okay I am going to call this meeting to order thank you so much for being here tonight I'm going to thank you up front because it's been a long time since we filled a room like this the last one since uh 2018 we were thinking but
anyway I'm going to go ahead and call us order we'll start with ro director Assad Lucas here director bastelli here director Goldstein here director Marsh holen here director Potter here uh rise if you are able for the
Pledge of Allegiance I pledge ALG to the flag of the United States of America and to the rep for it stands na indivisible andice for
all okay our first order of business is a blueprint investment proposal presentation so we have Mr Fert and a couple other people joining him okay good evening superintendent gadowski board members audience members
here tonight um before I get into the business of hand I think it's worthy to take a moment and celebrate what's happening in this room tonight um whether you are yeah let's do that there is tremendous privilege and significance in being able to engage as
in a a community and other than a few folks sitting up here in a smattering of others around the room you all had a choice whether to be here tonight and whether you've shown up just to get informed to Advocate to ask questions or provide any other kind of feedback
that's significant in and of itself and I'm really happy to be in a community that cares by showing up and I think that's worthy of another round of applause let's celebrate Community engagement so we're here tonight to talk about blueprint blueprint is really the
culmination of a two-year conversation a two-year dream project a 2-year envisioning journey across many Stakes holders in our community students parents community
members staff members around what is it that we love about Adams 12 fstar schools what is it that we see adds value what is this significance and importance of our schools and where do we see opportunities to expand on what
we love to address things that we wish were better and to make sure that the Next Generation has everything it needs to succeed and move forward and pursue their dreams like we've been able to as adults in this room and we've been
really intentional in this process over the last couple years to really think about how our buildings and our programming work together to provide a first class experience for our students because we know where you learn and the space you learn matters as much as what
you learn and the experiences you have within it and so we've been very intentional over these last two years as we've hosted these conversations and we've had these debates and we've dreamed about what is it that we really want in our buildings and what is what we really want in our academic
programming and so we what we present to you tonight is our best thinking and when I say our I mean this room's and Beyond's best thinking around what we want for our buildings our schools and our programming in those
schools from the first day we were really clear on what the underlying values were for us as we had these conversations and we asked for people's opinions and their suggestions you can see them on the board they're important we referenced
them throughout and I'm going to take a moment to just go through them we really wanted to create environments where physical and human capital support all students to collaborate communicate think critically problem solve and apply digital literacy to thrive into to's
Ever Changing world to access engaging learning experiences through relevant and responsive programming to experience highquality instruction and support from all staff to explore multiple Pathways to success inside and outside of a
traditional classroom and fundamentally to feel welcome seen valued and safe and as we engaged in these conversations and we thought forward we realized that there were some critical
needs in our system that we felt we had to address to make good on that commitment that every student who graduates from a Adams 12 fstar school is well equipped and fully prepared to pursue and find success in a future of their
choosing back in 2018 this community made a significant investment in expanding Career and Technical education and it was a great investment cuz our students told us so it's popular it's meaningful it's lifechanging and we have too many kids
that want to pursue it that we're not able to accommodate yet currently almost 10% of our high school students are on wait list for CTE courses especially for high demand courses that are very popular very uh aligned to career
opportunities we want to address those weight lists get those kids into classes we we have almost 8,000 students across 23 elementary schools that don't have access to regular computer science instruction digital literacy
computational thinking design thinking is a fundamental competency for this generation being able to start early around being a critical consumer having computer skills and digital skills critically important we want to make sure that every Elementary School not
just some is able to offer that next year we as a school district will celebrate our 75th Anniversary when you've been around that long either as a human being or a building you need some maintenance we have about 640 million
doll of critical maintenance that we need in many of our buildings to keep them where they need to be to ensure a great learning experience like many Industries find finding and retaining great talent is a constant struggle and more so now than
it's ever been we started this school year with 128 vacancies across our system we need to be able to compete for great teachers at every level in our system with other districts around us that are looking for the
same there were many stories shared in this room last week and we may hear some more tonight about the power of a single teacher and a single moment in a classroom to completely change the trajectory get introduced to CAD for the
first time and it opens up a whole new world get asked to participate in a club and confidence Soares for a kid we also talked about wanting to expand CTE offerings for kids that's a different type of competition when we're hiring a
fourth grade teacher or a middle school social studies teacher we're competing against graduates from education school when we want to go out and find a worldclass cyber security teacher we're competing with the
NSA when we want to go out and find a world class Plumbing teacher we're competing with Private Industry for that that's a different kind of competition we want those instructors in front of our kids but we have to be able to compete in a different way to get
them many of you know that during the pandemic era we we added rightly and necessarily so extra staff to support students with their academics and their mental health that money that came
during the pandemic era has run out but the need has not we still have kids that need to catch up academically we still have kids that need ongoing support in their mental health we want to be able to to continue to provide that because
it's making a difference and our kids need it everybody in this room has probably a variety of interesting memories about school lunch we're really lucky in Colorado I think that lunches and breakfasts are universally provided for
students we and Adams 12 want that food to be the best it can be you may not know this but we don't currently have a central warehouse to store food and because of that there's only one supplier in town who's willing to deliver the food to all of our 50 plus
schools that's not great for competition and it's not great for us being able to say we like those carrots but not those carrots we really are advantage in providing great food for our kids if we have our own Central Storage warehouse It's a key piece of this
plan safety it's the most important thing we do as parents we know we think about it every day I'm proud to say we have a great great foundation and Legacy of safety but that's always something you invest in and that's always something you're looking to improve upon
and we do have critical systems around safety that we want to continue to update so with that it's my pleasure to introduce some of my colleagues who are going to tell you a little bit more about the specifics around these Investments and the two portions both A
M Levy override and a bond that are going to fund our blueprint plan moving forward uh so please join me in welcoming our chief academic officer Megan Kane thank you as many of you know um I love nothing better in education than a full
house of our community students and Educators um and our leaders across our system so I just want to say thank you for taking the precious time out of your schedule to come here and sit with us as a community to really wrap our arms
around our district and really talk about why this is so important both for our students our staff and for our community Al together so our promot proposed Mill Levy override is $34.5
million with a tax rate increase costs a homeowner about $20 more each month on a home valued at about $500,000 and many of you like me currently live in our neighborhood um and this is something that we've watched
as the value of our neighborhood hood has gone up over the course of time also is our imperative to make sure that our schools remain places and spaces that our kids and families want to come and uh build homes and lives for their
students and so this Revenue then in turn would be really invested in really two big buckets that we think about when we talk about a M Levy override one is expanding our CTE and stem opportunities
at all levels for for all students you heard Bo reference computer science expanded Pathways at high school but really starting to expand Pathways at middle school as well so that our middle school students can start to wonder and
dream about what pathway might be just right what's just right for me um as my world opens up to my opportunities also within this is this idea about how do we make sure that
through those opportunities we don't close doors to Opportunities um and what we mean by that is with the amount of classrooms we have and teachers that are qualified to teach those classrooms and offerings that we have we want to make sure that
there's enough if students say they want to go take welding how do we make sure we have enough spots to help them go into that pathway and they may decide I want to stay on this pathway or the next year they might want to venture and say hm welding maybe wasn't for me but this
time I want to think about the computer science pathway and what that might mean for me and so we want to open those doors for our students as they think about the architecture of what they want to do with their lives and then secondly in order to make that happen we have to
be able to attract and retain high quality staff I think I was uh in a really interesting conversation the other day um with folks talking about The Love For Education and the yearning that we had
during the pandemic and then post pandemic the challenges that we've had filling those spots for our students um making sure that we have the very best people in front of each other um at all times and so one way that we do that is we make it possible for our staff to
live within our community and be able to afford housing here and be able to call the profession of teach what which I've been so lucky uh to benefit from call it their career and something that they can afford to do
long term but then also really thinking about our friends um that are in the most challenging um environments that are experiencing some of the highest risk factors um when they come to school and knowing that school serves as a protective factor for those students a
place where they feel safe they know they're going to have food and they have adults that are highly invested in their success um and championing um their hopes and dreams and Pathways that they choose um to be on it takes special Educators to be able
to do that kind of work and show up in a fully authentic way on a daily basis um for our families that need it the most and then um really providing those ongoing supports the other thing we know is that there will always be students
that need AC memic interventions it's not just going to stop because we're in the year 2024 all of us enter school with gifts and all of us enter school with opportunities to grow and we want to make sure that we have people positioned
to provide that intervention and support as our students need it and then lastly the importance of people to help our children navigate their life skills how do we hold our mental health and sense of belonging at the same level of
magnitude and importance that we hold our student sense of academic belonging and we do that by ensuring that we have staff that are highly skilled to be able to lean in when our students need a level of support that our general
education teacher cannot provide right in that moment right at that time but these are the wraparound supports that we put in place for our students to ensure um that whatever that pathway is that they choose they've also got partners that are going to help them
navigate the ups and downs of being a student in school so I'm proud to present my counterpart Molly Brandt our chief operating officer well thank you for being here it's awesome to look out and see this
room full um when I started in Adams 12 it was 2016 and I remember this night from that year and I think many of you are shaking your heads you feel the same that I feel tonight so thanks for being here our bond $830 million without a tax
increase what an impact that could have on our staff our students our community our day-to-day lives um we we talk about it in three buckets we call them the three Rs our renewal our rebuild our reimagine and how can we look at our
facilities in that way so as for Renewal this is where we always talk about warm safe and dry but this is where Comfort comes from right this is where that sense of Pride that we want our staff and our students when they pull up to our buildings and our parents to have
this is where we will invest in our aging buildings around roofs and plumbing and heating and cooling uh Furniture playgrounds this is where we also have it and a lot of our safety improvements um we want to renew and
invest into our aging buildings our second bucket is rebuild and as we think about rebuild I I think of it in two buckets rebuild and build so one of the or the largest uh Bond investment would
be Thorton High School 236 million woo 236 million our largest Bond investment in this package this is an aging building that has reached its operational end of life and what it would mean to re-envision to rebuild and
provide a functioning operational learning environment for decades to come is something I don't think we can imagine today but we have the possibility to imagine and and with this measure so that that could and has the impact of all of our community right
that's going to affect many as we look at the new build um we think about things like our Central Kitchen and warehouse and Bo talked about that if you're hungry you can't learn if you're hungry you can't teach if you're hungry you can't lead and a lot of the things
we do now in school nutrition is provide access to food we serve 20,000 meals a day that's larger than a lot of the fast food chains around here and we want it to be a meal and a menu that students
have input in that they see themselves in their menu that meets their cultural nutritional values um it's important to invest in school nutrition especially with universal meals um here to stay and find
[Applause] finally reimagine this is how do we imagine new spaces new spaces for our students so Middle School CTE the north side of of
Bowman our Bowman campus how does that look and feel in a CTE space as we rebuild and reimagine that um the addition to Future forward wash Square campus how can we reimagine what pathways are possible for our students
so that kind of is the highlevel $830 million Bond plan that can be very impactful um as we go forward I want to uh end with the two funding proposals you just heard Megan talk about our M Levy override you just
heard me talk about our bond so we need both measures to March forward right our bond invests in our facilities right th those three Rs the rebuild the renew the reimagine and partnered with that we've done such a strategic effort in
partnering and programming and thinking how can the facility lend itself to programming and pathway opportunities and so it's the two prong approach that we have here tonight and before I move on I want to pass it off to our superintendent Chris
gdowski to talk a little bit more about the data and thoughts around our M Levy override thank you Molly so I'd like to spend some time just talking about the financial piece of this and the why behind staff recommending to the board that they certify these two different measures one
the bond measure and the other being the mevy override I'm confident that I speak on behalf of the entire leadership team that I work with and leaders throughout the system that we don't ask the community for more money lightly we know that many in this community struggle to pay bills and to maintain that quality
level of life and that asking for some more money especially in the override may add additional pinch to what's already a tight household budget so we don't come to this lightly but we're convinced given what's transpired in Colorado over the last 30 years that the
moment we faced today it's absolutely necessary for our community to support both of these measures so let me tell you a little bit more about that why I won't say much about the bond because I've not received as many questions about about the bond perhaps some of that is because our ask our proposal is
less than what most of the metro area districts are asking for you may have seen that Aurora Public Schools certified a$1 billion Bond measure you may have heard that Denver public schools is certified a $975 million Bond measure or that Cherry Creek has
certified a $950 million measure in comparison our $830 million ask is modest appropriately uh so and designed to be that way out of the districts the top six districts in the state were the sixth largest only Jeff Co sitting the
cycle out and only Douglas County has a smaller ask than us and that's largely a function that Douglas County is a a younger School Community than Adams 12 Douglas County really didn't start to Boom until the mid 80s and Beyond when Highlands Ranch came online and people
started building houses and buying houses left right and Center so they don't have the same sort of Need for Renewal and refresh that a more mature School District like Adams 12 does when our growth curve started 15 to 20 years before them perhaps it's also because
there's not a tax rate increase attached to our bond measure and the why behind that at the most simple level is that property values have increased substantially enough over the last few years and we've paid down enough debt over the last eight years since our last Bond was passed that we can ask for $830
million and not increase people's tax rates on the community so I probably won't spend a lot more time talking about the bond at least at this point in uh my comments but the mil ofy override I just want to create some context when I first started as an attorney in
1994 our car of law said that you could pass a mevy override but the maximum you could ask for is a 7 and a half% bump on top of what our school formula at the state level provided for so at 7 and a half% you could do some extras you could
make things fancier maybe than your neighboring District you could add some bells and whistles but it was a pretty modest amount of money and that began to change fairly dramatically about 15 years ago right when I started in this job with the introduction of the budget
stabilization factor I can recall go into a meeting with Governor Ritter as three or four months into uh this job he had his education advisers budget advisers there and they talked about introducing this concept of a negative factor or budget stabilization factor
and the why behind that was that the state was in the midst of the Great Recession they just didn't have enough money to pay for all of the expenses of state government and increase funding for K12 by the amount of inflation on top of what they've been doing before I
think most of us in the K12 Community felt like it's going to be painful but there's pain all throughout our communities and throughout other agencies and we need to take our fair share of that too what everyone thought at that time uh was that this budget stabilization Factor negative factor Factor would last
for 2 or 3 years and unfortunately it lasted for 15 and it just finally went away this year so this current school year is the first time that we've caught up with all the inflation that's happened in our economy compared to
2009 and really has brought us to the levels of funding that were back in place in Colorado in 1989 which is the way Amendment 23 was structured years ago because of that long 15-year period of deprivation and not having the resources that public had needed a
strange Dynamic started to happen lots of school districts said we can't survive and attract teachers pay them what they deserve provide programmingsoftware additional pot of money for extras has now changed that you can supersize your funding by up to 50% and we have
districts adjacent to us like Boulder Valley who have done just that beyond that um what we've seen is that a lot of school districts have jumped in even more recently even since our 2018 mevy override and asked our
community for more money what they've recognized is that this is a much more expensive place to live all the time housing prices in particular have skyrocketed dramatically since we were last in this room in 2018 and so we now find ourselves in a very different spot in terms of Revenue
compared to peers than we were even six years ago so if we can go to the next slide I've got some comparative data to show here's where we currently stand now in terms of the supplemental mevy override Revenue per pupil and you can
see that we're 13th out of 15th $193 per student that no longer pays for extras it pays for Basics like compensating your Educators effectively having the right mental health support and interventionist in place in the school offering the programs like CTE
that kids and parents want us to provide and we find ourselves dramatically behind so many of our peer districts the only two that are below us I'll just say Adams 14 you can see is the lowest funded in terms of supplemental Revenue in the entire metro region and I think many of us in this
room are well aware that Adams 14 in part because of those financial challenges has been on the cusp of third party management state state takeovers reorganization they've uh had a very challenging time and one of the things that's made that work much more
challenging there is they can't pay teachers as much they can't have as many teachers they're constantly struggling with do we pay teachers more but then have huge class sizes do we have small class sizes but pay our teachers less and then have lots of vacancies 27j the
one right below us I think we're all well aware too of some of the challenges they had and really as a final desperation measure so that they could be a more competitive destination for staff they transitioned a few years ago to a 4-day school week the people above us uh are doing quite a bit more in
terms of what they can offer in terms of compensation in terms of programming and and just basic resources that communities demand and when you start to multiply those differences that you see on there like Boulder Valley $4,475 supplemental Revenue per kid
$2,575 more than what we get in Adams 12 and you multiply that by the 35,000 students we serve in our district managed schools and our Charter Schools that's a $91 million a year difference in terms of what Boulder Valley receives
and as a result of that uh some what I was going to share later I'll just weave in now there there's a lot of things that become challenging as a result when you look at average teacher compensation in Boulder Valley they're number one in the Metro region out of uh our neighboring districts our regional
competitors for compensation only two districts are lower than us guess which two give them what I've said and given this chart Adams 14 and 27j Boulder Valley the average teacher makes $ 96,2 a year that's
$1,380 more than what we we pay in Adams 12 we're the bottom of the eight districts that are not completely behind us in terms of mevia override so Boulders at 96820 Cherry Creeks at 9,754 Denver
8,414 and then we're more tightly and closely Tethered to Westminster and St bin and Mapleton and Jeff Co but even Jeff Co $1,500 more a year in terms of what they compensate teachers so instead of having a system uh that I once
participated in here as a student in Adams 12 where we had a fair shake and comparable resources to other districts in the region we're dramatically behind any more our peer districts and we can't continue to offer what this community wants and demands with those huge
deficits in funding next slide so this slide talks about uh what happens if this $34.5 million mevy override passes and where does it take us in terms of average per pupil funding compared to peers in this mevy override
space and you'll see we're not asking to be top of the pack frankly folks we're never going to be top of the pack unless there's a dramatic change in how our state funds schools and permit schools to be funded because our property values in Adams 12 are so much lower than a Boulder Valley at Denver public schools
at Cherry Creek that the tax burden would just be too great to be number one two 3 four on this list what what we're asking very modestly is help us get to the middle of the pack we work really hard creatively thoughtfully in a
collaborative way in this District we have great culture we have people with a can doe attitude and being middle of the pack we can make a lot of things happen that we can't make happen when we're 13th out of 15th here next slide and if we don't pass um it's
possible that we could move to 14th out of 15 in terms of this peer District metro area comparison Adams 14 is expected to place a significant mevy override measure on the ballot this week as well perhaps next week as if uh they're not done this week because the
deadline is coming near and if they were to pass and we weren't you see that we're only ahead of 27j and even that that what I'll say is 27j has an an override that's going to continue to grow dramatically upward
because there is so much growth in that community in terms of new housing and new business that they'll quickly maybe even within the next two or three years be at a spot where they're catching us and surpassing us so the why behind this it's not because we're trying to create
uh an Empire it's not like we aspire to be number one in funding we recognize very much that asking our community for money poses challenge for some families and making their budgets work but we can't wait any longer if we want to continue to provide this community of
first class education so I hope that helps explain some of the why behind why we're here tonight B back to you thank you superintendent gadowski I think now is a good time to hear from some other voices in the room tonight want to take those few of those
buckets that we shared and add a little more color in depth and a little more personal story to them so you know one of the big Investments you've heard of a few times tonight is investments in CTE and stem opportunities for our students want to be really clear this calls out
career Readiness it also is college readiness and it's not an either or it's an Andor when we talk about this certainly we expand these opportunities for kids in these fields and it can be a bridge right into career through a certification through a connection with
industry go out leave our high schools move right into a well-paying job and Independence and flourishing many times though the CTE courses spark interest in kids I take a construction class and I want to go get an architectural
degree I take an education class and I want to go become a teacher maybe in Adams 12 it's not one or the other it's both and sometimes you need both to find your path moving forward and so we want to start early with that computer
science at elementary school we want to start offering CT at Middle School where our kids are saying we want to be Hands-On we want to start exploring things finding out how things work finding out how we work if you remember Middle School it is about finding out
how you work and what you're interested in and then in high school becoming more clear on that what speaks to you where do you want to go when you leave us and how can we help prepare you down that road and we're really fortunate tonight that we're going to hear from some
people in our system about the transformative and amazing power that CT and stem courses allow in our system so please join me in welcoming uh Tessa Gargano our assistant principal at Future forward Washington Square and
Miguel Rodriguez Lopez he's a senior system at North Clan High School future forward student took firefighting last year successfully this year he's taking welding and EMT courses he's a future forward Allstar and he's here to drop some wisdom on all of you tonight please
welcome Tessa and Miguel good evening I'm Tessa Gargano I'm the assistant principal at Future forward Washington Square one of our CTE campuses in Adams 12 my Adams 12 Journey began as a kindergartener at Cotton Creek Elementary by 16 I had found my
home in in CTE at North Glenn High School after working in industry for several years I realized that CTE is where my passion was so I found my way back to the classroom in 2020 such a fun time along with my wonderful team we welcome
students to our Washington Square building for the first time it has been inspiring watching our students find their passion and their career Pathways within our building one of my favorite moments in our school is that spring semester when you walk around and you
see these kids that have been learning the material all fall semester into spring and something clicks and now they're speaking like they're in the industry it's so invigorating to hear kids in EMT running calls with
paramedics in the field coming in to work with them walking into the diesel shop and seeing kids work on customer work on these vehicles uh and it just really brings back the why we do this well now our building is full after just
5 years so tonight I want to talk about the expansion of Career and Technical education or CTE as we've all been referring to it CTE programs in Adams 12 are more than just a set of classes these are Pathways to Real World
skills and meaningful careers it is our mission to provide authentic Hands-On learning experiences where students can explore their career interests develop specialized skills and gain a Competitive Edge in the job market one of the greatest benefits of
CTE is that provide students with that clear connection between education and their future careers CTE Pathways offer uh lead to high paying in- demand jobs and even opportunities to earn college credit and Industry certifications this
not only empowers our students to follow their dreams but also equips thems with the tools that they need to be successful in a rapidly changing e economy moreover expanding CTE programs will address a crucial need within our community by preparing a skilled
Workforce within our local industries by aligning our programs with the needs of our industry Partners we create a pipeline of talent that supports economic growth and stability and in turn benefits our entire Community as we Foster Innovation and
strengthen our local community investing in CTE is an investment in both our students future and in the future of our community it ensures that every student has access to highquality relevant education that provides them with real world success by
passing this Bond and this Mill we are committing to a brighter more prosperous future for our students and our community working together we can make this Vision a reality and pave the way for a successful future for every young person within our district with that I'm going to hand it
over to Miguel and he can talk about his one-on-one EXP experience like Bo said he completed IR fire pathway and now is moving on to continue and seek more opportunities here's Miguel uh hi everybody um my name is Miguel uh this is my first time doing
this so I am pretty nervous I'm not going to lie um but my first so when I entered High School I really did think I was going to be bored all the time I just thought I was going to be every day of my life you know know just8 hours a day have one period of lunch you know
back to it again the next day study for for just you know math math is something I was I've always struggled with I'm going be honest but um when I heard about this program I looked into it and then I did want to do welding first I I've always wanted to do welding class
but then my parents talked me to firefighting and I was like no we're just going to go into firefighting we're going to be like oh just sit down read your book uh you're just going to open up the hose once or twice you're not even going to turn off a real fire you're going to wear a suit that doesn't even fit you you're probably just going
to try an air tank that has been used by everybody and and just just you know the typical thoughts that you would think it's boring just cuz it's high school so I give it I give it a shot I did I was pretty nervous when I went in and my instructors they walked in they weled in
as if they already knew me they're like hey how are you doing um don't be nervous everything's going to be okay we're going to have a lot of fun in this class and I was like yeah yeah yeah of course we are and then first day comes and they're already giving us our gear and I was like oh okay so they already
telling us what we're going to need and how we got to dress professionally and how we can't be wearing jeans and just a shirt we have to go in certain clothing so we can like distinguish ourselves in between the crowd so we can look like if we are actually part of a class that we
want to be in and my Mr Sher my instructor he he always did tell me he was like hey just give it a shot it's not that bad and there was a few days that I walked into the class I was like oh we're just going to sit down and do our work again and nothing but then came the day where we started competing with each other in our class when our
classmates and that's when I start to like it cuz yes I'm a competitive person and Mr and Mr Sher he told us he started telling us he was like if you guys are competitive you guys would like this class so I was like okay and we got our gear we got gear that fits us boots that that fit us jackets helmets hoods
everything that you need that you're going to wear as a firefighter so I was like okay I'll give it a shot and then first day comes me and one of my one of my best buddies I took that class too he was a junior at the time he already graduated but me and him were always so competitive with each other we were always he was always one second
fasion than me and it was just always me and him and we would always like you know try our best but I'm not going to lie there was a few days where you walk into class and you're tired and don't want to do anything and your instructors won't Force you they won't be like hey no just get up and I'm telling you to do this
they won't you they just want you to give it a shot they want you to give it a try they really want you to show your effort cuz they know you got it or you wouldn't be in that class they wouldn't have given you the chance to be in that class so um come so we're we're going through year
one uh we learned how to use hoses we learned different patterns the tools we're going to use in the firefighting service how an engine works the different stages of like um firefighting so we so first year I didn't a letter sadly cuz I didn't take
it seriously I really didn't um and I was really sad about it cuz second semester came and I I was really upset I was like wow I can't believe I didn't make it and that's when I was like I really like this this is my passion um I I really use all my
physical abilities here all my strength I can use everything I have all my skills all my tactics everything that I've always learn since I was a little kid and you know just be a kid you know have fun get people with the hose uh don't get in the way cuz you guys will
get sprayed and pretty hard um watch your fingers and toes when you guys are putting down a ladder obviously you guys don't want to lose a finger um and just always come prepared to class so second year came I came in with more energy more confidence that's one big thing
they do teach you there confidence be confident in yourself you always got it it's not even that bad like right now I'm really nervous and I know I'm going go home later and be like wow it wasn't it wasn't even that bad um but I mean second year came and they were like hey
he's back cuz I I wasn't thinking of taking it just because of how upset I was that I didn't let her first year so I was like you know what it's okay I'll give it another shot it was it was better than last year um we did do live Fire Burns we went to North Metro training grounds and we did do life fire Brands we were in basement with fires
that were controlled obviously but we were the ones that were supposed to turn it off um we moved hose heavy hoses we dragged um those fake like the fake suits that weigh like that are like dummies bodies um we learned how to save
people we learned how to how to quickly change how to stay calm in a moment of adrenaline how to try to how how how to try like to yeah to keep your inner peace while you're dealing with flames that are basically covering your whole
view where you can't even see your hand in front of your face um where you guys are hearing all these different sounds um um and it was just a very great experience it really was and that's where I found my passion firefighting and I hope that any other
student that takes this class feels the same way someday cuz it is a class that you guys will get tired in you guys will sweat a lot you guys will get dirty you guys will sometimes get muddy more than anything you know but you guys will obviously you know clean your own gear don't be a dirty person they'll teach you guys how to be respectful how to
talk to your elderly how to help others how to learn how to talk how to learn how to speak in a respectful manner how not to be so aggressive with others um how not to horse play when you guys are moving heavy objects around when you guys are moving fans hoses when you guys
are charging up a hose line that has like 300 PSIs that just really strong really strong equipment that we use and I also really liked it just because I'm an active person and I do really like to like you know do a lot of physical work
and that was also why I like the class cuz I was able to like I said earlier I was able to use all my strength at some point or another and then that's where my teachers you know that's where I got my nickname Manchild where they they they got to see what I had in me where
they where they were like oh he's really liking the class and I really did I love the class it was like it felt like the real world it really did it felt like if I was stepping into the real world um take calls like she like Miss Gargano said my assistant principal um help the
EMTs we're doing classwork out of nowhere they call us on the radio hey we need you guys changeing less than a minute um be out there with our crew make sure you have everything on all the right equipment make sure you guys know how to handle a how to put how to pull someone upstairs how to push someone
downstairs um but it was it was it was a pretty great experience I really loved it and when this year started to end I I lettered I I did I was I I got my certificate uh thank you uh I got my certificate I got my certificate I was
really happy my my good buddy was there um he he was really glad I was there too because first year he was upset with me he was like hey you should have tried harder I should have but here comes second year you know and uh it felt it felt really good it felt really good
being in that chair earning my certificate um knowing that my instructors believed in me knowing that I have always always had someone that believed in me my parents my sisters my family and then now someone that I thought was a stranger that became someone really close to me which were my
instructors and my friends they became like family and we are a family in the firefighting service we always are no matter what crew you're in what station you're in you guys will learn how to work with each other no matter if you guys don't like how you guys look no matter if you think one person is ugly no matter if you think they're pretty
you guys we don't judge J we don't judge we work with each other we help each other we learn each other's fears what each other's strengths are and we support each other through anything that we struggle with um and that's one thing that I really liked because there's there's been aot there was a few times
where we where we were doing a drill and there was a kid oh I can't do this I can't move this and it wasn't more of like oh we would get mad at them we would help them we would be like it's okay calm down we're here for you we're a team and that's what what this class taught me about teamwork is really
helpful in this life you you might think oh I got it by myself I I'm always going to be by myself for the rest of my life no you're not there's always going to be that one person that is going to help you through anything even if you see them once a year twice a year your whole life they're always next to you probably
but there's always something that motivates you and this was a class that motivated me to stay in high school to keep my grades up to try hard to graduate on time and also thanks to my mom she she she kept me she her and my dad they kept me on the right path my they
were a bit worried cuz yes the firefighting service is um a bit dangerous it is anything can happen at any moment any call um you guys can get hurt at any moment any class that we're taking here in the future in the long run there will be moments where you guys will be in an unsafe in an unsafe place
but that's what we learn here how to be safe on those moments how to take one of those panic attacks and control them and make him into a compm peaceful situation how to be with someone at a certain point and they're like you know they're being aggressive with you they're curing
you out they're beinging like you know they're just violent with you and you staying calm not talking back you know just being there like hey it's okay like you know let them cool off um and it was just a very nice experience for me those two years they really were and I I
didn't want to take EMT class just cuz I knew all about all the hard work that I was going to do but I knew I had a passion for firefighting and I knew it was going to be easier for me after high school to get into an academy and then to get into a station and um when of the
firef there Mr Curry he I got really close to him too he's very cool he's very fun he took me out of class he was like Hey listen he talked me into it he really did he was like look I believe in you man so here I go I signed up for EMT I'm trying welding too I I like welding
I actually do um it's a pretty fun class you know instead of turning off fires I turn them on out um and it's just a place it's a spot where I found where I can like actually like be in peace where I'm actually
using my hands where I'm being like Hands-On with something where I'm not just learning about it writing down on paper doing notes and you know just learning how to help each other in the real world learning how it feels to step out of your house one day live on your own wake up 430 in the morning go to my job get
out you know knowing that I studied for it knowing how confident I was just cuz of the people that actually were there because they like like you guys said earlier we you guys really do help us like all our teachers there they're they're they're good staff they they see
a student that's having a bad day they go up to him they're like hey what's going on you okay they're always there for us and I'm just very thankful that you we're trying this out um and hopefully we do we are able to expand all like our building because for the future students it would be really fun
you know having an extra part of the firefighters out there you know having their own little place where they can actually Park their fire truck and like you know hopefully hopefully have that have it made one day you know hopefully they can hopefully they can just be there you know and have fun just like I
did um and you know back to the firefighting I know I'm talking a lot about it but it was just something really cool really fun but it's just a class where like you learn a lot where you learn that there's days that you can have a bad day but no matter how bad that day is you got to leave it at home you got to leave it at home you can't
bring it to that class you got to realize that it's like a like a job that you're turning out for the future you got to you got to just like you know try to try to try to be on your best on your best behavior um and you know just try
as hard as possible and you're always going to have someone by side yeah hold on before you go hold on so thank you Miguel that was excellent by the way I want you to know Chris and I always get the wrap it up so welcome to the club happens to all of us uh what
are what are your do you have some plans you eye on something when you graduate this spring uh this spring when I graduate uh get into firefighting hopefully get into an academy find an academy and you know start start awesome good luck to you thanks for being here
tonight another key piece we've talked about and I see many many examples in this room tonight is the importance of highquality excellent staff um we've all at some point been students we know what a
difference it makes to have a really amazing teacher and what that can do for you and we're very lucky in Adams 12 to have so many of them and we want keep them and we want to find the Next Generation and this investment proposal
really is about securing that most precious commodity that we have in this system and it's the quality of our people and as we think about really wanting to make sure that we're competitive in those districts that Chris talked about that we retain people in our system and that we provide the
right supports of students got some friends tonight to talk about those with you so please join me in welcoming Shannon West and Vicky Murray principal and assist assant principal at Thorton Elementary Isn't it nice when you have some of your own in the crowd and uh
also please join me in welcoming a former Adams 12 parent someone I had the pleasure of working with over several years Miss Christine braans skits thank you good evening board members superintendent gadowski in Adams 12 Community uh my name is Shannon West and
I'm the principal at Thorton Elementary thank you for this opportunity to share some of the recent highlights from the new comp competitive salary and Compensation Program at Thorton Elementary the start of our school year has been remarkable when we wrapped up
last June we achieved something unprecedented in my 12 years at Thorton Elementary we were fully staffed with certified Educators and I'm proud to say we' maintained that full Staffing to this day in addition in addition to hiring our new compensation contracts have also
played a pivotal role in our strong start for the Year by providing our certified staff with an opportunity to return early we were able to maximize our onboarding and preparation time as early as July 24th our capacity Builders and early Educators were back in the
building engaging in strategic trainings mentoring and role playing to ensure solid implementation of schoolwide systems and trauma-informed practices also during this time we facilitated a range of professional development opportunities all classroom teachers
participated in two full days of advantag Math training making sure they are well prepared to deliver high quality instruction from day one we also partnered with Thorton middle school and participated in a one-day Kagan training which is designed to enhance collaborative teaching
strategies this additional time also allowed our instructional leadership team to spend an entire day planning our school schoolwide goals and action steps for this year we hit we have hit the ground running and today I was super excited to participate in grade level ddis for the
second week in a row which student work was at the table and teachers were setting rigorous academic goals for student achievement it was awesome these efforts combined with the countless other tasks necessary to prepare for the school year have collectively contributed to a robust
start for Thorton Elementary this early return allowed for an extraord amount of learning and preparation for setting a strong foundation for our for our year ahead thank you Shannon thank you board uh
superintendent gdowski and all the members of the community I'm really excited to be here this is my 21st year in Adams 12 and I hope that we'll be able to retain a lot of our teachers for that long um with the new um passing of the mid Levy override Shannon spoke of the opportunities our certified staff
had before school started and although this meant returning early from summer break the feedback from our staff has been extremely positive on the Friday before the first day of school our staff shared feedback on the extended preparation time and professional learning opportunities
according to the survey 100% of Staff agreed that the additional work days and school provided professional development were highly beneficial helping them feel well prepared for a strong start with students here are a couple comments submitted by our our teachers one of our
teachers shared having our full day trainings on two days and having the rest of the week split into meetings and individual work time has made the mad rush of the beginning of the year manageable I feel less stressed and more prepared I feel like I have a better grasp of who my students are and the
best way to start the school year we also have teacher leaders and one of our teacher leaders said I liked the ilt day to build community ground in our work set up systems and structures set up our quarter goals and start creating look Force I like getting to
check in with our early Educators throughout their first week so they got to know me and I could also help field questions so they didn't overwhelm their teammates thoron Elementary wants to thank you for your continued support which has allowed us to enter this school year with a Clear Vision
well-trained staff and an unwavering commitment to Excellence by providing competitive compensation growth opportunities and support we know we will recruit and retain high quality staff thank you thank
you there's a lot of people here hello more than I'm I'm accustomed to speaking in front of but hello my name is Christine berzanskis and I've had four boys in the Adams in the district and uh we've had many many wonderful
instructors so that has been a great experience I'm speaking today in favor of the proposed override uh for the mevy uh that provides academic support my youngest son Ryan graduated Legacy High
School in May who whoop um he was diagnosed with a common learning disability dyslexia when he was in second grade um however he didn't receive effective intervention until he was in seventh grade um and that stayed
with him then through High School which was excellent uh once he had effective intervention from highly qualified instruction instructors is that's the key the highly qualified
instructors we saw a steady progress in his ability to read and he graduated high school at a 10th grade reading level he's severely dyslexic so that was a great accomplishment thank you um effective intervention for those who
needed is crucial throughout a students time in school dyslexia affects students in different ways with some students needing more intervention than others the district has done an admirable job
truly great come a long way in recognizing the benefit of early detection and intervention that will improve student outcomes and reduce a number of students who need extensive intervention but there will always be students like my Ron
who need more intensive intervention than others um and for a longer time this funding and service is crucial to their success so Ryan is doing well he's very happy he's working he would be here tonight if he didn't have a job and you
know had to work but thank you very much for your time thank you three so much and finally let's spend a moment uh sharing some details about the importance of our facilities um that includes safety that includes great
roofs effective HVAC systems and schools where our teachers can Thrive and our students can Thrive and we've got a couple folks that are going to talk about that experience uh and the importance the environment has on teaching and learning so it's my
pleasure to introduce Allison Davis who is the parent to three students at stem lab a first grader a third grader and a sixth grader and she's here and it's almost 8 o' it's past 8:00 and that's fantastic and then Charles oriano who is principal at Thorton High School a proud
thoron High Alum oddly my notes don't have the year of graduation so we'll have to have uh Charles fill that in for us uh but please welcome Allison and Charles oh oh a microphone um I think we can all agree
that having to replace the roof of our home or the crack in the driveway that everyone keeps tripping over um or the toilet that keeps backing up in our apartment is probably not our favorite way to spend our money or our time um but we do it right to prevent something
much worse or costlier happening and because it's our home and our livelihood and our safe place much like what um schools should be for our children and when we create a safe welcoming and comfortable School environment we allow students to be
fully engaged in the green zone and ready to learn I have one particular little guy that does not like to stay in the green zone thank you stem lab teachers um that way they can push their body to the next level during PE because
the gym finally has air conditioning and isn't overheating or they can hear and learn a lesson easier because the noise of the classroom next door has been quieted by a permanent wall rather than a modular one or they want to spend more time in the library because it's because it's
bright inviting and comfortable to sit in that's my oldest or maybe they just feel more safe and calm at school because they know the school security system was just updated whatever the case our students deserve to feel at home when they are at school and I hope you will vote to put the blueprint
funding on the November valot thank you [Applause] good evening board members superintendent gdowski community members colleagues I got over here in the corner
thank you I'm on the spot right now you guys are aware my name is Charles Ariano I'm the principle of Thorton High School also a very proud graduate of thoron high school this is debatable it was supposed to be 89 it did take me an extra semester so it was 1990 all
right um I'm here again for one reason I'm very passionate about the the bond and the you know hopefully approval with the bond for a brand new thoron high school and I'm going to tell you a little bit why um first and foremost I think everybody in here can agree that the school is the heart of the community
and I really think that thoron high school could be that anchor or should be that anchor inside of a thoron um it hasn't been there for a long time and I can tell you that again because I've experienced it from 1989 all the way till now being presently the principal of Thor High School our student body has changed has
changed a lot over the last again for me it's going to be 35 38 years whatever it is um thoron High School no longer represents our student body so when we talk about student body feeling warm welcomed heard the biggest thing for me is seen when you walk in that building
they're not seen I want to share with you some experiences that I got to go through this summer um I got the opportunity to go to roseval high school and tomal Bell High School two brand new schools in the northern Denver area as well as in the actual Denver area um I brought back my
experiences and with my my colleagues my administrative team back to my school I shared that with 300 different students of all various ranges of abilities anywhere from a 9th grader to a 12th grader sped students to my highest achieving students and they were just overwhelmed with the possibilities and I say endless possibilities of a brand new
school whether that be a brand new facility whether that be expanded CTE programming whether that be just working toilets inside of our school they were very overwhelmed with that possibility they love the idea of having some voice inside this so I got a collect some feedback from those students and they got the opportunity to tell me what they
want in a school again it's very inspirational to me as being a leader in the building to hearing this but even more so because I got to be part of this so again board I'm asking you guys to hopefully move forward with that Bond approval public I'm asking you guys to hopefully approve that as well thank you for your
[Applause] time tonight all across our district from 80th Avenue to Highway 7 Holly Sheridan all kinds of potential is going
to sleep tonight potential to be business owner firefighter superintendent and many many other things and all of them at some point need to have that potential fully
realized and we have an opportunity to make sure that all that potential doesn't just stay potential that it's realized and so the why are those kids and the why are all the kids that came before them that this community supported over time that are
here now and have an opportunity to pay it forward we had an all staff kickoff back at the beginning of August we're very fortunate enough to hear from some recent graduates and if you're kind of caught in all the details and you need to get reminded of the why behind all of
this these kids will make it clear what makes me proud of being a part of the stem launch community is the perseverance for my education and wellbeing also the diversity of the community there and support for
exploring and expressing the ways of my culture though I'm here today not just as a graduate but as someone whose life was changed whose course was altered by the experiences and opportunities offered by Adams 12 my Junior and senior
years at future for W CTE classes that I discovered the path that truly resonated with me attending future forward was like stepping into a new world of possibility the construction classes that I took there were not merely about
learning skills or a trade they were about uncovering a passion and finding a true sense of purpose your commitment to fostering an environment where students can try new things and take risks is invaluable I had the privilege of attending Vantage points for first
concurrent enrollment college class and today I can happily say I'm a bachor scholar I moved to United States on July 15 2021 being a High School junior was difficult day by day school become more
enjoyable I found friends and learn about their cultures and religions teachers were friendly and funny they always tried to help me even though my English was very limited at the time I truly appreciate all my teacher who stood by me to help me to achieve my
goals graduating from thiran high school was a Dream came true to me Washington Square was my safe place to try new things and see what I liked and transform myself into the person I want to go up to be but if it wasn't for Mr Cooper I would not be the person
standing here today he was my construction teacher for 3 years and it's thanks to him that I am a backtack skills you Woulda state champion for plumbing and with all the lessons I learned along the way I am proud that I have recently received an mtech experience award as a first year
Apprentice no student could have ever done it on their own and that is where you teachers and staff commitment and consistency comes in you were all one team transforming all these students to be the best version of themselves
and that board and Community is our presentation to you tonight on the screen if you'd like to take a screenshot this is also posted online is a website where you can get into all the details of these funding proposals again we thank you for your attention like to thank again our folks
who came to share their own stories tonight and thank you all again for being here [Applause] thank you Bo and thank for each and every one of you that came up and told
us your stories tonight we are now going to give other people opportunity to share their stories um we've decided that we'll go ahead and give everybody the three minutes that we usually give for public comment we ask that if um your story is
in line with somebody else's that maybe you cut back a little bit on time and I would suggest that we call three at a time um so that they're ready to go so that we can keep this moving so that everybody has a chance to speak and there might be a couple of
rules that Stephanie's going to read yeah sorry it might be a little bit a repeat good evening the board welcomes public comment to learn about the preferences and concerns of the Adams 12 festar Community our normal practice is to allow 3 minutes per speak speaker however we have a large number of individuals who have signed up to
address the board this evening so in the interest of allowing everyone an opportunity to speak and to keep the move meeting moving smoothly we kindly ask that if someone has already expressed a point or concern that you share you consider consider either shortening your comment or simply noting
your agreement with what has been said please use the microphone and state your name and city of residence before beginning your comments please give any handouts or information you would like to share with the board to Lee Koka here on my right speakers will be prompted with a sign when you have 30 seconds
remaining please begin to wrap up your comments at that time speakers will be informed when time has expired and we would ask that you please end your comments at that time our first speaker is Thomas Scoville sorry followed by Christina
Rodriguez and Edward Jimenez III together uh and then Kathy pler good evening I'm Thomas Scoville from Thorton Harden not your hearts it's quite a pep rally um you're probably not
preaching to the right people though I realize the school district is a fully owned subsidiary of the teachers union so understand why you fwn all over them sadly you seem to have no such love for taxpayers who are the most important
part of the district no p no taxpayers no government schools I ask again for you to vote on my resolution of taxpayer appreciation that I provided to the chairman in
April Harden not your hearts how much is enough the taxes I'm paying this year are 25% more than the year before yet you want more you proposed to increase the rate by over8 Mills a 133% hike for
a compounded increase of 41% the sounds greedy to me does it to you because taxes are the price of government comma would have to call this price gouging stop it the cost of living on the Front Range
is too high stop driving it up stop gouging you also want to sell $830 million in bonds with a repayment of $1,450 million a finance cost of 620 million in
20 years to be paid back at 70 million a month a 70 million a year that finance charge means everything you buy with those bonds will cost more than 75% more than it should this is silly because if
you just use the 70 million you you you say you have in 12 years time doing pay as you go you get 800 you get the $830 million and you save 620 million and that's something more than one year's
budget I think of course this is all about you this is all about you spending other people's money and you may not be uh may not be used to thinking and these terms except you have
a duty to be good stewards to the taxpayers step up to the bar these bonds and taxes are a huge hurt to the people table these ideas don't be hard-hearted show some love for the
people that pay your bills and the union salaries thank you very much we got one thank you hi my name is Christina I'm from thoron this is my son Edward um on behalf of Thorton High School um I am a
Trojan I was a former Trojan I have a daughter that graduated there in um 2020 and I currently have three student athletes um attending Thorton High School um which is one of them is set to graduate in 2025 um so as you can imagine reenvisioning
um program at the facility at Thorton high school would be beneficial not only for my family but for all of the student staff Community um and for the future generations to come um I believe by re re-envision envisioning thoron High
School the environment we will provide our students with the resources they need to thrive rapidly in this change World um this blueprint proposal represents a significant step forward in creating a future ready educational
environment that Fosters um Innovation security safety and a lifelong learning I think with a new building we have the opportunity to reinv uh Envision what education can look like um right now we are very College minded in
our academic sense and need to shift with uh to support all students who may need support with a career new Career Technical education opportunities would provide some of our students who are disconnected the chance to thrive in an
academic setting where they have um by end to what they are learning um with that we look forward to you supporting this vision and bringing it to life to ensure the success of all current and future students
thank you my name is Edward I am a high school student at thoron school I would love for our school to have an opportunity to be reinv visioned I feel this would help with the success of all students acade academically physically and
[Applause] mentally good evening everyone my name is C pler I live in Broomfield Colorado and it's nerve-wracking I have some notes so I am here obviously because I
am an enthusiastic supporter of this proposal um I recognize that um we have different viewpoints in the audience but I just want to say this decision is anything but selfish this is for our kids I have
three graduates of Adams 12 they all chose the college path and they were ready um they were ready because they had amazing teachers who cared about them as people they were ready because they had teachers staff who prepared
them academically with what they needed to know and that investment is so important to our communities all of our five stars every single person in this room and outside of this room benefits
if we have a strong school district and that requires continuing investment someone earlier mentioned we all know if we have a house or if we are even renting we have to keep investing in that property all they're asking with
this bond is to reinvest money that we're they're already collecting for a new purpose because that's what the law requires it's not an increase to people's tax rates that's a very that's an easy decision but it's going to look like a big number on everyone's ballot
the mill Levy override our teachers deserve to be paid like a million dollars a year let's clap for anybody who thinks it right we cannot pay our teachers enough for the jobs that they do and this won't get close but it's an
effort and we can show the people who are with our kids every day how much we care and how much we support and if that hurts a little that's again we all have to make our decisions but I think it's an incredible investment and one that we really need to think
hard about I know the process that was gone through it was a public process there was input and that these numbers were not come too lately that there were other things that were wanted and needed that were cut from some of these proposals so I'm just here to say go
Adams 12 go our community I loved that I could not find a parking place and let's get this done [Applause] okay our next three speakers will be Gabriella Chavez Sarah Hughes and Ashley Edinger
good good evening everyone my name is Gabby Travis and I live in Commerce City and I'm a Civic influencer with Rocky Mountain partnership and some of some of you guys heard this last week but I think it's important enough to share again um while while I didn't graduate
from Adam 12 and I don't live in the district I did graduate from the neighboring 27j school district and I experienced firsthand what it's like to go through a school system that never passed a M Levy override for from the time that I was in first grade to the
time that I graduated high school that's right A M Levy that didn't pass in over 20 years I felt the effects of a 4-day school wiek I felt the effects of teachers constantly leaving and I felt the effects of the lack of resources our teachers struggled not because they
lacked passion but because they weren't comp compensated fairly for their dedication I also saw the irony of passing bonds to build shiny new schools and buildings only to struggle to staff them due to inadequate equit funding passing a bond without M Levy Without A
M Levy override leaves our schools underfunded and our students underserved this is not an original experience this is what many students experience no matter the school district that's why I strongly urge the school board to put a M Levy override
and a bond on the ballot this fall our students deserve to be invested in they deserve the resources support and opportunities that come with adequate funding and to those in the audience I encourage you to support our school system in this effort together we can
uplift our students and provide them with the opportunities that they need to thrive both in and outside of the classroom thank you for your [Applause] time hi my name is Sarah Hughes uh I live in Westminster and uh today I'm
here as a Adams 12 alumna I am also here as a Civic influencer and I'm here as a concerned citizen because Adams 12 made me um I tallied down all the people in my family that went to Adams
12 and it's pretty cool to see it written now um six ants four uncles one mother mine four cousins and one younger
brother not all of that family is related to me by Blood but all our authentic family and they were found because of Adams 12 I found my best friend through Adams 12 and if for anything like my mom and her best friend who I proudly call my
aunt the kids that I have one day will call her aunt as well and I want my kids to be able to go to Adams 12 just like I did and to enjoy the same quality of Education as I did and my mother and I think it speaks highly of
the Adams 12 school system that my mom and my aunt who went there and graduated sent all of their uh five children to the school district because they trusted the school district to teach all of us what we
needed to learn and to help prepare us for our future careers and that helps our region produce better employees one day I Envision the students that go to our
schools being sought after because they go to the school district not in spite of us going to the school district I think if the school board put this uh Bond and M Levy on the ballot it would allow us as the community to
invest in our students and our children and I want that chance for us to show immeasurable dollars how much we not only believe in our children but also our future thank you hello my name is Ashley danger and I
am a resident of thoron good evening School Board superintendent gdowski Community though I don't have any children in the district and I am not a student myself at the district um I deeply care about our community and its I stand before you today to express my
strong support for placing these critical measures on the ballot that will directly impact the well-being of our youth but also our Workforce and our community at large as a thoron resident I understand that the decisions we make today will shape the future of our community the school district is not
just an educational institution it's a Cornerstone of our Region's current and future economic Prosperity the challenges we face in this community are interconnected and addressing them holistically is how we're going to change things here and it's going to lead to Shared
economic growth for everyone many of you may not know this but our school district is part of a broader Regional movement to support 71,000 more young people in meeting key Cradle to Career milestones and is also part of a national movement to do that for 4 million more young people yet we face
this dark reality in this region alone there are over 40,000 young people who are not meeting these milestones and this is not just a loss for them but a signic ific untapped potential for our community and the economy Colorado's biggest economic asset is its untapped
talent and fortunately our education systems do not have the resources all the time to fully prepare our students for the jobs of now and in the future Adams 12 is doing a really great job with the resources it has available but it can do more with additional support a
recent report from the common sense Institute highlighted that the labor shortage is costing our state 46 billion annually in GDP meeting Workforce needs could boost the state's GDP by 10% and employing just 79,000 more skilled workers would provide substantial
economic advantages including over 25,000 additional jobs 2.85 billion in GDP and 4.91 billion in personal income at the end of the day when our district wins we all win consider the
story that Gabby shared about 27j schools which passed an unlikely measure that allowed them to increase pay at 63 new safety Staff last year and introduced new stem and CTE programs these changes resulted in 475 more students earning industry certificates
and a 59% increase in stem and CTE enrollment ensuring that more students have what they need to thrive this is a power te powerful Testament to what can be achieved when we invest in our schools this district is often passed over for resources and we cannot
continue to let that continue we need to support this training ground for our future and current Workforce the mill and the bond are both essential as Gabby mentioned it's like having empty buildings and a Workforce that is ill prepared for the challenges of tomorrow and if the data doesn't speak to you I
turned 30 this year hased in October and this would be a pretty unbeatable birthday president our next three speakers will be David flairy Kathy Henson and Karen Bigalow okay hello hi my name is David flarey uh I live in Broomfield and I'm a
board member on the five star Foundation um we're proud to support and help uh so many of uh your schools and your families uh in in so many ways um and I'm here tonight uh to advocate for this
spond measure but I also wear two hats my career what I do is I'm upholster I measure opinions for many school districts including Adams 12 but what we really do is and what we've learned from our work over the last five years is you know we have to make some
recommendations to help Schoolboard members and staff make educated decisions about Bond measures where the money's going and so forth and as I've worked with the district I just want you to know you have one of the strongest CTE programs in the state okay it's a
Powerhouse this young man's story is just a perfect example right here many voters don't know about CTE they get overshadowed by a lot of news that's in the National media and so forth they may not be completely familiar with so many students that benefit from CTE
programming and all the other wonderful things that you do in class and I really uh advocate for you to put this on this ballot this election cycle because having the conversation with your Community about under Taber you're having a conversation we need new
Revenue here's where the money is going to go and I'm confident that it's just not about CTE but what you've got to put together here and the strength in the community will in a very difficult you know in you know economic environment um worth having that conversation now
rather than later because the longer you wait the more expenses are going to be going up the more teachers you may lose to other districts with higher pay and so I just want say my piece tonight and that I do hope that you put this on the ballot let the voters have a conversation about what this is all
about how it will benefit them and I'll leave it at that good evening superintendent gadowski and members of the board and the Adams 12 Community my name is Kathy Henson I am a member of the Thorton city council but I am speaking tonight in my personal capacity I am a proud mother of
two graduates of the Adams 12 school district from prek all the way through 12th grade one graduated in 2023 and one earlier this year I'm a graduate of the five-star leadership Comm uh Leadership Academy and I have served for five years on the finance and audit committee here
in Adams 12 I've been a classroom volunteer a Destination Imagination leader and I'm the daughter of a public school teacher and the mother of an aspiring music educator and I'm here tonight to unequivocally enthusiastically and emphatically ask you to put the these measures on the
ballot because there is no better investment in our community than our public education system I could leave it at that but I won't so I want to share with you my experiences on the finance and audit committee it has been a privilege for me to interview staff members from across
the every Department in this district and the care and the expertise and the passion with which these people are committed to our students and to stretching every dollar and every Penny to invest back into our school system for our students and our staff is
humbling and inspiring it also has led to a bonus building being opened recently called the independence Academy which is down in South Thorton where I live which was a building that was able to be built because of the financial expertise and
care and fiscal responsibility of our leaders to bring that to fruition so that we are serving a high needs population in the best setting for them while also allowing our pathway students to spread out into the building and serve more students and achieve more
graduations and more degrees and more success for Adams 12 and our Greater Community as I said I'm a me I live in South thoron and the reimagining and the rebuilding of the thoron high school is long overdue like many Redevelopment
projects in South Thornton these kids need to know that we believe in them and we're giving them the same care and concern that we're showing across the district and giving everybody a fair shot at the best educational outcome possible that we can provide them and to do it by not adding any taxes with the
bond and doing a M Levy override that is still as you see not putting us at the top of the list but keeping us from falling to the bottom and keeping our kids from falling to the bottom I'm sure there's something else I wanted to say but I'm going to wrap up I want to say thank you for all that you
do thank you teachers let's get this to Echo Cathy PL the great Kathy pler let's get this done Adams 12 thank you good evening good evening superintendent gadowski and our board members my name is Karen Bigalow while I may be the mayor proem for the city of
Thorton I am here as a resident and proud taxpayer and guess what I put three boys through Adams 12 schools from kindergarten all the way through a senior and High School all three of them incredibly successful one is now at West
Point Military Academy two of them are at Cu uh sorry at CSU in Fort Collins my baby went to Future forward graduated with a uh certificate in EMT and is now able
to work as a EMT while going to college I am a huge proponent of future forward and all of our CTE programs I would love to be able to add a sustain stainability component to our CE programs I think that's incredibly important when we're talking about clean
energy and how we're going to be building the future of our state and our city um I also want to say that I know these children are the future of our community and if we don't invest in our children how do we expect
to have a bright future also our teachers our teachers deserve better they need to be paid so that they can live in our communities because right now it is almost impossible for our teachers to live in
our local communities because it's so expensive uh we need to pay our teachers a the right living wage okay um I am absolutely a proponent of both the bond and the mil ofy and I absolutely hope
that everyone will vote Yes and I hope you'll put it on the ballot and then we can vote yes thank you our next three speakers are Kirk morath Tim Johnson and Shannon Hancock good evening everybody um my name is Kirk
morath I have lived in North Glenn Colorado for over 40 years my daughter attended ads 12 from kitty garden all the way to graduating from North Glen High in 2000 I honestly say this is really a
good marketing effort and I can say that because my daughter's a director of marketing for a significant Corporation in this state I think the only thing you missed is gaining world peace and combating world hunger but then I heard
about the breakfast and lunch and I figured okay you got it conquered until dinner time I want to bring a perspective about reality currently we are walking into what a lot of people consider a reg
recession and asking for more money when everybody else is asking for more money is not going to help credit personal credit is at the highest point currently of anywhere we've been been historically
with this country when you say it's only $20 a month they may not have that $20 they're using credit now I come from a private sector I work for a large corporation half for over 40
years and for 15 years as a manager I was expected to show a 10% year-over-year increase in efficiency my budget went down and that's what was expected of me and I did
it now here nothing against you superintendent but I would not come out and brag that I'm using less money than the other guy if you're Liv working in the private sector that loses your job my question would then be how can
you achieve what you're asking to do without asking for more what can you achieve without asking for more I am not against students I'm not against teachers I'm sure there's lots of teachers in here I would love to vote myself a raise doesn't work that way out
there but I want you to consider I suspect you're going to put this on the ballot no matter what you've got too much support too many teachers are financially have a place in this dog
fight but I want you to consider that the other people the people you're asking to to give you the money there's a lot of other people asking them the same question and we've been asked this over and over and over thank
you my name is Tim Johnson I live in Thorton uh quick question for the audience raise your hand if you are paid by the school district or volunteer with the school district okay thank you very much so my first issue is with the bond issue
understand you're going for $830 million on the bond issue and the wording is deceptive you say without raising taxes well that bond issue that we voted on before is ending so you are raising taxes again you are increasing what we
would have gotten we we weren't going to have to pay that money before so that's a little deceptive I don't think the wording should be that way I think it the wording should be exactly we're going to raise your taxes this much the other part we all agreed that it was going to end now you're trying to raise
it again but you're trying to use deceptive language earlier in the evening they talked about critical needs of $640 million to or $64 million to do critical repairs that's your fault that
should never have gotten that way that stuff should have been taken care of right away there is no reason that that should ever get to that level that's a failure right there as to the mid Levy override I am
back and forth on that the CTE program I think is a fabulous program I think it will help so many kids and needs to be done so I am going back and forth on that what I don't like is the 60% or more failure rating of our students that
are not ready to graduate high school and go on to college 60% we're not a addressing that part that needs to be addressed by just adding AR raise to people and doing other little things that doesn't get that done I need to see
a solid reason why those kids those 60% of kids are not being left behind I applaud the guys that come out and work hard and do their stuff they're amazing and there are those kids and every one of you have seen somebody that has done an amazing thing but we can't forget
about that other 60 or 70% we can't let them fall through because they're the ones that need to carry this country forward too thank you hi I'm Shannon Hancock I uh I'm a resident here uh of Broomfield I'm a
parent in the community uh I also just lost my computer screen when it touched the screen over here so we're going to do this uh I'm I'm the executive director of the festar Education Foundation we are a separate uh 501c3 that's a nonprofit that supports our
students in these schools here in this District uh we operate separately from just so you all know we operate separately from The District's payroll we operate as a separate entity and we're run by a board of community members and leaders and parents and people who are concerned about what's
happening with our students here in the community I will tell you that um my own family has benefited from the opportunities and the experiences provided by the high quality educ ation that these neighborhood schools have provided uh for my son and I'm so
grateful and I want to thank you as unpaid elected officials for the work that you do it is unbelievable so thank you board thank you superintendent gdowski for all that you do and your longevity in this role and your commitment to
Adams 12 it is unbelievably rare in this time in public schools at a superintendent stay so long and is so committed to a district so thank you for what you do so as I said uh we have a board of 15 amazing people who are committed to uh
uh our students they are come from all walks of this community they are major Business Leaders they are contributors and funders toward the work that we do and they believe in the potential of our students we've had the opportunity to stand and work alongside the district as
the foundation for almost 40 years investing in Student Success and living by our model that all means all students and the mill and bond represent this investment in students as well to our students and our schools and our community our students our teachers our
staff have been incredibly challenged in ways that we could have never imagined 10 even five years ago uh and we need quality Educators and staff that can meet the demands in this new era with these students coming back with new needs with inflation and the cost of
Education of salaries of materials supplies of heat of water of of Technology it's all increasing and we need educa we need funding that keeps Pace these measures mean that Partners like us can come alongside in these Investments I can tell you that we have
businesses that are ready to invest in this District because of this Mill and bond initiative if you put this measure on the ballot I can tell you that our funders are ready to walk alongside you are ready to invest in things that uh in CTE in our classrooms in our projects
and I want you to know that we're all there to support you in this journey so please consider putting this onto the ballot and let the voters make a choice for our community and for our students thank [Applause]
you our final three speakers will be Justin boetto Ike an wanu and Christopher Jones my name is Justin BTO I live in thoron and I'm going to change my speech
a little last minute so last week I spoke about the most influential teacher I had CAD software BattleBots TSA going to State going to Nationals and why that teacher was was able to do what they did they were
tenured for six years plus they had access to funding for programs software and a 3D printer after I graduated using my own portfolio as the test student but I've also recently heard some counterarguments to blueprint by
the way I'm in favor of blueprint just to make that clear um and and I want to address those more dramatically because there were very valid concerns put up but I think there was a little bit of gaslighting in that you cannot
compare a school system's funding to capitalistic economics first off our current tax increases are from a tax plan passed in 2017 that is long ago and it was
designed to constantly increase our tax rate uh inflation has only made that worse so our our current tax burden and the frustrations that we have the struggles that we have that is a struggle from long ago it is not something that is recent it was not something that was
decided recently the other thing is it's really difficult to blame people for not fixing something when they're coming to you to ask for help to fix it I wor sorry that's really frustrating we
the the school district does really really good job of spending the money we had an auditor from the finance committee come up here and say such a thing so to sit here and say you're not doing it when and why haven't you done it when we're our school district is
asking us to enable them to do it is just a counterintuitive argument and a little bit of gaslighting it feels like so those are th those are just some points I really want to get out there otherwise I'm definitely in favor of blueprint I think as I said in my last
talk uh last week it is important for us to give every one of our children the opportunity to leave knowing I'm glad I had that opportunity which is something we all want thank you hi good evening everyone my name is
Ike I live in Thorton thank you for letting me speak um I'll be brief um I support the initiatives that have been discussed tonight and for anyone who has a problem uh supporting them or has any
doubts let me be blunt there's no way we have a future without investing in our children our children are not a line item in a profit and law statement period And I think that the only way to
look at this is I'm not going to be here in 40 years 50 60 years you may not be but our children will be our grandchildren will be our great-grandchildren will be so let's secure their future by investing in them today thank you good evening board
everyone my name is Christopher Jones I serve the community of northen Westminster uh Broomfield and also Thorton and North denber uh I drive for a living and I have two beautiful sons Twins and they're in two separate classes I've had a lot of varying
experiences with the education system and I'm kind of on the fence with uh the whole blueprint plan so I showed up to try to kind of find a balance here I do agree it seems like yeah it's a uh kind
of voting for your own pay raise uh I can't do that work in private sector but again some people may find offense to that and I apologize the other thing too is I've seen some of the teachers serving in the schools I've taken time off sat in the
classes I've also seen the school lunches I know everybody's got horror stories about their lunches and I've had some good ones to be honest with you so um but some of the teachers did need to leave
and they probably left on their own or they were asked to leave so take that into consideration uh you need good talent like they were saying uh I totally agree with the c CTE programs um I would like to see maybe an addition to consider and
it would be for teaching students uh how to be a judge or get involved with law we're sorely in need for that people being able to read between the lines and I think having the youth being affected by past decisions from an older
generation need to have that ability to combat that so something to consider um the other thing that I wanted to share was I had one teacher it was with one of my boys it was on my birthday
too during the social study class they were sitting there showing them how to access the North Glenn City website I thought oh wow that's really interesting why would you do that and then she said that they would go ahead and start fing
uh if you have any complaints you could go here for it so one of the examples that she used and I thought was pretty reasonable you know fill in pot potholes everybody hates potholes right yeah um and so I started taking notes because
I kind of needed to do that but then the other kids were asked the question thank you what would you do with this and the responses for the kids really showed their level of understanding of the world and I feel that some of these
programs will benefit them but also I do feel that we need to do a better job of screening our teachers there's too much at stake the scores are low and throwing money at it may not fix it but if it
could let's be critical about this thank you [Applause] okay thank you everybody for taking the time to be here to share your thoughts now it's our turn so we'll just go on
down the line and take our turns and share our thoughts to Echo what president Goldstein said thank you all for being here tonight um I'm a little nervous myself speaking in front of so so many people um we heard Arguments for and
against both the bond and the mill and I think the most important thing that stands out to me is that if this passes it is not a quick fix to everything going on not every teacher is going to get this amazing raise and make all the money in the world we're not going to
overnight change test scores and we're not going to be able to offer all the programs we want to offer but this is a step in the right direction and I hope that we continue to pass um bonds and Mills in the future to benefit our kids
someone pointed out tonight that investing in your schools is investing in your community and that is exactly right we have to invest in our kids today if we want a stronger tomorrow with that being said I'm extremely grateful for the staff the community members um that all came together to put
um their feelings and and ideas together they were extremely extreme careful and cautious and even weeded out some of the dream things they they wanted sorry North Glen High School um to make this a reasonable ask um it is not at the fault
of the school district that inflation is where it is I do believe that um if we fix these things now we can kind of get ahead of where um inflation may go I also think that we need to be mindful of our
taxpayers um with without them there isn't any school funding and it is important to be mindful that there are other ballot issues that are going to be voted on whether it's renovations to a jail or a new fire department or
improvements to the city there are other issues on the ballot so this isn't I fully am aware that this is not just one ask there's going to be a lot of asks this year and I'm saying our kids are worth it if we invest in some of these other things
um you know I think it'll better our community but without children without people being in the community it doesn't really matter so again I want to thank everybody for coming out tonight and sharing your feelings and opinions on both sides I know it was difficult I know it's late um and you guys have big
busy days so thank you again for being here tonight and I think you know I support this Bond measure and Mills wholeheartedly okay wait up director marshallon I've been called out of order sorry we have to make a motion first I
was just so excited because of all the momentum all right so I'm going to entertain a motion to adopt the resolution setting out the ballot questions authorizing the collection of additional local Revenue in the amount of $34.5 million and of issuing bonded
and Deb depthness in the amount of $830 million as presented so moved second okay now we can keep going thank you um thank you everyone for being out out tonight um I'm having a real adulting moment because I know
there's at least another uh maybe two 2005 alum in the group um I graduated from Legacy in 2005 so um it's very strange to now have kids in here because I still feel like maybe it's 2005 and I should be in high school um and not
making decisions but but uh here we are um I have a daughter in third grade um fourth grade and a son in kindergarten I had three step kiddos go through Adams 12 my mom was an Adams 12 teacher um and my sister was an Adams 12 graduate as
well I am a new board member so I can tell you for a fact that this has been a longc coming project because they were already pretty far down the road when we had to uh play ketchup so I really appreciate the uh time time the attention the detail the community input
um that they have put into this I think it's a wonderful uh ballot measure that I will be supporting um and I understand the concerns I've I've heard them I've had Public School teachers my whole life in my life so I I do understand that I
however don't think that there is anything more thankful to a taxpayer and more appropriate that we can do as a board than to put this on the ballot and put it forward to a taxpayer and ask for their opinion so I appreciate this opportunity um first of all I want to
thank all the kids who came out today um because you're the reason why we do this and it's wonderful to see you here and um thanks for being such Troopers being here probably pretty close to your bedtime so I wanted to acknowledge that the second thing I want to do
is present this in two ways there there are two things I'm going to talk about one is that um My Philosophy is that we should let the people vote right let's put this on the ballot and let's people have that let's let people have that conversation
in the public domain as far as the mill and Mill Levy override and Bongo I personally am in support of that and I'll start with a little anecdote I was the kid who received free lunch I was the kid who relied on donated school
supplies I was the kid who um thanks to the grace of meeting the right teachers who loved me and supported me um managed to become the first in my family an extensive family to earn a PhD and now I'm a taxpayer and I can pay those taxes
I grew up in subsidized housing all of this is just to show that when we invest in education on the front end our community reaps the benefits later down the road and we can't forget that the other thing that I'll say is I'm also
that magic number of $500,000 home that's my house like did you use me as a model um and I'm not a wealthy person my husband's looking for a full-time job right now and yeah the 20 extra dollars a month will be painful but I'm thinking of it in terms of our kids um and I mean
our kids I don't mean my kid because when we're paying that money every month a little bit goes to my kid but a little bit goes to your kid the issue to me is really until as Mr gdowski said the state finds a way to reliably and
adequate truly adequately fund Public Schools we're going to have to keep continuing down this pathway so if you have a problem with this pathway it's time to start talking to the state about how they fund schools because and I promise I'll step down off
my high horse in a moment um for me when we vote for things like this what we're telling the date is that your funding you aim for adequate that that's the law that's the language our kids deserve so much more than adequate and
that's what we're voting for we're voting for our children's right to a high quality education not just in education that's you know at that basic or C minus level we don't want that we want more for our kids so that's where I
stand yeah thank you everyone for being here tonight this is just amazing wonderful energy love hearing everyone's voices so I'm going to go through and share some reasons of why I support these
measures when our Educators and staff are compensated for their work and for the level and amount of work they provide our kids benefit I would wager that every person in this room had an educator that made an impact
on them or had an impact on them and even altered their path in some way I would also wager that you want the same for your kids and so let's provide
that my youngest I share this a lot but my youngest um has a visual impairment and some other developmental delays and uh I was really really anxious about him starting kindergarten
really anxious and um he's been amazing he has an amazing teacher for visually impaired who has been with him since he was
three um he's had an amazing amazing speech pathologist amazing OT other support staff that has helped him be successful entering kindergarten he has a strong kindergarten team he's going to do well he's
thriving this is one kid out of thousands with special needs who need this level of support and we need to compensate our teachers to make sure that we keep keep
we not only keep but we attract highly qualified Educators and staff that can support all of our kids with the CTE programming there's not much more I could say that hasn't already been said it's amazing we have a
strong program the district has invested so much in building this up for kids what I will add is the stories you've heard from students from staff about CTE programming imagine now that being
provided for middle schoolers and giving them the same opportunities and the same uh paths as we have are high schoolers so Thor and high the rebuild of thoron
high most know that I'm a proud Thor and high parent dor high is my heart it's my Community High School live like two blocks from it it's where my oldest has it's been her second home for the past
four years she graduate graduates in May while I've been out talking about the blueprint plan in the community I share speak a lot to parents and um community members mainly in South
Thorton and when I bring up the rebuild of thoron high their face lights up and many of them have been in that Community for generations and so what they usually always say when I
say or when I tell them that part of the bond is to rebuild R high they say good because our kids deserve it and you know what they do deserve it they deserve to attend a school that isn't falling apart they
attend to or they deserve to attend a school that the toilets flush properly they deserve to attend a school that they can walk in and be as proud of the building as they are of their
Educators and they deserve to be shown that they matter I support these measures because our current students and future students deserve it this is a district that has a reputation of providing opportunities to
former students that have led to a military career with some of some as high ranking officers including a general this is a district that has provided opportunities for former students to go into legislation including the house of repr represent or
US House of Representatives this is a district that has provided opportunities to students to work toward their certification and variety of CTE programs in which they have been able to secure strong employment and even their
and start up their own businesses this is a district that has provided newcomer students the educational opportunities they and their families have always dreamt about and as a daughter of an immigrant they have Big
Dreams including sending newcomer students to Princeton this district has become a staple in the Adams County community and in the success of our
community and the strongest probability of our community thriving is invested in our kids so as parents grandparents and community members we should want better for our kids in our
youth so let's give them better as a small business owner I pay a lot in taxes and if I could guarantee that it all went to our schools I'd pay a lot
more so this is why I'm in full support of placing these measures on the ballot I've been a member of this community for a long time I've taught some of you I taught some of Charlie's
friends I've worked with many of you I was on that side of the stanson in 2016 and 2018 and I got up there and spoke to support two measures that passed I want to see two more pass I've seen what happens when the mil
Levy override passes so in 2008 2018 the voters passed overrides classrooms got their needed resources needed resources staff got welld deserved pay increases class sizes were lowered I've seen what happens when
milley overrides do not pass classrooms lack in resources staff do not get pay raises and programs get cut with we all remember Outdoor Ed and Middle School sports being cut and class sizes grow
I've seen what happens when bonds pass I think of all the schools that have built since I started in this District because of bonds I've seen the Deferred mainenance happen um and when bonds don't get passed the buildings crumble classrooms get crowded and we have
passed several successful bonds over the years and these are all at the whim of Voters voters need to understand the importance of these elections and without their support the schools suffer our students suffer our community suffers their property values suffer
even if they don't have kids in school and a great public education is what every child has a right to so we need to do whatever it takes to make that happen so at the state level there's some big obstacles in the way of providing great public education and one
of them is the big felet word Taber so the passage of Taber was in my opinion one of the worst choices voters ever made in Colorado and with the passage of time the effects have added up and they'll continue if nothing is done and because of the BS Factor the state has
pulled back over1 billion That was supposed to go to public schools that's over $250 million in Adams 12 alone so and at the state level voters never seem to want to pass anything at the Statewide initiatives except syn taxes that are
that tax things like gambling marijuana and cigarettes to help education and preschool and and all that kind of stuff but it's up to us at the local level to offset the failure of Statewide measures with Mill Levy and bond ballot measures there have been several times over the years where we have passed a M Levy or a
bond but the state initiatives have failed so we get held hostage at the school district level by these things and you see hours and hours of debate happening at the capital uh pushing and pulling at the needs of our public educ ation system and it never seems to solve
any problems I do want to publicly shout out to the following legislators who serve constituents of Adams 12 because today they supported us in our desire to pass in the special session 24b 1001 so that we could move forward with our
resolution language um I want to thank representative Shannon bird representative William lindstad representative Jenny Wilford and representative Manny ruau I'm sorry I'm sorry that those that serve that did not support this bill did not understand what what we are up against now
hopefully it will pass the Senate be signed by the governor and take propositions 108 and 50 off the ballot those two ballot measures would be very detrimental to public education as some of you might already be listening to the staff at Adams 12 do an excellent
job of identifying needs and offering proposals of how money will be spent they have already identified the needs they prioritize and if we should move forward in a bond of Mill pass my take on all of this is to those who do not want to do what it takes to provide needed resources to our local
schools don't all our children deserve the best schools having the best schools takes adequate resources to be in buildings that are warm safe and dry and staffed with the very best Educators so people that will want to go into education so that we will have a better
choice of who we hire and for those who can afford to live in the community they serve so I am totally committed to supporting this bonded Mill and I will do um I will do my share I'll be walking doors to make sure that it gets passed so thank
you so there's been a lot shared tonight about reasons to put this on the ballot and to vote Yes I thought I might finish with addressing some of the reasons I've heard people advocate for voting no including some of the comments I've heard tonight so one of the things I sometimes hear is that if you just got
got rid of all of the highly highly paid administrators at the central office and perhaps some of the assistant principles at your secondary schools you'd have plenty of money and you wouldn't need any more from the taxpayers the reality is uh we pay a lot of attention here about how much money
we pay for administration costs uh each year unfortunately the most recent data we have from the Caro Department of Education is from 21-22 we asked them often to update it that's the most recent that we have but out of the 178 school districts in
Colorado what CD Financial transparency website says for the 2021-22 school year was that we were 172nd out of 178 school districts in terms of how much we spend on Administration in the system we're sandwiched right between Douglas County
at 171 and Jeff Co at 173 we're in the bottom eight school districts in the state in terms of how much we spend on Administration so the whole fallacy that we're spending so much money on Administration and if we just Lop everyone off we're going to fix the financial challenges and deficits we fa
face against peers is a fantasy and it's not supported by the facts second thing I often hear is that you guys are always at increasing our taxes one's enough enough and we've heard some of those themes tonight the facts are that the high water mark for
us in terms of our total school levy was back in 2014 at a hair shore of 70 Ms over the last number of years we've made small gradual reductions and then a dramatic reduction for this school year we reduced the bond Levy by 3 Ms and the
mevy override Levy by 3135 Ms so more than a 6 mil tax rate reduction for this current calendar year if this mevy override passes people will be paying about two Ms more in their tax rate than they were a year
ago you often hear the the notion that they're not going to really spend the money on what they say they're uh going to and they're not going to do everything that they've promised and the money is really going to go just to pay the administrators more money variations of those themes we now have an eight-year record of demonstrating and
proving to this community that we've spent every dollar the way that we said we were going to we have a Financial finance and audit committee that you've heard from tonight that looks at how we spend every dollar of our mevy override money and they come to the board each year and say we've spent the money in
accordance with what we told voters we would do and for the last eight years plus we've had our longrange planning and advisory committee that looks at how we spend all of our dollars on the bond and they too have attested that we've delivered everything that we've said and
in fact we went $35 million beyond that to to deliver the independence Academy facility that you've heard about tonight that will serve up to 90 students with very intense disabilities we added $4 million to add beyond what we had planned at Federal Heights the 2016 bond
to improve the outward appearance of that school to make the playground safer to add parking at that school we added more than $10 million to Bowman compared to what we had planned so that it wasn't a second class facility serving kids in CTE compared to Washington Square bottom
line is we've proven that what we say is what we do and that you can trust us to spend the money that we the way that we say that we're going to I've heard things about families being strapped and about respecting taxpayers and we've done that here there are other communities that have much greater rates
of poverty who have much higher rates of taxes and have for years in our neighboring communities westmin Westminster Public Schools for example has had more than 24 Mills for the M Levy override purpose for years and the frequently reduced lunch percentage in
that district is 84% Aurora Public Schools their mevy override amount is 22 plus and 81% of the St students in Aurora qualify for free and reduced lunch and in Adams 12 we're currently at 16 if we add eight
we're in the same place that Westminster and close to the same places Aurora have been in a community where 52% of our kids qualify for free and reduced lunch we've taken a different tack than some other places have a lot of districts
since 2020 increased their mevy override rates increased their bond rates we didn't feel like it was a right thing to do given the challenges that Co was posing to our community given really extreme inflation that was going on given that we were getting a lot of money from the federal government to
help us get through the co days but the co money is now gone the inflation's now coming down less than 3% so I would submit that we've been very respectful to our taxpayers by not asking for money at the same rates that neighboring districts have for years and we've just
waited until we can't wait any longer for that support we we've heard tonight that more money doesn't mean that you're going to have better outcomes and that can be true but it's not been true in Adams 12 since we passed our 2018 M override
that expanded Career and Technical education we've increased the number of students getting industry certifications depending on which type you're looking at from 431 in the 1819 school year to 781 last year students who are scoring a
three plus on advanced placement exams and earning college credit the number of kids getting a 3 plus back in 2010 was 42% back in 2018 it had grown to 58% and last year it was at
71% last year's graduating seniors had the highest sat composite score in the history of the school district and the graduation rate in this District uh for a number of years now is surpass the state in a district where our demographics would suggest we should be
underperforming the state most recently for the graduating class of 2023 we were at uh 86 I'm sorry I can't read my own handwriting we are 3% above the state at 86.2% and the state was at 83.1% so in
terms of results we produce them when we're invested in appropriately and then finally we've heard some things about efficiency and cutting fats and waste and looking for efficiency I've done that work I started that work my first year in
2010 when we had to cut $22 million out of our budget and then the next year we cut another $20 million out of the budget and then the next year we cut another $10 million out of the budget and a lot of those things haven't come back since and every year in budget preparation we work with our senior
cabinet and with our principles to say where can we type down where can we make reductions where can we get more efficient but as one of my law professors said at Law School best Professor I had who taught contracts and business law you can only ride that
horse so far so sometimes and we have ridden the horse of efficiency and culture as far as we can write it we now need money if we want to be in a place where we're serving our kids in our community in the way that our neighboring communities are doing
so my advocacy is please vote Yes both board and community and now the moment you've been waiting for we're going to vote director Assad Lucas strong I
director bastelli I director Goldstein I director Marsh holen I director Potter I so now it's time to hit the campaign Trail thank you everyone that came out
to share their stories and to speak their peace um we all really appreciate it I speak on behalf of everybody up here um I'm really I'm really excited about this and I I hope that my fellow board
members all get out there with me and knock on doors thank you