Including intramurals, a unified team, and the only competitive middle school cheer team in our district. They're proud of their student performance framework increase of 13.9 points last year. And we just welcome Principal Athena Rehorst, Rodney Pierson and the students from Timberview Middle School. Thank you guys. So, as I said, my name's Rodney Pierson. I'm our outdoor education instructor at Timberview. This is a program that's one of a kind in the district. I'll talk a little bit about it and I'll let these guys, when they talk, introduce themselves as well.
This is our sixth year with a outdoor education program at Timberview, and we sort of have 4 pillars that it's founded on. Every year, whether six, 7th or 8th, we start with team building and leadership; That's the foundation. Then we dive into what we call our adventure education, which includes survival skills, outdoor navigation, and then my 8th grade class we do a lot of fishing. And then we go into wildlife studies with every grade level and then we wrap up with environmental awareness. And so, there's
a little parting gift after we get done talking for you guys. Part of our environmental awareness is we work a lot on Leave No Trace. So, we work on that and that's what students get and that's what this card's all about. And those are big focus points for what we do in our class. So I'll let these guys introduce themselves because they have a great deal. They're not middle school students anymore, but both of them have outdoor as 6 7th and 8th graders. Both of them participated in
our tails, our Timberview Adventure Leadership Experiences as a club at Timberview and are now high school students at Liberty. And so, the Thompson brothers gonna take up, thank you, Mr. Pearson. Welcome. My name is Hunter Thompson. I am a 10th grader at Liberty High School. I had, like Mr. Pearson said, gone through all three years of his class, Outdoor Ed, and I participated in the Outdoor Ed program Club Tales for two years. Hi, my name is Levi Thompson. I've been through
four years of the Outdoor Ed Program and both years of Tails. I will be talking about Tails, and he will be talking about the Outdoor Ed program. So, in Tails we go on a series of I want to say 4 outdoor trips outside of school. So, they're almost field trips we would get excused from school early. We would then go to places like Mueller State Park. We would go geocaching down South here towards Garden of Gods. We would go to Upper Palmer Lake and then we'd even make a trip down to the
Sand Dunes at the end of the year. Each of these experiences has its own benefits and it just gets that feeling of getting out into the wild. It's not taking a field trip to the same old museum where you get to go out and we get to see nature for what it is. And I think it helped build a lot of passion for the students and just get them more interested in the outdoor environment that Colorado has. Outdoor Ed was one of my favorite programs at Liberty High School. We...
like you said, we first started off with team building so we got to play like lot of games as far as team building and we had to collaborate with each other and do like blindfolding stuff. And, throughout your years going through... throughout your years going through Outdoor Ed, you get to learn all about GPSs, Geo track, Geocaching, and just how to survive in case you do get lost. And, how to find your way back home. You get to learn how to fish in 8th grade. In 7th grade, one of my favorite memories was making one of the molds. So, you got to make a print.
So, you use this and you pour like ceramic into there, so you get to make one of the molds of a track. And it helped drive passion for like me and all my friends, as we went through it, towards to help get us out into the wilderness without us being scared of getting lost. Because, after we learned all this, it made us feel more comfortable in nature, which I feel is a big thing in society because we should be able to go somewhere without having to be glued to a phone or something and trust ourselves.
Then at Mueller State Park, we actually did snowshoeing throughout the day day. And we would we'd go through and we'd do basic fire-starting skills to get a fire going. That way everybody could stay stay warm. We'd make hot chocolate, all kinds of fun goodies, s'mores over the fire, and then we'd just basically be turned loose down the valley and we'd go explore with snowshoes. We'd build snow dens. We'd, even some of us, we would take the binoculars, and we'd go through and we'd try to do bird identification, which
rarely went well because there's not a few very many birds during the winter. But, the biggest thing is that we were out there and we were getting to experience nature for what it is; not not so much just what you read about in a book. Actually getting out there and getting to build your own experiences, build memories in nature, helps drive a passion that will even hopefully help to bring people to conserve nature in the future. Which is another big thing that Mr. Pierson helps teach
us about is just conserving the environment. What to do. So, I believe you have the Leave No Trace cards that you handed out. So, if you guys have those in, if you haven't heard of Leave No Trace, it's L N T, Leave No Trace. You go to a lot of the state parks, national parks, different places places like that. That's a big thing that they preach is LNT and so, we focus on different principles of that throughout their time there, as by the time they're done with eighth grade, they can recite what's on the cards, for those
students that take as a 6th grade, as a 7th grader, as an 8th grader. And I'm a big believer, a big proponent of it no matter what they're doing. Whether we do like here in a couple we weeks I'm taking my 8th graders out to Wolf Lake and we talked about your practice and Leave No Trace when you're at Wolf Lake. We do our geocaching, whether it's at Garden of the gods, I've done my 7th graders just around the Timberview neighborhood. So, we talked about how it can apply in lots of different places, not just out in the wilderness like Hunter was talking about different things like that. So the ultimate foundation
is we get outside as much as we can. It's Outdoor Ed. Some days, yeah, we have to do a few more things inside, but as the guys said, we get outside even if it's just on the Timberview / Liberty campus. We're out exploring. We're doing our geocaching on campus, we're doing animal tracking on campus, all kinds of different things. One of the favorite activities that my 7th graders have, we go bird watching. Literally, bird watching, and you're like... bird watching? And we teach them all how to do it. We get the binoculars out and we go find what we can find. We're fortunate there's owls that nest on the campus sometimes. There's
hawks that fly over. So, it's one of the programs that while I didn't found it, I've been teaching it the past six years and it's where I'm supposed to be as a teacher. I love it. My background is in science, so, we do pull in a lot of science aspects. But High Trails. My initial background was doing Outdoor Ed in camp like And so, that's sort of where we've designed it from, and it... I love to teach it. And so, these guys were exemplary students for us and we thank you guys for letting us come in front of you and talk about our program
tonight. Thank you so much. Very good. We appreciate you. All right, Director Waldrip, will you please introduce Home School Academy? There we go. So. Home School Academy. I guess have some facts here about Home School Academy. The principal is Keisha Hill. Is she here? It was started in 2008 under the superintendency of Mark Hatchell and then Principal Jolynn Patterson. HSA has moved building several times and now has a home in the Center for Modern Learning, sandwiched between legacy
Legacy Peak Elementary School and Challenging Learning Center... Challenger Learning Center. The Home School Academy is actually in two locations, the other being classroom at School in the Woods, where the Tracks program takes place. This year we had 663 students enrolled for the October count. We are proud to announce as of March 31st, a retention of 82.5. The 82.5% of current families for the 2026 - 2027 school year. So, thank you.
The floor is yours, ma'am. Can you use the mic? I'm sorry for the people online. People online. You might be able to pick it up too if you want. But yeah. This is awkward, Yeah. Do I look at you or do I look at them? It's really weird. Us. Alright, well, my name is Keisha Hill. I've been at the Home School Academy for a couple of years and our intro principal, Joanne Patterson is here and so without her we wouldn't have this amazing program. As of today, we have 759 applications for next school year and 690 enrolled, so we
are continuing to grow. Most of the time the question is, what is the home school Academy? Are you you online? Is there a real campus? Why do they need a principal? So, all of those questions really can be answered by a short video. There's snippets of of every single program we have. Arts program, STEAM program, we have our outdoor education program. Very similar to what Timberview is explaining. We have something very similar on the acreage that's out at school in the woods. We have a classroom out there.
We are a K-12 campus, and we serve to enrich our homeschooling community and population. And so, it's just an amazing opportunity for me to get to lead such an incredible group of kiddos. And I'm going to stop talking and let you spend 5 minutes learning a little bit more about the Homeschool Academy. Let's take a closer look at the Homeschool Academy. Ends today. Way he was going to play Miss Elder, can you play? No. Is this your friend Warmy? It's not really that slimy I am OK. Very cool girl.
Red. It was. Nice job. It was going faster, but we're discovering that battery power. Yeah. Batteries. It's not as only 13% of the It wasn’t working 5 seconds ago, it's working now. Good, but there's not enough shot. Yeah, I I know the sun has not been helpful today ‘cause it's been super overcast. OK. Female. She's slim, she's small and she's not as boxy as a… what is it called again? Drone. Yes, a drone bee.
Wow, very gentle. Spark class is always ready to cook. Right next to the ball. Perfect. Nice job. Good. OK, watch for your ball went. Whoa, whoa. Almost stepped in. Say, look what I did, Mom, tell her. Look what I did, Mom. Two people hiking. Now you're free. These students are replicating wetlands and then some of them are going to be plant some of going of them are going to be developers and we're going to see how quickly the wetlands shrink. They're going to use Nerf balls
The developers are going to throw them at the plants and the ecologists and and if the balls are caught, the developers out. But if the developer hits a student they are out. That means the plant is. Dead. Celsius the ocean garden the heart thing. Because then when it dries, it'll pack, it'll separate. I'm probably going to go ahead and pack. Them. Lift at the top is the top part. I want you all to look inside that top lip part and you'll see on one part of it there is
a little notch that notch is the same size as your motor hook. So here's what I want you to do. Look how I'm holding holding my motor hook. I have my finger stuck in the bottom by the fancy bit. over there. OK, so he did the side. In real life, excuse me, a great nephew Rossi. Oh, great nephew, Yes, right Rossi. Nephew. OK, Rossi. I love it. Man, your landscapes are good you guys. Thank you for taking a closer look at some of the amazing things that are happening at the Home School Academy. You are
welcome to stop by and visit. You are welcome to stop by and visit. I do want to do a shameless plug for our Anastasia play, which will be at the end center Tuesday and Wednesday of next week. So we're excited about that. Thank you so much for the time Thank you. All right. Vice President Payne, will you please introduce Academy Endeavor? I'd love to Academy Endeavor elementary school; couple fun facts. The principal, Carrie Mitchell, are you here tonight? Do you want to come on up to the table with your team?
Academy Endeavor was founded in 1998 and started as as Edison Elementary originally. They have the smallest postage size boundary map in within D20 and 78 percent of their students choiced. Inside and outside of District 20 to attend Academy Endeavor. There are only 67 neighborhood Students. This year 456 club registrations have submitted have been submitted by their 320 students. So, we're very proud of all your
hard work. You can't wait to hear your presentation. And I have been informed, the mic down here will catch you all so you don't have to worry about those two mics. But you forgot that for the OK, perfect. All right, So again, like they said, my name is Carrie Mitchell. I'm the proud principal at Academy Endeavor Elementary School. This is Molly Layman, my assistant principal. And tonight we're excited to share a little bit about our amazing school and highlight the importance of our student connectedness at AES. As you said before, Academy Endeavor has a strong tradition of student choice with one of the smallest attendance boundaries in D20
and our school originally opened in 98 and was an Edison choice school. Over time it transitioned to a neighbor's neighborhood school status and many more elementary schools were built throughout the district. Currently only 68 students from our our neighborhood, Charleston Place, attend the school in the remaining remaining 260, students come from outsider immediate boundaries many from across District 20 and even beyond. In fact, 78% of our students choose to attend Academy Endeavor Elementary. That same spirit of choice carries into the opportunities that we offer our students
This year it's actually 500 club resignations. We have a few more, have been submitted from our 300 students and with many choosing to participate in more than one one activity. A few of those students are here with us tonight representing these clubs. And at AES, our staff strives to model the characteristics of lifelong learners and contributing citizens. Throughout, a strong focus of our growth mindset and a willingness to try new things, our students are encouraged to explore new skills, discover passions, and broaden their worldview
We're proud to not only offer strong academic programming, but also meaningful opportunities for students and families to connect with one another, creating a sense of fun, belonging, and pride in being an Academy endeavor astronaut. Tonight we would like to spotlight some of the clubs and activities offered at AES this year and they do change every year. We have cross country led by Mr. Brubaker right here We have news crew with Mrs. Poss, right over here floor floor hockey with Miss Fargo and we have Galileo Music Club. Art Club, Sports Club again, Mr. Brubaker
reached club with Ms. Martinez and and Lego Builders Club, and Minecraft club. Ms. Fargo and a Kinder story time club. We do have a quick short short video to highlight some of these clubs if you'd like to watch. All right, we have a few students and staff members here tonight who'd like to share briefly what they've loved about connecting an Academy endeavor through these activities. Hi my name is Max and I wanted to tell you about my clubs Floor Hockey and Sports Club. One thing I like about Floor Hockey and Sports Club is they are fun activities in the morning that energize me for the day
day. It's fun to play with my friends and learn new skills such as accuracy and shooting with the puck and play new new games like shooting hockey. It's Alyssa and I wanted to tell you about Reach Club. I really like Reach Club because everybody is kind and helpful. There are kids from each grade, so I've made new friends too in Reach Club we We help the family Resource Center. We clean up the up the school by picking up trash and meats. we have have fun together as we do good things for our community like
providing service at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. Thank you. Hi, my name is Claire and I wanted to tell you about News Crew. There's a lot of student collaboration and that has taught me to work better with others. Now I like partner work as I did not before. I have learned new on camera and off camera skills such as speaking more clearly on camera and using technology skills off camera. Thank you. Lego Builders Club. One thing I like about Lego Builders Club is that we get to build Legos such as the puppy
dog, the astronaut, and the Guinea pig. That taught me that even though something is hard, you can try over and over again to to be more confident. Then you can do it. Alright, at Academy Endeavor we take great pride in not only only providing excellent academics, but also supporting the growth of the whole child. Student connectedness is at the heart of what we do and will continue fostering opportunities through clubs activities and shared experiences that help every student feel feel a strong sense of belonging. Thank you for the opportunity to share that our story with
you, Steve. Thank you so much. All right, Mrs Ruckman, first welcome back. Thank you for filling in for us tonight. Are there any updates to the agenda? There were updates to the agenda and the board has been made aware of these. Thank you, members Members of the Board, are there any items you wish to move from the consent agenda? Are there any discussion items to be added to the agenda? May we have a motion to approve the agenda I'll make make a motion to approve the agenda. I'll second roll call, please. Vice President Payne. Aye. Director Tripp. Aye. Director Wilburn. Aye. Director Waldrep. Aye.
President Shandy. Aye. All right, time for board comments. Does anybody have any board comments tonight? Director Waldrep? Yeah. Thank you. President Shandy, I'd like to follow up a little bit regarding our modification to Board Policy Superintendent relationship or VSR 3.0. I think that's important to note that we discussed this in detail and that we collectively agreed that it would be best for the President to the Board to make the decision to be the sole voice communicating with the Superintendent. We want to respect our
our Superintendent. What happened? One voice, not 5, not trying to comment at you in different ways. So, the Board President was elected by the board members for such discussions. This change has other benefits as well. Specifically, the President is now able to screen concerns and roll out kind of frivolous complaints or things that are not likely to be successful. I think that's one of our... things we look for our President to be able to do. And also, so that we're not dedicating some of our limited time or resources to these things. This additionally eliminates concerns for any kind of perception of violation of sunshine laws.
So, I think that's very important as well. And so this decision was not any sort of unilateral kind of power grab by President Shandy, but the result of deliberation among the board members we came up with the consensus about the best way to approach this. So, I really appreciate that. I just thought it'd be good first to be able to reiterate that. I would also like to express my gratitude for working with such a great team with line visions and values. Focus on the success of our students and for our constituents that we continue to work diligently to make every effort to ensure that our libraries and and classrooms are geared toward academic excellence and free of
unnecessary distractions, things that aren't really aligned with the pursuing those goals. I also encourage our constituents to reach out to our lawmakers as well and express your legitimate concerns as we work to be as effective as possible within our scope. And lastly I just wanted to give a shout out to my daughter Zoe real quick too, because you know, this is month of the military child and we just were at Air Academy earlier and had these great purple shirts for the star designation program and I'm yeah, she's also been a military, what we call an Army brat, you know, she's moved many different places. Who
started out in Ohio, went to Germany, spent time in Hawaii, time in Georgia before he finally landed here. And so, a lot of things that are expressing are things that we kind of know touch close to home. So, I want to just give a shout out shout out to my kiddo. So, thank you. Thank you Director Tripp. Thank you. I just wanted to say first of all, thank you to my fellow board members and admin team for letting me join in from Florida actually where I'm visiting with my daughter and my son. We've had some pretty significant challenges in our
our family and this is an important time to connect. So, on that flight from Denver to Orlando, my husband actually sat next to two very energetic middle school girls headed to a major cheerleading competition in Orlando and at 1.1 of them pulled out a science assignment. So with her AI tool open on her phone, she took a picture of the question. Within seconds had the the answer, which she promptly wrote down on her worksheet. Homework done with efficiency. But it really did make me think about assumptions
and I assumed that girl didn't learn much. From her homework exercise, I assume her grades may look strong right up until she gets tested on that content. I assume the adults in her life see her as holding the character traits of an engaged and conscientious student and she likely sees herself that way too. Assumptions are powerful. Our community, parents and students likewise assume things about our schools. When we tell parents books in our libraries are essential tools and prepare readers for adulthood and
and instill values for responsible citizenship, they assume all those books are good for their kids and allow them access, as one parent told me why would I think the school would have something inappropriate in the library? They assume that when we say we value community input, we mean it, that we will genuinely consider the perspectives perspectives of parents of DAC and others. They assume we will will advocate for their rights, prioritize student safety, and uphold excellence in both academics and leadership. And those are not unreasonable assumptions. They are expectations and represent some of our most important
responsibilities. Tonight you'll hear questions and discussions aimed aimed at moving beyond assumptions and toward clarity. Because assumptions on any side can be shaped by incomplete information, by narrative, how data is presented, and even by a desire to confirm what we already believe or just hope is true. One of our important roles as a board is to pursue truth with transparency and discipline so that the trust placed in us is well founded. That's our standard. I feel privileged to be able to work with this group of individuals who are
committed to doing just that, and look forward to a purposeful and meaningful evening. Thank you very much. Director Wilburn. Thank you, President Shandy. So the purple T-shirt, for those who don't know, earlier today we were at an assembly at Air Academy High School, where Academy High School was bestowed a purple star school by the Lieutenant governor of the state of Colorado. Fantastic event and we're wearing our our purple up shirts. We had a agreement this was going to be a more casual meeting than they all double cross be and put jackets
But that's why we're wearing these shirts and wearing these things tremendous thing that thing that happened earlier today at Air Academy. I know Colonel Herndon is going to talk about that in a couple of minutes. And I appreciate what you're saying, Director Waldrep, about your daughter being dragged all around the country and these kids at Air Academy and other schools on the west side are familiar with with that. And it's a challenging dynamic. And I really really appreciate that. We… I lost my train of thought. One thing that I meant to bring this up a year ago but I never did. So. And by now everybody's figured it out
but when it comes to board comments, the previous boards each board would put up slide shows of everywhere they've been during the past since the last board meeting. And here's me at the basketball game and here's me at the play and what have you. And we decided, you know, that's just. manufacturing 30 or 40 minutes additional to a meeting that's already super long as it begins. So, rather than do that, why don't we just give all of our stuff to the Superintendent? She can roll it all into her Superintendent's report and we can just slice that out. And there have been people who have interpreted that into
thinking that means we're not out in the district, which isn't true at all. We've all been to I don't know how how many plays and games and assemblies and what have you in the last five or six days alone. We're always out in the schools and out in the district and doing things we just just don't use that time in this meeting now to put the spotlight on myself and me and what I did. We instead use this time to be more productive talking about the business of the District and let Superintendent Haberer handle all that stuff. And one other thing I was going to say but I can't remember what it was
was, so if I do, I'll let you know. Nope, one chance, that's all. Colonel Herndon would you piggyback off of that? I just appreciated everything that you said today earlier at Air Academy High School about our relationship with. It's so vital. I mean, so please no. Absolutely. First, thank you you all for attending the ceremony today at Air Academy High School It was electric. The students were excited and I think they learned a little bit more about how D20 and other schools are pouring into our military
connected students. The award that was received today, the Purple Star Award and the proclamation that was read by the Lieutenant Governor really is reflective of the dedication across D20 in the commitment to supporting our military connected students and just some facts for everybody in the room. Military connected students can expect to move six to nine times from kindergarten until their high school graduation, with approximately 220,000 students transitioning this
year alone, we recognize their resilience and the strength of the military child with this month of April being the month of the military Child. And it's districts like D20 that are making it easier for our military connected students and for our military families. As I offered today at the ceremony, it's a well known truth in our military community that when our service members raised their right hand, they are not the only ones serving, the children, the family
the supporting cast is also serving and there's a linkage there to kind of that vital support to national security. As districts like D20 pour into these types of programs we are making our nation safer. Let me see if there's anything else kind of to offer to you all from today. We're just proud of the partnership and we're going to continue to celebrate that through the end of the month. And additionally, tomorrow we'll be over at Douglas Valley Elementary School.
They're going to have a Month of the Military Child assembly as well. So, thank you to D20 at large, for all the support that we're doing across the district to take care of those And then break break. If I may just do a a plug this weekend at the Academy if you go to to usafa.edu, we're going to to have our STEM day and it's the STEM of Air and Space Power. So, you're going to have cadets and then faculty members at the planetarium and at Arnold
Hall from 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM on April 25th, on Saturday. And they're going to have shows, presentations, displays, interactive exhibits. For all ages. So come learn about STEM and how the Department of the Air Force is looking at this. There's a QR code if you don't have access to the installation that you can capture from our usafa.edu website, but we look forward to hosting you and all our D20 family on the grounds this weekend.
Thank you. Thank you. Awesome. Appreciate that, Vice President Payne. Today was a little bit emotional. I have to say, thank you for your words, all of you. We have a pretty great team here at Academy District 20 and I know we I say we and I just think of all the people that work in this this district, all the hard work I see every day night, evening, weekend. No, I'd say that with a a little bit, but I have to say being at Air Academy, where my children went to school and seeing the pride, and seeing the Lieutenant Governor come in
There. Not only do we embrace our military families and the students that have come through this district? I mean, we're named for it. We also, like my children, were so influenced by the young people they got to go and the families. And I think, and I hope that in common we have that all our folks serving in the military are on our minds every night thinking about the sacrifice they and their families make. And I just have to say that as a mom of an Air Force pilot, I thought I never saw that coming, but I really do think the greater good is that we all benefit from the
relationships we share with our military families and all that we were responsible for as a community. And with that, I wanted to just say also, it's been almost a year since I've been in this role on the board and I've learned a great deal. And I know that's not a technical issue, but I just it for me I just wanted to say that sometimes as we've learned as a team from one another and from the diversity of cabinet and all the people that serve in this district, And all the expertise and everybody coming at it from a
different set of shoes, we really have to… I think we have the purpose of strengthening our systems and identifying strengths that we have as a district but where we have areas for growth. And we have to also always reinforce our shared responsibilities because we're all in it together. Jinger and I are going to a a civility session, That we've been invited to nationally this weekend. But I just want to also just say with a lot of being very humble, it's really important to all of us that we listen and
that we seek to understand. And we really do. I think one of the constraints we have is we get frustrated because we don't even have sometimes the amount of time that we want to engage with cabinet and staff throughout the district to learn and to make the decisions that are so weighted upon our shoulder. So I'm really proud of this team and the work that they've done. I know a lot of time has been put in to really seek to. Understand and to understand with purpose how we make sure that our community is
strengthened through trust, civility, and shared responsibility. So with that, I just wanna say thanks for everybody that that comes to these board meetings. I appreciate seeing all of you in the audience and we're glad to to have you. And I just all of that, what an incredible team. And as we're learning to come together as a new team with three new board members, 2 1/2 for however you wanna count yourself I mean, and the fact of getting to work with a great Superintendent and
her team knowing that we wanna be very very conscientious and thoughtful with everything that we do and we had had some great conversation today in doing that. With our team, we all want to find solutions and everything and I just want to reiterate too the resolve of of this team and the commitment of this team to press for that is all legally viable in terms of parental consent, parent rights and more wholesome material at every level. And we want to do that to the utmost of our ability in our legal framework. So, I
it's important as a team that we say that again. Engaging more closely with our constituents to ensure we are partnered and focusing on what can be done internally versus what needs to be pursued legislatively because we need to do both of those things. So just appreciate all of you All right, Superintendent Haberer, it is now your turn. I think we'd all agree great happens here in D20 and today with the purple up, Month of the Military Child was amazing and just, I had a wonderful opportunity to celebrate our military and the
children of our military families and I think one characteristic that stood out to me from the speeches of the students is just how accepting the culture is there at Air Academy High School because students come from such diverse backgrounds. And how both of the students that spoke said it, they just felt accepted right away and they were able to find their niche. And I just think that says a lot about the culture of D20 and especially the culture of Air Academy High School. So that was just a real
privilege to be there today. So other celebrations; we are performing arts are absolutely amazing Air Academy High School, they did Pippin which which was very fun to watch. The chorus was fantastic and then both Director Waldrep and Director Wilburn, we had a chance to see Mama Mia and what a wonderful performance that was as well. So just really appreciate our Fine Arts and the
importance of the Fine Arts in the lives of our children. And then celebrating Space Force Military Child of the Year. Congratulations to Discovery Canyon Campus High School senior Taylor Schreiner Schreiner for being named 2026 Military Child of the Year for the Space Force by Operation Homefront. Taylor is a varsity soccer player, hosts the president and certified nursing assistant. She plans to become a pediatric oncologist to help make a difference in the lives of
of children in healthcare. Then we had many of us here on the board had a chance to celebrate with our seniors and Director, President Shandy and I had a chance to go to Pine Creek at the Flying W for their capping ceremony. And then we also had another wonderful opportunity to celebrate with Discovery Campus High School seniors at their senior breakfast. And then Air Academy High School at their senior breakfast as well. And I must say, the Flying W.
is just a delightful place to have our celebrations and a huge shout out to them for the support of our schools. Air Academy High School and thank you Director Wilburn, you sent this to me signing day you had a chance to to attend at our Academy High School National signing Day. This year's senior class of cadets had a total of 20 athletes sign letters to of intent to attend universities across across the nation. recipients.
Women's cross-country led the way with two scholarship There were several others. Director Wilburn is there there anything else you'd want to say about attending this signing day? As most people I'm know, Air Academy is in athletics powerhouse. I mean, they've got banners of championships and stuff all over the place up there and they're running program, my kids were cross country, so I'm tuned into that wavelength, their distance running program is sending kids to compete at the collegiate level, via scholarship to some very high level schools. Penn State, University of of Colorado which is.
Top five nationally on a regular basis, they really have a coaching and athletic staff there that's committed to producing quality athletes and that was an impressive night. 20 scholarship athletes. That is amazing. And thank you for sending that too. I appreciate that. We had the wonderful opportunity of going to the art show, on April 15th. We had preschool through 12th grade honored at our annual art show, and this year's showcase featured an impressive range of creativity and craftsmanship, including
hand sewn gardens, detailed jewelry vibrant mixed media pieces, expressive drawings and more. And congratulations to these wonderful students and their talents. Again, the importance of the Fine Arts in our school district in developing students and meeting those characteristics that we have in the board ends 1.2 which we're going to to talk about tonight. But I do think the fine arts is a big part of that development. Then I also
our Air Force Junior ROTC, they are winning national awards once again, the 240 cadets of the Air Force JROTC program gathered for their annual awards ceremony on Monday and I had a wonderful opportunity to celebrate along with them. Cadets were recognized for their leadership with extracurricular teams and activities. And again, they are just going on to win national awards and I'm going to get get a whole list of those for our May meeting.
Special education spotlight, I think I saw Doctor Lujan-Lindsey. If you wanna come up, we have a huge celebration here. I'm gonna read the description that she sent me, but that we truly have an exceptional Special Ed program here. Academy District 20 once again received a designation of meets requirements with an overall overall score of 92.71%. What is especially exciting is that our overall determination score has increased each year of the last three years.
In 2024, it was 81.33 percent, In 2025 it was 85.76 percent, and this year we're at 92.71%. We also earned earned 100% compliance matrix scores. This continued growth reflects the strong work happening across the district to support students with disabilities and strengthen our systems and practices. Is there anything else you would add to that? Can you all hear me? Yeah. OK, Sorry. I think the only thing I would
add is that it is a rigorous process. I mean, we are having to monitor so many moving parts through all of our schools case managers. It's a collective work of case managers and staff through the entire district and I'm so proud of of them. They work tirelessly, endlessly. They support our students. We have no required intervention, so that's wonderful. And then I just wanted to make sure that we thanked all of our staff in the district. It's very important that we recognize their hard work. So it's really big. It's really from them, and so I'm glad you were able to highlight
it today. And I believe we have a special education recognition. A night coming up, is that right? Yes. Our special education appreciation night. I hope you all have gotten the invitation, but that's also a really special night where parents actually nominate a staff member in the district that has touched them their student in some way and they get to get to recognize them publicly. So we're excited about that event. We look forward to to attending. I appreciate that. Thank you. So. Went to several different schools and again just
just seeing amazing work happening across the district. So just a few highlights at Foothills Elementary I was thrilled to see a science experiment going on. We have an amazing program at the EAC for the science kits and I'm just always excited when I see see teachers using it. I think science is a good way to bring both math and literacy together because after the students do these these experiments, then they have to write about it. And then, you were there at that one too, weren't you, Director Wilburn? There you are, all right.
Douglas Valley Elementary School again Director Wilburn and I were there and it was the bearded dragon, day of the Bearded Dragon, so we had a chance to meet them personally and the students were really excited about it. And they're kind of used as a reward too. They kind of just got to walk around during reading time and some of the students will read to the the bearded dragon and they all had names. That was fun. Village Middle School, what an amazing space. And I'd like to if we can't, I don't think we'll be able to pull it off this year, but they have an amazing
culinary arts program. Students are making… they were going to make us Brazilian bread, but we had to… That was going to be be on today, but then we have the assembly. But there you can see they made the principal a cheese omelette. They have a 3D printing machine and students have to submit their plans and they have to be approved. And then students from that point on get to just use their creativity to make various items that they often then donate to to organizations that have a special need. And then the shot on the
right, you can see they really did a good job in how they're utilizing space. He said, they have between a 100 and 151 kids that show up every day, which is kind of a slight difference from the I think the previous space they were in. And he's really gone all out to create that feeling truly of a village and just a lot of excitement around academics when I was there as well. Edith Wolford again, this is preschool science. The students were putting blue dye in a cup and then
they had to predict what would happen to the white daisies. And of course, they're going to turn pink. No, they're like, are they going to turn pink? And they're like, no, it's going to be blue. So, we have future scientists budding right there and then School in the Woods, one of my favorite places to go on the left. They were pretending to be birds with different can you different beaks. Some had scissors and spoons. And what shape of beaks create get the most food from? In the middle there they were actually looking at fire science and and they had matches there and saying how
quickly would a fire spread if there's a slope, what about the density of the trees with each one of the matches being trees? And yes, they had lots of fire extinguishers and water and stuff around. And then our principal there was showing that is the buddy bench and so if students don't have anyone to sit with, they'll just sit at the buddy bench and someone will also come and sit by them. And that was actually a student's idea and this was the contribution of the current 4th graders that that are at school in the woods.
And then Da Vinci on the left there. The principal is showing they students they make goals for themselves and as they meet their goals, they get to shade in different parts of the smiley face. And students were so excited to talk about how they were achieving their goals and she said that's been a huge motivator for them, which we know has a big effect on student achievement. And then of course, you can't help but love being in a kinder class when they are playing a game with each other. Legacy Peak; This is our ASL teacher and
she was demonstrating they were looking at different kinds of disasters and how how you would sign those. And students were going along with her on that. And then of course, there's nothing better than reading to students, and I was able to do that on the Read Across America Day at Frontier Elementary. And then thank you, Director Wilburn for for your help in bringing Congressman Crank to our Air Academy High School The teachers did a fabulous job and a huge shout
out to our social studies teachers at Air Academy High School. They prepared the students well. They had a chance to ask direct questions of a Representative Crank and he did amazing job answering. But they they weren't easy questions. They were well thought out. And I was really proud of our students and again again, thank you for your help, Director Wilburn, and making this happen for the students. Purple Star Schools. I was at the CSLI Training, I was not able to attend, but again a huge
celebration. More of our schools earning that Purple Star School which again just shows how much we celebrate our military families here in D20. Spring athletics you can just take a quick look at at that? I asked. our Ron Anderson, our Athletic Director, to just give us an overall so you can see again we are are doing so well and have a very strong athletic program here in D20. And this is Air Academy High School choir, and they were singing along
at the ENT Center. Is that right, Doctor? OK, so we're going to hear just a little bit of it. And band. Up, up. Hold on. Didn't do it right. Let me do again. All right. I am I click once. Here we go. No. Can you do it for me back there? Just trying. OK. So I think you can see this was again on April 9th, the Air Academy, High School Choir and Chamber Orchestra combined with the US Air Force Academy's Cadet Coral Choir and Cadet Orchestra and they just put on this amazing celebration. Anything else you would add to that
Director Wilburn, 'cause you sent this to me, which I appreciate. It was really cool. That have some amazing musicians at Air Academy. We learned that again today when we heard the choir. But for them to be able to perform with musicians at the collegiate level, who at the Air Force Academy, of course, you always rise or sink to the the level of with whom you're performing. So they really had stepped their game up and they did. They did 2 sets. There was was an intermission in between, probably 6 or 8 songs each. I mean, they had a lot of music they performed that night. It was a long concert and it
it was just stunningly beautiful. Yeah, it was really fun. Thank you. And thank you so much for sending that, too. Rampart Early College, one of their first cohorts to have a graduation and they celebrated that on the 16th at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs after completing the four year program. Rampart Early College Academy allows students to earn up to thirty-two college credits while staying fully engaged in the high school experience. And as the inaugural group, these graduates set a
strong example, leaving the program prepared for future academic and career success. So, a huge shout out to Rampart and the recap program. Does anyone know who that child in the top left corner where there was? Anyone going to brag about that? Yeah, it's my daughter. Very proud of her. So, she's part of that first cohort. And I was like, I didn't know she's on the picture So, I'll just turn over and, that's my daughter. So, thank you. That's awesome. K Ram once again winning awards and Rampart High School's K Ram Broadcast Journalism program
received the Colorado Broadcasters Association Future Broadcasters Award for the best high school television at the 2026 Awards of Excellence recognizing it it as the top program in the state. Seniors Rogan Harris and Caleb Osir accepted the honor on behalf of the student leadership team. This marks the program's eighth time earning this distinction since 2017. That is remarkable, reflecting its long standing
excellence in student LED broadcasting, storytelling storytelling and media production. Rampart High School, also recently celebrated educating children of Color Leadership Academy completing a service project where they created feel good bags for patients and healthcare workers at The Rocky Mountain Cancer Center in Colorado Springs. During the visit, it became clear that the impact went far beyond the items being delivered. Students were met with powerful stories
tears, hugs, encouragement, prayers and many smiles, highlighting the meaningful connections formed in a short amount of time. The Da Vinci Academy, for the first time, has the Odyssey of the Mind team and they won first place as a brand new club, at the state competition and has been invited to the world's competition and they took first place place in Problem 2 technical where they had to create innovative contraptions and devices. And this team
is totally led by two parent volunteers, which I just say, you know, thank you to our parents. Very important partners in the education of children. This is a celebration of our grading from the inside out. We had several that came and we had amazing conversations around how do we ensure, across our system that we have a standards based mindset, not grading system, it's a mindset that is that the grades truly reflect the proficiency of that student in the standards.
And we are grounded in principles from the book, The Different. Concepts, and we're going to carry forth this work in principle meetings next year. So, we're excited about that. And all of us, thank you for attending the years of service investing our staff. This year we recognize staff who had dedicated 25 and 30 years to students and schools. Highlighting so many meaningful relationships and just recognize that every one of these folks have had such an
an impact on our students and our community, and are truly leaving an amazing legacy. I spent want to thank you for the gift of being able to attend the CSLI training for a whole week. It was amazing. I had a chance to learn alongside 16 other leaders in our community and just look forward to taking what I learned there and sharing it with all of you as as well as using it to make our team even stronger and just continuous cycle improvement. And, we also…
Director Payne and Director Waldrep, we had a chance to go to the civility community Roundtable. We went to two different sessions and then Director Payne and I had a chance to go to the first City Leadership Roundtable. This is an initiative that caused happening within Colorado Springs. It's called Reclaiming Civility and that is the conference, we want to go deeper with that idea, that Director Payne and I will be doing this weekend, of how do we provide space within our district, within our community to bring people together
who have different ideas and have opportunities for people to share their stories with each other to find out what we have in common to become a stronger community. So, I'm really excited about our time this coming up this weekend. And that is the end of my presentation. Awesome. Thank you. Drum roll please. Tonight we have 7 new administrators to approve. Mr. Smart, you are on the clock. Yes I am. And if you didn't know tonight is the NFL Draft which just started about 5 minutes ago so I thought it would be I
I thought it'd be great to do this draft style tonight. So first of all, don't read anything into the pick numbers right numbers, right? They're all the same, right? They're all #1 folks, OK? So don't read anything that, but yeah, Buckel your seat belt because I'm on the clock. So here we go with the first pick tonight for the position of assistant principal. The Village High School Mountaineers select Stacey Alonzi from the University of Wyoming. Yeah. Alright, she's gonna have a seat while I talk about her She also attended Colorado State University.
And so, Stacey has spent her career in both Colorado and South Dakota and has experience teaching social studies and special education, and she is currently a learning and data coach for K12 teaching. Stacey, is there anything you'd like to share? Good evening, President Shandy, members of the board, and Superintendent Haberer Is it Haber? Haberer. Yeah. There you go. Thank you. This is truly a homecoming moment for me as a graduate of Liberty High School in District 20. You guys didn’t just educate me, it really
helped to shape who I am. To now return home in this role is both humbling and exciting. I'm deeply committed to a student centered why and to to making the real… real life experiences for students every day. Ensuring that what we value is what we actually experience in the classroom. I'm excited to bring my experience in special education and online learning to Village High School and to partner with Principal Johnson and the team to continue to build meaningful, flexible pathways for every student.
Thank you for your trust. It's an honor to serve this community. Thank you. And just to give you an update, Raiders are on the clock as well, so just so all right with the second pick tonight, the position of Assistant Principal, the Mountain Ridge Middle School Grizzlies select Alicia Donald from State University of New York. Alicia also attended the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. All right, And she has spent her career working pretty much in the Pikes Peak region, mostly in D20. She was a science teacher dean of students, academic interventionist and she is currently
currently serving as assistant principal at Skyview Middle School. Alicia, anything you'd like to say? Yes. Thank you all. Can you hear me too? It's hard to hear when you're up here, so I also would like to thank the Board of Education as well as all the members Superintendent Haberer, I'd like to also thank everybody who's helped me on this journey. There are a lot of familiar faces and friendly faces, and we move through education and make connections, and that's really what my heart is around education is building those connections, both with you as well
to thank the opportunity as our family and our Staffs, and I really want that I've been given to return back to District 20 at Mountain Ridge, and thank Principal Roth as well as the hiring committee to give me this opportunity because, it's a really exciting thing. And as we listen to all of these spotlights and all of the the things that were shared tonight, you definitely know that this is a community that cares about their teachers their staff, as well as their students. And I'm just looking forward to being a part of that and to be able to contribute as much as I can to my community and to Mountain Ridge Middle School. Thank you.
Thank you. All right, see I've already got 2 done and the Raders haven't even picked yet, so, I'm good. All right, with the 3rd pick tonight, the position of Assistant Principal at Challenger Middle School, Cheetahs, and the home of the smart boys, that's where my kids go to school, Select Angela Duca. from the Colorado State University, Pueblo. All right. Angela also attended University of Colorado, Colorado Springs and she has spent her career again in the Pikes Peak region. She has spent some time in D20 where she was an English teacher, a dean of students, and
she is currently serving as the principal at Monument Academy. Anything you'd like to share? Yes, thank you so much much. Good evening. Board of Education and Executive leadership I am so excited to be here. And, I can't tell you how excited I am to be back in District 20. Just listening to all of the presentations just really shows what a phenomenal district we have and I really appreciate this opportunity and I want to thank the hiring committee and I just am so thrilled to be back.
I would just want to let you know too that I'm just so grateful and and honored for the opportunity to be the Assistant Principal Challenger Middle School. I'm looking forward to working with such an amazing team and an amazing leadership team as well as staff. Thank you for the privilege and like I said before, it's just a phenomenal district and I'm excited to be back. Thank you for the opportunity. All right, with the 4th pick tonight the position of Assistant Principal, the Pioneer Elementary School Wolves select
Beth Carlson. From Colorado State University, Beth also attended Grand Canyon University. Beth has spent her entire career in D20. She served as a Spanish teacher and English teacher and a TOSA for professional learning and she's currently the interim assistant principal at Pioneer Elementary School. Beth, anything you'd like to say? Thank you. Thank you, Superintendent Heberer and School Board for this opportunity. Many people know that I've been the interim Assistant Principal at Pioneer off and and on several times this year. And I just need you to know that
within days of being there, I fell in love with our students, our staff and our community. It's truly a wonderful and special school and I cried for days the first time I had to leave. And so, what a gift it is to get to be selected to go back and remain at at Pioneer. I need to just quickly thank a few people who are instrumental to this. One is my boss Jeremy Koselak who allowed me to step out of my TOSA role and into this position. He's been nothing but supportive. Kelly Farmer and doctor Becky Harris and Tacy Killingsworth spent a lot of time listening to me as
I process trying to get a job in District 20 as an Assistant Principal. And along with them and Cameron and Doctor Field, I know that they were reason I was given this opportunity this year. And so I'm so grateful to each of you for that support and I look forward to investing in our students and our future teacher leaders. My Pioneer people are just the literal best and I'm so so excited to continue to partner with Stefani Vickery, our principal. And to be a duo that provides consistency and support to our students. And my husband and my youngest son are are not able to be here tonight. My son has the crud that's going around, but my
oldest has powered through the Board meeting so far with us. And I'm just they've turned our whole whole schedule around so that I could be Assistant Principal at Pioneer and so I'm so grateful for them. I am a High Plains kiddo all the way through graduating from District 20 and then have have stayed here. And so, I'm so honored to continue to be a part of the District 20 family as a leader. Thank you so much. Thank you. Update Raiders select Fernando Mendoza, quarterback from Indiana. No surprise there. All right, what's about to get loud in here because with the 4th pick tonight, we have a
for the position of Assistant Principal at Rock Rimmon Elementary School Mountain Lions. I think I just lost an eardrum. They select Cheryl Munoz-Kammerer. Kammerer? Yeah. Did I say that right. From Northern Arizona University. Where I went to school as well. Cheryl also attended Colorado College, and she is joined this evening by her husband, Tim, her son Rylan, her daughter Aaliyah, which might she may be joining online. She's at Med school in Arizona.
And then also so, Cheryl has spent her career in the Pikes Peak region as well. She's an elementary teacher in Woodland Park. And in Academy District 20. She's currently serving as the MTSS coordinator, interventionist, instructional coach and and whatever else they need her to do at Rock Room Elementary School. Anything you'd like to share? Yes, thank you. Superintendent Haberer, and members of the Board, thank you for the opportunity as I take on this new role. I'm truly honored to serve the Rockrimmon Community that means so much to me, both personally and professionally. That sense of meaning comes from the people that have
have supported me, every step of the way, beginning with my family. Their love, encouragement, knowledge and passions inspire me to give more to my students. My time at Rockrimmon has played an important part of my life. It's a place where my own kids started their educational journey and where I've been able to grow as a both an educator and a leader. Over the past 20 years, I've had the great fortune to learn from some remarkable mentors, one being our outgoing principal, Carre Bonilla, who actually is at school setting up for World Tour Day tomorrow. I've also worked along some truly, truly
talented teammates and colleagues, some some of whom are here tonight. Partner with Wonderful families and have been inspired by so many students. These are the relationships that help make Rockrimmon’s touch a special place, and I can look forward to continuing to be to be able to give back to this community. I'm also excited to be working with with Amber Izzo, our incoming principal, in this new capacity. I appreciate the guidance that she's already given me so that we can ensure that Rockrimmon remains a place where every student
can thrive. Thank you. Can you guys hear me still? It seems very low now all of a sudden with the volume. That's awesome. And just, you know, the New York Jets are on the clock still. OK, so with the six pick tonight for the position of Assistant Principal, the Ranch Creek Elementary School Mustangs select Kristina Nikirk from the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. She also attended Regents University and she is joined this evening by her husband Jared, and daughter and future Mustang Harper. Where's
Harper at? Raise your hand. Harper and her parents, Dale and Jane. Kristina spent her career in the Pikes Peak region as well as an elementary teacher interventionist and Dean of students, and she's currently serving as the interim Assistant Principal at Ranch Creek Elementary School. Anything you'd like to like to share? Yes, but I don't have much prepared. Go ahead. I am sincerely grateful to the Ranch Creek community and Board of Education for the opportunity to continue serving as Assistant Principal at Ranch Creek. I truly enjoy this role and I've learned so
much. I value the relationships that I build, impact, daily impact and continued professional growth it provides. I'm endlessly grateful for my family and all of their support and I appreciate the trust and recognition this evening. Thank you. All right, with the 7th and final pick tonight for the position of… hold on, I got to tell you, they don't have a mascot So, I had to make one up. So just so you know, when you hear this, don't be Shocked. OK? With the 7th pick tonight the the position of Assistant Director for Communications the
the Communications Department, Cyclones select Lori Martin-McDowell from Fort Lewis College. I want you to know I was going to pick Cactus because they're always out there trying to find ways to put good stories, but OK. Lori has spent her career in the Pikes Peak region. OK, I want to tell you she's done some amazing things here. She's a founder and Director of Classic Conversations. Not even sure what that is, but it sounds awesome. She was the Director of Operations for McCarthy Messaging and she's the owner, this is my favorite one, of Lori Lynn's cookies and cream trucks. So, she used to have ice cream, you know
cookie ice cream things. And I'm sad that she doesn't have it anymore. And she's also the owner of Strata Ventures. She currently serves as a senior events and communication specialists at Atlas School in D2. Anything you'd like to share Thank you, Cameron, thank you so much for having me tonight, Board of Education, Miss Haberer. Yeah. This is just a delight. I am a member of the D20 community, so it's really great to be able to come up north now from the schools that I've been able to serve down in District 2.
I have actually had a chance. Well, my own children, my my 2 stepchildren graduated from Rampart. My 3 kids are from D38 schools, but the most amount of time I've spent with our Academy District 20 schools was serving them with my Ice Cream Sandwich truck. I did have the joy of owning a sandwich truck. It is a food truck. It is as hard as it looks on television and I am happy to be in the role of communications. I do have to disagree with you, Cameron on the cyclone analogy, but we'll take that up together later. We bring peace. We bring peace to communicate our stories.
So yes. I have an unwavering commitment to in person collaboration with the communities that I serve. And that's one of the things that I'm most excited to get started here when I start here later in May, both getting to know you all here in front of me and then in addition and perhaps no offense, most importantly, the people behind me looking forward to getting to to know the communities truly that I serve. So yeah I think with that, I just want to thank you for the opportunity to be considered for this position. Looking forward to being part of the communications team. Thank you. Last update, New York Jets
like David Bailey from Texas Tech, I just really appreciate you guys letting me have some fun with these things. So, I appreciate the latitude and I hope you enjoyed it tonight. Absolutely. I thought you're gonna say cactus for prickly Well, they're always packing around for stories, you know? That's what I was saying. I want to be known as prickly, no totally peace, not chaos. So, thank you. We are so are so excited to have you all join our team. Please know we hope that you will bring joy and wholesomeness to our programs and that we look forward to working with you to ensure that we reflect the values of our community in every
aspect of this district, so welcome. Colonel Herndon, correct me if I say this wrong, but in the spirit of military family month, we wish you blue skies and strong tailwinds. All right. We need a motion to approve the consent agenda as posted. I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda as posted. Second. Roll call please. Vice President Payne? Aye. Director Tripp? Aye. Director Wilburn? Aye. Director Waldrep? Aye. President Shandy? Aye. There are
19 people viewing the live stream right now. We will take a break for Pictures. If you were a school spotlight, please come up so we can take pictures with you. And I'll… We'll see you back. Let's do 10 minutes. Thank you. We'll start with Timberview. Owen, that's off. Thank you. Thank you so much Thank you very, very much. Thank you. It really is, yes. Thank you.
Yeah, so. Wow, the liberties taken tonight are personally that he landed on Yeah. Happy life. Thank you. There's Keep going, no other options. We have a lot of church plant like the summer's busy, but I don't know if you can other than that, don't be. I went to make a medical
medical appointment the other day. That's like 3 months out. That's like look calendar. Real day. I did a draft style, so I did it as we were draft picks. And then I gave him updates on the draft, so that was great. And then Willis is back here, so you sound like I said the the Raider first says all the Raiders he's s over there going like this. I'm like. How he is? Yeah, gosh. OK. I see you're on Facebook a lot with their grandkids. It's her, Jake and her son with Speedy. OK, so they were. Hillary and Jake were best friends.
OK, If I don't get to spend a lot of time, but those things, So what I see are on Facebook Yeah, she's doing it well, Yeah Yeah, I know. So hopefully that's what you say about me I don't want to see. Looks so I have a question. No, I didn't have to be 300%. Oh, you're. You are going to have. Microphone, yeah. When it's your turn. We were talking to the microphone here. Let's
straighten these back up. This You can pick whatever side you wanna sit on and then you could just just move this to your height when you sit down, but they'll have you sit here. OK, I hate that. And then they'll have a clock and and they'll count. And then if you go over your two minutes, they'll say, OK, good good, Ramshriver, thank you very much. You're done, if that happened to the student, I would. So don't waste anytime breathing and getting started, do I need to say good evening? No, you don't have to wish time on that. That's up to you. I didn't include it in my so I know maybe I should just go around now and say that's practical. That's
practice, OK. I don't want this to count for my 2 minutes no there There you go, that's your certificate. Your thing so for that. Are they? They're just right. They have a presentation. Oh, so I'm wondering if they know they have to send it back. Teresa's doing, yeah. You guys. For you, I have to get a babysitter
Yeah, I told him. Have done that. One minute prompt. One minute prompt. Please find your seats. 15. Mr. Honeycutt. I need my mic. 5 seconds. I'm off, I'm not on. Oh there there I am. All right, we are back. Please find your seats. Thank you. Thank you. It's always incredibly inspiring to begin our meeting by celebrating the hard work and achievements of our D20 students, faculty, and staff. Now we transition into the business portion of our meeting, a time for thoughtful discussion and
decision-making. Out of respect for this focus, we ask that the applause be held during this part of the session as we shift our attention to the important work ahead. Thank you so much. There are no items pulled from the consent agenda. So, we'll go right into written Reports. Legislative updates. I believe we have Ms. Atwood online with us. Yes, Amy Atwood, contract lobbyist for the District. Can you hear me? We can. Thank you so much OK, great. Thank you for having me tonight. We are three weeks… it's
three weeks until the end of the 120 day session. It's been an interesting year because there haven't been as many bills introduced in total, or in K12 education. So, there's been a lower bill count and that is because of the budget. The budget finished, Really, it pretty much wrapped up today within the Joint Budget Committee. Any negotiations and everything was finished today. It will go back to each chamber for what they call
concurrence. So really by the end of tomorrow the the state budget should be totally finished. What is important about that is the state budget is what determines how much goes into K12 education. And we've been hearing for. We've been hearing for, well, two years now, but certainly this year that there's no money, there's no money, there's no money. Well, the joint budget Committee and the Legislature held to their commitment to continue to fund K12 education and not impose a cut. So, for 26-27.
K12 education at the state level is being increased about $200 million. And the new finance formula is being rolled out at 30%. And student averaging or the student count will be at three years. This is what we were. What we were told would happen. This is what was… we had hoped would happen, but for a year we've been told that there was such a deficit. Now the state did have a big deficit. They closed
it was about 900 million. They closed the gap through reducing the state reserve from 15% to 13%. That gained about $300 million. They cut $350 million from Medicaid and these are cuts. The provider rate was cut. It wasn't held flat, so providers are being cut 2% as well as there were different programs that were cut and then other line items throughout the budget. Every single department took cuts, whether that was not filling staff positions or programs that were
underutilized. So that's how they made up the $900 million gap. So that's good news. We've been on pins and needles all year about this. The School Finance Act has started its way through the process. It never finishes before… Well, it hasn't in my 15 years ever gone before the budget. It used to to decades ago, but now it doesn't. So the… The School Finance Act will pass out of the Senate this week and then go into the
House next week. It seems as though there aren't any problems. They're not adding, adding or changing what I just told you it is. It's what is considered a very clean bill right now. So with that, are there any questions about the budget? Director… Vice President Payne. Amy, thank you for the update. Can you share when we can feel confident that this is all finalized? The very final, vote, will be when the School Finance Act is signed. I'm sorry, is passes out of the House which will
be at the end of next week. So once it passes, the governor's not going to veto it. So, once we know that it's gone through the House, that's when we will, you know 100% know. But, because the money has been allocated in the state budget and the state budget is closing where all the final final negotiations on the state budget should happen by the end of tomorrow. Then the School Finance Act is fully funded. So once there's it's a 2-step process. So, once we know the budget is finished then and there are no discussions about changing the
education allocation, and then the school Finance Act will finish. But right now you can, I really do believe you can count on what I just told you and what Becky has been talking about as well. No, thank you. Please share with our legislative partners that we are very pleased to hear that at Academy District 20 and I sure, I'm sure that that's reflected across the state that at least the budget initiatives and their leadership at the state are keeping that as a a priority. I sure will.
And when it comes to education legislation this year, like I said, it's been a really… It's just the bill count is way down and it's because introducing bills that needed money from the state or from the general fund just we're not going to pass. And then shifting that burden onto school districts is not something that legislators wanted to do. They, I think are talking, are talking points and it's real that unfunded mandates hurt student
funding. And so I think the legend this legislature has really heard that and has worked hard not to impose unfunded mandates. No, thank you for, thank you for that. We really appreciate your updates every month. I'm so glad to be involved, but I really appreciate the update. Send it back to you, President. Director Wilburn. Thank you, Amy. Yeah, unfunded mandates like LED light ballasts and things like that. Once the session session begins to wind down, can you work with us to get us up there, introduce us to key legislators outside
of the dollars and cents which you've you've just discussed the steady tide of districts and schools losing control of curricula, losing control of our libraries, the erosion of parental rights. I think we would like to get involved with the people making decisions in Denver. And maybe have you broker some handshakes with people who sit on the right committees and are in the right places so we can, rather than sit here and react, go up there there and try to proact. Sure, I'd be happy to and I'll continue to do that. We've had some of those opportunities over the last two
years, but we will continue to work on those here during the interim as well, like you said outside of of session; Before decisions are made or bills are introduced. OK, cool. And also and maybe we bring Mr. Miller in on this, even though this this is legislative updates, he's in the know. Comment if you can, the two of you may be on just some of the things happening. We've got, we've got a federal incursion in Jeffco. Executive orders pertaining to title Title 9 are, state of CHSAA and others maybe jumping in
in with us on that and some other outcomes we're seeing in different places from our leadership in District 49, leadership there. Can we just kind kind of update on those things? I only know about legislation. And state legislation. Not your specialty? Not in my league. Mr. Miller. Hey, Amy, how are you? Brad here. So. It is an interesting time. I've just been in a couple other places Recently, where to your credit, the leadership that District 20 exhibited last summer in moving ahead with joining the coalition to
to challenge CHSAA's rules on boys competing girls sports under the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment has inspired others to move in a direction of considering and beginning to the process for adoption of what we call, I believe, policy JBA. And that the point of that one being to protect young ladies in the sense of the physical disparities that just the pure genetic differences between the way bodies develop between boys and girls and
giving them the opportunities to be on podiums and pursue scholarships and so forth. And so that has taken wind. We now have a ballot measure that's going to be on the fall ballot for all of us to consider that as a global thing and as you alluded, Mr. Wilburn, the Department of Education and the Department Department of Justice and the OCR, the federal OCR has reached into a couple of places in Colorado and is leaning in and insisting that they adopt similar
practices to what we've adopted in policy or else face revocation of some federal money. So, there's a lot going on in that. Our case is still going forward. You were successful in getting CHSAA to agree to not sanction or penalize or otherwise get in the way of the policies that you've adopted and so so we're moving in a good direction with that as far as what you are leading on. Thank you. Director Waldrep. Amy, thanks for all the work you've been doing up there and this
question, just a little bit more about what your sense is about that legislative body if there's going to be any kind of memory moving forward that, you know, trying to, you know, have things that negatively impact funding for schools isn't a good idea. Well, our staff here back in everyone else worked so hard to make sure that we're able to support our teachers and we want to be able to hopefully increase more pay, offer more incentives as we move forward. Do you have a sense? Are they learning a lesson from that will hopefully pay dividends for us for next year? So, I think what you're asking is… is this state going to pull back on its spending because it's spending
more than it's bringing in? And I would say yes. we we are in what is called a three year structural, at least a three year structural deficit, which means the state put in new programs, and the money was there. But then revenues have, revenues have Decreased. There's still more money coming into the state budget this year than last year and the year before that and the year before that. So revenues aren't going negative, just the expenditures and the program
spending is exceeding what's coming in; the revenues. So, it is at least a three-year trajectory we. We will start hearing that next year, we're a billion dollars down. It's the same talking point. There were some decisions that could have been made this year that weren't. Reducing the reserve from 15 to 13 percent was… it was a big decision, but it's why the reserve is there. Will they do that again next year to backfill?
So there are still programs that are being funded with one-time dollars and that's where that's where we're seeing the backfill of the reserve. So I think that I think the legislature and certainly the Joint Budget committee is moving in that direction. It's just really, really hard decisions. Yeah. Thank you. And I wanted to say one last thing or two things. You asked about also about the memory. We're in an election year and we likely will turn over about 30% of the Legislature. So that is a lot of new members.
To… Educate. There will be turnover down in your area as well. And so it is an opportunity as well, is to educate new legislators and continue with the relationships that we already have. And we've seen that this year with some of the visits that we had up at the Capitol. And then lastly, I wanted to say about the budget and for next year there is discussion that mid-year in January there could be a rescission. We will have, I think we will have
better notice that that is coming. Because we have revenue forecasts in June. June, September and December and so if the economy is turning and revenues look like they will be declining more than is projected. We'll have a runway into that going into January when those decisions have to be made. So just keep that in mind that that is on the table. It's on the table every year, but because we're so tight Districts are warned,
just in some sense, be ready. But like I said, we will have have a nice runway for that. Thank you, Amy. Vice President Payne. Amy, just one final question and a thought. I really appreciate when we've been up there, but has there been any accountability when we were all at the capital and learned that you the data that they had provided to us that had also been a considering factor was that there had been 6000 state positions that had been put into place since
2019? Has that been part like, especially when new legislators are coming on, have they looked at that at all with a lens of accountability? That is a really big question with a lot of answers. I would say that State government has grown, and programs have grown and revenue has grown. And so now that the now that the program costs have outstripped the revenue costs. Those, some positions won't stay around. They won't. But as we know, state government has
has grown because year over year over year, the revenues have grown and the state spends what it gets. It spends or saves what it gets in. No. And I appreciate that. I think we're just really committed to be being partners with the legislature and making sure that we really remind them and hold them accountable that their decisions surrounding budget or where that money goes directly impacts schools. Not only safety performance, but our outcomes. So, it's just just been great to have you and to be able to be part of that team that's gone
to the capital with cabinet. So, thank you so much. I know we got to do our work too, to remind them of those things. Yeah, we appreciate you so much, Amy. Thank you. All right. Did you have anything else you wanted to say. I was just going to say that work that we did on the specific ownership tax and the visits we had at the Capitol made a difference. They absolutely made a difference, so it is certainly worthwhile to make those connections. Wonderful. And that's great feedback for us to cause it’s a commitment to go up there or whatever. So, it's good to know that it it's
worthwhile. So thank you. All right, you are released, Amy. Thank you. All right, moving on, annual monitoring report for executive limitations policy 2.7. Employment compensation and benefits. Does anyone have any questions or comments? Director Tripp, do you have any questions or comments? Sorry, I think you said no already. Yeah, I don't on this one. I have plenty more coming though. So that I felt it. I felt it, OK moving on. Annual monitoring report for governance process Policy 4.14 electronic attendance and participation in school
school board meetings. Does anyone have any questions or comments? Nope. OK. Summer school programming for summer 2026. Director Tripp, I know you have questions or comments. I did have a few questions on this one. It's a nice service that we provide kids, you know that they can make up some classes and some different things like that and have enrichment things to do too. So, I'm appreciative for those staff that manage that program and all of that. My questions though are maybe
I'll just ask them all and then whoever can answer them, but. What do we have in place for security arrangements for summer school, since it's a little bit different where where kids are going and what times and things like that? And then another question is how do we track their attendance so that that parents know kids are actually in class once they're dropped off? Because again, it's a little bit of a different setup. And then regarding the high school classes I just wanted some clarity between the accelerate and the
Ingenuity classes. And then we're basically saying in a three week period of time you can retake an entire semester class. Want to make sure I'm understanding that Correctly, so. How does the rigor and the depth of those condensed courses compare to the traditional semester or year? And so how do we know that those three-week courses are actually fully preparing students for that next level that supposedly now they're qualified to take? Thank you for your questions. This is Gary
Arrasmith, Summer School Administrator. Your first question was about security. We, each in person site has a full-time security officer on duty and the high school site is mostly online and there's some students that go in there for tutoring on Wednesdays and get some extra help from a counselor that we have on staff and so that hat site will be patrolled by the patrol by our our security patrol. Your second question was how do we track attendance. All the students are supervised by D20
certified teachers. And attendance is taken every day at elementary school and middle school levels. I hire an attendance clerk for every site. And they handle phone calls and they do the check in and check out process so we know we have an accountability of every student where they are at all times. Let's say we have an emergency or an evacuation or anything like that. We know who's with us and who's not. And at the high school level, our attendance clerk does the attendance from the online logins and
that's how we kind of monitor the progress of our students. That attendance clerk alongside my site coordinator will make phone calls if there's concern about their progression through the course and they make make phone calls as needed. I think your other question was about and the oh, the difference between the two. Yeah. Edgenuity is the platform we use for our online credit recovery. It's the acronym is OCR, the OCR program.
We have a District OCR program coordinator who works with these students and in in the summer school this platform is designed, or it fits the student who fails more than three classes. It because it's got a lot of scaffolding and some supports, there's supportive supportive tools within the platform, so it helps those students Out. And the students can complete one semester class per session. These final exams
exams are either in person or they're proctored by that district OCR program coordinator. Or in person, or on MS Teams. Because sometimes students are out of town can't can't come in, but they Proctor those finals. More specifically, the Ingenuity program is known for the direct instruction. It's used across the nation for online credit recovery and it has videos on teachers that are teaching them through those videos. And it's followed by quizzes.
And it's maintained to where the student has to pass a certain level and go through modules and they pass to the next levels as they go. The Accelerate program is the one we use over at Village High School. We basically purchase seats and so we get those extended through my summer school program so we're able to accommodate our kids in District 20. Students are able to complete one semester per session. More specifically, the Accelerate program is… they call it the Five
E's; Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate and Evaluate, and it's basically an inquiry based learning module system. Where know it emphasizes those mastery skills as the kids progress. A lot of… a lot of the programs your. The other question was about the three weeks. Without lunch, Without off campus privileges? Without distractions, without locker rooms, without changing out for PE, with all that stuff. The kids are ultra focused on 4
hours of intense focus on one one course and so. And I think a lot of the classes are based on their passion too. I got to get this done or I love this and I want to, I really want to advance advance quickly. And so, the answer to your question on the timeline. And it yes that they are accelerated classes accelerate course, but they're but they're based so long as completing the course Mastery of each. You know they're demonstrating those lesson modules and
there's pre tests, there's post-test Diagnostic tests that are all built-in and what's really fascinating is that they, the the curriculum, not the curriculum, but the lessons adapt towards the kids to see if if they need to review something to make sure they're getting the benchmarks necessary, especially in math. Math is very very robust and yet making sure the the kids have those skills needed to move on What's really good about the online program too, the Village High School
uses as well, the grading, the feedback is pretty quick and then it's tied to a certified D20 teacher. So there are teachers are monitoring these students, they can see where they're struggling. They reach out. They communicate with those kids and I love that about our program, especially with the accelerate program. And then I think you're… The last question was the the rigor, then the depth and how can we cover all that. Now the the syllabus, Are… it covers everything and how can we do it?
The kids are accelerated through it and they're they have a desire to get it done. Not all, not all completed, not all pass it. They have to demonstrate the mastery and then you need to meet these benchmarks. And I I would think that whether you're in person in a high school building, or online at Village or with the summer school program, the gaps are seen later tying that bridging the gap to the next level. The those supportive… the support groups at every school
would be able to jump in and identify those gaps if there there are any. In math specifically a lot of the students want to to advance themselves so they're accelerating through and they're and they're top notch kids they basically want to get to the the highest level math once they get to high school. Or as they're entering high school, so I think I appreciate you recognizing the importance of offering this for kids, whether they're advancing or whether they're really trying to catch up
and be walk across the stage for graduation. So, thank you for your questions. Do you have any more? Gary, I really appreciate your in-depth answers to my questions. I wish you could see me over here scribbling notes and nodding and Going, oh…, so I really appreciate that. So do we have a sense of for the kids that take say the math class that that like… Do teachers report when those kids come in and they've done a an OCR course that they're
that they're like good to go and ready for this next level of math? Are teachers finding those kids are good to go? Yeah, I think, well, they're basing their assessment on the modules and the kids completion through those things and so. Again, whether whether you're on online or in person, kids, kids could get help. They can do all these things, but you can almost tell by the especially the middle tests, the diagnostic tests and then also the final you could tell whether they have those skills or not
not. And then of course, when they go, when they return to their high school buildings, they're able to identify maybe a missed piece or something like that. Our teachers are pretty skilled with that. But yes, the Accelerate program for sure, as has those teachers built in to see where there's some misplaced need to. skills and then they can kind of diagnose that and then jump in when they Thank you so much, Gary. I really appreciate it.
Thank you, Director Tripp. All right, thank you so much. No more questions. Did you have one? I'm sorry, I apologize. Yeah, I had a couple of questions, a lot of them, Holly could already asked. One of the questions you were already answering I think is similar. I was wondering about wouldn't they have gone there to try to improve improve their skills is they're also kind of a follow up that to see how they actually they performed in their follow on class. I know you said that the teachers will kind of assess that, but do we have a way to kind of understand like if the student attended this class, it'd have like standard deviation improvement in
performance the following year, the following class, the following sequence? And then I had a question about the inquiry-based learning, but first that one. OK. Yeah, that's a great question The summer school program doesn't follow the kids into the school so, I there's no data comparing the two, but I have looked at some research 'cause I want the best for the kids, and there's really not a big correlation, whether they're online or in person. And of course, the research is not very
robust, I would say since COVID. Right? But since… but because of COVID they have been looking at that and they haven't seen that there's a really big difference between whether they graduate or not or whether they get those skills and they're ready. However, at every building you we do I know our buildings are very strong with saying OK, this student took it online. This one was in person. I haven't heard any… there's no… I have no feedback from that being an issue. OK. And is there
there a reason why we're not offering more face to face with high school students? It seems like high school is pretty much, if I'm hearing you, primarily online is because we don't have staff for it or is it just that the programs that are offered are a better match online than we have, than we can offer locally? Is there a reason why we're not doing any face to face for high school kind of thing, other than than sound like a counselor if they need it, right? Many years ago I was a site coordinator and it was in person. And I had my staff and the kids would come to the building and I feel now
we offer so much more. So much more variety. The kids have that flexibility. A lot of them are getting summer jobs and so I feel it fits really well. And I think that's just the way the trend and how things switch to it, And I kind of missed that, the in person part but then looking back, we I couldn't have enough teachers, the building wasn't big enough, all the stuff I couldn't have the variety. And so, that that's the reason why we've gone to online.
OK. And then my last question you mentioned kind of inquiry based learning is being being something that you can particularly focus on and that's what I've been doing a lot of research on over the last few months and it's something I find to be pretty controversial. Seems like direct teaching methods seem to be much more effective and kind of acquisition and be able to demonstrate knowledge and to the degree that I guess inquiry based learning has shown any kind of positive effect is when it's paired first with direct instruction and then being released into inquiry-based learning. So, I don't know if there's a reason why we had that as an outset rather than more direct teaching methods.
Yeah. That Accelerate program kind of emphasizes that not emphasizes it, but touts that. I think that's a buzzword really, honestly, as I look at it. I think, you know, it's not direct one on one face to face. However, that's what I like about that program where that was mentioned that we do have certified D20 teachers that are that, you know, and I I make sure the class size is reasonable. Because. they're following up with students, they're giving them, they're calling them, they're they can see the work in progress,
on the screen. They have ability to message them and do that so we're, I think we're doing a really good job in this District to be as direct as possible. That’s what I see. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, you bet. Thank you. OK. Now you're done. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thank you, everyone. All right, summer school programming for summer 2026. Let's see here who has questions. Mr. Waldrep. Do you have? Did you have questions on this? No. Sorry, I didn't. I didn't mark that one off. I
want to do it again. I did. All right Monthly financial report through March 2026. That's funny. I did have a quick question. Director Tripp. Yes, thank you. So. Becky, your reports are always so amazing and I just want to make sure I understood it correctly. This report seems to show that we were that we're experiencing an increase in funding basically due to property tax increases, even though we've been talking a lot about that, we'll have a decrease in funding for our
District. So, I just want to make sure I'm seeing that right and do do we think that's going to continue like just just I just want to make sure I understood it correctly. It's a great question and it's one that I get a lot. This really goes back to when people say my property taxes are going so much higher, So, how in the world is the school district saying they don't have enough money? What we have to remember is that while we're bringing in additional property taxes because our assessed value
assessed valuation in this district, the last report I gave you was almost 14% increase. And we all know if you Own a home, you certainly paid as I did, more for our property tax tax. But the rub of the whole thing is that when our property tax collection goes up in in District 20, yes, we have those dollars but the state, they're the winners because they now can give the District less money. So, it is not a net gain
necessarily. It is an offset that the share changes. And Director Tripp, an example of of this is, if you look, I don't know if you have the report in front of you, but graph 1, if you look at at bullet three, it talks about a decrease in state equalization; That's the state share. And it says as a result of lower funded pupil count and a decrease in the total program funding
funding state share because of the local D20 property tax share increased. Another powerful example, in our mid year budget that the board considered and approved in January, an interesting dichotomy in there. So if you were to look just at the total property tax revenue for District 20, we made an adjustment of an increase of 9 million. And if you don't look anywhere else you're excited, but if you know that you need need to look somewhere else,
A little further down on this sheet is the state equalization part. That's the share of the state. We took a decrease of 7.5 million. It's not dollar for dollar because funded pupil count is in there as well, but Remember, while it's good news when we have increased assessed valuation, we know that we have people people, we have activity. It's a happening place we're having students. But in terms of all this extra, if you will, revenue
from increased property taxes, the state they they jumped for joy because they can give us less. So, am I not, so, just like if I go up to page 1, and graph 1 and your bullet points, I'm reading 2.4 million decrease in state equalization as you say, and then a point 5 million decrease. And then? A 4.7 million increase from taxes and a 1.1 million increase. So, to me it still looks like we're getting a little bit of a bump.
With property taxes, one of the things to consider is that we get a huge influx in March because people have paid their bills. So, March is one of our highest collections and this is comparing to March last year at this time. So, by the time we get to the end of the year, you will see a true representation. And so we have some increases overall because our PPR went up for this
year, but I just want to caution in terms of when you see a big increase in the property tax collection, there is an offset. Not necessarily one for one, but there's an offset and a decline. That's why you see that decline in state equalization. Right. OK. I just wanted to talk through that really fast with you. No. And I so appreciate you bringing that up because I always think it's a good reminder. Because to be perfectly frank, and I don't mean to be disrespectful, it kinda
doesn't make sense. Because local, state, everything that makes sense, people would like to say if I'm paying more to my local school district, I would like to see them carry benefit. And right now the model doesn't really support that. Right. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Allen. All right. Moving on to accreditation handbook update for school year 26-27. Director Wilburn. Believe you had a question. I believe I did. This was. I just one of the just one of the revisions that kind of popped out at me. This is going way down to
page 12. And under the yes column for 12 it says, it used to say students have written individualized plans that meet federal and state legal requirements, rules and guidelines, and then the new version, the word written has been removed. I guess there's a reason for that, but I'm just curious if a plan isn't written how’s it communicated? What? That's counterintuitive. Yes. So, this really was just to help parents understand and have some clarity because as written, it said students have written individualized plans. So, the parents thought that
that meant that the students had written their plans. And it really just means that students have plans written for them. And so, it was just the wording. We wanted to just make it a little bit more clear that no the students are not writing their plans. Their teachers. or school staff are writing those plans. OK. Now that's an important clarification. OK, And my second question I answered on my own, so never mind OK. Any other questions? No OK, Thank you. Thank you. Transition from NWEA to IXL.
Director Tripp. So, I had a few questions about this as well. We've had some recent concerns about privacy and data protection. So how does IXL handle student data privacy? And do they have third party vendors or other things that assist their company that we should be reviewing as part of our regular protocols? So, our process when we work at selecting a new assessment tool is that we follow all the district policies… Policies. I put together processes and policies. That was pretty fancy.
All district processes and policies to ensure that we're meeting all of the data privacy standards as part of that RFP contracting process. So all of that is evaluated before we even get to a decision on is this the right tool for us, because we don't want to start down that road. And then be disappointed because we're not able to uphold those privacy standards that we need to adhere to. That makes sense. Good. I just wanted to check in on that. And then I know that there can be a disruption, between what data looks like from growth and
achievement when you switch from one system to another. So, kind of I'm just wondering what differences we might expect to see as we switch over to IXL instead of the NWEA and how are we helping schools prepare for that? Absolutely. So, we do know that the way that IXL collects data is a different mechanism than map growth. So, map growth has been using that Rich score or Roush score. So that will look different on how they present their data. But the processes the the way we implement the assessment and all those pieces will
be exactly the same. I think one benefit with IXL is that it, to me, it makes more sense. So, if we said the student received a score of 350 that would would mean that the students working at a third-grade level in about the 5th month of school. Where the Roush score is kind of a, there's s a very fancy mathematical equation that goes with that, but it's very hard to understand it without all your norm sheets and all your data and information. So I think for that piece it will be easier for us and for parents and staff to interpret that
data. We have professional learning already planned. I have a meeting tomorrow with ongoing with our, Katie supports us, as from the vendor side. And so we have District 20 classes being held during summer institute for our staff to start learning more about using IXL. But what we have to remember is this is our third year of implementation. This isn't a brand new implementation for us. We are just going to start using it as our benchmarking tool. So of all schools used at the same level, no, but we have a lot of experience
using the tool. So that puts us in a great place to start doing professional Learning. And then that's when you'll remember that in several of of my presentations, we've talked about the balanced assessment system and what's important is that we have more than just this piece and that assessment system that we're constantly monitoring and looking at, but we will be prepared and have information ready for our schools this fall. And when we say fall, we mean June and July and August. We're doing training with our school assessment coordinators on August 4th
So, we have plans in place to support all those changes. Thank you. Last question for you. I know that as I tour schools, we have kids on their devices a lot and I and there's this struggle between online learning and just high quality Tier 1 one teaching and interventions in the classroom in real time. So how do you see IXL complementing just the core instruction and those in person interventions and what guidance are we providing to ensure that it supports
that best practice teaching and re-teaching instead of replacing it? So, our first guidance is IXL always has to be led by the teacher and with the student in mind. So we're not going to just put kids on devices and say good luck, go work on this for 30 minutes, we'll see you later. Right? What the students working on is guided by the teacher. The other gifts of IXL is, of course, it's aligned to the Colorado Academic Standards. So we know we're aligning with state standards. It aligns with our PLC practices. So it's providing ongoing
data. So one of the gifts of IXL is as students enter what we call the arena, we are getting constant information on these students throughout the year, instead of those two or three benchmarks we were doing. So, we're still gonna benchmark. So, we'll still have the same type of data to share with you as the Board of Education and with our schools and our teachers, but we will have that ongoing intervention information. So, when you you think about interventions, this tool we were able to do a demo with with Ginger recently, I should say Mrs. Haberer, that we were able to demonstrate how a teacher
can find out for a group of students. You have these through students that are struggling with this specific skill. You have 15 students that have already mastered this skill and ready to move on. So that's a gift for our teachers for time and energy, is their planning and trying to meet the many needs of our students in the Classroom. So those are a few examples of how IXL will align with our teachers and what they're working working on with students in our classrooms. OK, Yeah, hopefully we're still really, really emphasizing our tier one teaching.
100%. And that was my first point is that we never want IXL to be without the teacher being the first primary educator for the student. Right. Great. Thank you so much. Absolutely. Director Waldrep. Just a piggyback off that question. I think also what… I don't want to speak for Director Tripp or not, but I know one thing is that I was thinking about while she was asking those questions is do we have a sense of the amount of proportion of time that the students will be spending in front of a screen rather than other things? I was just minded the other day by watching a scene of Dead Poets
Society about the power it could have to be really engaged along with the other students. Everyone looked around and engaging and that element of learning can be so important. So even if it's being directed by the teacher, is it 20% of the day that's gonna be in front of a screen? Is it gonna be 60% of the day? Is it gonna be, you know, 5%? I mean that's… Right. I would say devices, you know, students use them for different things. The one piece I can speak to is IXL. So, our hope is that we are practicing to proficiency one or two skills a week. And so that should be accomplished in a
less than 30 minutes. So, it's not something that kids are gonna be to be on all day all the time. They're retouching it, you know, they're looking at a skill that maybe they needed to practice. Because my class could all be working up here, but I might be missing a few skills that I need to practice individually and and that's the gift of IXL. It will identify those and give them directly to that student. So we've never had a tool that could go directly to the student map growth could say, well, we can kind of guess in this area this Is… which there was a lot of great information five years ago when we adopted
map growth, but to the level where IXL is at, it provides us a lot more detailed information and Mrs. Haberer is raising her hand. You got me excited about something here, Jolynn. I remember when you were showing me the capacity. The other thing that this tool does is it gives individual a student reports. And when you showed me that piece, Jolynn, I was really thrilled when we're talking about parent partnership and wanting to empower parents with where their students are at with their skills, and then even giving parents
opportunities if they wanted to kind of help their child at home using using IXL. It's huge. At parent conferences, parents will come and they'll say what can I do at home to help my child? And this is gonna be an amazing tool. I was so encouraged when Director Patterson, showed me, show me the tool. It's gonna just strengthen that parent partnership as teachers start to use that tool, which is not something that we've had had access to before. And Doctor Field just reminded me that tonight at
your seats, behind the DAC Handbook, I put 2 IXL handouts. They've both been presented to you. One was in the packet this week, that looks a little fancier. That looks… the vendor actually prepared that for us specifically based on District 20. And then the second page I shared with you at the last board meeting about the transition to IXL. So just because I do better when people give me information, more than once. I did the same for you. So at the back of that packet I connected both of these pages for you. So one's kind of…
Paper clipped. Yep. And one of the things I was just looking at is in the second box on that first handout, the more fancy looking one is that they have been doing research using our data and information and that our students showed a 10.8 student growth percentile points higher than students who had not experienced IXL or worked with it. So we're seeing not only is this an opportunity for students, but it's making a difference for students. And I have one more question you could pique my interest.
So, you mentioned that it could also identify deficits. So, you have area of emphasis, is it also going to be able to identify suspected intellectual giftedness? So, if we recognize that kids are really excelling in this like hey man this might be a good candidate to see about pumping them into more advanced or specialized classes. So, I would say it goes with a body of evidence about how students are performing, but what you're talking about is something more specifically that would be handled in our gifted and talented or TAG programming, where they would use different assessments. So, we do CogAT testing and Iowa testing as well. Though students now can be identified, this is not my area of expertise, but I want to say
it's over. 22 areas that the state will look for gifted and talented areas for students to be identified. Does it tell us if students are performing very high on state standards? Absolutely. And what we're looking forward to is having all this data and information and now that we just finished our, well, no no, not till tomorrow. Getting ahead of myself. We are in the process of of closing our C MAS windows tomorrow that we've been doing. All of our state testing and PSAT SAT. So it will be exciting. And the date, the state is anticipating
that we will have data closer to early June where usually it would be end of June, July, August before and parents will have it sooner than us. So that's nice to see that those results in people's hands and ready to to use; Just as an extra commercial. Yeah, thank you. Awesome, I think you are done. I. Now 1, is that so? Is that 10.8? I mean that's s impressive. Is that 10.8% percentile growth against other students in D20 or against some aggregate in D20? So, when they looked at our students and
our student use. So, they took the students and they looked at their performance and then looked at are they using IXL and if they were, then did we see an increase in performance? That's money well spent. Could you say that one more time, like an elevator talk for me? Well, let's see if I can try that again. I just loved that growth. Thanks for pointing it out, Director Wilburn, because I mean truly like there's s so many times we can look at what's measurable and and it does… It's always wonderful to hear you explain It. But that's a true measurable. And thank you so much. Well
Well, on the other piece, IXL has been a great partner for us and I can't say enough good things about this company and how they show up for us, and they make changes. And one of the things they're doing right now is they're going to take Our CMAS and PSAT scores from this spring and do another analyst analyzation around the same type of talk, but like how are kids performing on our state test as well as their IXL use. So, I'm excited to see that information as well. But what I said I think Ms. Payne was that of our District 20 students who used the IXL tool,
we saw those students improve more at a rate of 10.8 percentile points than we did our other students. That makes sense? And I got y'all. You gotta dug into it. Yeah, I can tell I've lost my class. You're the one that gave the stuff. I lost my edge and Superintendent Haberer. You went too long. Superintendent Haber pointed out the real time mode. Yes. And how just valuable that is, if you wanna speak to that really fast, there's a lot of great nuggets in this little handout here.
Wonderful. You're done now. Thank you. I think I have an I I can't remember if the next report. OK. Done with that one. Draft Board Ends 1.2. Portrait of a Graduate. Director Tripp, would you like to start? Have another seat back in the hot seat I noticed. So, I just want to first start off before we talk about this and even the monitoring report coming up, I recognize I'm a new board member coming in to work that's been done by previous Boards. And a lot of community members. So, I just want to acknowledge that and honor that
as I look at our change that we're suggesting from basically the character traits to these competencies as a replacement, I had had a couple questions about what that looks like and especially since I wasn't part of this process, maybe, especially Derrick and Amy can speak to that. So, these character traits and those statements in the crosswalk, do they get retired? Do they carry any standing as interpretive guidance? I actually really
like the statements that are made in the crosswalk, I think they have a little bit of a focus. A little bit more of an ethical focus and, a little bit more of a local focus than some of the other ones, so I'm just wondering what our vision is for what happens to those kind of rationale statements in the crosswalk? Do you want to? Superintendent Haberer real fast. OK, so I appreciate your thoughtfulness in this Director Tripp. We talked about this in our retreat and some of the conversation
that we had was, we did the crosswalk and we had discussion around do we keep that language and or do we just The six competencies and use that language because those definitions were also put together as from multiple stakeholder groups. And I think the goal of this Draft Ends 1.2 is really around how do we give clarity to our
system around what we're supposed to focus on and what are those characteristics. So if we have 10 you know 10 different characteristics and the six competencies. It's very difficult for principals teachers to say what are we… what are we supposed to focus on. And we have various programs, as you'll see, as you see in the monitoring report that we put in place to try to develop those characteristics that those character traits that have been in the broad ends for
quite a while. The whole intent of the crosswalk was to show how those six competencies really really could be an umbrella over the character traits that have been there. And in speaking with stakeholder groups and our team, my view is that by just adopting the six competencies, we can get real clarity in our system around what our focus is especially considering the amount of work that went into It. And all of the voices as you mentioned, which I
appreciate from the stakeholders. So, I I think we could go either way on this. We could list the six competencies and the definitions that were put together from our stakeholder groups. Or we could could do the six competencies and still have the crosswalk language in there. What's important to me is that we seriously consider those six competencies being as our focus as a district for what we want for our students. So that brings up my next question. Thank you for that.
We have a lot of schools as highlighted in our our monitoring report, right, that have independently developed frameworks that live sort of underneath this, like the IB learner profile. And then we've got schools that roar and schools that that howl and schools that have impact and, all of those other ones. those other ones so. How do? How are we going to align those school level frameworks with the new competencies? Are they going to be side by side? How does this work together? So, what I could say to that Director Trip is that
that like the IB schools, they've already showed me a crosswalk where they are intentionally showing how those 6 competencies align with the IB learner profile. For example, at the elementary level, as well as the other levels. And what we're seeing with howl and some of those other are really PBIS are positive behavior support system. And so I think that I don't see that as necessarily a competition, but certainly we would work alongside them so that
we can provide clarity like these are the competencies and by doing some of these HOWL activities and attributes you're still going to be hitting one of these six competencies. Director Patterson, do you want to add to that? I'm gonna defer to Doctor Field if there's anything she would like to add. Doctor Field? Yeah. Tacy had sent a few responses in Mrs Tripp and she she said just basically what Superintendent Haberer said that individual schools will ensure alignment with the competencies with their current frameworks to allow for
for cohesion. So as the PSSG team will work closely with schools to ensure that there's alignment there. So, are we trying to have kids learn those competencies or we or we expect maybe that happens at at the high school level? Or are we trying to have them memorize whatever their ROAR their HOWLs, or whatever their PBIS framework is kind of are we trying to have them remember? Yeah, so it would
be the competencies and that mixed in with the… Remember the competencies would kind of be the umbrella and the character traits would be the details. And so, all those different PBIS acronyms would be… That’s what I mean when they'd have to become aligned with our new E1.2, Ends. And it would be K12. We would start that in kindergarten. OK, so maybe some of these other PBIS acronyms are maybe going to be retired as well.
Perhaps, and a lot of them are already. It's really about words and language, a lot of them, like responsibility and respect, you see those very often in these PBIS Acronyms, you know, fall in line absolutely with character traits. So yes, they probably would be or they would have a new acronym for their school. So like if they were the Owls I think that's Chinook Trail Middle school, right So they might rebrand the Owls
whatever it is, I can't remember. To reflect, but yeah, to reflect the current new ends. Does that make sense? That'll be interesting to see how that unfolds. Yeah, it'll be good though. Yeah, there's a lot of, really great things about the statements in the Portrait of a Graduate. So, a lot of good stuff to work from there for sure. All right. Thank you so much. Moving on to preliminary revenue assumptions for fiscal year 26-27.
Director Tripp. I just had a couple quick questions on assumption 5, what is the career development incentive program that has a funding decrease? So, in our mid-year budget this year we show that there were unspent funds from the CDIP, that's what we call that, from the end of last year at about a $184,000. So, in the mid-year we had to add that revenue in, but it's one time. It's unspent funds from last
year. So in next year's budget we have to back it out. That's the decrease. It's one time money, so we can't repeat it. And then on assumption 7, this this increase of the food budget. Is that the first time we've done that since 2015 - 2016? Since 2015 - 16 there's something, a mechanism, I kind of call it a buyback services, but we have money that comes into the general fund of District 20 from the food service fund. It's
its own fund for Food Service. $200,000 has been put in the general fund to address things like vehicle usage you know, our vehicles are used by staff for food service. Fuel to fuel those. Utilities. They use offices over in the warehouse, so they're paying basically the District. Some of our elementary school cashiers are actually D20 staff and not staff members of the food service company. So since
15-16 that reimbursement amount, if you will, that buyback has been 200,000, but over time now those costs have increased and so we are now will get are upping that amount. So our general fund 300,000 instead of 200,000. Wow, they've had a really great rate for a number of years. If we haven't adjusted it since then, that's pretty good. So that's that one. Perfect. That's all I've got. Thank you. Thank you. Awesome. Thank you. Academy District 20 Board of Education
here in regarding QJ versus power school holdings LLC in all case number (Case No. 1:23-cv-05689) Director Tripp. You have questions? I just wanted to first say thank you for this comprehensive overview. I have been really following it as it's come through our desks and so I appreciate this comprehensive overview and how the school, how the district is handling this. There was a concern that was brought up as kind of an
addendum to all of this and that's just the posting of vendor contracts. Just that are filled out and then posted and I just wondered if we have followed up on that and made sure that's kind of straightened out. Yeah, Director Tripp, this is Zach Mather, CIO. We did meet recently with purchasing and my team and communications as well, and we're in the process of getting that accomplished right now. Great. Thank you. Administrative policy updates for the month of
March 2026. Director Tripp, you have a question. So, I kind of thought this one would just be addressed internally. I just saw some strain language strange referencing of students attending school in our district but filling an out of district form. That just didn't make a lot of sense to me. An out of district RFP form. So, I just wondered about that and wondered if that was just a typo as we were redoing that as that was being redone or? Or what? Did you say you had a question about an out of district
RFP form? Is that what you're asking about? Right. So like if you look at IG IGDJ E1. Item 6. It references a student attending a school in our district, but then they're re told to fill out an out of district form RFP. And then that same thing happens on E2. Where they attend Village Middle School or another middle school in the District but are directed to fill out an out of district form. Do we have a separate out of district RFP
form? And why are kids in district filling out and out of district one? Director Knight. I am so excited you asked questions. You're stretching my mind here. OK, so the challenge with athletic placements. This is gonna be complex and I'll try and make it simple. The challenge with athletic placements is we have a lot of families. Because D20 is so good in so many ways, we have a lot of families that live outside of the district that attend schools within our District, and we don't offer every athletic or
CHSAA sponsored activity. So, athletics are the sports we know. CHSAA sponsored activities include band and choir and speech and debate and all these these other things. Because we have so many programs, we don't offer those at every school. So, if you're an out of district student that attends one of our schools and you want to play a sport or participate in a CHSAA activity that's not offered at your school, that would be why you would have a out of district student applying to
participate in an activity outside of your current school. Does that that make sense? So, ice hockey is the easiest example because we have offer ice hockey at three different schools. So, if you're attending DCC, but you you live in D38 and you want to play hockey at Liberty there's different entities that are involved and so just to keep our keep our records clean and to make sure we're not violating any CHSAA rules. We've got these policies and in place, to be really clear on who's going where for what reasons,
and where do they originate and where are they gonna play. I see, so even though they're attending an in district school if they're coming from out of district they still have to be an outer district. OK, that clears it up up. That's I appreciate it. So, it's mud on the windshield there Director Tripp. Director Wilburn. I got to. OK, you so I'm looking at IGDJ R2. There's a lot of DJs here. There's a, there's a whole bunch of them. But I think you may have answered my question. So, there's some wording changes
like sport changed to activity, athletes change to students, things like that. I think what you just said is that's to accommodate nonsporting CHSAA sponsored activities like band and what have you. Exactly. It's arguable whether or not those are athletes. OK. And then on page three and four, there's a lot of changes to the language surrounding TCA. Other than just the college pathways name change, that makes sense, but why so much shifting there? So, this is an interesting piece.
Historically, TCA and college pathways have operated independently. So, at the request of TCA, these revisions have provided greater clarity for the TCA staff and community on who gets to participate in sports where. So. Golf is an example at TCA. TCA High School, all of their golfers on the team were from TCA College pathways and they don't attend school on the campus at TCA High School. So, while they're part of the TCA network, they're not
students at that school and the high school was struggling with, we've got teams that are becoming predominantly or having significant representation of students who are not in our campus; that aren't at our pep rallies, that aren't walking our halls, that aren't classmates in class. So even. Know they're part of the TCA network. They're not attending that school and the comp. The process that TCA had developed was a lottery that happened six times a year. And our office was having to manage that and
that was not an effective strategy. TCAs, that the challenges between TCA and college pathways was not easy for us to navigate and we were having to be the arbiter between the two and that wasn't helpful. And so, we worked with TCAS executive board at their athletic directors, their principals and revised the policy to make it crystal clear who participates what, where, when and how. And we only manage one lottery system a year. And it saves us a significant amount of time. OK, so.
Essentially, it's the district extracting itself from some of that activity. I wish we could extract ourselves fully, but but no. Yeah, we still have, as the charter authorizer, we have a responsibility to help support that process for them, and we're happy to do that. That makes sense. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Knight. Thank you. All right, we're going to move into presentations and I'm going to respectfully request all Board Directors to hold their questions and comments until the conclusion of each report. This will help ensure presenters can get their information in fully and efficiently before before discussion begins. OK.
District Accountability Committee report of school resource priorities for school year 26-27. Welcome. Is Ms. Rogers still here? She's not OK. She had to go. Her daughter was performing at Liberty at 7:00. Wonderful. Well, these are two of the three dream team. OK, so Jennie Rogers wasn't able to stay. They have served these three fine ladies have served as the Co-chairs DAC budget subcommittee and so we
appreciate Jennie's work. I'm sorry that she couldn't stay, but I'm excited for her that she's spending the evening with her family and that performance. But we've got Sarah Emery and Sabrina Gronkiewicz here to go ahead and share the report with us. And so please. Do we advance it here? You'll advance it with that green arrow on there. Good evening and I'm glad we could be here to present today. As Ms. Allen said, we're here on on behalf of the District Accountability Committee
Budget Subcommittee to share our recommended school resource priorities for 2026 and 2027 school year. I'm Sarah Emery and I'm from Foothills Elementary School and Sabrina Gronkiewicz is from Challenger Middle School. The work of DAC is grounded in Colorado statute, which charges us with recommending priorities for how the District funds are spent. To do this well, we don't do it in isolation. We gather meaningful input from
the school accountability committees or the SACS, school principals and stakeholders from across the District. This ensures that the recommendations that we're making to you tonight reflect real needs at the different school levels and they're re not just assumptions. Our process this year included a collaboration across the different feeder strands and we had direct engagement from all the principals or a representative from each school and we had in-depth discussions during our February DAC meetings. From that work
work we synthesized, some district wide themes and organized them into six key areas we had learning learning gaps, technology and digital resources, culture of connectedness, new and emerging needs, future anticipated needs, and facility priorities. These areas align closely with the District's strategic plan and reflect both current realities and future planning. So, one of the strongest and most consistent themes across all the schools
is the need to address learning gaps. Priorities here focus on strengthening the MTSS or the multi-tiered systems of supports, particularly at the secondary level. And this would ensure adequate staffing for math literacy, special education and 504 services. We also heard a clear need for strong alignment of curriculum so that way the different elementary schools are kind of using the same languages so that when those kids show up to middle school, they're all kind of speaking the same
language, say around writing essays. Then we we also had continued investment in the professional learning communities and targeted intervention strategies for both academics and behavior. Ultimately, this work is about ensuring gets the right support at the right times. Next is in the area of technology, schools emphasize both reliability and and long term planning. So, this includes consistent replacement of devices, improved performance
and better access to tech support, especially at the elementary school school level where they don't have their own tech person. There is also a growing need to define essential technology skills for students. Plan for sustainable digital tools and curriculum. And provide professional learning around artificial intelligence and effective tech use. Importantly, staff also emphasized balancing digital tools with traditional instruction methods. So next I'm
going to turn it over to Sabrina. Thank you, Sarah. Culture of connectedness. The third major area is culture of connectedness supporting the whole child. Schools highlighted the importance of expanding counseling support, continuing behavior teams, and security staffing, and and increasing access to extracurricular activities. There's also a strong emphasis on mental health. With continued training and resources to support students experiencing anxiety, trauma, and academic pressure, this work reinforces that as
student success is not just academic, it's also social and emotional. In addition to current priorities, schools identified several needs that didn't exist or were in a significant just a few years ago. These include declining enrollments in some some areas, the loss of COVID relief funding, increased increased costs across the board, and more complex complex academic and behavioral needs for students. We're also seeing seeing shifts in education, including more interest in flexible learning models
like The Villages and Homeschool Academy. And career focused programming. These changes require thoughtful adaptation and resource planning. Looking ahead, schools anticipate continued challenges and opportunities. Key themes include enrollment variabilities across the district, and by that we we mean east versus West. There's just a different the need to attract and retain both students and high quality staff, rising costs of materials and services, and increasing demands on
facilities and space. There's also a continued push for greater consistency in curriculum and programming to improve efficiency and student transitions. Facility needs. The fun one. Finally, facility needs remain a significant priority. Schools identified ongoing maintenance issues needs such as HVAC systems, roofing, flooring, updates to playgrounds and athletic athletic facilities, and general infrastructure improvements. There's also a need for expanded spaces in
some schools, updated safety systems and continued focus on custodial staffing. These investments are critical to maintaining safe functional, and welcoming learning environments. I'll now turn it over to Becky Allen to share information on actions that have been taken. Thank you and great job, great overview. Thank you. One of the questions that I've gotten over multiple years and it came up again this year from the DAC. So, when the DAC budget subcommittee prepares this report they then present it to the DAC and feedback is
taken from the DAC because that report then comes and is presented to you. And one of the questions that comes up each each year is, I've seen some of these items on this report for multiple years, and is anything ever done. And I can understand how someone might think that, because you do see some of the same themes. And I would think that that's probably pretty common in education because we don't have the level of funding where you can always just take
care of this whole list from year to year. But it got us thinking that it would benefit our community to see some examples of really work that has come out of this committee work, and that turned into action. So, this slide shows some examples and I've included the years in which we started funding some of these things. So, I went back about three years. A few that I'll just point out on this slide because I certainly don't want to read the whole thing, one of our big ones
is bullet 2; those armed security staff at each elementary school. Was huge and we started that in 24-25. The establishment of that student support staffing reserve. That comes down to behavior came up. We sometimes have needs for general education students and students with IEPs. But quite often, general education right now, if they have, maybe behavior challenges, we can't just put that student on an IEP. You need data collection, observation
intervention, etcetera and evaluation process. That may mean that a student is exhibiting high behavior needs with not the adequate support. So now we have this $1.5 million that we set up that if we need a paraprofessional in there for 75 days, we can provide it. Increase school custodial supply allocations are increasing costs. Schools said, You know what, we need need more money. Paper towels. Everything's more expensive.
So, in 24-25 we gave each school another $7,000. And you can look down below. Another one, I'd just like to point out is the one that's second to last. Our presenter shared that especially at elementary, they feel like they don't have as much of the technology support. We call them DTTS, the district technology technician because there's not one assigned to every elementary. So now, Zach and his team have put together a plan for next year
that is going, I call it like a zone defense. So, each feeder is going to have a signed DTTS and they will serve all of the schools and Zach and his team think that is really going to impact the quality of the customer service and reaction time at those elementary schools. So, these are just some of the examples of really what came out of asking directly with the principles and having our wonderful DAC representatives
to really synthesize and put together. Thank you, Becky, and closing these recommendations reflect the collective voice of our schools and community. While not every priority can be met, we believe this report provides a clear framework to guide thoughtful and and strategic decisions. We appreciate your time and consideration and and we are happy to answer any questions. Thank you, ladies Director Waldrep. I think my question I had was answered through those things, but I just wanted to stress my gratitude for the work that you guys do and I'll I'll put into this and appreciate seeing these things, and the time you take to work with all the constituents and
and with the schools. Especially for myself, I can't always get into school, so I'm still working on full time and so I love being able to hear these things and see what their their concerns are. So, thank you. Director Wilburn. Ditto, what he said. Just people like you. You’re volunteers. You put in hours. Just, god bless you. What does that shirt say? y'all something or other? y'all means all. That’s gotta be a Texas thing. Oklahoma, but yes. Yes, close enough. Yeah. What part of Oklahoma? I'm originally from a very small town called Madill, Oklahoma. Medill. I used to go to school in Warner. I'm
not sure if you know Warner's, but it's probably just as small. Yeah, well, everyone knows Madill. Yeah. At the beginning of the report. You mentioned that you had put together a resource priority template and that template was distributed to the schools and what have you. Could we get, I'd love to get a look at that. Could you get somebody… You got it, OK. I'd love to see what that looks like 'cause I'm sure it's very creative. And then on. Do I need to talk about it or I could just show it to to you after? Is there something to say about it? Please? Only just what the components are. So, our principles
get a template so they can work with their own. The nice pieces that each principle prior to these recommendations being shared, the principles have talked with their own school accountability committees. So, in this template they record record that. What's the priority? Why is it important? A rationale. Is this new or ongoing and what are the resources you need? Sometimes it's people, it's time, it's money. So, this is the template that they get and they can expand it.
It can be multiple pages or what have you, and they, the principles get that electronically to complete. Good, OK. And then on your report something that didn't make sense to us, but us, but I'm sure it makes sense to you. This is on page 4 under the heading of needs that did not exist. And of course, there's lots of those that didn't exist 10 years ago or whatever. Your 4th bullet point says desire for greater consistency amongst feeder strands and district wide. I know you know what that meant. Desire for greater consistency. This goes back to kind
of site based I think if I'm kind of speaking to that where and we really see that as in the DAC 'cause if you're in your feeder strand you you kind of just in the zone, in your little zone. But then when you get to DAC and you hear, oh, this is what's going on. I'm in Challenger and so oh this is what's going on in Chinook or this is what's going on in Eagle View and you're like, wait a minute, why isn't that going on in ours? And so, it kind of goes to the pros and the cons of the site based where it's maybe a little bit more consistency throughout. So that… OK OK. So, I mean, consistency could almost be called standardization, yeah
in that sentence. OK. Like I'm on the West side, so the West schools like Woodman Roberts, Rockrimmen and Foothills Elementary; the principles meet regularly. to try to be sure that there's some standardization across the elementary school so that then they also meet with Principal Lester at Eagle View so that way you you know, like I've got a fifth grader. So that way what he's learning about writing a five paragraph essay is similar to what the the other elementary schools are doing. So that way when they are all arrive at
Eagle View together, they're all using the same language and terminology to describe writing a five paragraph essay. So that's kind of where they're looking for consistency, so. I know on the West side they've kind of worked towards doing that before they've been been told they should do that. So they do a good job with that so, the students are prepared as they move from level to level. OK, well that makes sense. And that's cause West Side best side, everybody knows that. Oh, absolutely, thank you. Yep. I don't know, I'm Pine Creek feeder strand so. Director Tripp. Thank you, Sarah and Sabrina and Jennie, even though she's not
here. One of the things that I love about this report is that it gives me an opportunity to know what questions to turn around and ask our administrative staff. Things like, OK they keep bringing up professional development. I know that we're doing That, so, what are the missing elements that we aren't providing that it keeps coming up? Some things like that, like the typing skills, what do we have in place? So, some of those things I won't take the time to ask here, they're longer conversations, but just know that I
love that you give me additional questions to ask, which I'm sure Shane is like Oh no. I do want to ask you gals though, just some things as you talked with your groups. I was able to sit in on one of the feeder strands, the Liberty feeder strand, and it was a tremendous opportunity to just hear wonderful educators thinking through things and community members. But. When… When you're looking at some of these things like needs that didn't exist before,
some of those bullet points seem to reflect just kind of broader external realities outside of our district's control. So how did, how did DAC envision the District responding to those kinds of factors like retiring COVID dollars, or increased school costs, and the cost of living, or educators that are just leaving the profession. Things like that. Did DAC have a vision for how they were hoping that would be responded to? I think that it's really an awareness because if
if you're not aware a problem is coming, you're being faced with it. You can't prepare for it. And so, I think it's really saying, hey guys, this problem's coming. What are you doing about it? You know, so I think somebody earlier said we don't need to be reactive. We should be proactive. And that's what this is here to help you do. Like, OK, we've had all these ESSER funds, these COVID dollars. Well now they're gone or going. And so we've got got used to having certain services and things. And so how are we going to fulfill those needs that have been met?
That is spot on. May I just give a quick example? So when we… I always called it the ESSER Cliff, Right? And because it just falls off. And we always knew that there are some things that we simply we cannot continue. And so, as we as we started to approach that cliff we went and met with principals and said, what are… What out of the items that you're getting with ESSER dollars can you no longer
live without? And the biggest one that came up was elementary principal said money for for reading tutors in the building. And so, we worked with Andie Ruskin and Susan and the team of learning services, used some Read Act dollars, and we were able to plan for that. Principles at the elementary level, they submitted their Requests. We looked what we could fund and basically we were able to wean them off. Now they really can manage that within their read act budget, but that's an example that illustrates
a great explanation about its awareness and it's about not reacting just as you said and just trying to plan in advance. And can I say related to you showing up to the breakout session and I think Mrs. Payne was there as well, and Superintendent Haberer. I do want to say that it was noticed by the parents and the the administrators and I feel like it was appreciated. I had multiple people come to me and say what a nice change that was. I'm glad, I wish I could have been in all the strands. Like, I just loved the information that we heard on that day. So, I mean, I was just in my little strand, but
we would all love to have more money available to shore up aging buildings and addressing other facility concerns. Did you have a sense as you were looking at all of the information that came across for on a facility standpoint, do you guys have a sense of like the top one or two things that it was like well of this huge list that we all wish we could go pick money off a tree For, these two things, like, if we could just do do those, that would be so great? It's really, it really varies across like it's
very site based. So for reference, my children go to Challenger which is one of the oldest buildings in the District and Encompass Heights, which is the newest building in the district. So, if you talk to the principal of 1, the needs are going to be extremely different than Challenger for example. So I mean it really really varies across the district. That's a really tough one to kind of narrow down. Yeah cause Foothills, I think is like from 1980, where my kids go, and so there are some things about it that still have a real 1980s feel. And there's been some things
that are kind of been updated along the way. And they're getting new bathrooms over the summer. And so, it really does depend on everything from sprinklers Leaking, or drainage issues that are really so different building to building in the age of them. So, think I know the but the way they budget for that has changed because it used to be every school got the same amount of money and now they are looking they do that differently, right. So the older schools get a little bit higher
maintenance budget than Encompass Heights, which is basically brand new. But even then, for Encompass there I think five years old at this point and they're starting to feel some of our projectors are going out, and our walkie talkies don't work anymore. Something as simple as that where you're like, oh, they're new but things start breaking and kids aren't easy on buildings. Right? Well, and when it's a new building everything is the same age, so that's their kind of issue is that they don't have it staggered.
Everything was new five years ago so everything's gonna fail at the same time. So, you're not giving me any easy answers. No, Welcome to the DAC Finance subcommittee. Well, really it's welcome to school board. OK, one last question for you gals. One of the things under learning gaps that came up was a request for curricular and supplemental resources that are strongly aligned with standards. Did you get the sense from those you were talking to that we have curriculum and
supplementary resources that are not strongly aligned with standards? Trying to see where it page are you on? What page are you referring that would be? It's under the learning gaps. Real quick, I'm scrolling up myself. It's bullets six. I think is supplemental like supportive tools that they can do so maybe for kids that are not quite reaching what what they need, maybe supportive tools that align with the tools that we already have that'll get the kids to
reach the standards. If that's if that makes sense. Yes, 'cause I know like like our elementary school just went to Eureka Math as a curriculum base. And so, with Eureka math, you need a lot of supplementals that that are hands Particularly, for like kindergartners that to make manipulating and making the math real and come to life. So that's a lot of supplemental resources that are specific to the curriculum to help move it forward. I see. So, this bullet point is a little bit misleading it
it makes it sound like you're looking for things that align with standards, but what you're saying is you'd like resources that align strongly with curriculum that already is in place. I think that's fair, yeah. And remember, our curriculum is our standards, and so they're just trying to pick the best resources. Are we saying we don't have resources? OK, I know like at Foothills Elementary School, we just spent like our PTO I'm also the PTO President. And so we just did a budget
grant request to our Kindergarten of $500 to buy manipulable resources for the new because they are just this year's their first year going into Eureka math curriculum through the whole school. And so, they needed new resources because it was new curriculum for that grade to go K through 5. So, we were able to fund that need for them to have that resource to help expand the Curriculum. If that makes sense. Thank you again to you
two and Jennie and everybody who participated in that. I really appreciate it. And as I said, it basically gives me a whole bunch of questions to manage your administration with and I'm sure they're just delighted about that. So, appreciate you guys very much. Vice President Payne. Hi, just a little addition. Thank you so much. A wonderful Presentation. Also the time for anybody that's listening, I just want to honor, I know Doctor Field, Jolynn, Dr. Jeremy Koselak. I hope I get that correct. Ginger or Superintendent Haberer. See, I'm already being inappropriate.
I just want to say that this week we had a facilitated discussion with DAC. Put a lot of time and planning into it and especially the team. And you know the goal of that was really, I mean I have the presentation up, but the really was to drive down into these things and find out how we can better collaborate and partner and share Information. And even if we have disagreements or we have things that are, there's so many challenges. A lot of it does come down to financial, but what I think we have the resiliency in the District to work work together to make it as good as we can for our children, our students and our teachers
as well. Everybody on the front lines. So, the goal was improving relationships, communication and engagement. We learned so much that I am committing, and this board knows it, but we have had sidebar conversations that the next time that we meet with the principals and those teams, everybody will make an effort to attend because it was so valuable. And I think that's really the heart. You guys did a a phenomenal job presenting and I know we have another presentation next month and and we'll have the outcome of all that hard work this week coming
as well to the board. So, thank you. So very much. Thanks to everybody. Thank you, ladies. Thank you, appreciate you. All right, Ends 1.2 character annual monitoring report. So, Jolynn and I are here to present or Jolynn is. I'm here for support. And back up on questions, but Tacy Killingsworth, our Executive Director for Learning Services is out and so we are going to present you all our annual monitoring report on ends 1.2, character. Awesome
So when they say help a girl out, that's what we're doing tonight. Yeah, but I don't think. See, there we go. Thank you OK, so. The first thing we're going to look at is the board Ends. So, we've been talking about the character piece. So, this just represents the parts that we've been talking about tonight, that all students will develop the qualities of character necessary to be exemplary citizens in positive contributors to society and so we we can see all these represented here. Then the next piece, this is when we've been talking about the definitions that we're
currently in place for each of these character traits. And so, they are listed on this slide. Currently they're also used in our Hanover Student Experience survey. So one of the other roles and responsibilities I have is overseeing that survey and it's currently in progress for this year as well. And so just noting that those are part of that survey as well. And then we worked with principals through a survey for them to fill out responses to these questions. So, some of the pieces that they
we’re telling us about are what resources and programs do you use to teach character? How do you ensure students develop the qualities necessary to be exemplary citizens and positive contributors to society? And then thirdly provide a story or an example of students demonstrating one or more of these character traits because it's important to see how this is being handled and carried out in what I would say real life for school life. So next, these are examples of programs and resources that surfaced that our schools are currently using.
And then this slide looks at how are we teaching character in District 20. So, some examples of how we are teaching is through direct instruction. So, we talked about that earlier today about teacher LED instruction and expectations. We are working on integrating lessons into reading, writing, social studies, electives, different places. There's opportunities for student-led leadership. Areas of community, and I'm just summarizing so I'm not reading every one of these to you,
community engagement and then through awards assemblies and and mentorship programs. So, when we look at students in action, some of the themes that came up were around how do District 20 students show up in these areas, compassion and inclusion and and there's examples there, and then citizenship through service and leadership. And so, students are participating in different activities like fundraising and different acts of kindness. And then we're going to look at students in action as
well, with courage and perseverance. And then student agency and ownership. So, some examples are students advocating for themselves or others, or potentially peer leadership where students are taking those leadership roles with their peers. The next slide looks at how are we monitoring. How how are we monitoring this information in District 20. So as I spoke about, we are using the surveys. So currently we use the survey last year, so during
the 24-25 school year and then this year we are completing that survey right now. I was trying to remember when that survey closes. I think it's tomorrow. Well, same thing as CMAS. This is why I'm a little tired. So. Using school wide recognition systems so thinking about about tickets or awards or we think about some of the things that students can earn from these pieces and then counselors monitoring and targeting supports. And then a lot of staff collaboration to reteach expectations, especially. It's always hard, especially for elementary students when you come back from a long break or maybe
even summer, like how do we work together and what are our expectations? So this next piece looks at the portrait of a graduate and I do know that we have new graphics coming for this that that weren't included in tonight's presentation, but there are updated graphics. And then Dr. Field, will you click? Yep And then looking at the key competencies. So we spent a lot of time a bit ago talking about those key competencies that were represented in the crosswalk. And then this is the example of the crosswalk that was completed. So, on the far left you have
all those competencies aligned with the character traits and then the rationale or the definitions on the right hand side. And a lot of this work was completed with stakeholder groups. So we look at the Student Experience survey results. So, these are the results, keep in mind from last year. So, we'll have updated results for you this year as well. So, we looked at there were 5,600 individuals who participated in the survey. 4150 of those were students.
And right now we're at like 6500 students. Yep, I want to say it was close to 7,000 something when I looked earlier today, but I was afraid to commit. But now we already did. No. Yeah, we're in. We're in our final push. Yep. So, then we look at the character traits for middle school students. So, some of this is the data that we collected the The question looked at how my school helps me develop these individual pieces and so we can see here that responsibility came back at a 90% and then each of those areas is represented on that
bar graph. And then the next slide looks at information from how does my school helps develop for high school students? So, the next slide looks at the portrait of a graduate. So not only did we have the character traits in our survey from last year and this year, but we also have the portrait of a graduate competencies. And so this looks at where students rated their level of satisfaction with the support and preparation your children or you as the student received in the following areas. So, this is for middle school. And then the next slide looks at high school.
And then the next slide looks at the key findings. So what we partner with Hanover in this survey, so they provide us with an executive summary and they provide us with a lot of data and analytics to go with this. We did some work last August with the Board of Education and I would anticipate that would be coming next year is as well. So more than three quarters of students in grades six through 12 agree that District 20 schools helped help students develop a a range of character traits. And I'm just going to kind of skip through these so that I'm not
just reading to you the entire time, but both middle school students and high school students rated hope in the lowest categories. So that's something we would want to look at and consider. And responsibility is the highest. True. And then these are key findings for the portrait of A graduate. So, in both middle school and high school students rated the connected individual and critical thinkers in their top 2 categories. Then do middle school. Middle school students rated long life learning and high school students rated contributing citizens that they were
in the lower areas that they felt supported in. So, thinking about what we will be working on next, we are looking forward to having comparable data. If you've spent any time with Jolynn, you know I'm passionate about getting at least three data points. So moving toward two gives us more information. So, we're looking forward to receiving that. Principals will be able… they did review their results and they'll be able to review their results this year and they also individually wrote goals for themselves and their schools, so they'll be reviewing how they did on that.
And of course, continuing to look at the data as a district and it individual schools. And then as promised there would be a board report regarding this survey. We are are anticipating in September. That will not be Jolynn, no. You'll be listening from home, I'm sure. 100%. Not. no. Alright, I believe Director Wilburn had a question. Thank you. Fairly simple stuff, so. As a for instance, on page 9 compassion and inclusion. Some of the bullet points there are welcoming new students, student LED
civic service initiatives, things like that. I'm curious what best practices we have. So, like at Air Academy, they do a great job we learned about about this today. They do a great job of welcoming new students because they're always getting new students because military. Right? Do we have a mechanism in place where best practices are shared across the district from school to school? I think prince… yes, I would say we have monthly early level principal meetings that myself and Becky and Shane and Tacy lead and we share best practices all the time. And I can tell you just as the 19 years
years I've been in District 20 and all the schools that I've supervised, every one of our schools has amazing systems and structures in place for mentoring new students, welcoming new students. At the middle and high school levels they have, their very student led. That's why the first day of school is always at the middle school level just for 6th graders because we want 6th graders to get warmed up, so to speak to middle school and it's often led by students. Same with the
high school. 9th grade is the only grade that goes the first day just to make those students feel welcome so they can find their way around the building. All of those are led by our students. And they do all kinds of activities that make students feel welcome. They get to know each other. They do a lot of ice breakers. That's why the first day of school only 6th and 9th go. All of elementary goes. And I also know that our schools also do a really good job with our parents, and do a lot of welcoming and even some before school starts opportunities
for some coffees or come in and tour the school, find your schedule, find your classrooms that time type of thing. But yes they share a lot. I would also say our counselors do a lot of work in this area. And Doctor Hendrickson that leads that work. The counselors meet all the time because we've done a lot of work with just around data for them too, and then they can share intentionally share best practices that they're working on in those groups as well. Cool. And I, and I didn't, I didn't mean new welcoming new students as a specific exam… I use that as an example because of their Academy. They do a really good job
of that. Are we taking what they do at their Academy and pushing it out to Aspen Valley, that type of thing? OK, thank you. Director Tripp. I didn't hear. Did everybody groan? No. One of the things I love about this monitoring report is it really shows just a strong level of teaching and thoughtfulness that our staff has in trying to help students learn character. And for me, that's the standout of this monitoring report is that there is certainly mindful
instruction being done and that for me is really what this, even the questions that were asked the schools you know, what resources and programs to use to teach it? How do you ensure they do it? So, for me it's a… and then the anecdotal stories are wonderful. We clearly have such wonderful kids in our district, and it's a privilege to serve them and their families. What I don't see, and I'm feeling kind of maybe just a little bratty about, I don't
see how we know it's working. If our character ends say we want all students to to consistently demonstrate these behaviors, what I don't see in here is evidence of that. The survey kind of comes the closest, but that survey is measuring six to 12, grades 6 to 12, so it's not all students and it's also not measuring. how the students are doing themselves. It's measuring how well do you think the school is teaching.
So, it's answering a different question. So, as we move forward with potentially changing our Ends and things like that, I'm just wondering, do we have plans to develop a more direct or systematic measure of how students demonstrate these traits that we could kind of look at across all the grade Levels, and be more inclusive of all the character traits? I'm just wondering kind of what the vision is for that Superintendent Haberer. Director Tripp, I appreciate you asking that question
I know we've kind of discussed this a little bit. How do you measure whether or not a student develops these different character traits? I think the competency piece will help you. Really, there's no instrument out there that really measures that. So what we have started to look at is how many students at different schools and and different grade levels are involved in extracurricular activities or athletics. How many… What is the absentee rate? Are we, are we working with
students are we identifying the students who are not attending regularly because I think we could make assumptions that if a student is actively involved in athletics or extracurricular activities that those activities are providing those opportunities for students to demonstrate Leadership. If a student's not attending school I think we could make the assumption that if there's a a school that has a lower attendance rate, we really have to work on that because those students who aren't attending, we could make that
assumption that they're not taking advantage of these different character traits. What we have done traditionally and previous boards have agreed right now is to is to do that self reporting which which is what we're doing in the Hanover survey. I think what we really have to look at are indicators and are we providing the different types of opportunities for students to develop their character and when we do are students taking advantage
of that? And I think that's the best way for us to measure that and we're certainly open to any other ideas that people may have. Also, I think we have to remember what board ends are. They're not like a specific goal that you hit a certain number for. Board Ends are supposed to be more visionary like this is what we want to accomplish and it's something that we're always striving for. I… we had these conversations, similar conversations around character development when I was in Fort Collins in
Pooter School District, and does that mean that we don't have it as an end because we can't specifically measure it? I would argue that it's good to have these aspirational goals that we want. And we do our best to say that we're moving towards that, but it indicates to our community that this is important to us, even if we can't have like a defined measurement for that. I do agree there's a super tough thing to try to figure out how to measure character. I just think we have to be a little
bit careful that we don't infer widespread character development from the stories of some amazing students, right? We are when we're talking about assumptions and inferences, we have to be careful we don't go too far And confuse effort with with kind of results. And so just thinking a little bit about that and looking into that, I think is probably something that'll be good to look at as
we move for move forward in switching up our Character Ends and putting in those competencies and things like that. I think it's worth discussing maybe what that looks like. That's just my position. I appreciate that Doctor Tripp or… Director Tripp. I could make you a doctor too if you want, like an honorary doctor. I’m married to one. You are. you do, so I would… I'm gonna make this suggestion that we have maybe kind of a work group of maybe if you wanted to
and maybe Director Waldrep and bring bring some folks together to say this is what we have in place. So there's some other ideas of what we would want to see moving forward to next year. Certainly I I'm excited for you all to get the Hanover survey results 'cause you will have direct access to that dashboard and and that might also. give us some more information about how we're measuring it and perhaps inspire us to say what are some
other ways and maybe we could identify other ways moving forward. So, I appreciate your asking those questions. Director Waldrep. I have a just a couple questions. One is a thought that this is going to bring up and it's one when I saw the portrait of graduate I was thinking about was in terms of citizenship, I think it may be a minor tweak we could consider is kind of thinking more specifically about American citizenship and then if we have something like that that's more specific instead of global citizenship and all these things that that we hear kind of more commonly, but then we could also start to think about
about metrics that might be more specific for that because I'm sure we've all seen the videos of kids on spring break that are like 19 years old and asking the questions like, you know, who do we fight for revolution. And like, I don't know. Australia? So, I think if we are able to have something like that we'd have age appropriate appropriate questions for 5th graders and 7th graders and things like that can demonstrate their knowledge of actual American citizenship and civics, things along those lines. So it might be something that had to be, that might be a minor tweak and then we could maybe have some objective data at least on one of the metrics and but I know we have a bigger
discussion across the other ones. But the other question I had was... And more about some of these resources. So I see some of the resources that are used or things like ruler and other things like that and, I know I'm pretty sure you remember the first time I came here, talked to the School Boards. What three, maybe four years ago now? It's been a while. I was was expressing concerns about social emotional learning. This is one of those things where every time I try to look at the data for is this actually something that improves outcomes? Is it improve mental health outcomes is there any data that actually shows that this improves anything? I can't
find it. I've gone to the Yale Institute of Social Emotional Learning. I've looked at all their things. I've seen that are very ideological things like they're transformative social emotional learning, which is just political kind of nonsense. But when I try to actually find like is there any data that shows that this actually has like a randomized control trial, that this is improving any kind of outcome all I find is fluff. Go through their studies, I go through those things. So, Doctor Hendrickson and Dr Harris provided me a couple notes on that and I guess there is is a large scale $3.3 million research
research study being conducted currently by the University of Virginia through their Social Development Lab. And they're examining the efficacy of ruler on school climate teacher well-being, classroom environments, and student outcomes. While results haven't been published, the study represents represents one of the most comprehensive efforts to evaluate RULERS impact and findings are expected within the next year and will provide important insight into the effectiveness of RULER as a
Systemic SCL Framework. And just for you your information we, Jolynn and I, actually found RULER in Seattle in 2015 when we were out on a research and design trip. And we had with us about six of our principals on that Trip. And what they liked about it was was behavior, student behavior, has been an ongoing concern, not just currently, but back in 2015, just an increase in
student behaviors. And our principals were looking for for strategies on how to help classroom teachers manage behavior. And student behavior. And so… That's when we found ruler. We saw it. And actually, it was in Bellevue public schools when we were out in the Seattle area. But that's Where, that that's where that's the origins of it and at the Time, we… there was… what was shared with this by Doctor Bracket was, there was a lot of research evidence based on the program that
he had put in place. And just also for your Information, we only have six schools now that are continuing to use the program, and they don't really use it with fidelity. They'll use bits and pieces of of it, because there's certain things, certain pieces of it that they like that work for some of the teachers, but we'd be happy to give you the board a report on all of these programs. A lot of these programs also are very focused on suicide prevention, as
Well. So, but they lead to a lot of work in the character area like sources of strength, for example, as another evidence based suicide prevention program that we started almost 10 years ago. It was the fall of actually fall of 2016, we started it and the evidence there was. around student prevention of suicide, and So. But a lot of the approach in sources of strength leads to work around character, leads to work around these pod competencies, but it takes intentional
work, and it takes intentional work by whoever's leading it in the school ,so. But as a team we've talked about all these different programs that are in place and and we'd be happy to provide the board a report on all those that if you would would, if you wish. Yeah. I'd be interested in seeing some of that as well as kind of the amount of resources that are dedicated to, if these are cost anything for the programs. Of course, when you go up to the, what's that little section, by your office? Is it the blue section? Blue wing. Blue Wing, Yeah. So, yeah, there's a copy of the book, kind of the anxious generation that's right there. Yes. And one of the things we've seen is that over
the time that these social emotional learning programs have expanded and got more wide scale, over that same time frame, I'm not saying it's causal, because that's part of the problem is we don't have these randomized clinical trials to understand these things. But at the same time we've seen increases in anxiety and depression as well as suicidality, And one of the things. This is a psychologist that I recognize that the more that people think about their emotions, the more noxious it is. That's why when people come and see like therapists, we're using things like cognitive behavioral therapy, like what's actually driving that emotion. Let's look at that more
thoroughly. And so rather than having our kids focus on emotions, I'd just like to see kind of what resource we have on that and I would appreciate any data you have. Yeah, absolutely. Vice President Payne, Happy to. No. And Doctor Field, I'm so glad you brought up, I don't know why we're going back to 2015, but I remember so clearly that time in our history and, you know, what we went through as a district, but that was implemented with resources. When we talk about these variety of programs though, and I have all these different reports from some of the work and we keep coming back to what is consistent
throughout the district and what site based and what is a one-off like one school is doing it. But we have all students that are in District 20 and I do think we have to come back to saying what is working. What are those measurable outcomes? And just to that point research often gets old and we have a much more digital culture where we even have to look at the the research of you go back to after Columbine all the way and you say was it violent video games that caused that? And you're just like you can go back to say that every student that
played these games did not go on to commit a mass act of violence. So we have have to be really careful and we see that now with that dark web culture and the access to violence online. So I think we're working with a lot of parameters in our decision making, but I do think as a district, it kind of comes back to as we're all learning and working together, what are we doing consistently across and where are we site based and does it make sense dollars and cents, and common sense? What can we do better as a district moving forward to be a little more consistent? And I know your wisdom, I hate to see
you two ladies at that and that you're leaving, but I'm hoping we're going to bring you back as consultants in some way or shape. But I do think like as we move forward, those some of those challenges and I always appreciate you from the psychologist perspective. I mean, it's like, what do we do? But thank you for all of that information. It really does help us to have a clearer understanding as I know a lot of us like to go to sleep before 8:30, but just have to let me miss that, all right. Thank you, ladies. Appreciate you both. You're welcome. Fiscal year 25-26 and fiscal year
26-27 technology device purchases. I have a comment if nobody else does. No, the Zach is coming up to present Oh, perfect, perfect. Yep. And then I'll call on you. Excelente. Get all my stuff here. So yeah, this is just an additional ask and you can kind of see a breakdown here. So, the original ask the board had last month was specific specific to our replenishment cycle just for teachers and students. As part of this because we've made a change from
from Dell, which we've been with for many years, to not only another vendor but another manufacturer. The cycle kind of got a get a little out of there, but really the focus on this purchase is additional devices. And so, what I mean by other devices are, departments pay for their own replacements. Most devices are on a five year cycle. If they're a higher gauge machine they have more power, they can be on a seven year cycle. Schools purchase labs that typically have to be, you know, redone every so many years. CTEs where we see
a lot of those labs. So, this this allowance allows those areas to make more purchases. Additionally, the other thing that we have found this year is, the source of parts, especially for our current Dell machines and some of the ones we have to continue to maintain, has significantly gone up, and we found that working with DHE not only in the other purchases, we can get those parts at a third of the cost of what we were doing. So, this additional allows us to then also purchase those parts. But because it's all wrapped under the same
vendor, it makes those numbers a little bit different. So, with that. Any questions? All right, Director Tripp, Tripp, I can't. It's so. So, can we go back to that slide really fast? There you go. There we go. So is this money that you would have been asking for anyway? Or is this additional money to cover an off cycle purchase in replenishment of of these things? No, This is Money we would have asked for anyway. We would have brought this year, maybe, it would have said
Dell, because that's what we've done in the past. But since we're changing to DHE that's the name of it now. But we would have asked for this regardless. And this also represents a savings through switching. Yes. So on average the devices that we're recommending is our standard are about 10%, sometimes 15% cheaper than what we were purchasing with Dell, and like I said, the other big savings that we're seeing is with parts from Dell right now. We priced those out with a couple different places and DHE that we're buying our other equipment from is 1/3
of the cost and we can get them in a much quicker quicker time frame, which is huge because we sometimes get a backlog depending on the model and depending on the time of the year where devices are… you get stacks. And we're trying to work on trying to get them repaired, trying to get them back into students hands. We have spares for that, but we don't like to keep devices in a broken state for very long. Right. I also just wanted to note for our DAC, our DAC people that they had brought up even on this report that they just presented to us that
were seeking more device support and things like that; And and better working devices. And so, I just wanted to tie these two things together that as we're switching over to Chromebooks and doing some of these things, we are meeting some of the needs that DAC brought up by spending this money and doing that. So I just wanted to make sure that awareness of those of that connection was being made. Thank you for your clarification. You're welcome, and just add to that you're absolutely right, the devices that we're looking at now, like, I think I said
said in the last month our benchmarks show they outperform what we would have purchased or have been purchasing. This is savings across the board. Each model that we've speced out is a savings and parts as a savings. So that's definitely been one of our focuses, but also exactly as DAC pointed out, performance, battery, things that you know teachers need, students need, so that's been our priority as well. Awesome. Thank you so much. Appreciate your time, Zach. All right, Mr. Belcher. How many people have signed up to speak during public comment
Section 1? For Section 1, we've got 2 speakers. Thank you. The Board welcomes public comment on issues related to the operation and conduct of district schools in accordance with Board Governance Policy GP4.4. For members of public who have registered to comment at tonight's meetings. The Board has reserved two public comment sections. The first public comment section is is for individuals who are speaking on a specific agenda items in ASD20 students. ASD20 students will be called first. After which individuals will be called in the order that they appear
on the sign-up sheet. The second public comment section is for individuals who wish to speak on general topic, not on the agenda. Individuals will be called in the order that they appear on the sign up sheet. Each individual speaker will be limited to two minutes of comment. Individual speakers may not see their time to other speakers. Please keep in mind. that students often attend board meetings. Speakers remarks therefore, should be suitable for an audience that includes kindergarten through 12th grade students. Out of respect for all speakers, please refrain from cheering, clapping, snapping, or speaking during public comment. The Board
President will recognize each speaker and may interrupt, warn or terminate a speaker statement that is unrelated to the operations or conduct of the school district or disruptive to an orderly civil and productive meeting. Examples of comments that may be be disruptive to an orderly, civil, and productive meeting include, Obscenities and profanity, comments that constitute harassment on the basis of one or more protest protected classes, and personal attacks against any individual that exceed permissible criticism of school operations or personnel in their professional
capacity. Finally, as a reminder to all present, the Board and Staff generally do not respond to public comment. This is our opportunity to hear from students, parents and patrons. The Board may may discuss public comments later in the agenda or on future agendas. Our first speaker is Nick Stefano, followed by Alyssa Furia. Thank you. It's on. Thank you. This is regarding agenda item 10 J my name is Nick Stefano. I'm the parents of three D20 students and I'm a cybersecurity and compliance professional who conducts federal vendor contract assessments and gap analysis
for the defense industrial base. I want to address the report that was discussed earlier, and this is not an independent finding. Every factual conclusion in Section 5 that no breach occurred and and no further action is required, comes from written statements PowerSchool provided to district staff. PowerSchool is the defendant and a $17.25 million federal settlement and is simultaneously the defendant in active federal litigation covering the same product suite in in which a court found the allegations sufficiently credible to precede
the trial in November of 26. The board is being asked to accept the statements of a defendant in two concurrent federal matters as this District's independent Conclusion. The same defendant that provided these written assurances also confirmed it never notified this District of the settlement, despite A contractual obligation to do so under section 5.2 of the District's own executed data Protection Addendum. This is not what CRS 20 2216107 requires. The Power school PowerSchool denied liability, as defendants do, but as part of that same settlement
PowerSchool agreed to delete all student data collected through Naviance accepted a 2 year ban on embedding third-party analytics in the application and submitted to ongoing governance oversight. A defendant who did nothing wrong does not agree to those remedies. The board should weigh Powerschool's written denial against what PowerSchool agreed to do to settle the case. Second, I'm holding page 16 of the district zone executed Naviance contract produced in its own CORA response. This is scheduled to the approved subcontractor list. Every row is
blank. The federal statement establishes a matter of court record that heap Google. Thank you. Your time is up. Next speaker is Alyssa Furia. OK, that concludes our speakers for this section. All right, we need a motion to approve resolution 18726, increase aggregate purchase authority for for fiscal year 25-26 and fiscal year 26-27 for technology devices both within and outside of the district standard replenishment program. So, moved. Second. Discussion please.
Does anyone have questions on what was presented? Director Tripp. No, ma'am. Alright, roll call please. Vice President Payne. Aye. Director Tripp. Aye. Director Wilburn. Aye. Director Waldrup. Aye. President Shandy. Aye. Mr. Belcher, how many people have signed up to speak during Public Comment Section 2? We have 8 folks signed up. The Board President will recognize each speaker and consistent with GP 4.4. Comments were being curtailed if remarks or behavior becomes inappropriate. The Board President may interrupt, warn,
terminate a speaker statement that is unrelated to the business of the School District inappropriate for K through 12 students, or disruptive to an orderly, civil and productive meeting. Thank you for your cooperation. Our first speaker is William Sauvelle, who intends to read from a book housed within District 20 school libraries. The book is titled Rethinking Normal and is located in the libraries at Liberty and Pine Creek High Schools. It's rated as young adult and the speaker did follow the process outline at GP 4.4 and the public comment sign up Form. Before this comment begins, we would want to allow students or those who do not wish to hear potentially adult or sensitive content the opportunity
to turn off the stream or leave the room. I'll give you a signal when we've waited for for approximately 30 seconds for those wishing to leave. As a note while we wait, Carol Bram Schreiber is next on deck. You are good to go. As you will likely hear, this week is National Library Week an event sponsored by American Library Association and its many front companies who claim the concern parents are racist, homophobic Nazis in every other moronic buzzword for exposing children to hypersexuality, gender dysphoria, and critical race theory. Concurrently, the ALA put
put out a list of eleven of the most challenged books in 2025 asserting these books merely describe sub-called lived experiences experiences of their authors. Books that describe girls being split open from frequent sex rubbing one's own genitals to the point of orgasm, tickling someone else's genitals, seeing a father's genitals, and arousal making out with one owns brother, fantasizing about ****** women while onlookers clap, and even having sex with animal human hybrids. Of those 11 books, 8 are in ASD20 libraries including a middle school. These books are so bad, in fact, when I posted quotes from them,
Facebook itself removed the comment stating this goes against our community standards on adult sexual solicitation. Yep, the this **** is available to children in ASD20. On rethinking normal, page 17, I feel like I couldn't stand having this penis attached to me another second. Page 65. Usually I tuck my penis between my legs so I wouldn't have to look at it. Page 69: Feeling his body on top of mine felt good in a way I'd never experienced before. We were rubbing into each other, moving our hips and breathing heavily. Page 94: I'm a werewolf and a lesbian, she added.
Page 186: A couple of weeks earlier, Aaron and I had tried having intercourse, as in penis and vagina sex, which had been a little weird since in our case the penis was on the female and the vagina belonged to a boy. Page 255: The best way to think about sexuality and gender is this. Sexuality is whom you want to sleep with. While ginger is whom you want to sleep as. Our next speaker is Carol Bramchreber with Beth Hodgson on deck. Thank you. In honor of School Library month, I'm privileged to share a highlight rule of the work that I've witnessed in ASD20 libraries as a parent, a staff member, and
currently as a District Library Media Specialist. Librarians spark the magic of reading. To our elementary Librarians, thank you for hosting Caldecott Awards at your school. The oohs and ahhs of students discovering stories through illustrations are priceless. And when they compare their vote to the final official Caldecott winner, they can speak to why they agree or disagree with that decision. To our secondary librarians, thank you for transforming libraries and I'm sorry, libraries into living novels,
from the Macbeth game at Rampart, last fall, to next week's Gas Gatsby escape rooms at Pine Creek and Rampart, you make literature immersive. Additionally, libraries build lifelong readers. Thank you to our librarians for all the If you liked lists that bridge the gap of Fans of Warriors or Wings of Fire, and, thank you for the creative programs that fuel the fire from blind date with a book and literary pumpkins to the the crocheted stuffies for Pioneers, Wolfie Reading
Challenge. Thank you for your pedagogical leadership beyond the stories you ensure academic excellence in at least least three vital ways. One, information literacy, teaching teaching students to navigate databases, power paths, social media, and academic journals. Two. Inclusion. Ensuring everyone has a seat at the table from live streaming the Artemis 2 voyage for a peer partners class to hosting live debates for ESL students. And three, strategic growth. Aligning collection development
with school IEPs turns libraries into engines for student achievement. Whether you're coaching 110 Battle of the Books competitors or helping a kindergartner take notes using pictures, you are building lifelong learners. To our our ASD 20 librarians, I see you I value. You and thank you. Your time is up Our next speaker is Veronica Baker with Renee Forbes on deck. Yeah Beth Hodgson is on deck with sorry. Our next speaker is Beth Hodgson with Veronica Baker on deck.
Honest mistake, Mr. Belcher. Thank you. Thanks. Hi Beth Hodgson, D20 resident and parent of a middle Schooler in D20. I'd like to start by saying how completely disappointed I am that this board ignored the recommendations of our highly qualified educators and community members who took time to thoughtfully review curriculum and choose to vote against the use of the National Geographic textbooks. I'm completely disgusted at the blatant racism and misogyny that was exhibited by every member of this board while making the decision. The comments about our white boys need to have their stories told. Our white boys growing up, middle class in Briargate need to know their existence matters.
Trust me, our white boys are well aware their existence matters. I've been in this room when parents have discussed the differences in discipline between white and non white students in our schools. I've witnessed the differences in punishments with my friends children in the district. Yet the board has done nothing. I've been in this room when mothers have cried sharing stories of their daughters being SAed in our schools. I've listened to friends whose daughters have been SAed in our schools. Proof these aren't isolated incidents but a serious problem in our District. Yet the board has done nothing. Every decision made by this board reiterates that our white boys existence matters.
Just like it's echoed in our entire society as mediocre men continue to hold positions for which they're not the most qualified candidate. Remember, you're here to represent all students in D20 not just the ones that fit your personal political views and agendas. It's time that our non-white students, our female students, our transgender and non-binary students see themselves represented. Have their their stories told, and feel fully supported. It's time that they know there existence matters. Our next speaker is Veronica Baker with Renee Forbes on deck. The Baker and I'm a D20 parent of three students. I'd
like to share concerns from last month's Board discussions. During a conversation about cost cutting, Unified Sports was mentioned as a potential reduction. I urge you not to view programs like Unified Sports as expendable line items. These programs create inclusion build confidence, and foster meaningful connections between students with disability, disabilities and their peers. The impact goes both ways. Students with disabilities gain a sense of belonging and identity as capable athletes, while their peers develop empathy
leadership, and a sense of shared responsibility. These are outcomes that cannot be measured in dollars, but they are essential to the kind of educational environment we want to create. These programs are worth protecting and investing in. I'm grateful for the board members who spoke up and encouraged the continuation of this program. I also want to express concern about recent comments regarding discipline procedures, for students with disabilities, particularly, the attempt to separate students with mental disabilities from those with physical disabilities. It is unclear what that distinction accomplishes, and it
raises concerns about fairness. April is Autism Awareness Month and there is a well known saying in the disability disability community, if you've met one person with autism, you've met one person with autism. Each student is an individual. generalizing or separating students by disability type oversimplifies their experiences, and risks reinforcing harmful assumptions. Many students have both physical and developmental disabilities and these categories are not mutually exclusive.
As these conversations continue, I urge the board to focus on inclusion, equity, and treating every student with dignity and respect. Our students are watching these decisions. Let's make sure they see a district that chooses inclusion and not exclusion. Our next commenter is Renee Forbes Fought with Brett Brett Dayberry on deck. Renee, are you in the room? All right, our next commenter is Brett Dayberry, who will read from a book labeled as Young Adult content. He's followed the process outlined in GP 4.4 and the public comment sign up form and we
we will give just a few moments for those not wishing to hear potentially adult or sensitive content to leave the room since we've already waited the full 30 seconds seconds for the previous comment. The book is titled the Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian is located in the libraries at at Discovery Canyon Campus, Pine Creek and Rampart and Liberty high schools, and Chinook Trail, Discovery Canyon Campus, Mountain Ridge and Ridge, and Timberview Middle Schools. We will wait just a moment and then this comment may begin. You're good. Today's executive session notwithstanding, it's now been 10 months with Susan Payne on this board without a change
change to the ACA. This is starting to get old. When some pastors accused Charlie Kirk of not being very nice, he replied, Bingo. I don't strive to be nice, I strive to be obedient to the Lord. I strive to tell the truth. Don't care if I'm nice. Completely irrelevant. I agree with Charlie. My objective is to righteously protect the District, the kids of this district 1st and and foremost. If I tick off some Board Members
while doing so, that's on you. We are told the Board and staff generally do not respond to public comments. Yet Mrs. Haberer unexpectedly did so at the last meeting. What I do expect as a minimum is to receive responses to my emails to the Board Members which I have not received from them. And I do expect the President of this Board to have the courage to meet with me. She lacks such courage. At a candidate forum we're running for the Board,
Ms. Shandy made this comment; If we're gonna have a special school district and have special libraries, we need to have books that are have literary value value, are age appropriate, and inspire our students to creatively think. Having said that, here's yet more slop in a book from which Mr. Wilburn read at that same forum to rightfully rightfully show the disgusting nature of some of these books. And yet, two years later, both of them are
on the board and this book remains in 4 middle schools. Page 64: Did you know that Indians are living proof that N words **** buffaloes? Naked women plus.. Thank you your time is up. Our next commenter is Rob Rogers with Christine Shaw on deck. Sir Rogers, are you present? All right. Our next commentary is Christine Shaw. And this is our final comment. Be mean I'm last. Thanks for your time and and attention this late. I'll make it quick. Two minutes quick. Good evening. My name is Christine Shaw and I'm here to
speak about the decision to close Aspire Learning Academy. In 3rd grade, my son was moved from Mountain View Elementary to BOCES because it was was believed to be a better fit. It wasn't. While he was there there, he was physically harmed by peers and staff. Staff who were fired due to the assault. More than that he made made very little academic progress and was left behind. After four years in that environment, he was welcomed to Aspire in 8th grade. Finally, since 2019, he was under the direct daily supervision of those I
entrusted him to when we moved here. He was back in district, surrounded by your staff and for the first time time in years he was thriving. My child is not an easy kid by any means, but Aspire has gone above and beyond to support him in every student who walks through those those doors. These are students who have nowhere else to go, who need direct one on one, more structure and understanding. They found success. And now the kids who district embraced are once again being told there is no room for them. I was shocked
to learn with less than five weeks left in the school year Aspire would be shut down. There was no communication, no opportunity to ask questions, no input from families or students, no shared data to justify this action, no discussion; Just to your decision. This one happened to a school of 200 students to decide to quietly close an entire school without any public input is unheard of. But it happened here to a small group of kids who need this program. The district had an opportunity to embrace
and continue supporting all of their students in a way that's successful, and instead, you made a choice to close the best fit these kids have ever Had, and you've done it with, at that point in time, 30 days left of school, leaving parents and students clueless as as to where they will go next year. I know this may not change the outcome, but I'm asking you to pause to engage with families and have an open conversation about what's possible, because these are not just students, they are your students. Thank you, your time is up. Superintendent Haberer, do you have any clarifications or next steps?
Yes, I have a clarification as my understanding is that the parents of each of that were had students that Aspire were contacted by the special education staff and that there has been planning as to where students could go into next year, OK. Board of Education, Do you have any clarifications or next steps? Director Waldrup. Just some things maybe follow up on if we heard those things. I know it's come up a couple times today thinking about the
side based nature of a lot of things and when there might be some benefits of having more of a standardization in different areas so So probably just follow up on that and as well as some of the language around the portrait of graduate. We talked about that earlier and like Doctor Field was noting, it's not about just language or semantics. How do we think about about these things? Make sure it might be an opportunity for continuous improvement. But OK. All right. Where's our business this evening focused on on activities that promote and honor our mission statement, our belief statements, and our global end statement that reminds us that all students will have the
the knowledge, skills and character necessary for successful successful transition to the next level and upon graduation will will be fully prepared for success. Did the board hear information tonight that would require the review or revision of a policy? Did the board hear information tonight that would require a new policy? Did the board hear information tonight that the Board would like to include on a future agenda? I think we do want to maybe just revisit that 1.2 and what we're doing about that at some future point. OK. Alright, there are 20. Sorry, go ahead.
Sorry, go ahead. Nope. All right, did there are 24 people viewing the live stream right now. This meeting is adjourned.