Greeley Evans School District 6 Board of Education Meeting October 9, 2023

001[Applause] [Music] well good evening welcome to the Board of Education meeting for G Evan school district 6 today is the 9th day of October 2023 this meeting will now come to order please stand and join us for the pledge of allegiance to our flag I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all Miss will you call the RO for us please director Bentley pres director Campos Fitzy present director Mash present director Matthews present director Norwood present director papis present director Sullivan present all board members present thank you Miss lemon again welcome to the Board of Education meeting for G Evan school district 6 we are glad that you are with us whether you

002are in person or watching this online or watching this at a later date we uh we do thank you for joining uh this meeting just a few announcements that I have to to start a off uh one in case you missed it uh October 3rd was Colorado proud School Meal day and this is a day that celebrates Colorado's Agriculture and educates K12 students about healthy eating and where their food comes from and and this is something we've we've discovered recently when we have a fantastic nutrition services team in in district 6 and but only recently when the secretary of agriculture visited district 6 did we find out exactly how how much of our school food how much of the the food that our students eat every day is grown locally and what that means for

003for local producers and so we certainly want to celebrate that uh very proud of our nutrition services team and the work that they do every day um also wanted to give a a shout out to a few athletes and one is Ramina tzone carata and Ramina is Christa malli student her teachers describe her as an um as someone with an infectious smile and a positive attitude and she participated recently in a cross- country event and what is unique about Romania is that is that she's blind uh she's um which there there are a lot of things that our students with uh visual impairments can do uh rather easily but but running cross country is not one of those and so she made it a goal to participate and uh to complete a CrossCountry event and

004did that with the help of one of her teachers and so uh fantastic FC uh accomplishment and we want to congratulate her we also want to congratulate uh gy centrals Allison as is air alarz and uh Allison is a is a St soccer student and he has 19 goals oh there we go uh 19 goals in 10 games he he's actually leading the leading the state of Colorado in goals and if you think about that 19 goals in 10 games that's about that's about two goals a game which um which is pretty remarkable uh and then finally I want to give a shout out to David Lopez genuinely like one another and uh the students at West generally like the students at Central and so we um just wanted to to let everyone know we

005have some incredible students and they they do demonstrate some incredible behaviors and especially uh at some difficult times like when when you lose to gy West and so um those are all the announcements that I have tonight and we'll move on in our agenda and the next item is to approve an agenda so if someone would be so kind as to make a motion I move that the Board of Education of gy Evans school district 6 approves the agenda as presented second thank you both is there any discussion on the agenda seeing none Miss lemman will you give us a vote please director Bentley I director Campos spitsy I director Mash I director Matthews I director Norwood I director papis I director Sullivan I motion car 70 thank you Miss lemon next on our agenda

006are our board member comments and reports and tonight we'll start with Miss Sullivan uh well I've got only a couple things to report on there one that I went to the frontier Jazz uh and band and their concert band and they have a very small group this year but they have a lot of great sound and they don't have a marching band so what's really neat this year and last year um I guess it's been about three years that I've really been watching a grow but uh uh has a marching band and they bring in kids from uh area schools to participate and whatnot and since Frontier does not have a marching band They team up with them and uh last year they did go to State and it looks like they're off to a

007good start and um there's a district six um Invitational coming on the schedule that's going to be a lot of the schools I think what is it the 21st and uh yeah all the schools are going to be in on that so that should be some good ones to go see as well but uh the other event was uh the uh football game that was on Thursday night I didn't get to stay for the whole thing because it ran way late past my bedtime but um it was good up until the time I had to head home I guess uh Kyle will finish up on that one thank you Miss Sullivan next tonight um Dr campus spitzy so since our last board meeting um the board directors had a chance to visit Jefferson Jr hi

008um they have a new building this year um they were previously in the Cameron building and now they're at the Old Jefferson High School building um so out in East gy um it was such a great visit um it was tie dy I forget if it was Thursday that we went um and we got to hear how passionate U Miss Trisha Baron the principal and Mr Corey Atkinson are about their school they really are a dream team they care so much about these students um and I really think that that school embodies that we believe that all students can achieve and that all means all um these students are given more opportunities to practice what we call restorative practices so when they disrupt the classroom instead of hearing you know you did something wrong um

009we're going to suspend you from school things that they've heard over and over and over throughout their academic Journey instead they're brought into a room where they're supported and they're taught anger management skills and how to regulate their emotions um the school has a great partnership with North range Behavioral Health um in order to enable them to do that type of restorative practice um we got to go into one of the classrooms where the kids were learning how to make tostadas with Joe Ortiz one of the teachers um in the building he is such a passionate individual and he himself has gone out and formed all these Community Partnerships just to benefit his students he has construction worker friends who've agreed to take some of his students on he works with journey homes Lowe's AMS

010Community College um and Carl's Jr and just a real positive visit and um an example again of of our District's hard work in not letting any student fall through the cracks um this last couple weeks I also got to go to a fundraising effort called Play it Forward put on by the grey Philharmonic Orchestra um and it's a program to um well the fundraising program was to raise funds in order for us to purchase um expensive instruments for our students who could otherwise not afford some of these instruments and to allow our kids to have access to some of these special programs um and then because it's the very end of Hispanic Heritage Month I wanted to put in a plug for an event this Friday um so it's happening at the UNCC Campus Commons

011it's called celos which means let's celebrate and it's a festival latinx music and culture so UNCC is actually launching their Bachelor of Arts in latinx music degree program so a specific Bachelor of Arts um for latinx music they're going to have Alfredo Rodriguez there he does Fusion of Latin African Jazz and classical Melodies um there will if you purchase a ticket and you're adult you can have free Mexican logger in South American wine tasting um so it should be a really great event it starts at 5: um and actually some of our students will be performing um mariachi music at 5:45 um Mariachi from Sala Del Sol will be performing as well as some other miai bands so hope you guys can make it thank you Dr Kus spitzy Mr Bentley yeah we had a

012pretty busy uh couple weeks um 27th of September got to go to uh the Evans Chamber of Commerce somehow your mic's not I know it's on yeah sorry my bad anyways on the 27th of September we went to uh chapelo host Evans Chamber of Commerce it was nice to uh see Evans and that group of people we we get around the city of gy a lot so just to kind of rub shoulders and chat with everybody in Evans that came to that was uh a nice change of scenery um and got to kind of show them around the Chapo building and and everything they got going on in Evans through District dist six um then we like Dr Brenda said we went to Jefferson Junior High which is at the old high school which is

013more adequately suited for a junior high but um it was it was very interesting to I think I've been there once before but not since they moved just to kind of see their processes and see how much thought and and and and detail and and uh dedication just goes into touching those kids that that maybe don't fit in in the regular school system um you know that that come from different backgrounds or different challenges and stuff and uh just just their their Grace that they have with them and and the way they they go about it you can just see it paying dividends in those kids and the way that they're getting uh those kids to interact and the the relationships they're building it was it was really neat to see uh it was and

014it was and it was refreshing to hear that they have room to grow there too so they're not at capacity which is pretty rare for any schools right now so um just to see that they had room to grow and uh that they're really proud of their their upgraded building in New in new place was was fun uh and then 104 we got to go to the great education Colorado an luncheon um my last year was my first time we got award for the CTE Center and it was nice to go down there again and just kind of see everybody and and just be a part of that so um other than that I did get to go see a couple uh games and volleyball games uh I think that game just barely against uh

015I think it was Weld Central we won 56 to 29 or something so that was that was fun I think something was wrong with the clock in the third quarter so it was like an hour and a half half long quarter it was really everybody was like why how are we still in the third quarter but um the uh the middle school girls volleyball team won their tournament in KY this weekend and so they they've been having a lot of success and the volleyball team looks like it's going to be good for for years to come over there so lots of things to be excited about thank you Mr Bentley Miss mash um so yes I also enjoyed the Jefferson Jr uh visit um just another piece of the GPO a gy Phil harmonic Orchestra

016fundraiser um they also have a Youth Orchestra that was um underway before the pandemic and then of course sort of took a Hiatus and so they're trying to well I think it is back um there's some really cool things they do with that one of the resident composer with the gy fil harmonic has been going to some of our schools and helping the kids compose their own Melodies and there's even a contest called the magic baton contest where a student gets to create a melody and then the GOP plays it so that must be a really amazing experience for student um so that was just another example of amazing Partnerships throughout um the city and community that work with with district 6 um I guess maybe I just took the opportunity to wear a hoodie

017but I'm celebrating UNC week uh we we declared that last week and um I've just had a refreshed um appreciation for UNC because I went on a tour with my college-bound daughter today and um it was just it was just wonderful I mean I I've lived in GLE my whole life and so I you know I don't know ridden my bike through campus we've played disc golf and just lots of different things but I haven't seen it from the perspective student side and um a couple of things that just really stuck out to me is um they call themselves a Goldilocks institution because they are just right in the middle in terms of size and it's um a 14 to1 student to Professor ratio so you can get a lot of individualized um care there

018at UNCC and then also 91% of their graduates at six months are either um employed in their field or in graduate school so that's just a really excellent statistic that um students who graduate from UNC are really well prepared um for their future so just another shout out to UNCC and I I hope they enjoy their homecoming week um I also wanted to um recognize indigenous people's day today um I know we have a small percentage of our students who come from a Native American Heritage um but we just want to celebrate and honor um their history hisory and their culture thank you thank you miss m Mr Norwood thank you I did get a chance last week to go out and watch Northridge unfortunately it was their first loss of the season the football

019team so everybody else was watching uh I got a chance to go out to Northridge and I do want to say too it is homecoming week at UNC my all mam Mater um got to throw a a a hello out to my former business law teacher who I run into in town sometimes Mr Glenn drog Mueller uh still the only class that I ever took in college that I didn't have to take the final because I had the highest score in the class usually I had the lowest score but that was because my freshman year was the best five years of my life but um it's it's uh it's nice to get a chance to have a university like UNCC right in our neighborhood um the education program everything that they do there is uh

020fantastic and I did want want to give a quick shout out to Amy who whenever you text her whether it be on work days or weekends she's always willing to help and I had a couple classes that I had to take and it was on a Saturday that I got to them so I want to say thank you for your help thank you Mr Norwood Miss papis um just a couple things uh that these have already been talked about a little bit but Jefferson Junior High visit yes it's always great to visit Jefferson Junior High um I would just like to remind people that uh we have had an alternative um program for our Junior High kids middle school kids several years ago and I just want to stress the importance of um systems and

021how important it is for us to remember that we do have our i2030 and it's important for us to realize that our mission is to educate every student and I think it might have been Dr Brenda that mentioned um just providing that support for every students so just a shout out for the administrative staff at Jefferson Jr and also Dr pilch and her staff for realizing that this is a commitment to our kids and it's it's important and commitment and then the greater Ed um great education luncheon they had there was a student panel from students across the state and their focus of the panel discussion was um mental health and wellness and so it was interesting to listen to them talk about um how important mental health is and also the stressing of us

022getting student voices in the conversations and I think that that stood out a lot to all of us and just made me feel so grateful that we have our Council of student reps here tonight and every meeting um just to give that voice to what we do in this District so thank you for being here and then um it we do have an election coming up Schoolboard election and I would just like to encourage people to investigate research be informed about Schoolboard candidates vote it's very very important it's hard sometimes on an off election year but it is important and we do have a Schoolboard election coming up so just a shout out for that and then World Project Connect um many of you probably know that United Way is hosting World Project Connect on

023October 19th and this is a phenomenal opportunity for all of our community members to re to receive um access to resources that are free and um comprehensive in their um just comprehensive opportunity for our our communities to get resources so um I think that's all thanks thank you Miss paps and I'll just conclude uh saying yes we KY and I did get to go uh to chapelo and welcome our um our Evans representatives there and get to show that school off and that's always it's always fun to get to do that and to show a new space to to people who haven't seen it and there certainly our business community and evidence is is very connected to the to the school district but it's always fun to get to show that off and also went

024to Jefferson Jr and the the thing that I would remind everybody about about Jefferson Jr is that it's uh yes it's a it's a great school and a great program and we're we're so thankful to have that in our district um but those are those are small classes and small classes are are our most expensive classes and you think about when you think about it that way right you're you're diving up teachers to to less students and when we have classes that are that are intentionally that small and uh making that kind of impact they they are our most expensive schools and so even though it's not directly connected to our M milley override it is certainly um it is possible because of our M everyy override and so it's just another occasion to thank

025the voters and uh say this is this is how important this money is to to locally fund uh local school districts and we appre appreciate it uh very much uh and then finally the great as Miss papis mentioned the great education lunching was was a lot of fun to go and to hear what what's happening around the state and as she said uh so many students uh who there was a student panel said that um that they wanted a greater voice and so I want to thank again thank our students and I wanted to introduce you guys I meant to do that earlier so we have uh Reagan um mandelis did I say that correctly Reagan uh and Natalie Lisa V Valenzuela did I say that correctly Natalie okay um well thank you guys for

026being here tonight thank you for uh and thanks thank you for having the Council of student Representatives here tonight to uh present to us so that's all I have tonight and we're on to our work session report the work session began with an overview of upcoming engagement opportunities for board members legal council Nathan fall presented an update on UPC on excuse me the upcoming legislative session the work session concluded with the opportunity for board members to provide comments and reports thank you Miss lemon and next on our agenda is our Council of student Representatives report good evening Dr filch director Matthews board members I'm Aaron Allen principal at North Ridge High School uh I also co-lead the Council of student Representatives alongside Victoria lonard and assistant principal at gevy Central High School this is my

027second year supporting this Council and I'm continually inspired by the talent and commitment of our members especially our leadership team this year once again we have an amazing leadership team and I'd like to introduce them we have Natalie Lisa from early college academy uh she is our Dynamic communications director and her her um dedication doesn't stop there she's been a board member a student board member at our recent meetings we have lah techla from gly Central High School she is our secretary ensuring that we're organized and prepared for our endeavors Richard Alania from Union Colony returns to our Council leadership team for a second year this time he's our vice president which shows his his passion and commitment to our district and finally we have Reagan medelis from groy Central uh she has been with

028CSR for 3 years and as president of C she is our driving force behind our initiatives and aspirations these students are here today to share insights into their work for the year here is Reagan to share more about the council hello board members it's great to see you all again I'm rean mellis a senior at gy Central and I am serving as this year's CSR Council of student Representatives president this is my third year with CSR and I have been absolutely absolutely grateful for the experiences it has provided as well as the long lasting relationships I have developed the Council of student representative is a comprehensive group of students from the high schools in district 6 principles choose students they believe will show exceptional leadership and involvement who CSR invites to join at the end

029of the school year a typical club meeting looks like this in introductions to make sure the members know each other's names and feel comfortable with one another a team bonding activity to encourage social interactions between members and further emphasize the comfortability of communicating and then we get into business planning whatever event we have worked together to decide on sometimes we mention board meetings as the members from each of the schools will be coming to present to you all throughout the year we set up these school presentations as a way for everyone to hear about the high schools from student perspectives which we believe is incredibly important in the past we have put on some meaningful events for the city and District putting a large focus on the community aspect my first year we started off

030ambitious using our entire year of CSR meetings to plan a carnival that was truly successful it was Community oriented ensuring that families could attend without having to consider Financial situations though donations were accepted upon entry and those funds went to the Colorado Children's Hospital we had a bouncy house balloon animals and many fun activities my second year we had a successful movie night replicating our donations accepted upon entry ideals to make sure families could attend regardless we had our movie showing in two locations in gy West with a few games on the side the kids really seem to enjoy it this year our first event that we have decided on is a volleyball tournament which our secretary lulia will tell you more about hi my name is lulia teet and I'm the secretary of CSR

031I'm a senior and represent Central at CSR R and this is my first year CSR is a group of students and staff that work to bring together all the different communities in our district it is an emphasis on student voice and an emphasis on engagement which we are passionate to spread we as a team hope to share um and connect all of our different communities in district 6 I'm glad to be part of such a passion and connection oriented group it is a reminder that connection is most important in our lives um but even though we sometimes get sidetracked with all the important like tasks that we have to complete and all the different deadlines and steps we have to do um and to help bring the community that is district 6 together we plan

032events that include a wide variety of people here for one like Reagan just um mentioned we are currently planning a volleyball tournament that is CSR hosted we plan for different people to sign up and create teams that will play against each other we have decided that the teams will be intermixed with both students and staff on the teams and as members we're planning to have it sometime early next year and we're planning more towards January we can't wait to get so many people involved and even hope you will join us we hope to see how competitive you are so to hint at another project we're planning it's a block party and you'll know more about it SE next semester so you got to stay tuned um thank you for your time Richard Elia will discuss

033more regarding the connection aspect of CSR it is a good afternoon uh board members my name is Richard Freddy alanan kto and I'm a senior at un coling prepory school and I want to talk about equality which is really important to me and what I love the most about CSR as you can see here my fellow officers and I come from different backgrounds and upbringings but CSR CSR brings us together it brings us together to collaborate and share ideas with each other in order to give a collective voice for our entire student body which would not be possible with just one student when we are able to come together we're able to hold such events like districtwide carnivals movie nights and more we also over these next coming weeks we will have each groups of

034students from their schools have their voice heard at meetings like this in order to highlight and express an area of concern for their own High School in which they attend so that's why to me groups like CSR further emphasize the power of unity and the greater possibilities that open up as CSR brings students across dist together I also love and appreciate the professional and personal relationships I have built through CSR it has provided me with plenty of New Opportunities and experiences that my younger Middle School self would have never imagined it has further opened my eyes and shed a light in this community of people where I stand today in this district 6 building I see the future being built for our students now and tomorrow and I myself am so happy to see that

035happen because I do not think I would have known any of this if it wasn't for CSR so I owe it all to CSR for what it has done for me and I hope it can do the same for other students in the far or near future like it once did for me I now pass the mic to our new first year member Natalie good afternoon fellow board members my name is Natalie Lisa Valenzuela I'm a senior at Early College Academy I have a number of responsibilities in CSR the communication specialist the treasur and the permanent CSR representative at board meetings this year is my first year ever being a part of CSR and I've learned to understand what CSR represents just like all members we have been involved and always strived in representing the

036idea of what teamwork and Leadership can do at our home schools that is certainly what I think gave all our members this opportunity knowing this I hope CSR is just that but many more things I hope that we are able to build a stronger connection among the other schools create strong leaders help the community through our projects but through it all continue to strive as a district csr's main goal this year is to spread the message of the true importance and values that we want to achieve for our fellow classmates and Community we thank the board for allowing us the opportunity to help prove what student leaders can do for the district we are looking forward to everyone seeing the great things we are planning but above all else I think about csr's future the

037wonderful things that are to come and the Great accomplishments that come alongside it all with that being said we look forward to an amazing year thank you well actually now wean with something overall we would like to thank Miss Terry papis for her incredible involvement in CSR over the years she has attended many of our meetings and I have enjoyed working with her since my first year in CSR 3 years ago I know we all have greatly appreciated her work and guidance within the CSR team we all make one request that we could find another board member with the same heart kindness patience and thoughtfulness to support our team as she retires from the board thank you all so much thank you rean don't go anywhere just yet I think we might have some board

038member questions or comments for you uh Dr Campos spitzy so I like to hear you guys talk about community and connectedness I think that's so important and I think it actually speaks of the four of you as individuals that I did not meet you here for the first time I met rean and Richard at in Colorado Springs they were at the Colorado Association of Schoolboard conference at the Broadmore Hotel and I met lulua at the link library because she's part of the student health advisory Council and I met Natalie at my clinic at Sunrise because she was doing a paid internship there and she got to Shadow me for a half day so anyway you guys are the embodiment of what it means to be connected and in the community and I'm so proud that

039you guys are our students Miss Mes I would like to sign up for the volleyball tournament please that sounds like a lot of fun I played in high school but that was a long time ago but that would be a lot of fun um I was wondering what your membership looks like this year if you have like a certain number of students like student spots or um how you're kind of recruiting and spreading the message so typically we go for more new members at the end of the year um inviting them to our final meeting so they can see basically what the other members have gone through um we try to go for prestigious like students um that really show hard work and Leadership um right now we have about four members per school um

040yeah that's great and then will some of you be attend attending the Colorado Association of school boards meeting again this year yeah uh all of our officers will be attending that's great well yes thank you so much for your time and you are all um excellent representations for district 6 Miss beis um thank you Reagan for your kind words um I just want to say it's been an honor to be the leaz on for the last four years I think on the Council of student reps and I have enjoyed every minute that I've spent um at every meeting so thank you very much for that and I'm pretty sure there will be a few people wanting to take my role so we'll we'll keep you informed on that but thank you so much for coming

041tonight and thank you for bringing your voice into our boardroom yeah thank thank you guys I certainly want to Echo what Miss papis just said we we appreciate uh for for years this group has has done so much good in our in our district and provided us with updates with what's happening in your schools and what uh what how students are feeling about about their schools but uh certainly having you here with us uh on a um every time we meet it's uh it provides so much for us and I want to you have spoken out uh that's what I appreciate about you that you don't just don't just sit there but when we are discussing something important you you tell us what you think and I want to encour encourage you to continue to

042do that because we do appreciate your opinions so thank you for being here tonight and we'll do our best to try to replace Miss papis she'll leave a lot of holes next tonight we have our superintendent report and that includes uh the superintendent's honor rooll so Dr pilch I will hand it over to you thank you so much president Matthews uh I too will Echo the positive comments for our Council student reps I'm just so pleased to have you here and and great to have you sitting in these chairs next to us and encourage your participation and all that all of you students do districtwide thank you so much and I look forward to getting to come meet with you all and and hearing from you uh so um our honor rooll tonight our nominee

043was for Laura sneesby who is an educator at Maplewood Elementary but teachers are in parent teacher conferences tonight and so we'll recognize Laura at our next meeting um I will just remind everyone if you have someone you want to uh nominate for the superintendent honor rooll you can certainly do that you can do that by going to our district website and going to superintendent honor rooll um I just had it sent to me so I'm going to tell you it exactly you go to our website you go to our district and then you go to superintendent honoral nominations so just two clicks and then you can fill out that form to have someone nominated for superintendent honor role um and then on the superintendent report tonight I'll just say that we've made it through two

044homecomings North rd's homecoming and gy West's homecoming fortunately they both had wins at their football game that always makes for better homecoming weekend when uh we win and then this weekend gy Central High School has their homecoming and we can hope for a win for them as well lots of lots of good work going on throughout the district I've had a chance to be in most of our schools now and greet most of our staffs and I'll just say that teachers are in a really good place which I think those of you who were able to be at the convocation you got to see that that our educators are they're in a good place they're feeling supported they're feeling energized about working with the amazing students that we serve every day and and just really

045really glad to have them here later in our report tonight you will hear about recruiting and uh attracting recruiting and retaining quality staff it's the most important thing we do who we put in front of our students so I'd really have enjoyed my time out with stabs and I still have a few schools to get to um but we'll get there in the next few weeks thank you so much president Matthews thank you Dr pilch next on our agenda is that Innovation 2030 goal 2 update that Dr Pils just referenced it's on operational and organizational Effectiveness recruiting hiring and retention and so I see uh misset Overton coming coming forward but Dr pilch is there anything you would like to see say in introduction thank you president Matthews and uh Mrs Overton has a couple

046of our directors from Human Resources who are joining her also and I will just say again the most important thing we do is hire well and then retain people in every position that we have in the district and um we started a new motto this year that that every employee should be viewed as Irreplaceable you can't be replaced we need you here we want you here and we want to support you to be able to stay here and be successful and do your life's work with our students so with that I'll pass it to you Mrs Overton thank you Dr pilch and uh good evening president Matthews and members of the board as Dr pilch said that we're here tonight to give you an update on the things that we've been doing over the past

047year as it relates to operational organizational Effectiveness you know that the mission is uh of innovation 2030 is that we engage every student in a personalized and well-rounded excellent education preparing them it went off it happens just keep going keep going okay um preparing students to be College and Career ready and then that supports the mission I mean the vision that we have in Innovation 2030 district 6 engages empowers and inspires today's students in partnership with families and communities to succeed in tomorrow's world the values that you have established in Innovation 2030 that relates specifically to what we do is that we believe in diversity as a strength and then we commit to hiring and retaining quality staff we also commit to Excellence Innovation and continuous Improvement the four goal areas here are that are

048um part of the Strategic plan the one particularly associated with us tonight is the operational and organizational Effectiveness and that goal area is that we ensure innovation transparency and accountability to our community Through measurable outcomes and continuous Improvement that goal area bringing it down a little bit is to maximize the recruitment hiring and retention of all employees in the district that's what our work is centered around and that's what we're going to talk about tonight so we'll spend a little bit of time reviewing our retention planning and progress in this objective area and the two outcomes that are associated with this retention objective are listed here annually outperforming the state average retention so it's comparing us to the state retention rate it also increases the we um are working to increase the rates internally for

049all employee groups the actions that we associate with retention in this retention objective really are centered around Exit and Sur exit survey and interviews and we continue to find ways to support and appreciate our substitutes we look for opportunities to get the word out about site retention and useful strategies to retain staff we're celebrating the employees through our pin recognition program and then we work collaborative collaboratively with our Teachers Association to design a calendar that works for our families and works for our staff data from the surveys that we have um showed what it took to take employees to um take what it would take for employees to return to district 6 the employees responded with um continue to increase pay and benefits keep a focus on that provide career ladder opportunities and then if

050they had the opportunity to relocate to the area they would do it they would come back to district 6 and they would offer better support systems if we could offer better support systems improve building culture and build administrative relationships those are important things that our employees told us to keep keep our eyes on overall employees said that they love the staff and they love the students here in district 6 that contributes to a positive work environment for for them so Panorama survey is another method that we use to collect information from families School staff and from students this year a new survey for operational staff was distributed that gives employees on the operational side of the house the opportunity to weigh in on culture on department leaders and communication and well-being now each employee in

051the district has the opportunity to provide feedback while the school while the schools may not be the same each year it is important to note that all schools are striving to reach that 85% Mark some schools may have just missed it by one employee these data show the top 10 retention percentages by site um actually it's a top retention strategies it's not the top 10 by 2020 2030 our goal is to have all Sites at 85% we know the value in retaining staff and even though the supervisors continue to work to create a great environment so that employees want to stay we still have some work to do while this retention information is from hiring season in the past eight months human resource Personnel will begin expanding our retention data next year to include all

052employee groups from December 1 through November 30th this will give us more information on postings hirings resignations across the year rather than just in the hiring season the manner in which district 6 calculates retention data is by using the number of employees who are active employees in May and who return in August Human Resources determines who stays with us during the year who has transferred positions within the district and finally who left this data shows how our district retention percentage fared over time it also includes all employees who are contracted with us what is important to know here is that we create many of our own retention strategies or issues because we have a pipeline and we promote so heavily from within we have a staff we have staff who are looking for opportunities for

053leadership they want um to maybe transfer to a different site for a different type of experience or different um opportunity so we have those things things to think about and consider when we look at retention and turnover we received information from Colorado Department of Education about the manner in which they calculate retention for the state and in the future Human Resources plans to align the calculations to be able to compare more closely with Colorado Department of Education or CDE more to come on transitioning to a new retention model process we will also be gathering information on Title One site retention compared to non-title one site districtwide these new processes will help us meet our outcomes more effect effectively so the rest of the the presentation is going to be around hiring and about and also

054around recruiting and so I'd like to invite Mr Boer to come up and visit with us about the hiring thank you Mrs Overton appreciate that so good to be with all of you tonight I have five five slides to cover with you uh this is the uh second of our three objectives uh and in short we're trying to hire a qualified and diverse uh Workforce that is representative of our community so the next two slides are action slides these are the things that we did last uh year in order to accomplish this goal the first couple actions listed here have um really helped create efficiencies in the hiring process um so as necessary HR Personnel they are training hiring teams to as to our hiring processes a checklists for each employe group were created based

055on this particular goal and that really helps the supervisor uh identify from the needed posting to welcoming that employee into their uh building the third bullet is specific to hiring fairs that took place within the gy Evans uh Community uh these local fairs really enable us to uh reach our target audience again looking at our goal of hiring a uh a Workforce that's uh that uh compares to our community and finally in this particular slide I'll talk about the fact that we hired 10 Exchange teachers through the J1 Visa program this directly helped us uh not only fill these critical teaching positions but also contributed to a hiring uh a more diverse uh Workforce the second action is around this hiring satisfaction uh survey so this past year during our hiring season uh we uh

056conducted this survey overall this uh survey points to that our candidates were very satisfied with uh the process our positive uh candidate responses ranged as you can see here from 90 to 98% very satisfied or satisfied uh in the following areas so we uh surveyed them on job posting to recommending a colleague or friend one certified staff member actually indicated that D6 has made them feel more welcome than any other school district so that was good to hear we definitely have opportunities so the last couple bullets focus on some opportunities that we have and these are in the areas of job descriptions job postings uh the actual application itself onboarding processes and quality of applicants our district Equity team uh continues to review job descriptions this process really ensures that we have job descriptions and

057job postings that use attractive and inclusive language with staff uh with candidates I should say and that are gender neutral we're in the process of revamping the different applications really making them shorter and job specific and onboarding suggestions included uh quicker access to their badges Infinite Campus other software uh quicker access to email and our hiring managers uh finally stated that they'd just be more interested in a in a more robust pool of applicants so obviously we're working through that the last two slides that I'm going to cover uh are our outcome data so this uh specifically uh addresses how we as a district compare against the gy Evans community in terms of our student and staff population who are people of color in the past 12 months our staff population defined as people of

058color increased from 28 to 33% we obviously still recognize that we have some work to do to increase our staff of color to reflect demographics but this is uh really good news and the last slide that I'd like to share is around uh our classified people of color and and our hires within our six classified uh departments this uh graph aims to demonstrate our progress within this uh particular realm the data Compares 2022 to 2023 hiring and the good news here is in four of our six uh departments we saw gains in persons of color hires and that includes custodial nutrition special education and transportation so we're really uh happy about what we're seeing thus far and now Miss Amy Spruce will uh discuss our recruiting portion of our priority area thanks Mr Boer and

059it's my pleasure to be here to talk to you guys tonight about our recruitment efforts uh the district recruit plan is building a qualified and diverse Workforce that is representative our gy of our gy Evans Community all of the actions associated with the recruitment plan will support increasing overall candidate pool and increase the people of color who are interviewed Human Resources Personnel along with our partners work to increase the number of candidates who apply to all of our district positions as we talk about Recruitment and our ability to recruit we have been working on the following and more we are attending recruitment fairs for all employee groups district 6 was a key part in starting the Colorado education recruitment Fair last year also known as surf which is Colorado's first consortia job fair that educator

060can attend which includes all districts and universities Statewide we have expanded our social media outreach which includes advertising for our own Local District 6 hiring fairs we continue to develop pipelines with our staff and students and we continue to work on streamlining our application process to increase our candidate pools and we will also be adding a referred by section uh to that application that will lead to recognition for both our existing staff and our new incoming district 6 staff this is just the beginning of our review for a refer friend program to increase our applicant pools HR Personnel also join the workforce of Northern Colorado and as we continue networking and building Partnerships these Partnerships continue to grow our candidate pools over the year human resources and other departments post on Facebook and Human Resources

061also manages the LinkedIn page after surveying staff using the question of the week in intercom we discovered that they prefer to see posts highlighting celebrations and other recognitions so we added that new category to our post this year in addition to the data you see here on this slide we increased our LinkedIn followers by 20% to just over 2400 100 followers we tripled our number of Facebook posts significantly increasing our impact we triple nope yep Human Resources has also made a new effort to connect individually with stakeholders through Facebook Messenger during the 2223 school year 48,000 people were reached through our Facebook presence 58% more than last year the reactions likes and comments were up 300% on our social media posts and the community sharing in our information on their own Pages has doubled we

062attribute the increase to the new approach of using social media for recognition in addition to recruiting the district 6 approach has shifted from just posting job vacancies to including a human element a human face to the post so that people who are looking for a job can see themselves working with us here at district 6 we also highlight our amazing current employees recognizing them for their hard work and excellent results to increase our ability to recruit increase our candidate pools and build a staff that reflects our students and Community we continue to develop pipelines with our staff and students we have our students exploring as early as Middle School opportunities within the system and discovering some areas of interest in specific areas across the district the new CTE Center programs will also be of great

063help in building pipelines for some of our positions on our operational side our project teacher find awardees are encouraged to substitute during their UNC degree program or work as a PA professional we keep them engaged with district 6 as we anticipate their return to us in their teaching career tonight I'm excited to be joined by our teacher Cadet teacher leader Lauren Apple Hans and we had two teacher Cadets but we have one because one is homesick so I'm glad she's taking care of herself um so I would like to highlight some upcoming strategies to increase our numbers in the teacher Cadet program and then invite them to introduce themselves this CTE Center teacher Cadet and communication staff will be collaborating to create a recruitment video for Teacher Cadet teacher Cadet and HR will be working

064together to create swag that we can hand out as we recruit more students for the teacher Cadet program uh we also have set up a teacher Cadet intern program which is new coming into this year where we will pay our seconde teacher Cadets to intern during second semester we also work with our University Partners to recognize our our teacher Cadets during teacher appreciation week and they also provide some swag for them as well and I would love for you to come up thank you thank you very much so hello my name is Lauren applehans and I'm in my third year of the teacher Cadet program and I'm actually a graduate of teacher Cadet 19 years ago that sounds really like old but I am it's okay um and I'm so proud of the work that

065we've accomplished so far and there were two at least two others before me that were been teaching teacher kadet but in my third year we have moved over to the CTE center from Central um and the biggest benefit is that it provides the opportunity to be involved in the program to all students across the district at this point I have seven teacher Cadets seven level one teacher Cadet students um from four high schools in the district and I have three teacher Cadet two students which are all from gy Central um these students and my last two cohorts of students have had a wonderful passion for education and our future youth they are going to bring all this wonderful energy to our classrooms very soon um at this time I'd like to invite Katie Hartman to

066the mic Katie is a teacher Cadet too working in an intensive autism program at the moment um with some great cooperating teachers hello thank you guys so much um my name is Katie Hartman I us herar pronouns and I'm a teacher Cadet student at the newly built CTE Center and I do my uh classwork over at Heath Middle School teaching in their intensive autism program uh I attire I aspire to be a teacher because of the profound impact Educators have had on my life I vividly remember the teachers who ignited my curiosity believed in my potential and inspired me to pursue knowledge I want to pay it forward and be that Guiding Light for my students in the future additionally my teacher Miss Apple Hans told me the first day of teacher Cadet last year

067uh that students want to see themselves in their teachers which is really impacted me as there are not many students in the or teachers in the LGBT community and fewer in the trans community and I know that I have a unique and beneficial outlook on the world now as for school district 6 it holds a special place in my heart and I grew up in this community and and it's where I've received my own education I understand the unique challenges and opportunities our district faces and returning here means I can contribute to the growth and development of the same community that shaped me I want to bring my dedication knowledge and Innovative mind to help every student I I teach reach their full potential moreover school district 6 has had a has a diverse and

068vibrant student body and I believe diversity is a tremendous strength I want to create an inclusive classroom environment where every student feels valued and empowered to succeed regardless of their background in conclusion I want to be a teacher because I'm passionate about nurturing young minds and helping them grow and returning to W County School District 6 as a teacher is my way of giving back to the community that is helped me grow into who I am today thank you thank you as we continue to grow our own staff through our Partnerships with colleges and universities for classified staffs and substitutes to get license we talk with staff about growth opportunities through the district and how to get get there hiring continues to be challenging even through that challenge we have continued to increase the number

069of candidates applying for positions mainly as a result of our increased social media presence job fairs and Word of Mouth the creation and maintaining of pipelines will help with our candidate pools over time as well thank you so much and I'll turn it back over to Mrs Overton so next steps for our goal area is really to to uh review and share hiring satisfaction data and find ways to make hiring more efficient in the application process focused efforts on recognition programs and building supervisor resources explore satisfaction engagement at District sites so that we can build on positive work environments and then we'll continue to expand and grow our teacher Pipeline and start to create new pipelines incorporating our CTE Center and Beyond so we are here to entertain any questions for you at the end

070of our presentation thank you for being here um I do think we'll have a few questions for you guys and looks like Miss or Dr Brenda Campos spitzy is first um so I wanted to start by congratulating you on the Inc the positive trend in the ret retention rates amongst all employees that's really admirable I always say people vote with their feet and with jobs you know there's a lot that is vocation but there is a lot that is pay um and the culture you're working with how much you like your colleagues all that uh so the positive trend to me tells me you know people are more satisfied with with their jobs here in district 6 um I love the idea of the exit and stay interviews um you know what better way to

071get feedback than to ask why you're leaving and what would make you come back I love those questions um and sharing best practices among schools that have a High staff retention rate I think is excellent just um what are you guys doing right that we might Implement um I I want to applaud you on your mission statement of hiring qualified and competent teachers that also reflect the diversity in our student body um a story that comes up that I heard from a retired teacher from Billy Martinez um she said she was talking to her students one day and she asked them you know raise your hands and I want to hear what your favorite foods are and so her kids raised her their hands and she went around the room and it was you know

072pizza and hamburgers and um she just took that moment to say I love pizza and hamburgers too but I also really love Po and tamales and she says her kids light eyes just lit up and we're like me too so you know there is that sharing that cultural background with your teacher that does allow students to be more of their authentic selves um that I think is really important um creating a more robust applicant pool increasing our applicant pool we keep hearing that that you know we have open positions but the pool is drying up um so thank you for focusing on pipelines where we can fill that pool up and have lots of applicants to pick from um yeah and I think those are my comments thanks thank you Dr Brenda Miss pepis is

073next um thank you for your presentation I do have a question for Lauren it's a clarification question so when you had the future Cadet program at gy Central so sorry yeah go ahead I so at gy Central it was technically open to all um all district six students could attend but based on we all had different schedules and then the transportation with it only being an hour and a half long it I believe if I were to follow the track of teacher Cadet backup it originated at gy West and then it moved with Diana Hall to Northridge and then when Diana Hall left um it went came over to Central with Jessica Thomas and then Jessica Thomas left and I got to take it on after her um and I I tried so hard I

074I interviewed students from Northridge and it just didn't it was so hard with our different schedules and the CTE Center allows us to have kind of a uniform schedule or at least a more uniform Outlook so they're with me and they're getting those concurrent not yeah well concurrent enrollment too but they're also getting that English and the social studies and the elective credit so they're not missing out on their home High School all those pieces but it's definitely I have students from other schools so it's really Ben I think it's really great right so then the students that were in your teacher Cadet program um last year are are they did they are they coming to the CTE Center or yes okay yes so my I only had three that continued into year two so

075year two is more of an internship experience okay they spend um I think I have 110 I think they're in the classroom for 110 hours a semester more more they're they're tracking at least 110 maybe it's 130 um but they're tracking about 110 hours and I only had teacher Cadet one at Central last year so I didn't have any teacher Cadet two students okay from the other high schools but next year I hope that I'll have at least four okay yeah thank you for that clarification appreciate it appreciate what you do M mes um I thank you very much for this presentation and I'm just generally um think that this is a really great picture I'm really encouraged by these numbers 8 9 almost 90% retention across the district up from 80% I mean we've

07610% increased that's enormous and um I just feel like you're really looking at this from so many different angles I love the idea of the swag I mean who doesn't want a free t-shirt um but I yeah I that obviously is maybe one of the more silly things I could have pointed out but you're looking at so many different directions and I really think that that is the best way um I was really encourage to see so many of our schools being in that 90 even 100% of retention and so yeah whatever we can do to find out what is going really well in those buildings um we talked a little bit about student voice and so Katie I would love to know I mean maybe can't answer it right now but like the teacher

077Cadet students now if we can tap into what made you really interested which you shared your experience for sure but um how how maybe the students feel we can recruit other students um I feel like a really important thing just in general with trying to get students to do anything that other students have done is um seeing older students like I look I looked up to the seniors and the Juniors when I was a freshman and uh seeing their experiences uh like I can remember aan McCall from last year she was a teacher Cadet 2 student and she's super successful she won the B scholarship and is in college uh which is really impressive and that drove me even harder uh towards teacher Cadet 2 and pursuing my education because I know I can do

078it and I know that um if we make an effort to have our current students show younger students that it's possible and that it's a really great opportunity I think uh that's where we want to go that sounds great and maybe we can even invite some of those D6 graduates who are now pursuing their education degree to come back and share how it how it gave them that jump start absolutely thank you thanks K yeah I don't see any other questions Miss Overton I'll ask one final one though and just um when you look at the next 5 years right what what do you see as the greatest challenge in terms of uh either uh recruitment or or retention and how might we help you meet the challenge as a board I appreciate the the

079efforts that you all make to engage with us and engage across the district I appreciate the Teachers Association who will bring um uh bring their voice and teachers voices and then other employees who will bring their voice to um human resources and to Dr pilch it's the openness that we have in this District to work together and to problem solve that makes us a destination District so continuing that work I believe is going to be the best um the best hope for us in terms of both retaining and then rting other people to come here that's what we hear often is that we hear that these are this is this is happening here I mean these good things are happening here and um we always have work to do right we always have work to

080do that we can where we can get better but working collaboratively with you all with um District leadership with um with the Teachers Association and other other employee groups we just um we just stay focused there and that's what's going to get us I I think that's what in 5 years will only be better look at where we've been since the last 5 years well thank you we do actually have another question Mr Bentley oh yeah sorry sorry I buzz in just kind of I I couldn't resist the urge but I I just wanted to say the Kudos you guys as employing myself I I know how challenged this is uh seems like postco has made it extra challenging I know you guys were already in a shortage before that but uh um the the

081way you guys go outside of the boxing and really are being creative it says a lot about your you know your dedication to to the goal of retaining and and following the the plan also I just want to like the dynamic uh one thing that I didn't really realize the negotiations with the GAA during during their contract renewal you know the the the relationship you guys have built as an employer and employees that they come to the table with with things that would make your job hiring and retaining people that's I mean that was the main points of the discussions that that I can remember were were hey our mental health and and keeping teach Fe from burning out you know obviously pay is always a thing but the pay's just been in line with

082basically inflation numbers coming from the state you know so um I just I thought that added another level of dynamic that maybe the private world doesn't get to see and and on a day-to-day basis but most that is just you guys have been building a great relationship over the last eight years in that consensus Circle during negotiations so um kudos to Dr bch and and you guys for you know kind of taking that and going back and doing the work and and trying to keep as many teachers happy and employed as possible thank you Mr Bentley thank you and and thank you we do appreciate you being here tonight and we we certainly appreciate the work as Dr B said it's it's the most important thing we do is to hire and retain great teachers

083and great staff and so we we certainly appreciate it thank you thank you very much next tonight we have our public participation as a board we welcome the comments of community members and we dedicate a portion of each business meeting to provide an opportunity for the community to present brief comments All speakers are limited to two minutes for comments our board members typically will not engage in discussion or provide an immediate response but we will ask District staff to respond as appropriate written testimony or speaker handouts must be submitted to the board secretary Miss Amy lemon and not to individual board members the board is committed to providing a safe envir environment where all members of the school Community are treated with dignity and respect and we expect all speakers to exercise their speech rights

084responsibly speakers are responsible for their own speech and speakers remarks must be suitable for an audience that includes kindergarten through 12th grade students anyone who disturbs order may be required to sit down or to leave the boardroom we ask all speakers and those in attendance to conduct themselves in a dignified and non-disruptive manner CH cheering snapping clapping and other distractions are not allowed during or upon completion of any public comment uh first tonight we have Mr Brian Sullivan uh next on our list we have Miss Maria Foster welcome Miss Foster thank you for being here and you'll have two minutes thank you superintendent pilch members of the board student Representatives the prevailing wisdom used to be when planting a tree that you dug a hole two to three times the size of the root ball

085and you filled it with the best top soil you could find and then you put in three sturdy Stakes around the tree and tethered it with soft ties and you left it that way for several years and the goal was to protect the tree and help it grow straight and strong but there was an unintended consequence to this method that became apparent once the tree was mature it was much more likely to be uprooted and fall over in a storm the tree never developed a strong foundation without exposure to wind the trees Roots were not stimulated to grow and act as a counterbalance The Roots didn't want to leave the comfort zone that the rich soil provided so root growth was stuck stunted well-intentioned efforts to protect the tree actually deprived it of a strong

086foundation in the same way I think well-intentioned efforts to protect our kids can have the same unfortunate effect removing every book or material that might challenge them prevents them from growing asking them to get out of their comfort zone by reading a book that presents a lived experience different from their own provides them with an opportunity to grow roots of compassion and imp empy that can serve them well the rest of their lives is every book appropriate for every child of course not but this National Trend toward overzealously censoring books without regard to literary value or context does not protect children instead it discourages them from developing a strong life Foundation thank you thank you Miss Foster next tonight we have Miss Ellen Foster thank you for being here miss Foster you'll have two minutes

087thank you for this opportunity and good evening to you all in looking at current issues in education both in district 6 and Nationwide it seems that almost all are based in fear the fear then turns to anger and hate this is true for issues such as book challenges social and emotional learning pronoun use bathroom ju use by transgender students inclusion of marginalized people when teaching our history and more historically when we have let our fear dominate our ability to think rationally the outcomes have not been something to be proud of some examples are the treatment of First Nations people by settlers explorers churches and governments the Salem Witch Trials the Chinese Exclusion Act denying women the right to vote or own property the interment of US citizens of Japanese descent during World War II Jim

088Crow laws prohibitions against interracial marriage laws forbiding gay marriage the Muslim ban as we look back we can see that these attempt at otherizing and marginalizing those different from ourselves were based on fear not facts and truths a quote from the novel Doom says I must not fear fear is the mind killer fear is the Little Death that brings total obliteration I will face my fear I hope we can move Beyond fear hate and anger and see the value in all people most especially our students thank you thank you Miss Foster next tonight we have Miss Sonia m next on our agenda tonight is our consent agenda and this is an action item that will'll need a motion I move that the Board of Education of gy Evans school district 6 approves items as presented

089on the consent agenda and authorizes the officers to sign any and all contracts second thank you both is there any discussion on the consent agenda saying none Miss lemon will give us a vote please director Bentley present director campus spitzy present may we may we say I for these thank you director Bentley I director Campos py I director Mash I director Matthews I director Norwood I director papis I director Sullivan I motion carries 70 thank you Miss lemon next on our agenda is a purchase of dedicated water in Evans and this is also an action item that we'll need a motion I move to approve the agreement for sale and purchase of equivalent water rights as presented and authorize the superintendent or designed to negotiate and execute all contracts to complete this transaction second thank

090you both um before we discuss this Dr pilch is there anything you would like to say in introduction thank you president Matthews I think just for the purpose of the public um I'll just clarify that this is the purchase of an opportunity to own dedicated uh water in the Evans part of the gy Evans School District which would allow district 6 to access water for the future use of a in a future school um we have been working on the possibility of of land purchase in Evans we also own the land adjacent to Perry Heights Middle School we do see a need for future water use for the school distri District in in u the Evans community and so we've been working uh with a broker to secure the water um should we need it

091in the future thank you Dr piltch is there any comment or discussion from board members Mr Bentley yeah I just want to um thank everybody at the district that's um I know this is Evans is pretty high on their their list of things to you know they're expecting exponential growth as is all of Weld County and um so this just gives us the ability to to address that growth as it comes and and future School building possibilities with the the uh you know W water that's more valuable than gold at the moment so it just uh as an opportunity Rises and you guys just forward thinking I just really appreciate you guys paying attention to those needs and and directing Us in that that direction thank you Mr Bentley M Mash I don't think I

092have anything to add I just wanted to say this is just part of our future Focus um we had our um facility assessment done done before we brought the bond to the voters in 2019 and we know that we have to prepare for much more growth so this is just a piece of that so yes thank you to um all those who have been orchestrating this I don't see any other comments I'll add my thanks thank you for for always thinking uh about the future and um so miss lemon will you give us a vote please director Bentley I director Campos spitzy I director mesh hi director Matthews hi director Norwood hi director papis hi director Sullivan hi motion carries 70 thank you Miss lemon next on our agenda are revisions to our G Personnel

093policies and this is an action item that will'll need a motion I move that the Board of Education of gy Evans school district 6 revises the G Personnel policies as presented second thank you both uh these are pretty minimal changes that we have but if there's any discussion or comment from board members we'll entertain that now seeing none Miss L and will you give us a vote please director Bentley I director Campos spitzy I director mesh I director Matthews I director Norwood I director papis hi director Sullivan hi motion carries 70 thank you Miss lemon next we have revisions to policy LBD relations with District Charter Schools this is an action item that needs a motion I move that the Board of Education of G Evan school district 6 approves revisions to policy LBD relations

094with District Charter Schools as presented second thank you all again these are pretty minimal um policy changes that we have but there's any discussion we'll entertain that now seeing none Miss lemon will you give us a vote please director Bentley I director Campos spitsy I director Mash I director Matthews I director Norwood I director papis I director Sullivan I motion carry 70 thank you Miss LEM and finally tonight we have social media litigation and this too is an action item that requires a motion I move that the Board of Education approves the district's participation in Mass join Joiner litigation against C certain social media companies and authorize the superintendent to sign any attorney client engagement agreement and Associated documents second thank you both uh Dr pilch I before we open this up to board members

095I'll let you uh introduce this one for us if you would like to thank you president Matthews I've asked uh legal council Mr Nathan fall to come to the the podium and to share just an overview for the public on on what we would be engaging here um in the future with your authorization for me to do so thank you Dr P president Matthews members of the board uh just as a reminder to this board so what this is is it's a class action lawsuit involving at this time at least 7 100 school districts Nationwide they are challenging major social media companies in this class action lawsuit uh alleging that these social media companies are engaging in deceptive practices uh that have been intentionally designed to promote products to attract and addict children the social

096media companies that this Law Firm is going after include meta uh which owns Facebook Instagram snap Inc which owns Snapchat Tik Tok and then alphabet in which is the parent company for Google uh and YouTube so obviously these are some pretty big hitters in the social media World um in Colorado so far Jefferson County School District 1 Denver Public Schools District 1 Teller ride School District Aspen school district and Mesa County school district 51 have all joined this lawsuit um as part of this lawsuit they are alleging the law firm is alleging that these social media companies put in inadequate age verification measures they have insufficient parental controls there's endless scrolling I I.E Doom scrolling constant notifications and compulsive use by students as well as targeted algorithms all of which have created a youth Mental

097Health crisis Nationwide uh as a public school district we are uniquely impacted uh due to all the costs that we have incurred uh to address mental health uh as well as all the costs that we have incurred to address disruptive behaviors associated with social media uh as well as the costs that have incurred to address off-campus Behavior that's a result of social media use um as part of joining this lawsuit it should be fairly minimal work on the district side this is a class action lawsuit uh we would be joined again with hundreds maybe if not thousands of others uh school districts Nationwide and really we would just be an additional um fact party to this case there shouldn't be a lot of involvement from this District um but the outcome could be significantly beneficial

098to uh this school district in terms of addressing mental health among students uh and perhaps there would be a monetary award awarded uh if there was success at trial um so given this uh I have spoken with some other attorneys in the State uh who have joined this lawsuit and uh it just seems like there is nothing but benefit and very little um risk to joining this and so it is my recommendation that the board does vote to join tonight thank you thank you Mr PA Mr Bentley uh you have a comment yeah I just I just want to uh voice my support to this also I think any parent or teacher in today's times would also voice their sport I mean on a daily basis social media becomes a a topic of parenting at

099my household I know and and and I know I've seen it in the schools and a lot of our issues originate or are accelerated or Amplified magnified by social media so um not so much the the the fiscal end of this is I don't think is our goal but getting them to maybe help us get some restrictions and and try to tone down the the use of social media at least in a classroom time frame or overall you know um I think this is highly beneficial and there's nothing but Pros that could come out of this with with minimal input on on yours and and the district's part so I'm I'm fully for this so thank you for bringing this to us thank you Mr Bentley Dr campus spitzy um just want to Echo a

100lot of the things that Kyle just said but agreed that the mental health youth crisis that our country is facing a lot has to do with social media and self-esteem issues that kids have as far as um you know relying on all the likes and all that um cyber bullying that happens in and out of the classroom um and the constant distraction I always say that I as a you know 39-year-old adult to have this constantly um sending me notifications it's hard for me to multitask I know some students say they're really good at multitasking um but I I don't think it's conducive to an academic environment it's not conducive to learning um so also in full um support of this legislation um I don't want to put Natalie or Reagan on the spot but

101I was interested to hear the student perspective on this litigation thank you Dr K spitzy Miss mashit oh she's asking them well they can they can bring in if they want to they might not want to speak as um well I think that it is a very big problem I think in my like home school at Early College Academy well right now I'm only taking college level courses so that requires like um like the rules are technically from your college professors and they've all have a very strong grle where you you're not allowed on your phone and that's benefited me because I know um like in past years the teachers were very lenient and they were just like we understand if there's things going on and stuff but students do take advantage of that um

102but I think having it so that you don't have a phone you don't get that distraction like um Dr Campos spitzy said it's very beneficial and it's allowed me to actually pay attention um being in class discussions making sure I really understand the material and what's going on on in class instead of just kind of um taking advantage of the oh well they really don't mind if I'm on my phone um kind of what's the word I don't even know but yeah that's what I got to say I don't know if Reagan has anything to add don't feel compelled Reagan uh I'd have to know a little bit more about about the topic um I always see both sides to a lot of arguments so I definitely get the Mental Health crisis portion of this

103because it is definitely impactful and you know I've seen it with my own eyes um but I also can see the other side of it you know technolog is growing these days and it's becoming more prominent um I think that it can be useful at some points but some points it's not um more times than not and um yeah I'd have to know a little bit more about the topic to make a complete opinion on it thank you thank you Reagan uh Miss Mes um I just also wanted to voice my um consent to this joining this lawsuit um also a parent of two teenagers who I witnessed the very real impacts of the social media and I think um conversations we try to have with our kids when we're getting frustrated about their use

104of M of the phone is that that is what it is designed to be addictive it is it is about brain chemistry um yeah that that's that's the way it's designed and it works well they they did their research and they designed um the product exactly the way um that it it was intended and so maybe it would also be helpful if that was sort of um you know made more publicly known that like it's it's not your fault that you're addicted to your phone that's the way it's meant to work and therefore um there just needs to be better protections and um and I also say to my kids that going to school is your job and so um you can use your phone a different time but anyway I just I think that

105this is a great way um that that Collective voice of over 700 districts um really I think is going to be powerful to send a message thank you Miss Mash any other comments or questions from board members seeing none Miss Lon will you give us a vote please director Bentley I director Campos spitzy I director Mash I director Matthews I director Norwood I director papis I director Sullivan I motion carries 70 thank you Miss L before we conclude tonight um Dr pill we had a public speaker who who made some very specific uh allegations and uh not all of those in order but but I would like to give you a chance to respond if you would like to to those allegations before we conclude our meeting tonight thank you for the opportunity president Matthews

106there were some significant remarks made by Miss Miller at the podium tonight which are uh Gravely inaccurate and and and I believe damaging not only to the school and to staff of the school but also possibly to the child should there be uh individuals who know who whom um this child is whom these allegations have been made about about I would like to ask Chief of Safety and Security John Gates to come up and just share um very high level what we can we of course do not want to violate any confidentiality but but I have all the confidence that this has been thoroughly investigated and what Miss Miller alleges is completely inaccurate Chief Gates thank you thank you Dr Pils the district is well aware of the allegations made this evening that not just

107one school but a second school both in the city of Evans the Evans police department has thoroughly investigated and vetted both incidents while in contact with with director corus or myself and they deemed the incidents to be without Merit and their cases have been closed if I can any other questions I might be able to answer I'd be happy to try all right um well I would just I don't see anybody with with questions for you uh Mr Gates so uh thank you for for clarifying that for us and and for our public and we do apologize um oh sorry no go Ahad go ahead but after you're done no I'm I'm done go ahead so I just want to say that I really appreciate uh you asking I appreciate your comments and I appreciate

108you um clarifying it is it is so frustrating um to have Miss Miller come and share her poetry at every meeting and while as a school board member you we be we've come to expect that um but this was really out of line tonight and I just want to beyond the record saying that and I'm really um yeah I'm really frustrated thank you Miss papis thank you Chief Gates yes sir um thank you Dr pilch for offering that that clarification was there anything else you would like like to add okay but again it is a sad note on on which we end uh it has happened too many times in our board meetings as Miss Papa has has said um and and we do apologize to to the family that was mentioned and so uh

109with that our meeting is [Music] adjourned [Music] [Applause] [Music] e