we continue to just you know build on that um for the students sake there's a lot of wisdom inside of that so when I said mentioned that about study sync being that's the one on the right um which is their current resource it actually they kind of liked into literature just slightly
035more not a lot um but really El education pulled ahead in terms of just for all the reasons of it just being a solid curricular resource and that was not even the table when we did this six seven years ago like I said um this was not one of the resources we could even choose from so they do evolve and and they do get better A lot of times so not always but a lot of times can I ask a yeah a newbie question new so for the student consumable workbooks is that for one year like good question and then yes is this price tag for one year of curriculum or no so that really takes us through four years of the adoption cycle uh that's in this particular um proposal so it's all seven
036years for the digital licenses and then the consumable the student consumable workbooks like paper pan four years we know that it may actually take us the full life depending on how many of our teachers utilize the full all the consumables some different things so we felt like let's not do the full seven years on that let's do about half the life and then we can go from there if we actually do need more it also provides responsible it com it combines a very robust digital resource that can be used in that way as well so they can choose between the consumable and digital licenses and we think some will gravitate more towards digital digital certainly there to purchase should they all need them for the full duration any other questions do you anticipate um as
037steep of a learning curve for this at the middle level as there has been in the elementary for the teachers go ahead so um so at middle level they only teach modules where at the elementary level they have three different blocks that they're preparing and planning for and so that does streamline it and makes it a little easier on Middle School for the planning because they're not teaching phonics they're not teaching those other pieces that go with the elementary curriculum and there will be a lift because anytime you change a resource there is a learning curve that was part of the conversation um because certainly had we stayed with study sync that's not the you know that you kind of take that part off the table and just learning the few little nuances um so
038we certainly had that conversation and they said you know because it is a much more robust and Rich curriculum it's worth the training and it won't be as big of a lift not I mean if it was it it would be and it would be worth it if it's the right thing to do do for kids um but we also feel like you know it isn't quite quite the same but it is a different kind of resource it's laid out differently it's uh you know kind of forces us to do it a little differently but I also feel really good about the number of people that were around the table because when you are looking at say English Language Arts right at the middle level you're talking far fewer people than you are even though
039we had a huge committee for the elementary it's still not all 450 teachers right you know but you've got a vast you've got well over half of them well about half of them that are in the looks like the different groups all chose this curriculum is that that's correct like it it looks like the adoption committee yes favored this one the the all 68 feedback favored this one and the pilot study favored this one as well correct the pilot study that's right and it aligns with our elementary curriculum y so just over and over came out as the Top Choice I I was just I I feel like anytime you know don't want to pull in any negativity I was just curious because I know it has been you know question it's not negative it's
040the reality and we really talked about that and they were open about that let's talk about this let's not be you know naive there's been a lot of different type of work that we've had to put into this at the elementary level but to your point in all three cases even with that because people eyes wide open they know that they still chose that as the very best resource anything else before we kind of tell you a little bit about the EP French we did have these on uh display downstairs I know that that was in communication with all of you and it went out and was publicly you know it's all in your board package just what that looked like so um we had some not much review but we always have it available
041and we left it out there even a little longer than what we had uh said so we said let's just leave it out there a little bit longer so we had that um certainly there's professional development support all buil into this as well so we feel good about all of the next steps around that I did talk to someone at the retirement celebration who works um on your team I forget his name um who talked about maybe next time putting it at the link Library for the public to review um to try to get like a higher participation rate from Outsiders maybe that would be a good suggestion we could certainly talk about what that looks like one more question is it rolling out all the grades all the schools or is there a pilot
042like there was for kindergarten and all the grades all the schools next year yeah sounds good yeah and when you think all fifth graders going into sixth grade have had that right so um even some of our seventh graders because some fifth grades piloted a few years ago why they'll even be bless you some of our seventh grade students as well I'd say that continuity piece is the largest indicator for us absolutely with our kids we need that all right well if you think of anything else that sounds good U but I want to continue with our AP and just share with you um this again is our just a one AP French language and culture we won't judge Dean however we will have fun he's going to actually say them in French thankful for
043all because I took Spanish and but it is French classes and they do have French names as you probably saw in your board packet um so again as I mentioned to you already just a little bit that this keeps us in alignment with the expectations and the updates that college board has made um and so it's it's in alignment with all of those things and then truly ensuring that we are choosing resources um that ensure students read and analyze complex texts and write coherently um that is you know preparing them for career and college no matter what they choose that they are able to do those things so very pleased and because we are talking a much smaller you know we're just talking AP right so the teachers that teach it were involved in this
044um and other and uh so you can see from the different DP West yes as well as the AP theer at the Central and Northridge yes all the upper level so Dian will just share again uh quickly the outline the process that they went through again and yeah and where they landed yeah very similar but some subtle differences to uh honor AP and so uh they did review the equity and access and AP and read two different articles and those articles were really about opening doors for students and making sure we're providing as much access to students and then thinking about how can we support students and so there were two really powerful articles that really helped uh shape thinking around this and how we can open up and make sure we're offering this in
045a more Equitable way um we did review the current resources identifi potential resources uh just like in the other they started with the aim rubric analyzed it line by line and then made adjustments to meet the needs of the AP uh the College Board inside of that and so um in February uh uh they did view presentations on multiple types of curriculum so really looking at digital content paper pencil as well as more um customizable content to think about how again they can support students who may not have all the prerequisites that maybe you would want in an AP course but you have all the supports there to help uh with those three different kinds of curricular resources and so um when they Revisited the equity and access and AP uh they read articles about
046uh gifted Hispanic students and how they can support success and then they began the process of actually reviewing the resources using the aim rubric uh in March they continued to do that and then did the same process brought in vendors uh listened asked questions were able to dig deeper and then from there they were also able to update uh the rubric ratings uh inside of that as well um they did finalize those a rubric ratings they confirm the statement on equity and access keeping that at the center and the core as their North Star inside of this um they did review student staff family and Community feedback on the final resources so all of these pieces of information went into their final decision and so they made the final decision and brought that recommendation again
047to District curriculum Council which is part of our process and the council you voted unanimously again to move this recommendation uh to this evening for your approval all right this is where it gets fun so um so the total cost of this is $ 34,35 729 and the three resources are shenu thank you uh and it's a monthly magazine from Scholastic that includes current events for students to practice with language in an authentic and highin interest way this is the really good one unus not bad not bad it was in the ballpark thank you um and that's from Pearson Savas which provides intense comprehensive grammar practice to prepare students for the exams and then Entre chair France four I'm just going to say four uh from Wayside aligns with both AP and IB themes and
048combines a standards based approach to teaching the French language and culture and just before we open it up to any other questions you may have I just want to give a shout out to Miss Amanda creger she has uh she over you know provides coordination for all of our AP and IB coursework in addition to K12 Avid and she's done a phenomenal job all six years and not the least of which is is this team as well um really out you know going through this process and making sure that they are doing good work and getting good solid resources in front of kids in our AP classes so proud of the work they do and AP comes up every is that six years as well they continually are doing different courses throughout that six-year process
049they have they have done so over if you looked in board Ducks over the last six years you'll see at this time of year we've brought different AP courses before the board for approval for resources because the College Board was updating along the way so we would keep up with those updates that they were making does that make that's almost a yearly yeah they they do it yearly just different courses okay so we refreshed all of them we've refreshed all of them now yeah this is the last this is the last so hopefully they hang on to them for a little while yeah and um all three high schools agreed to the curriculum which is really great it is there was a day when that did not happen that is that's unusual that's very good
050that's a good sign yeah yeah say magnifi any other questions on either curriculum that's been presented all right guys I think that's maybe all we thank you very much please thank uh these committees that abolutely did all this work for us very appreciative we will thank you and we'll bring it to you tonight as an action item with a much shorter presentation thank you thanks guys now to our legislative updates invite Mr fall yeah it was a very busy legislative season as you all know um lots lots of activity um and lots of impact on on prek 12 so we'll hit the big ones and um Nate will hit the big ones and then I think uh he's gonna ask Megan and me to finish up for him thank thank you Dr pilch president Matthews
051members of the board uh as Dr PCH mentioned this was a pretty active legislative session I have prepared for you just kind of an overview we're going to go over some of the kind of major bills we had previously talked about some of them we did some of them we didn't that ended up being passed we'll talk about a few bills that uh ultimately failed and then as Dr pillich mention I'm going to reserve time at the end quite a bit of time so that her and miss sponsor can talk through uh funding school funding I just don't want to have to Fumble through that and they are much better served to kind of talk through some of those changes so um please if if I missing a bill if you have any questions I
052have my computer in front of me so I can certainly see if a certain bill that you might be interested did ultimately pass but we can get into it and just let me know if you have any questions so starting with pass legislation the first bill House Bill 24 1044 additional PA of service retirees for schools this is the bill we talked about where currently you're allowed up to 10 service retirees uh if there's a need in your district and this bill um allows school districts to exceed that 10 retiree cap by by one retiree for every 1,000 students above 10,000 students so in this District that will give us a handful more service retirees that we can hire we know that those Paras service retirees have a lot of institutional knowledge both in this
053school district but also in school districts Statewide and just have a lot of knowledge and can really support us in a really great capacity so this is really great legislation for us this is something that we did support this bill was amended to limit uh those retirees time framed to six years where they wouldn't be um losing any having a reduction in benefits so that gives them up to six years which was one amendment that was changed since the last time we talked about this so really great legislation will allow us to keep some people on I'm looking at mayor Gates right now probably not but maybe there's some other folks in the system who might be willing to to stay on and continue to serve district 6 um because they are such a great
054resource M would this maybe a full-time teacher to come back and work part-time or or something like that without changing you know what their what their par retirements going to be yes but it would it would be part on a part-time basis kind of whatever per currently allows which I believe is 140 hours 110 what the contract is allows so it would be kind of on a limited basis so you know perhaps there's some you know instructional teaching capacity that they could come back and serve schools or provide some kind of ongoing support but they wouldn't be able to come back as a full-time teacher right so thank you yeah of course uh the next bill is house bill 24187 this is that professional endorsement special education teaching Bill we had talked about this a
055few times and this was going to kind of create an additional pathway for current Educators to get that special education endorsement this bill ended up becoming really heavily amended but it's still moved forward and is going to allow current educ ators with a valid teaching license to work on getting that special education endorsement so the way that they've set it up now is the State Board of Education will create rules for the coursework requirements that these individuals will need to go through in order to get that special education endorsement uh and they also May maintain their current employment while they're in or participating in an alternative teacher program to get that special education endorsement so the state board will ultimately come out with the rules and the requirements for what is NE necessary it will
056be robust it will be comprehensive um so I think some of the concerns we previously had were they're just going to kind of make it somewhat easy for individuals to go and get that special education endorsement um and that is no longer the case I think the state board will certainly put in some pretty strict guard rails that valid teachers will need to you know go through in order to get that endorsement but that does open the door to getting some more folks to become special education teachers or to at least be endorsed in that area which which is an ongoing need not only in this District but in all school districts Statewide so again I would say this is really beneficial legislation and this will help us hopefully kind of add some capacity in
057our buildings to have more um individuals who have that kind of um endorsement so any questions with that all right the next bill is house bill 24305 this is changes to concurrent enrollment students so so this bill expanded it did two things it expanded the pathways under PC so PC is really for kind of those science technology areas this actually really expanded the pool of of potential courses that could be in PC and I kind of had a noted here so the categories uh are any major industry categories identified in the Colorado Talent report which could include life physical and social sciences architecture and engineering in computers and Mathematics installation maintenance uh and repair business and finance construction and extraction community and social services and transportation and material moving occupation so this really does expand
058kind of the potential Pathways so we could create new programs there were previously under that PTEC model um I'm not totally sure what the folks uh who are leading the ptech work in this District are thinking but certainly this gives us plenty more options that we can work for those kind of additional concurrent enrollment programs to give individuals kind of more specialization for when they graduate high school so again this is really beneficial legislation and just gives students more opportunities to uh learn more about kind of that career Readiness piece while they're still in high school the other key provision um to this bill is it added an exception to the cough credits that's a college opportunity fund uh currently under law while students were in concurrent enrollment program they would be dipping into their
059cough credits so by the time they graduate high school instead of 145 credits that they could use for higher education they would only have 90 uh now with this legislation they essentially are getting those concurrent enrollment credits they're earning college credits while in high school but they're not dipping into those cough credits anymore so um which is great because they might change their mind and then they want to go into a four-year institution and they want to have all of those credits available for them so that they can um use them because in Colorado we use kind of a stien model for instate tuition and that's that cough credit and so that was a really beneficial change and it's not just for ptech it's really for um really any concurrent enrollment program teacher recruitment education
060and preparation um so things of that nature which we have a lot of students that are currently doing and using those cough credits so moving forward they w't have to dip into those which is a really big benefit um so again this is really uh in my opinion positive legislation that will help support kind of student development and help them kind of find the career that best fits their desires um the next bill is house bill 24139 this is non-legal name changes so this bill was ultimately amended but now what it will do and we will have some language presented to the board maybe at the next board meeting for some changes to policy uh because this bill does require Boards of Education to adopt written policies prohibiting discrimination on the basis of gender expression
061which includes the use of a student's chosen name um and so the policy must also specify that it is discriminatory to knowingly or intentionally use a name other than the student's chosen name so uh this is opposed to their legal name uh the name that their parents chose for them if a student wants to go by a different chosen name at school we need to honor that request we need to have that kind of language uh written into policy and it is now discriminatory for us to intentionally misuse that Student's name I would say that this already ties into the Colorado anti-discrimination act there's already language around kind of intentionally Mis or deliberately misusing an individual's preferred or chosen name um but now this is really codified and statute for Education Boards of Education to
062adopt policies on this subject so there will be some some policy changes and I just kind of wanted to point this one out just so you're aware um when those changes come forward all right the next bill is house bill 24285 this is the student weight-based bullying prevention so uh previously under Colorado law there were some um when it came to bullying there were just a few categories of prohibited bullying and that was really bullying based on a protected class and bullying based on academic performance were prohibited this bill expanded that those protected persons to include bullying on the basis of weight or height or kind of any of those physical characteristics so we will also be making some modifications to our policies on bullying uh and we will be making sure that um this
063isn't happening in our schools and it is being addressed and redressed through our policy process I think in my opinion in many ways this was probably already being addressed in many ways we don't allow bullying um and bullying is bullying kind of no matter what it looks like but it is now codified and statute so will lead to some policy changes moving forward the next and this will be the last bill that we talk about that passed again there are many many other bills that do impact schools but I just kind of wanted to point out some of the bigger ones that will have some board action in the near future and the next bill is House Bill 24 1323 this is School graduation attire so this bill allows students to wear objects of cultural
064or religious significance as an adornment at a graduation ceremony uh an adornment has been defined uh by this bill that means something attached to or worn with but not replacing or covering in its entirety graduation attire uh and is not limited to decorating graduation caps um cultural has also been defined and it only applies to those protected classes such as disability race ethnicity and so forth um but it does not include objects uh that might in be incitement defamation fraud obscenity child pornography fighting words and threats uh you know so this will lead to some complications perhaps moving forward we'll see I I I trust that most students will uh be respectful with kind of any adornment that they may wear but um you know of course they would still need to apply with our
065dress codes uh they wouldn't be able to do anything outside of our dress codes uh and they can wear kind of whatever they want under under their graduation retire I don't believe we actually have any current prohibitions of what they can't wear underneath their graduation attire but this bill does specify that we cannot make any restrictions on that there is a substantial disruption and material interference Clause uh where we could perhaps prohibit a student from wearing certain adornments if it were to potentially lead to substantial disruption or material interference um but it would need to to be based on evidence of disruption rather than relying on an undifferentiated fear or apprehension of disturbance and then it would need to be the least restrictive um restriction necessary to ensure that they can still wear whatever cultural
066adornment that they may have that is least restrictive so we're just going to have to see how this plays out kind of on a case-by Case basis I think really more or less this will apply to higher institutions more than um K12 but nonetheless uh I'm sure that we will encounter a few situations that um will require a little deeper look into what students are wearing um during graduation any questions with those bills Mr fall there are school districts that have practice maybe policy that do not allow anything um in add addition to the school provided graduation regalia so I would presume that's why this this came forward that's not been our practice we you know we allow students to wear um other items with their over their gr with their graduation gown um and
067most of our schools I think allow them to decorate their graduation caps but there's school districts in Colorado that don't allow either any of it so so and as is the case with most legislation these typically come out of one case out of one school do we not allow them to decorate caps just to is that new because Gap I can remember cap a gap no decorating caps let's not have it on record no decorating of caps okay okay and Ju Just to even Backtrack on that you know of course you know this doesn't mean that just anybody can decorate whatever they want it really does need to be grounded in kind of this cultural piece um and they would really have to demonstrate why you know it's appropriate for them to wear kind of
068this additional piece in addition to their regalia that they're currently wearing so again we'll be addressing this on a case-by Case basis and I think before you go on to failed bills let's see if they have any questions on what passed yes when when do these take a effect I mean how much um wiggle room do we have to change policies as needed so um as far as the non-discrimination policies that I mentioned we'll have to have those uh ready for the new year so um I plan to have those changes by the next board meeting in June um and then for the school graduation attire um I believe doesn't go into effect until next year but I will double check and make sure and and of course let our um kind of leaders for
069the high schools know kind of what to expect so the school graduation that's prior to the 2024 2025 school year uh we would need to adopt a policy that align with those requirements and then yeah the student weight based bowling prevention also will be for next year and um and the Paras service retirees would also uh begin next year okay any other questions all right so just moving just talking just briefly about a couple of the failed bills I I only bring these up because it's likely that um we'll see different Renditions of them next year except for maybe the first one this is just one that uh really does relate to the school district and that is the content materials and libraries this is that bill that would have created those kind of statutory
070guideposts for um book reviews again this District I think has done a really tremendous job in in its book review process this board of education has uh seen book reviews on appeal I don't know of any other school district in the state that actually had this go all the way up to the Board of Education um but just know that that there will not be any statutory requirements we'll continue to follow our policy if we see any more book challenges moving forward um the next bill was this concurrent resolution for child sexual abuse accountability uh and this bill would have allowed the general assembly to pass a resolution that would have been referred to ballot uh as a ballot measure to voters during the no November 2024 election that uh would create this kind of
071retrospective law allowing victims of sexual abuse that occurred while the victim was a minor to bring a civil claim for that abuse and the measure would have also allowed the general assembly to retrospectively wave governmental immunity for child sexual abuse civil claim um of course nobody wants to be kind of on the side that I'm currently speaking from uh for the uh horrible situations that I'm sure many people have gone through but of course to uh have something that happened in the 70s get back brought up to this school district and have something that we' be financially responsible um could be really uh problematic for a lot of school districts uh or any governmental entity in that point um in terms of kind of responding to and paying out um any of those potential claims
072so that bill did fail um but we'll likely see something similar to this kind of for years to come because I've seen something similar to this bill uh in years past and so we will see you know whether or not this ultimately does get referred to uh the voters uh the next bill that failed is house bill 24116 7 that's prohibit student seclusion this bill would have just ultimately ended student seclusion rooms altogether uh I know that there was a lot of kind of conversations with disability law Colorado and some other Advocates that were hoping to end the use of student seclusion rooms uh again as I mentioned before to this board this is really a last Gap effort it is very rare to use student seclusion rooms it's only really emergency situations but they
073can be very um helpful in times of emergencies to to helping kind of help students out and so you know ultimately uh we don't want to use student seclusion rooms we don't have an eye towards using them but at times uh they can be something that we might need to rely on uh this is certainly something that we will continue to see moving forward um ideally we would like to see something dialed back from a total prohibition to something with maybe more restrictions the process is already very restrictive the report we do have to report all seclusions to the state I mean we are really demonstrating kind of when we're doing them how we're using them um and it is very much on a limited basis and so um we will continue to rely on
074these when we need to uh until the state tells us otherwise the next bill is house bill 24168 this is that equal access to public meetings bill this is a bill that would have really made significant changes to uh live streaming Board of Education meetings uh and work sessions and things of that nature as I mentioned to this board we really do go above and beyond uh providing accessibility to our community in terms of our work sessions most boards don't even have or live stream their board meetings uh in the nature that we do uh we also live stream our Board of Education business meetings um I'm sure there's some school districts that simply record them um and so we're already kind of going above and beyond the call of of what the state law
075requires but this might have opened the door to work session Retreats and other things where we're doing meetings outside of this building and then we would have had to come up with a way to live stream those meetings uh and it could have just been kind of a really challenging process for us so um you know I'm sure that there are folks that are still looking for transparency that do want to have kind of live stream board meetings it is cost prohibitive for many school districts to do it in this nature which is one reason why this bill did ultimately fa fail but um I can anticipate moving forward that there will likely be bills of this nature I'm kind of wanting some more kind of transparency from uh Boards of UC and other governmental
076entities to um demonstrate you know publicly kind of the the workings of the board as it's going on this bill also would have changed kind of how public testimony could be delivered uh and again that would have been kind of through a remote process that's something we already allow for and I don't I didn't anticipate really any major changes I think ultimately it was kind of the work sessions and Retreats and things that are happening outside of this building that I was somewhat concerned about because this board occasionally likes to meet outside of this building um and you know I think that that is a great opportunity to go to schools and things of that nature so the last bill uh that we'll certainly see um introduced again next year in one way or another
077is house bill 24296 that's modifications to the Colorado open records act uh the bill that was proposed this year would have really provided a lot more flexibility time um for public entities to respond to public records requests uh it was was really the Press Association that was kind of the big proponent behind going after this bill making it very very complicated um so ultimately this bill did not pass so uh Coral will remain in place as it does uh we do have a a process that I work with my assistant um regularly on open records requests we don't see the a number of open records requests that some school districts might receive but we do received quite a few uh it would have been beneficial to have a little bit more flexibility in terms of
078time to respond to those request um and we'll just see kind of as the years go on whether or not there actually any changes to Kora um but for now we'll just keep keep doing what we're doing so any questions with any of these failed bills or any other bills you might have some Curiosities about we didn't talk Finance so that is the next part uh we'll talk more about school Finance so I have alerted Miss sponsor and Dr pilch that um with their support we can talk a little bit about uh the changes to school funding um there was a there is a new funding formula which has taken at least a decade to get that changed uh I just want to give a shout out to Dr pilch for her tremendous work uh
079confronting a lot of folks in the state on these changes to the school Finance act into the funding formula uh there was a lot of opposition I to this and uh I'm just really thankful to have a leader like Dr pilch uh make the changes that were ultimately made to help serve more atrisk students in the state that's what we've been asking for all along uh especially in the school district with the makeup of this school district that we need more funding to support our our at students um and it was just really amazing to watch her go down to the capital and work with other superintendents and stand up for what was right ultimately um and I'm just really proud of this school district and Dr pilch for for doing what we did um
080and uh the last thing I'll mention before I turn over to miss sponsoring Dr pilch is that they did put an end to the BS Factor so they have quote fully funded uh K the K12 budget of course we have about a billion dollar deficit to make up for the last however many years um for a lack of funding but it is really beneficial to see lawmakers put an end to the budget stabilization Factor we're really um thankful to the general assembly for doing that so um I am not sure if there's any specific questions on school funding um but I will let the sponsoring Dr pill take from here you're too kind Mr fall thank you for your kind words it was a team effort do you want us to review it with you
081all a little bit or do you feel like you have have pretty good yeah we good on time yeah you got lots of time quick quick review and then we'll let um so maybe and maybe I'll just start with kind of the the process which is um I've never I've never been this deeply involved in working to pass a piece of legislation um as what I was with this one and so you know there's a lot of hurry up and wait through the process and um you know there was a time through the process where we thought it might even have have been killed and we wouldn't be going forward and then we um speaker mesy worked really hard to figure out a compromise to figure out what it was going to take to get
082key organizations in the state on board um was supporting this and and really turned some things around um one of those pieces there were a couple of uh initially there were a couple of pieces in the legislation that asked for studies to be done around um average daily membership or average daily attendance that also indicated we were moving to that and then there was another uh pie in the original legislation that asked um for a study of or a study of of what we would call backpacking the dollars or sending the dollars directly um to earmarked schools for earmarked students students who qualified under these uh factors and so uh both of those pieces came out of that original legislation in order to bring on some special interest groups in the state and and advocates
083for K12 in the state who who we really needed in order to to make this go in both the house and the Senate um then um we you know so the way it really landed is that um the factors are I think the easiest way to explain it is are rearranged and so factors that received a very high count in the past became much less significant in the new formula and factors that were not included or that received a lower count or lower weight um have were moved up in the actual formula um for allocation and so the biggest pieces for us were to get um poverty or at risk and English language Learners where each would get a weight so presently under the current funding formula that a student can be an English language
084learner and a student can qualify for free and reduce lunch but we only get a wait for one of those criteria we don't get a wait for both and what a student who's living in poverty needs um can be very different than what a student who's an English language learner might need and that student who is the same student is going to have different needs than a student who just lives in poverty or a student who is just qualifying for English language learning and so that was a big win for us because because of the students who we serve the demographic we serve here in district 6 um there's also additional dollars for special education which will benefit every District in the state of Colorado when those dollar when that piece is fully implemented it
085it is not fully implemented next school year um the special education piece as I understand it so it it it will be a piece they come back and look at um the the um it is accurate that districts are being held harmless so no district will receive less money than they had received the previous year um and um but the I think districts I was on a call today with superintendant what was evident to me on that call was at least one of the super tenants didn't fully understand that and as they're looking at their projections for next year they're seeing the changes in how property ta property taxes are going to be assessed and um if you like what we realized this year when values homes were allowed to be valued at a lower
086value than what they had been um officially assessed at that meant less dollars on the mill Levy over right for us so um I think superintendents are still working to understand this especially many of them had did not stay as close to this as what we did um to really follow it but it it means about 3 million plus to us um the first year and that dollar that amount will continue to grow annually up to about 20 million 18 million um in six years out so it's you know it's it's truly a benefit for district 6 there is a a piece in there and this was another piece of getting it through the Senate with was to a piece to address what if what if the money is just not there what if we
087can't sustain this and so um there was an amendment put in well it was in the Senate um to allow for um the the joint budget committee No No Yeah The Joint budget for some reason the joint budget committee can pause um the increas and funding annually if if it looks like the dollars are not there um to implement it that next school year so that gave comfort in the Senate I think um for supporting this and as a result the legislation passed 55 to7 um with the whole legislature and so it was a huge win um I I do want to share that uh throughout this President Matthew's remark about somewhere in Colorado a third grader has a cure for cancer and it it should not be determined that that third grader's needs are
088met to be able to to realize that um by where they live and so it's pretty exciting that you your quote became really a label of you know an earmark throughout this battle um and it you know I think this is a time when it's really appropriate for us to thank those legislators of ours who supported this um and who who really hang in there with this in particular the sponsors of the bill I mean they they hung in there they worked through solutions they work the back doors significantly to get the votes needed um and and it actually passed with far more votes than I think many many of us who were watching this anticipated so um it's it is a victory um it hasn't come without some hurt feelings and there are school
089districts that are very disappointed about this and and um really feel like you know they they are losing something in order to for other districts like ours to benefit and so um we'll continue to work on those relationships and help people to understand how it's actually going to work but with our neighbors especially um so Megan what else would you add I think you hit all the high points I guess I would add that one of the pieces that was important for smaller districts in W County um they added a new kind of remoteness and local factor is what they're calling it so that small districts can benefit from these changes it's kind of interesting when you dig into the math how some some would benefit and others didn't necessarily benefit and so I think
090they they did some changes towards the end to try to fix that so the small districts really do see and it also has to do with um the square footage of the dist or the square acreage of the district square footage Square acreage square miles thank you I got the word square miles of the district so districts where you have significant um land between sites in that District District there's some advantage to those districts as well because it's you know you here if we were to offer something at um say at Northridge that we had a course that a high school student really wanted to take and it happens now um and we didn't have that course at another high school they they can go and access that at North Bridget if you're in some
091of these very you know remote schools that they don't have that kind of opportunity to get to another site for something that's offered you know a middle schooler to go to a high school for example for a course so um you know we I of course felt that the need to be a strong voice for our rural districts most of the districts in W County are Rural and small districts we are the large one and so we you know we have some responsibility and and helping looking for a win for them as well so it's actually written into law that the budget stabilization factor is gone or can and they just use it again next year if they left they left language that is a loophole if they need it in the future yeah yeah
092they could come back to it I me they could and and they're prepared to if they need to unfortunately you know if the state would go into a significant recession or downturn um right they could go back to that can you speak again one more time on how they they came up with the money to fund it I know that that was a concern yeah was thank you Mr Zary yes so it's really um it's it's really their their Reserve you heard Megan talk earlier this evening about our Reserve it's really the state Reserve um and it's the um school education fund and it it continues to grow and has continued to grow every year as more and more um revenue is collected um from taxpayers and um and as local entities are able to
093fund full program without having the state having to backfill as much that then it can grow as well um so there's half a billion in there right now there's 1.5 billion 1.5 billion in there right now um and this proposal this first year will cost um about 95 million yeah so not even a million exactly so um there's confidence that not only will the state ad fund continue to grow um but but it's already very healthy um but this was an important piece in this because there was this fear that if we spend down all the state Ed fund and then you don't you know then you don't have money for a rainy day um and so I think I think that's where this language around allowing The Joint budget committee if they need to
094to put a PA on this annually was so important because if something should happen and that state dead fund doesn't continue to grow doesn't continue to be healthy then we may need a pause for that reason Megan what else about that well I think one thing that I think people don't really understand is that the State education fund is truly intended to grow year after year and there's a percentage of tax collections that go into that fund so it's not like we would be continually drawing down that balance it will it grows every year yeah it'll get money added to it so I think people just saw this as a a piggy bank that's going to go down in value but it will continue to get money into it as well it became it became
095a piece that that Drew a lot of attention um of the opposition I mean they used that a lot around sustainability and the reduction in the state aded fund to really fight this um and those organizations and districts that use that the most are many of those districts are also facing declining enrollment and so they're you know they're they're fearful of what that means in their districts around funding as they're facing declining enrollment when you said our neighbors you mean a lot of our neighbors on the other side of I25 is that right well I don't think so when I was talking to our neighbors I was talking about the support for this and wanting to support um our other neighbors in Well County and and um right now like Windsor for example they don't
096really win from this and so you know we want to maintain that good relationship with Windsor um same with pter same with pter and Thompson yes so those as well yeah so we also the other piece that's in the legislation that Megan and I didn't talk about is um there was an increase in the mil Levy override match um dollars and so what has happened in the past is we've not been you know those dollars are spent out on the match before they get to District six um and so they added additional dollars to that mevy override match and and actually we should now benefit from that M Levy override match program that exists the other thing that was it came late in the legislation was lifting the ceiling on um the M Levy override
097cap and so um that would allow some districts who have capped out their mil Levy override by having gone to their voters multiple times to actually increase their cap and go further in by going back going to their voters um we we are nowhere near our our cap um and we don't intend to go back to the voters to to fill that but there may be districts that will do that that was one of those negotiated points that yeah got more people on board some of the so some of the very large affluent districts um that's what it took to to bring them either to neutral or to support the matching is the new thing or we just well that's always been in law that's always been in law but well it's fairly new I
098years years yeah and you would think that just by the theory behind it was to help districts like ours that have kind of low property wealth but have a m heavy override to increase that so that we're more on even playing field with districts with high property values and so to me it was always kind of strange that when you get down into the nitty-gritty of it we didn't qualify and so the dollars were gone yeah right and so they have changed that calculation and it actually goes into effect this current school year so we will see money coming in I think sometime this month um to pay us for that based on this statute so it's beneficial and I think going forward we should continue to benefit from that they do part of the
099legislation is to form a work group to look at that calculation and then figure out how to make that work so so really I think a lot of districts we weren't even um fully aware of this and so um it was the superintendent in Adams 12 Chris gadowski who really brought this to everyone's attention ention and really um really worked hard to make districts aware of this and to to get this as a part of this legislation and and so it's 800,000 or so to district 6 annually any other questions all right well thank you Mr fall Miss spor thank you Dr Phill all of your work on this yeah and I want to thank them as well and you know I might I was the one on hold as you were the one on
100hold the time before waiting to testify but it really was Miss sponsor and Miss Myers who were my phone and friend and you know as I could kind of see what was coming I was texting them um for for support and guidance and and our lobbyist an barcus was remarkable and she has fought for school Finance for 25 years and so this was a huge win for her to be a big part of this and and I mean she's fought for underserved students in the state for over two decades and um so for her to be a part of this was huge too as she said there was in 2013 she was fighting this and in gy and it was just there were two school districts it was gy and uh and one of school
101district that's how long we've been trying to get this formula changed but but thank thank you for for Lending your voice and and credibility in the state to to make this happen all right we are to debriefing the work session so Mr aari well obviously a big thank you to our state legislators uh who had the vision of seeing that all of our students in the state of Colorado need support and should not be denied access to opportunity so big big shout out to the legislators and to the work of the folks in this District who shared in that um also uh thanking folks in advance for the work that's going to be coming down the road in regards to the new legislation that's been passed and how that's going to affect our policies and
102um I look forward to having opportunities uh for our students along those lines as well and then finally um a u a thank you to the curriculum folks I've been on those curriculum councils and that too is a lot of work and a lot of thought goes into it and Advance thinking what happens if looking down the road and I I think we got awesome staff members here and my feeling is awesome staff members who give a lot of time to to make sure our kids have great instructional opportunities so thank you Mr bin yeah it's good to hear um the curriculum updates and and the the whole pitcher thinking that they're doing you know to kind of streamline the systems and piggy back off of existing stuff we already have so it's always interesting
103and good to see that um also the uh legislative updates are always very informative um overall it seems like a fairly good good year not nothing quite as scary as some years past you know there have there have been some very detrimental bills that are attempted or have passed but um you know and then obviously the the finance Act is is huge and it's going to make a huge difference in what what we're able to do as a district in the coming years so very exciting appreciate everybody's hard work yeah I know a lot of work goes into the curriculums and uh thank you to everybody that worked on the curriculums to Nate Dr pilch Megan and Michael thank you guys for working on school funding I don't think people really realize how much work
104you guys had to put in for that so you know thank you for your time makes a big difference to our district and to the state as well too so busy couple weeks coming up graduations right around the corner so here we go Dr Kim spitzy yeah so also wanted to thank the uh curriculum adoption councils and committees um I did not realize how much work goes into that and how many people are involved um but really cool to see that even um the curriculum gets piloted out before coming up with a final decision I know I'm sure there's a lot of vendors uh trying to get get us to to pick their curriculum so just thought it was really research based and and a lot of stakeholders were were brought into that um which
105I I think is great and then the legislative update overall pleased with uh the past and failed legislation except for the core 1 um but obviously extremely pleased with the new funding formula um and and extremely proud of our district um our superintendent being a champion for that uh change that that will impact not just kids in district 6 but really across the state who are at risk um so it's yeah going to be a busy next couple weeks but really excited about graduation season yeah um same thanks everyone for the work on the curriculum thank you for the work on the funding um formula and um Dr pill to just commend your um focus on relationship building I heard you mention that you know after the fact as well but um I think the
106work that you did wasn't wouldn't have been possible if you didn't already have those positive relationship so I appreciate that focus in your leadership style and I'm wondering Natalie is this is this potentially your last meeting with us or will you be here in a month uh this is my last meeting with you guys yes I will be in um York Nebraska at my annual Church camp that I go to um so I won't be here um but I think it was a great meeting I like always learned so much from all of the things that the district does especially Dr pilch it's been a pleasure um just seeing how you guys work together and seeing the care that you guys have for us students um I still have two younger sisters that are um
107going to still stay here um well they're both at mcauliff um and so again I'm just super grateful for all of you um I'm like getting emotional we like it's very sad um knowing that my time here in district 6 is coming to an end but I am very grateful for for everything so and thank you for cuz you've been our superintendent since I was little so a I I remember when you came and visited my schools so it's been um an emotional couple of weeks but yeah I just wanted to say thank you and you guys are all um stepping stones into my career into what I want to be like in the future so yeah I appreciate you all we appreciate you and the time that you've committed to this because it's been
108significant um and so we we appreciate having your voice and U not just a student voice but but truly a wise student voice um so I'm just getting to know you over over the last year but and best wishes in Colorado Mesa yeah and you know you can always come back I most definitely will it's just four years it'll go by it'll go by goes by so quickly so and I guys I don't have anything else uh to add uh just thank you thank you for for your participation and and good questions and the meeting so the work session is adjourned and we'll see everyone back at 6 o'clock [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]