Recording in progress. My call is being to order at 06:01PM. Claudia, would you please call her? Yes, sir. Director Charrier? Present. Director Duncan? Present. Doctor Kiki? Present. Director Mallory? Present. Director Reinhart? Present. Director Tasker? Present. Director Tom Wing? Present. Thank you. Please join us for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the Republic of which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
I would like to welcome everyone in attendance for joining us tonight. The next item is approval of the agenda. I would like to make a motion to approve the agenda. So moved. Second. Second. It is moved and seconded. Claudia, please take row. Yes, sir. Was that director Tasker or Tom Wing? Tom Wing. Thank you. Second. Yes. Director Charlier? Yes. Director Duncan? Yes. Doctor Kiki? Yes. Director Mallory? Yes. Director Reinhart? Aye. Director Tasker? Aye. Director Tom Wingard? Aye. Thank you. Now we'll move on to our student performance.
The soaring singers from Aurora Frontier p eight under the direction of miss Sarah Mabry will perform Frosty the Snowman by Steve Nelson and Jack Rawlins arranged by Sally Albright. The students will also perform the Aurora Frontier PA Falcon song. I would like if you join me across the hall or join us across the hall in Mount Massive for the student performance. If you're sitting in the boardroom, you can come back exactly to the same seat you you're leaving. Thank you. Alright. Thank you so much. I'm Sarah Mabry. I'm the music teacher at Aurora Frontier,
and these are our soaring singers. They are after school choir made up of second, third, and fourth graders. We meet once a week, and they do a great job. We wish you a very happy holidays, and we're gonna sing frosty the snowman and our school song. When you see him, you look green. Alright. He's nice. Nice and right here. Alright. Let's give another round of applause for the amazing Thor Singers from Aurora Frontier p through eight under the direction of miss Sarah Mabry.
That was truly amazing, and go Falcons. We will now turn the meeting over to the superintendent Giles for recognizing excellence. Thank you, president Duncan. Good evening, members of the board, members of the, audience or community. This is a favorite part of the night. We get to continue talking about or exposing the great work, that we have going on in our district. So I have two individuals that I'm gonna recognize this evening. I'm gonna start with the young gentleman I had the pleasure of meeting down at CASB last week. If he's I don't see him in the room yet, but his name is Joash Mamo.
Joash, come on in. So in alignment with our board limitation number two regarding the whole child, I'm honored to recognize Columbia Middle School seventh grader, Joash Mammo. Joash earned the 2025 Colorado Association of School Boards Middle School Ribbon Blue Ribbon Award for his mixed media self portrait that blends water soluble principle, low poly digital painting, and black and white photography into one memorable masterpiece. What began as an assignment from missus Laura Wilson quickly became something personal, meaningful, and truly remarkable. Joash chose this particular self portrait
because it captures him in a moment of quiet quiet reflection while gazing out a window. And while his true passion is soccer, digital art caught his eye, especially creating in the Procreate digital art studio. Today, his award winning portrait hangs proudly in his room as a reminder that his future is as bright as his imagination. Joash, congratulations on this incredible achievement on behalf of the entire APS community. We're incredibly proud of you and can't wait to see where your curiosity and athleticism takes you. And you can see the beautiful picture up here.
Let's give Jiro Ash another round of applause. And the next individual that I recognize this evening is mister James Jen Prager. Is James in the room? There we go. Come on up, please. So in alignment with board result number two regarding graduation, I'm honored to recognize Vista Peak Preparatory construction teacher, James Jen Prager. Jim goes above and beyond to support his students and leads one of the most successful career into tech education programs in the district. Last year, his students earned 310 industry recognized credentials, the highest of any CTE program in APS.
He exemplifies what it means to be a transformative educator. His leadership is rooted in high expectations, authentic care, and a deep belief that every student can succeed. Jim has created an inclusive environment, built strong relationships that extend beyond the classroom, and provides real world learning opportunities for students. His goal moving forward is to increase the number of students earning industry recognized credentials, participating in work based learning experiences, and transitioning success into post secondary education and workforce. Jim, you are proven every day that CTE is not just a pathway, but it's a launchpad.
Our students will walk into their futures with confidence because you believe in them first. Thank you. Alright. Congratulations again to the two of you. President Duncan, I'll turn it back over to you. Thank you, superintendent Giles. The next item on our agenda is opportunity for audience. Claudia will call audience members who have signed up to speak to the board. Please remember that the board will not be responding to any comments this evening. We would also ask that you address the we will also ask that as you address the board, you state your name and limit your comments to three minutes. Claudia? Thank you,
sir. Tonight, we have 10 speakers. Our first one is Cisco Santiago. Good evening, members of the board. I'm here today to speak on behalf of the classified staff, the backbone of this district. We feel ignored, dismissed, and spoken for instead of listened to. Let's be honest about the narrative being pushed the district claims as gauging interest through a so called classified council survey. But that survey was poorly written, clearly designed to produce a specific outcome, and stripped of real qualitative input.
It asked leading question, avoided meaningful examples, and in the final report, it reduced the lived experience of the classified staff into neat statistics that conveniently supported the district position. That is not engagement. That is not transparency, and that is certainly not respect. Classified staff are not children who need decisions made for us. We are adults, professionals, workers who keep our schools running, who prepare meals, clean classrooms, support students with disabilities, manage offices, transport children safely,
and step into every day without recognition of of fair compensation. Yet when these same workers ask for the basic democratic right to choose whether they want union representation, they are met with delays, deflection, and denial. Let's be clear. No one's asking the board to force unionization. We are asking you to allow a vote. If the district truly believes classified staff don't want a union, then there should be no fear in letting them decide for themselves for ourselves. Blocking a vote only raises one question.
What are you afraid of? Or what what are you afraid the workers will say if given a real voice? You cannot claim to support equity, inclusion, and worker wellness while silencing the very people who make this district function. You cannot talk about shared decision making while controlling the outcome, and you cannot continue to undermine, trust, and expect morale to survive within our district. This moment is about more than just a union. It's about dignity.
It's about agency, and it's about whether this board stands with workers, with their workers, or stand in our way. So tonight, I urge you, stop hiding behind flawed surveys and administrative narratives. Acknowledge a classified staff union effort. Allow a fair, transparent vote, and show this community that you believe in democracy, not just when it's convenient, but when it matters. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Dennis Doherty. Thank you. Board members, thank you for letting me speak. I am Dennis Daugherty.
I'm the executive director of the Colorado AFL CIO. We represent 185 unions across the state with over 130,000 members. We are an expression of the hopes and aspirations of Colorado's workers. I also was the federal mediator, for Aurora Public Schools and AEA, for about seven years between 2010 and 2017. I also served as a federal mediator for the police and fire in the city of Aurora. So when I saw, the information that, there was not a recognition, of a union here in Aurora,
I felt compelled to come and, say a few words. Collective bargaining is a basic human right. This is recognized by the International Labour Organization and, I wholeheartedly believe classified staff are the backbone of schools. I say this as a former elementary school teacher. It's not just the jobs that are performed, it's so much more than that. It's the love, the care, the guidance, the relationships that you can't quantify that classified staff bring to the k through 12 education system. And to be clear I think everybody's undervalued in k-twelve teachers and classified staff but
what I saw from my own experience is especially classified staff. I will say this, right, the ask is simple. Let the employees decide what they want, right? That is a basic human right. That is a basic human right to come together if they want to join and form a union. Allow them to do that uninterrupted without meddling, right? If they want it they should have it. That's what I that's the aurora I know, right, from being a federal mediator and working with the teachers, working with the police, working with the fire, all of them.
Basic human rights if they want it let them come together to do it. I'm not gonna take the full three minutes. I will just say the Colorado labor movement, is keeping a watchful eye on the situation and expect you will respect the will of workers. Thank you so much. Our next speaker is Marianela Moretti. Good evening, members of the Board, superintendent and APS community. My name is Marianela Moretti, family liaison, and I work at Maraca Camilo School. I appreciate the time you have given us tonight, and I thank you and congratulations for your role,
your new role, and your reelection. Tonight, we, the people, the classified employee, have a dream. As one of our greatest leaders in our country and the world once said. We have a dream. We have a dream of a union, and this petition reflects that dream, represent by the hundreds of signs of you see in this box. More than 700 classified employees signed for this petition. Through this journey, in all these hearings and meetings,
you have listened to many of our experience in the workplace and how those experience impact in our lives, in our families, in our community. One of those histories authorities was chair for a coworker, an APS mother. She described going to the store with her daughter, an APS student from my school who asked for a jogger. And she has to wait till the next month because she can't afford a jogger.
So she has to wait. And this is our community. This is our reality for our families, for our APS students and mothers. This painful to see how many employees, friends are forced to leave their positions because their salary is not enough to feed their families or because of mistreatment. Another APS mother worked the worked in the kitchen, serving food and also drove APS van to deliver foods or meals. She was told she could not sign the union,
and she keep it quiet because CEC, they don't represent us. Tonight, we, the people, are asking for a yes in in in the country of opportunity, The United States Of America, a first world country, the country that create the first union, the country that fought for eight hours workday, the country that fought for women's rights and equal rights for people of color. We're tired to being treated as second class citizens. We want respect. We want collaboration, not confrontation. We want equity and a voice. We want to be part of APS destination.
Finally, thank you to all of you who have met members of the world with us and expressed their support. We're excited to win our rights. We're excited to win our junior, our lives, our dreams, the food of on our family's tables, and the yogurt that this kid is waiting are in your hands. Thank you so much, and please say yes. Our next speaker is Rebecca Finney. Rebecca Finney. Oh, Rebecca. Yeah. Sorry. Sorry. My name is Rebecca Finney. I wanted to introduce myself, to the new board members.
As the incumbents can attest, you will be seeing a lot of me. My goal is to return APS to being the district that does what's best for the kids. I have three sons who all graduated from Aurora Central. I started coming to board meetings almost ten years ago. That was the only means of an audience for serious concerns. I have brought news stories, academic research, legal research, and personal knowledge to no avail. I am hopeful that mister Giles can overcome the residual effects from his predecessor. Since questions
can't be answered by board members at meetings, it is difficult to discern if what I say matters to you. My family thinks I am tilting at windmills, but I will keep coming back. I have never been an employee of the district. My youngest son graduated in 2018. I have no skin in this game. There are things I that I could be doing rather than coming here. But every topic I speak about is out of concern for the children in this district. I feel like the onceler for children. When I am here,
I speak for the kids. And just as an aside, all these people who do this work in the school district, what is best for the kids is usually in alignment with the teachers and the support staff. And I just wanna say one more thing about, there are people who, under Rico Munn in the administration, their salaries literally tripled. And yet, the staff here who do the actual work, who are in the classroom, who are taking care of the buildings, who are maintaining things, they deserve to have a living wage and a voice in how things go in
the schools. Thank you. Our next speaker is Isis Casareno. Good afternoon, superintendent Giles and APS Board of Educator Directors. My name is Isis Casarano, and I am the founding senior at DSST Aurora Science and Tech. Our school is going through a charter renewal process, and I'm here to share why Aurora Science and Tech matters to me and ask you to vote to renew our charter so students like me can continue to learn and thrive. What I love most about Aurora Science and Tech is that as a part of
the founding class, we have been able to shape what our community looks like. Our small school size, we have been able to shape and create a small close knit environment, and it provides me with an opportunity which leads a growth and a growth that I have never imagined. I've joined multiple clubs and currently serve as student council president. In student council, we are able to make sure student voices are heard, shape the future of our school, and create traditions that align with our values as students. Being the founding class hasn't always been easy.
We have faced so many challenges like creating our own traditions and bridging gaps with leaders. But those challenges have turned into opportunities. Last year, we were able to advocate for off campus lunch. We went through a process of several emails and meetings with school leadership and home office. Now we have the privilege of off campus lunch for both juniors and seniors. As a leader, I've been able to create spaces where students feel comfortable speaking up and advocating for each other, and that's something I'm really proud of. One teacher who had a big impact on me is mister Cossio,
my Spanish teacher. Throughout freshman and sophomore year, mister Cossio encouraged me to join or EPH, or also known as Spanish for native speakers. Because of his support, I earned my highest AP score of a four on my AP Spanish language exam. Mister mister Cossio continues to encourage me to grow my skills every day. What sets ASC apart is our strong partnership with the Anschutz Medical Campus. This gives us access to unique classes like the biomedical sciences program, where we learn hands on skills like using microscopes and micropipettes. And we have even got to earn our CPR certification.
These experience prepare us for careers beyond the traditional paths of a doctor or a nurse. Aurora Science and Tech is a community that has shaped who I am and prepared me for my future. Approving the charter renewal means continuing to give students like me a chance to grow, lead, and succeed. Please vote to renew the charter for DSST Aurora Science and Tech so we can keep building an environment that uplifts students. Thank you for listening and for supporting our future. Our next speaker is Analia Ferguson. Good afternoon, superintendent Giles and APS board of education directors.
My name is Analia Ferguson, and I am also a senior at DSST Aurora Science and Tech. I've been a member of the AST community since sixth grade, and the school has truly changed the way I see education and myself. Before coming here, I had no interest in school at all. I struggled with anger management, asking questions, and even making friends. Today, I'm proud to say that AST has helped me turn all of that around. Now instead of staying silent in class, I feel confident asking questions. Instead of getting upset, I know I have trusted adults I can talk to. And instead of feeling alone,
I'm surrounded by a community where I always see a familiar face. One person who has made a huge impact on me is miss Downing. She's been my advisor and teacher for four years. And from day one, she's never let me fall behind. She checks in on my grades, make sure make sure I'm on track, and cares cares how I'm doing both inside and outside of the classroom. Her support has helped me maintain a four point o GPA and stay focused on my goals. What makes AST different from other schools is the sense of community. I can walk through the building knowing names of the students I've never even spoken to. It feels like home because we've built a space where everyone feels comfortable and supported.
Through some of the hardest times of my life, including my parents' divorce, the pandemic, a concussion, and personal changes, this school has been my constant. The teachers and friends I've made here have become like family, and they've helped me through every obstacle. Aurora Science and Tech has shaped me into someone who loves learning and is ready for the future. Next year, I'll be attending my dream college, and that's because AST kept its promise to prepare every student for success. Please vote yes on AST's charter renewal so students like me can continue to thrive in a community that truly cares. Thank you for being dedicated to Aurora Public School students.
Our next speaker is Uriel Muniz. Okay. Hello, APS board of education directors and superintendent Giles. My name is Yuri Antonio Muniz, and I am a proud senior at Aurora Science and Tech DSST while also being a part of the founding class, being in this school since sixth grade. I've been a part of AST since the very beginning, and I've seen firsthand how much this school has grown and how much it has invested in students like me. AST isn't just where I go to class. It is where I've learned the skills, values, and confidence that will carry me into college and beyond.
That's why I'm asking you to vote yes to our charter renewal and allow AST to keep making this kind of impact for students. What I love most about AST is how much the school supports me and prepares me for life after high school. AST has taught me how to navigate professional situations, given me the skills that will help me succeed in my future career, and prepare me for my college journey. With now with all my applications finally submitted, and I have received, I have gotten into every single college I I've applied for. Thanks to AST. At AST, I have learned the value of teamwork,
dedication, and preparation thanks to my incredible teachers and advisers. Our athletic director and basketball coach, coach Felix, taught me that the best player isn't about scoring the most points. It is about supporting your team and doing the things that matter. Miss Lopez has guided me through college and scholarship process. She was always reminding me into helping me about reminding that preparation is key when applying to life after high school because you never know what's next. But when you prepare, it things will become a lot better. And then I'd like to mention teachers like mister O'Meara and miss Thomasson,
which have been through me within all the highs and the lows throughout all my high school career. Ms. Thomason has taught me the importance of writing and understanding that knowing the past has helped will help us change the future. And Mr. O'Meara has shown me that learning science and in STEM is pretty fun and that I am current and I'm capable of learning even the hardest of subjects. At ASTI, I'm always held to the highest expectations and standards. Teachers and leaders encourage us to excel academically and personally. Being a founding class member has challenges too. Our school was still learning and growing,
and we faced challenges and new programs along the way. But AST never stopped providing resources and opportunities to ensure we had a strong education and a bright future. During my time at AST, I have seen it grow. And because of that, it has helped me grow too. This community has taught me that school is about community, growth, and pushing yourself to do hard things. These lessons stay with me long after graduation. Please vote to renew our charter renewal so that DSST, oral science and Tech can continue to serve our students. Thank you very much. Our next speaker is Lashonda Hinson.
Hello, superintendent and members of the board. I'm Shonda Henson, and I'm a paraprofessional by choice. I say that because during my time in high school, I was one of the overlooked children and didn't have that special person with me. So I vowed to follow in my mother in love's footsteps and be there for children. So this is my thirty fourth year in education. I work with children that have effective needs. So they have behavioral needs.
They may need someone to walk with them. They may have traumas in their life. When they come to school, they can't get on track. They can't focus. And so it is our job to be with them, to walk them throughout the day when they have problems or they need that extra push, or just to take a moment to take a break, someone that's going to understand them. This is my second year at Gateway High School. Before I worked at Gateway, when I moved to Colorado from Wichita, Kansas, where I was in education for over twenty four years starting in elementary all the
way to high school, I came here to GEFCO, where that district was a little different. They had a union. Well, we moved to Aurora, and I, of course, wanted to jump right back in. So I jumped back in, got into APS, and once I started, I found out there was not a union. To me, classified runs the school. Without classified, there is no classes. We are the ones that are the backbones. We are there at every turn. We know those children better than a teacher, a principal, an admin because we're there every step of the way.
The only thing that I have noticed, as a nonunion member is that our voices are not heard. There have been some incidents in Colorado we all know, has been a place where there have been several school shootings. Unfortunately, I am a parent, a victim of a murdered son, and so I don't take it lightly for things of this nature. Working with children, there have been incidents where one of our students may have looked up something he shouldn't have on a computer. And I brought that to the attention of someone.
Hey. This child is asking about some situations that happened at Evergreen High School, and he's looking at this. What should we do? They followed, a couple steps, but there was nothing done. This child still goes freely daily, and that makes us nervous because we're not exactly sure what is the need for this child. What can we do to help this child? This child is crying out. And before a situation takes place, how can we help this child? I just want you guys to think about this, and we thank you for your time.
Our next speaker is Ivan Swenson. Hello, superintendent Giles and APS Board of Education. My name is Ivan Swinsey, and I'm a senior at DSST Royal Science and Tech High School. I've been a part of ASC for four years, and during my during the that time, this school has completely changed how I see myself and my future. When I first came to AST, I struggled to fit in and adjust because of my past experience at other schools. I already attended three high schools before coming to AST, and I was not invested in my education at all,
nor did I have the support I needed. Coming to a STEM focused school with high expectations was a big shift, but it was the best decision I could've made. What I love most about my school is knowing that every day I walk in, there's at least one person I can count on and trust with my mental struggles, academic struggles, anything I need. Leaders like my basketball coach, Felix, and miss Kat and my special needs teacher, miss Cassidy, have made a huge difference in my life. Coach Felix has been there for me mentally,
personally, financially, all four years of my life, giving me advice on becoming a better person. And, yeah, miss Cassidy took on the biggest challenges of working with me even though I tried pushing her away, but testing her loyalty, her loyalty never failed. Dedication showed me that there are people who truly care about my future, and that has made the difference from my education. At AST, we are pushed and encouraged through a right righteous and inclusive curriculum. We have access to we have access to incredible opportunities that help prepare us for
college, like the Anschutz Medical Partnership. Throughout high school, I have faced challenges, but ASC helped me overcome them by providing me resources and never giving up on me. That's why this school matters, not just for me, but every student who needs someone that believes in them and pushes them to grow. Aurora Science and Tech has shown me my past doesn't define who I am and doesn't create my future. I can still achieve great things that and so I can still achieve something great.
That kind of support lives at AST, and that's why AST matters to me so much. Please vote yes in our charter renewal so this school can keep giving students the chance to return things around. Thank you. Our final speaker of this evening is Rebecca Perry. Good evening, superintendent Giles and the board. My name is Rebecca Perry, and I'm a proud second grade teacher at Vaughn Elementary, and I'm also a proud union member. Tonight, I'm making a statement on behalf of the union. We, the members of the Aurora Education Association,
stand with our education support professional colleagues in their unionization efforts. Due to their organizing efforts and the support of the union endorsed school board directors, we anticipate that they will win recognition soon. We state unequivocally that we are excited to be in solidarity with them as our union siblings. We believe in self determination. Therefore, we welcome them in whichever form they see as best for themselves, whether that is joining the AEA and creating a wall to wall union or creating
their own ESP union as a fellow affiliate of the Colorado Education Association. We know and believe that whichever path they choose, we are stronger together, and we advocate for the student learning and educator working conditions we all deserve. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you. That concludes opportunity for audience. Also, if anybody has misplaced keys, I have some with a red carabiner on them. This is me. Thank you to everyone who addressed the board this evening. You are free to stick around and watch the rest of the meeting,
or this is a be a good time to exit stage left. The board of education will be presented with the reports goal progress monitoring measure 4.2 and GAREL progress monitoring measure 4.3 based on beginning of the year 2526 data. Thank you, president Duncan. Board, as you recall, at our last, what normally would have been a study session, we would have done progress measures, but we did not because of the swearing in. So we are doing that this evening. We have two progress measures that we'll take a look at. It'll be 4.2 and then 4.3.
So as the team is coming up, Claudia, do you have the presentation? You do? Okay. Thank you. So we have the usual suspects joining us this evening. Jim Troy, Craig Loud, Dominique Jones, and Danielle Siluk will be joining us for the presentation. And so, Claudia, if you'll go to slide two for me. Again, just as a reminder, we're looking at goal progress measure 4.2. Let's go ahead to slide three because I think that captures it all. As a reminder, this particular progress measure relates to goal number four, which is which is around ninth grade equity.
And so ninth grade equity looks at the percentage of ninth grade black and Hispanic Latinx students in APS operated schools who are on grade level as measured by the PSAT. And the goal that was set was to increase from 15.8% in August 2022 to, 22% in August 2026. So that's the end game or end goal. The actual progress measure looks at the percentage of ninth grade black and Hispanic, Latinx students meeting college and career readiness benchmarks in evidence based reading and writing on the horizon practice PSAT. And the targets for that were set at,
moving from 12.5 on the 2324 midyear assessment to at least 45.6% on the 2225 the 2526 midyear assessment. Claudia, if you go to slide four for me, please. I won't go through this again. You've had time with it. But just as a reminder, this was a logic map that if we did these things on the far left, corner, then we would achieve the results that we set forth on the far right column. And so with that, I'll turn it over to the team to walk you through the data. Thank you, superintendent. On slide five,
we can start on the left hand side of this chart. And we've if we look towards the bottom, you can see we're starting with the 2324 school year. This was our performance on horizon one. The purple line represents practice test one in the beginning of the year. The teal line is practice test two, and the gold line represents the targets. So last year, in twenty twenty four-twenty five, thirty 3.4% of Black and Hispanic or Latine ninth graders met the benchmark on practice test 132.7% met the benchmark on practice test two. On the horizon test one this year,
37.4% of our ninth grade Black and Hispanic or Latinx students met the reading and writing grade level benchmark, an increase of four percentage points from last year's 33.4 at at the beginning of the year. However, we need to maintain perspective on the challenge ahead. Our target for the midyear assessment is 45.6%, which means we need approximately eight additional percentage points of improvement between Horizon Test one and Horizon Test two. Last year, we actually saw a slight decrease of 0.6 percentage points between these two assessments.
What this tells us is that we've made strong gains in getting students to the starting line, the beginning of the year performance. However, we haven't historically seen continued improvement throughout the fall semester. Next slide, please, Claudia. Breaking down the reading and writing data by race reveals important differences in our student population's performance and trajectories. For Black or African American students, we saw a one percentage point increase moving from 44 to 45. This slide is comparing beginning of year results year over year. This represents steady if modest progress and means that forty five percent of our Black ninth graders are meeting reading and writing benchmarks.
For Hispanic or Latine students, we saw more substantial movement, a five percentage point increase from 30% to 35%. This is particularly significant because Hispanic or Latine students represent a much larger proportion of our population, about sixty percent of tested students. So gains here have a substantial impact on overall district performance. I would encourage you to compare within groups rather than between groups generally, so comparing Black student gains year over year rather than comparing Black students to other groups. However, in this case, we also need to note the continuing gap between these two populations.
There's now a 10 percentage point difference in performance between our Black students and our Hispanic or Latine students in reading and writing. Non English proficient multilingual learners, NEP students, and limited English proficient multilingual learners, LEP students, are at the early stages of English language development. According to the state, multilingual learners can take six years to reach English language proficiency based on the access test and still be considered on track in their learning. Therefore, for students who are NEP and LEP, there is no expectation of meeting grade level benchmarks until they have been in program
for several years. Students can remain an LEP learner for one point five years and an LEP learner for four point five years as long as they continue to progress based on access scores. This score progression determines whether a multilingual learner is on track to developing English language proficiency over those six years. As you can see, of all ninth grade students tested, thirty four percent are NEP or LEP and forty five percent of Hispanic or Latin eighth graders are NEP or LEP students. Of Black ninth graders, fifteen percent are NEP or LEP.
The data for reading and writing shows some of our most promising results for our most vulnerable student populations. Starting on the left side of the chart, for Black and Hispanic or Latine multilingual learners or English language learners in ninth grade, we saw a remarkable 10 percentage point increase, jumping from fifteen percent to twenty five percent. This is our largest gain across any student group and suggests that our new English language development curriculum and the alignment work between ELD and core literacy instruction is beginning to pay dividends. Students with IEPs also showed strong improvement with a six percentage point increase from 12%
to 18%. This indicates that our focus on strengthening Tier one instruction while maintaining strong IEP supports is creating access for students with disabilities. Students who are eligible for free and reduced lunch, again the majority of our focus population, increased by three percentage points from thirty one percent to thirty four Percent Looking at gender, we saw increases for both male and female students: four percentage points for males from thirty three percent to thirty seven percent and five percentage points for females from thirty three percent to 38%
Disproportionality compares populations to each other and is looking at representation of different groups in each population. Starting at the top of this chart, the teal bars show the percentage of the population of tested students who comprise each group. Students of color who were 89.4% of test takers represent 80.3% of students meeting benchmarks, the purple bar beneath the teal bar. This is about a nine percentage point underrepresentation for our students of color among the
population of students scoring at or above benchmark. In a representative case, 89.4% of students tested would be students of color, and 89.4% of those students meeting benchmarks would also be students of color. The populations would near parity in representation of both populations. The breakdown by specific student groups shows different patterns. Black students are 17.1% of test takers and comprise 17.9 of students meeting benchmarks, a slight overrepresentation. But Hispanic or Latinx students,
who are 61.3% of test takers, are only 48.4% of students meeting benchmarks, a 13 percentage point underrepresentation for Hispanic or Latinx students meeting benchmarks. The gaps for students with IEPs and multilingual learners remain stark. IEP students are 12% of test takers, but only 4% of students meeting benchmarks. Multilingual learners are 20.4% of test takers, but only 5% of students meeting benchmarks. We can also see on this chart that students who are white, FEL or FEP, and students who are not multilingual learners are overrepresented among those students meeting benchmarks.
FEL and FEP are, prior multilingual learners who have been redesignated. So as we, interpret this data, some things that we believe are reasons for our improvement are, one, we've we've mentioned several times here, are we are in year two of our grade level aligned networks, which allow us to go deeper into very specific professional learning. Our network seven, which is our high school network, we can go do a deep dive in looking at the results of these assessments and what does that mean for instruction,
what does that mean for next steps for our students. Also, Network seven, our high school network as well as Network six, is in partnership with the University of Virginia, to dive deeper and be more strategic in our approach. As we mentioned earlier, Network six, which is our middle school network, is in partnership with TNTP, and we're seeing results of that partnership. Our high school educators are becoming more familiar with the practice PSAT and how to use this data and how to inform use this data and how to inform next instructional steps. We're seeing improvement over the use of StudySync since we are now have had several
years under our belts of implementing this ELA curricular resource and, as noted, we are piloting in the implementation of the new English language development curriculum to support our MLLs as as, we've seen some growth in that area. Now we notice and recognize there are still significant barriers and challenges that we need to to address. There's still disconnect, between our curriculum and PSAT practice, so we have to get very intentional in bringing the alignment to the curriculum with
the PSAT practice. And we are in first year, our eighth grade students last year took the PSAT for the very first time. So in in an effort to get more at bats, we're waiting to see, the results of some of that work. Claudia, if you go to the assessment slide, pretty straightforward and simple. The assessment is that one on one, this is baseline, data for the twenty five, '20 six year, but we're showing an improvement trend. However, I'll call your attention to the last bullet. If we're gonna reach that target of 45.6
as was stated earlier, we would need an eight point or we need an 8.2 at least percentage point improvement, between the horizon one and the horizon two. And we acknowledge that, historically, we have not seen that. Doesn't mean it can't be achieved, but we're aware of that. That's the the kind of a jump that would need to be made for us to achieve that target of 45.6. Go to the next slide, Claudia. So when we think about the strategic that work that we are doing to continue to improve ninth grade equity this year, one of the major moves we did we made at the beginning of this year was to hire a literacy specific director.
And we took the role of direct instruction or director of instruction and divided it by math and literacy to be able to focus on both of those contents really intentionally. We also have continued to prioritize the work aligned to destination APS, with a really intentional focus on tier one instruction, underneath the framework of MTSS. So, really, what that looks like is supporting, using our instructional framework to and focusing on those four key indicators and kind of aligning everything to that. So our the learning that's happening in professional learning the PLCs, the professional learning,
coaching, ops feedback meetings, our our learning walks in schools, and what the network support meetings look like. And, specifically, high school leaders are really working hard to engage in data analysis around the data, disaggregating it by student populations and really identifying action steps and strategic action steps to meet the needs of the learners that we have in front of us and specifically, multilingual learners. We also, this year, are implementing the STAR assessment three times a year to gather some more data on how students are growing and progressing, across the year and demonstrating mastery of grade level skills.
Due to our focus on tier one instruction, we know that as kids get stronger tier one instruction and master grade level skills, that should while the PSAT is different, high quality instruction will lead to more learning and, therefore, also stronger, scores on the PSAT. We are also implementing PSAT aligned writing assessments and using and doing data analysis around there to determine where we need to support students to improve their writing. We also are providing additional supports to help students demonstrate grade level skills on the PSAT SAT, knowing that questions often look different and there isn't a one to one alignment between
Colorado academic standards and what is assessed on the PSAT. And then all schools, as Craig mentioned, are participating in our partnership with UVA, and we also have three high schools that are partnering with TNTP, specifically focused on high quality instruction. So, kind of like a double dose of that. Next slide, please, Claudia. And then as part of our work with UVA, we have identified, supporting ninth graders as one of the big rocks in our work with UVA. It means that every single high school in APS are really focused on what does that ninth grade experience look like, aligned to belonging, safety,
and care, and academics so that we're monitoring how students are doing academically and also what they need behaviorally, social, emotionally to really make sure that we're supporting the whole child to be successful in ninth grade and stay on track in ninth grade. President Duncan, that concludes the report. We'll, open it up for questions. Colleagues, director Tom Lee. Thank you. A lot of work has been put into this, so thank you very much. I wanted actually that last, slide, slide 13, regarding the of a Big Rock focused, on ninth grade experience. Do we have our students,
our ninth grade students, particularly our black and Hispanic students, are they part of that? Like, how do we do we get feedback and implementation, like, to be part of that discussion? Good evening. One thing that we implemented this year just to ensure that we were receiving student voice and input around, the big rock concerning community hubs was to conduct ninth grade focus groups at each high school. So that information has recently been collated and, our operations director,
Jason Macklin, for network seven is planning on sharing that information with all high school principals together. Each individual school has received their results, so that they know what areas they can specifically grow in, but we wanna look at trends across the high school network to see what we can put in place. Gotcha. So just to confirm or clarify what you're saying, so you said that, for each of the schools, students were involved in collecting that information and feedback. Okay. Thank you. Any other question? Doctor Kiki.
Thank you. Quick question, about students' experience and belonging as well. How are we, alright. Let me see if I can put it in a better way. How are nine ninth grade success team measuring whether students feel academically academically confident and supported in ELA? And how can we correlate that with PSAT performance? So two parts of parts of that, and and part of our focus groups that, doctor Soussaint just mentioned, we're also doing empathy interviews. Some of us are part of a fellowship where we're leaning in on the ninth
grade experience and talking about academically, how prepared are you as you enter ninth grade, academically, how prepared are you in tenth grade, etcetera. We're also tracking on track, credit credit, throughout their ninth grade year. So we've asked a series of different questions. We're also looking at the data quarter by quarter to tell us where our students are at as it relates to OnTrack. Now asking the very specific question around how prepared are you for the Horizon PSAT,
that's some work we can continue to do and invest in to make sure our students are prepared for these assessments. Is it a question that we ask can I ask the second question? Is it a question we ask them directly? We ask students directly in, the survey the student survey? Not in a formal way. No. Not currently. Is there any way we could maybe capture that? They're I mean, they're the ones going through the experience. Right? I'm wondering maybe asking them the question directly. Maybe we can gather some good information around that.
We will take note of that and, yeah, see what we can do. I am not telling you how to do your job. I'm just I know better. Is AJ somewhere anywhere? Okay. No. But maybe y'all can talk to I mean, there's always opportunity to refine the questions that we ask, and I think that's what I'm you know, as you offer that and we hear that, we need to think about what opportunities do we have to refine the questions. So That could have been a better way to ask the question. Thank you, superintendent. Okay. Go ahead, ma'am. Thanks. He nodded at me earlier, so I knew I was up. So I wanna go back to slide nine if we can just so that I
make sure that as the new member, I have a clear understanding of what we're looking at here. Specifically, our areas for opportunity if we wanna exceed our goals would be Hispanic or Latino students and students with an IEP. Am I understanding that correctly? Those two groups are underrepresented amongst the population of scores that met or exceeded expectations. I think a little bit more directly to your question on slide eight, we can look across student groups and look for opportunities there.
These are the actual proficiency rates where the comparison of populations really tells us as a metric how we're doing on our equity goal because we really want to see parity between those purple bars and the blue bars on slide nine. But on slide eight or on slide six, you can see opportunities to increase those rates within student groups. But in all of these charts, our Hispanic or Latino population is struggling. Yes. So after we got these results, I guess where my question is going is what additional resources have we put towards
that population. I wanna also then go to, I think, the slide after this, please, Claudia. And just a reminder that when we're thinking about the Hispanic Latine group of students, that we also have to consider the percentages of NEP and LEP. And that note that we've had a lot of conversation about over the last couple of notes of months, there is not an expectation that our NEP and LEP students are demonstrating proficiency. And so we then have a lot of work to do around how we're making sure that they're on track. So that note that Danielle has there, that the expectation is that they're meaning they're on track towards English language proficiency.
While we know they're doing that, we also are working on supporting their academic growth and outcomes connected to standards, what's being measured inside of PSAT, SAT. So if you advance to the disproportionality slide, which I think is nine, then we have to consider for our Hispanic or Latinx students that we also have NEP and LEP students that followed in that group. And so it's two different kinds of strategies that we we would be considering for our Hispanic, Latine students who are not language learners or who have already exited program but are still not demonstrating proficiency at this point.
What's our strategy for them versus our strategy for NEP and LEP students and what we're doing to make sure that they're still working towards gaining their English acquisition. And do we have for our Hispanic or Latino student population that is not NEP and LEP, what they're at for proficiency, do we have that information? I do, but not on me. Alright. I I just think if we're gonna continue to make that distinction, then that's maybe something that we should have. Doctor Jones or doctor Solow,
can I ask you to maybe give an example? And I'd please forgive me, Boyd, if I'm I'm, making any assumptions. But I know we use parity and we use proportionality and a twine sometimes and just so that we're all clear what exactly we're talking about so we know what that data slide is telling us. Yep. So if we, hang on the first two bars at the top of this chart, the teal bar is telling us what percent of our entire tested population were students of color. And, ideally, we wanna see the entire tested population also represented among the population of students who are meeting benchmarks,
which is the purple bar. So if we have our two populations, this disproportionality is using, some of the descriptors of overrepresented and underrepresented, and we really don't wanna see an underrepresentation of any of our populations amongst the students whose scores met or exceeded expectations, those students who met grade level benchmarks. Ideally, if we were seeing parity or proportionality within our system, these two bars would be very similar. If we go down to the next two bars for black students, they are nearing parity. So the population our entire population of ninth grade black students was or tested population
had 17 17% of them who are black students, and our population of those students who met or exceeded the benchmark is also at about 17%. And we would like to see that for all of our populations because that will tell us how well we're doing in supporting student populations in similar ways to achieve similar success. Any other questions? Doctor Kiki. Thank you. In the same vein, what exactly are we doing to improve, to improve things for our students in IEP? We see consistently year after year,
they're still low in improvement. And yet, I feel like we're not really addressing solutions around how to improve their performance. I think one thing that's really important is how we're thinking about tier one instruction. High quality tier one instruction means that we're taking the curriculum and we're thinking about who is in front of me as I'm teaching them. What are their needs as individuals? So it might be a student with an IEP. What am I giving them their appropriate accommodations to make sure they can access grade level material? Am I making sure how am I doing that work?
And so the reason we have named tier one instruction as a strategy because is because it's really intentionality about how are we taking curriculum and thinking about who's in front of us and what do they need and how are we providing that. And then once we provide it, did they learn it? And if not, what are we doing about it? And that is, like, the tier one instruction cycle of teaching it and leveraging data to do that. And so that is some of the work that is we've just begun to double down on tier one instruction. That's really the reason why, because, if you're taking the curriculum and you're just teaching everybody in the same way and
not thinking about what does Craig need, what does Jen need, and our learning needs are different, we're not yet meeting the needs of kids entirely. So that is the work of the tier one instruction and the training we're really doing around lesson internalization and then disaggregating the data to see who is doing who who needs more, who needs different, and what do they need. So am I hearing you say that our teachers are receiving, PD in specific differentiation for these for these this population. Is that what Yes.
In planning for how are they meeting the needs of all students in classes. Yes. How long have we been doing that? Or is it something that we are now really focusing on? I would say this semester, we've continued to get deeper and deeper in the focus, and that is gonna be our work for for a while. Thank you. Any other questions? Superintendent Jones, you wanna move on to the next or the guardrail? Yep. Thank you, director Duncan. As the team rotates, we're gonna move over to guardrail progress measure 4.3. Alright. And, Claudia, if we'll go just go to slide three for me,
please. Just as a reminder of the particular guardrail that we're talking about is, the board directed that the superintendent may neither cause nor allow district circumstances for current or prospective students, their parents, guardians, or community members that are unsafe, undignified, disrespectful, or unnecessarily intrusive or restrictive. That's the guardrail number four itself. If you go to slide four, Claudia. The actual progress measure that we're taking a look at tonight is around the family climate and culture. So the target was at the percentage of families responding positively to questions about their perception of school climate and culture will increase from 87.6
in 2324 to 89.6 in 2526. And again, on slide five, you'll see our logic model, the inputs that should result in the target that we intended we intend to to reach. And then I'll turn it over to the team at slide six to talk to the data. Thank you, superintendent Giles. Good evening, board. As you can as, you can see here, for guardrail progress measure 4.3, we're looking at the percentage of families responding positively to questions about their perception on school climate and culture. And the data reported for guardrail progress measure,
4.3 combines the responses to three questions that, to create a composite score. And those three questions, ask parents, I feel welcomed in my child's school. The school is a safe place for my child. And my home culture and language are valued by my student's school. We received this fall, 5,315 surveys. And since it is over 1,000 respondents, we do consider it a statistically significant sample. Next slide. So, this slide shows that, on our fall survey, which is our most recent beginning of the year survey, ninety one percent of our families responded positively to that composite set of questions,
that was administered in October. This was an increase of three percentage points compared to last year's beginning of the year survey. And this currently exceeds our end of year target, which is set at 89.6. So there's a lot to celebrate here, and we'll be working to sustain that positive, perception. Next slide. This slide, gives you a picture in of what how families responded to each of these questions. So you can see here that 92 of families responded positively that they feel welcomed at their their child's school and that their home culture and language are valued by
their student's school. 89%, reported that their school is a safe place for their child. And you can see that each, question showed an increase of where we were at the, on the fall survey in 2024. Next slide. This next slide breaks this, breaks down the responses, based on race and ethnicity of the adult or parent who are, or family member who was taking the survey. And it shows that composite score again based on race. And so, you can see there was improvement in perception amongst our Hispanic, black, white, multiracial, Asian, and Native Americans all showing that increase while there was a one percentage point decline
amongst American Indian, Alaska Native respondents. Next slide. And so then when we disaggregate this further, based on multilingual learners, as well as students with IEPs, you can see here that, we're actually seeing fairly comparable responses, particularly across our multilingual students. Those who identify or identified as multilingual, and the learners and those who are not. We see, comparability between our positive response from families and then, a one percentage point discrepancy between our,
families who are responding for students who have IEPs or do not. So there's some strong work that has, been conducted this year that we believe has had a direct impact on these results. As you know, all of our schools have a focus on the schools as community hub strategy in their ninety day plan. We've also been building off of the work from school year 2425 to really support our school accountability committees as well as our parent and action committees. And we're proud that all of our schools do have SACs to engage families. We've continued to support schools with accessing interpretation and translation services.
There's been some really strong professional development for our family liaisons this year to think about what their capacity is to steward the schools' community hub strategy and really fostering that culture of belonging, safety, and care. And we've also been partnering, with schools and family liaisons as they partner with families on conducting a family focused needs and asset assessment. We're proud that almost all of our schools have conducted a family focused needs and asset assessment. Some are still scheduled for quarter three, but for the most part, all of our schools have done that. So on slide 12, you see the, superintendent's assessment.
We're proud to say that 91% of the families responded positively to the questions about climate and culture. It's a three percentage point increase from, compared from compared to the 2425 beginning of the year data. It exceeds the end of the year target, at 89.6%. Our work is to make sure that we keep, trying to create inclusive environments where our families feel like they have that sense of belonging so that we stay above that 89.6. We're actually above the 91%. So we can go to the final slide. All our stakeholders feel, a sense of belonging. And then the other strategy that we've talked a little bit about in previous meetings
is we've invested in climate and culture coordinators this year, who are working to sustain and improve the cultures of all our buildings in our, P through eighth grade buildings and middle schools, as well as piloting phone free schools, that, we talked a little bit about that we will continue to build on with that practice and implementing a comprehensive student mentoring program. President Duncan, that concludes our, presentation. We'll open it for, questions. Colleagues, any questions? Director Tomley?
Thank you again. Just one quick question. Is there a particular, reason behind not, implementing the climate and culture coordinators at the high schools, if I'm understanding this last slide correctly. Yeah. High schools are staffed a little bit differently. They have bigger robust teams, as far as they have dean of culture, dean of dean of, instruction, various deans as well as larger counseling teams. So they're they're they're because they're big comprehensive high schools, they're staffed a little bit differently. Right. So we were looking at the data and looking at the feedback that we needed
to make a strategic, budget decision and help resource our elementaries, our P eights, and our middle schools specifically because those teams aren't nearly as robust. And this role is different from the family liaisons. Is that correct? Correct. Doctor Kiki? How many climate and culture coordinators do we have now, across the district? I don't have that in front of me. It's in the mid to high thirties, but it's one at every elementary, p eight, and middle school. Okay. Also, I think it was slide slide 11.
School accountability and parent inaction committee was brought up. I'm trying to, I want here's my question. Are we now making sure that those two committees talk to our district accountability committee now? Because I know at some point we were not compliant with that. Yes. We've done some work to get, really highly engaged family members to be a part of our district accountability committee. There's some ongoing,
I think, work we can do there to make sure that we're creating stronger pipelines for families, but our team has worked with the DAC committee on that. No. Let me rephrase my question. As there are different school accountability committees in our different schools, are those talking to the DAC committee? The parent inaction committees in our different schools, are they talking to the DAC committee? That that was my question. Is it I I hear you too. I I hear the I hear your question. And and my conversation with, Jalen and team,
I think the honest answer is we had a lot of work to do to make sure every school had a SAC, and I think that's where we've gotten now. I do believe the next step is to make sure that there's a pipeline connected to the district accountability. Sure thing. So Thank you. Do I have to ask you? Yes. So you were saying that so and correct me if I'm wrong, that there is only one at every p eight in middle school, one of those c threes. Yes. The climate and culture coordinator, but this is to in addition to schools that also have a dean of students,
they have counseling teams, and that sort of thing. But, yes, one Alright. Of that position. Okay. Yeah. Because I was just wondering if there was, if you're we're looking to increase, but you're saying there is Yeah. The this individual position is designed, to build and establish and continue to, enhance the culture of the building. So we use a lot to train the trainer model. And so these climate and culture coordinators, are bringing professional learning back into their buildings. They're leading professional learning, and responding to structures and systems in order to support the climate and culture,
all in service of belonging, safety, and care, which is a big rock at every school. Right. And, I agree. Is there any support for these c threes? Absolutely. So we have training on a monthly basis. We also, bring them together by network and share practices and and best practices. We can learn from each other. We go and do site visits, at each other's schools. So there's a robust professional learning plan for this position. Okay. And then so my question is around the workload. What is being done?
Because I know that there's only one at each school, but how to to balance the workload, really? Do they get support around that? Absolutely. So it's a it's a team. So it's it's a position that works in partnership with the school administrative team, works in partnership with the counseling team, the family liaisons in the in the position. So the responsibility is a shared responsibility, and so they are in the position to help foster some of this work,
but it is a shared responsibility amongst the team at each school. Okay. Thank you. Director Reiner? Just to clarify, director Tasker asked about, middle schools and PAs. They're also in elementaries and they're working alongside the, community lay family liaisons. Right? Absolutely. Thank you. Doctor Kiki. I have a question around and thank you, sir. I have a question around student mentoring program. Can you say more about it? Yeah. So we've, we've got a few different programs, in partnership with a couple different organizations.
So we do student to student mentorship. So we've got a few different places where our high school students are going into our middle schools and mentoring. We also have adult, mentorship within the district. In fact, I just finished my onboarding last week so I could mentor, some middle school students. So we've got, a few different variations of that work and I know Jalen's team is is working as well on And who we partner with for the adult mentorship? Big Brothers and Big Sisters. And students mentoring students, is that the STAR program?
That is. Yes. And that's also in partnership proud of that program. It's a great program. Proud of it. It's a great program. Yeah. Good job. There's someality. Okay. So I already put in the questions from earlier about the heat maps and making sure that all schools are represented. Do we find that our high school families are participating in these culture and climate surveys at the same rates as our middle school and elementary schools, or, like, is it evenly spread out amongst our schools? No.
We do not there there is the reality is there is a gap with our high school family participation rates compared to our elementary and PA and middle schools. That's an ongoing area for us to focus. But we feel pretty confident that some of the work we're doing around community hubs, our family focus groups, can really help steward stronger relationships there. Sorry. This is more like a note. Is it possibly because of the way that we ask these questions? I mean, I can guess if I was a high schooler, or a mother to a high school student, it feels a little paternalistic in the way we ask them.
So would there be, like, a benefit of asking the high schoolers directly or reframing the question to acknowledge that they're a little bit further in their development? I think that's something we can definitely look into with our survey governance committee next year. Any other questions? Superintendent child I was about to say child. Superintendent child, thank you to you and your team for this presentation. Does the board agree that the reports address the board's goals? Yes. I guess I'll take here. Nods and silences is as a yes. Okay. Okay. I'll get rid of the script soon.
Is there a motion for approval of the consent agenda? So moved. Do I hear a second? Second. Claudia, please call her. Doctor Mallory and doctor Tasca. Thank you. Yes, sir. Director Cherrier? Yes. Director Duncan? Yes. Doctor Kiki? Yes. Director Mallory? Aye. Director Reinhart? Aye. Director Tasker? Aye. Director Tom Wing? Aye. Thank you. Colleagues, does anyone need a break before we move on with our agenda? Yeah. Take a Claudia, can we take a five minute break, please? Yes, sir. I would like to bring this meeting back to order
at 07:37. The next agenda item is an action item, the Horizon Uptown boundary and naming. The Horizon Uptown boundary and naming has been set as an action item for the board's consideration. I will turn it over to superintendent Giles to provide any information related to this topic. Thank you, president Duncan. This evening, we have principal Megan Ortiz, and we have one of our operational directors, Kelly Forrest, to talk to us a little bit about, the the boundary and the naming of the Horizon Horizon Uptown K 8. You guys received a presentation,
a video presentation, so they're not gonna go through all of that again. But maybe just a cute few moments on the high notes, and then they'll be available for questions. And I will tell, principal Ortiz that this better be good because you the board president's come child is coming to your school. So no pressure. But I'll turn it over to you two. Good evening, board of directors, superintendent, mister Giles Junior. We are excited to be presenting about the, naming and boundary recommendations that have been set forth to you in the presentation that you were all able to watch. We went through a wide range of stakeholder engagement to ensure that we got feedback
from a variety of stakeholders. We also followed the board policy around naming and boundaries and so tonight we're just presenting that for your final vote. After engaging with, members of the community, within the, Piccadilly 6th Avenue area and we routed to our parent advisory committee and the culture and, cadre committee at Clyde Miller. We had two names we brought forth. We're Horizon View, after the neighborhood, and then we did, identify Coal Creek, PA. Coal Creek, PA, is one of the first original schoolhouses in Aurora.
We brought that to the district leadership team, and superintendent Giles, recommend that for the new building. We would also be adopting the boundary as, the recommendation shows up on the screen as well. At the bottom of slide well, the boundary the boundary recommendation. Did we add to the previous one, or am I just not? No. Yeah. Was that what was sent to us previously? Yes. It should be the exact same. Okay. I have many, many dreams then. Maybe one of my dreams You might have seen this slide for other schools that
are coming down the pipes, but this is, the horizon one where we are looking at the current, enrollment at Clyde Miller and then projecting enrollment in this boundary area for the Horizon Uptown P eight, which, again, we're recommending as Coal Creek P eight for being that six fifty eight students in in August. Thank you. Mhmm. Any other questions? Comments? Based on that information, is there a motion on the attendance boundary and naming of the school? That's to name it. Coal Creek. Coal Creek, p eight. I make a motion to
approve the naming and the boundaries for the new school. Prongkorn. Second. Claudia, will you call Roe, please? Yes, sir. Director Cherrier? Yes. Director Duncan? Aye. Doctor Kiki? Aye. Director Mallory? Aye. Director Reinhart? Aye. Director Tasker? Aye. Director Tom Wing. Aye. Thank you. Thank you, board. Thank you. And before you two leave, I just wanna publicly recognize, principal Megan Ortiz as well as Kelly. But for the the work hard work and effort you put into this, really engaging your community all while running another school building at the same time.
Just want you to know we see you. So thank you. Thank you. Now we will be presented with the superintendent's renewal assessment and recommendation for Aurora Science and Tech High School. I'm glad for everything. Excellent. Good evening, everyone. My name is Jacob Burdett. I'm the school director at Aurora Science and Tech High School and I'm excited to share a little bit about our school. My students did a great job before I came up here, so I'll be repeating some of the information that you heard from them. If we could go to the next slide. Oh, I thought this would be my Is this the I think they're going for AST presentation first.
That's okay. That was good to make sure I wake up. Excuse me, some of my toes. And my name is Kevin Grilli. I'm the managing director who supports, Aurora Science and Tech. You're welcome. Yes. Alright. And we can move to the next slide. I am not Griselda Gurel. She was the founding director, and she is currently on leave. So that's why I'm here to present. I'm grateful to have taken over the school from Griselda who founded it three years ago, and I'm excited to continue our legacy. So we'll continue. One of the most exciting things for me about AST and what drew me to leading at this campus is that it's one of only six k through 12 campuses
in The US to sit on a medical campus. And we are the only open enrollment school that offers that opportunity to students. Next slide, please. They founded the school in 2022 as just a freshman class and we're excited to have our first senior class, four of whom you saw present at the start of this meeting. Our campus is focused on bioscience and providing those opportunities to our students. So we have some opportunities with Anschutz where they come to our campus to teach our students. And then we have opportunities where our students go to their campus to do their finals in our electives courses.
So those final two photos in this slide are our students at the Onschutz Medical Campus doing their physical therapy and occupational therapy finals in their bioscience pathway. Our student population is diverse and that's what excites me about our campus. We have a large volume of English language learners, students with disabilities, gifted and talented students, and we have a lot of diversity in our student population. That diversity then is what helps us to drive to our mission. If we could go to the next slide. At DSST, we're focused on transforming urban public education by eliminating educational inequity and preparing all students
for success in college in the twenty first century. And we do that through our core values. If we could continue on the slides. So we have six core values. I joined this network six years ago and curiosity is the one that drew me to it. That's something I see in our students every day, but we try to lead through these six core values and all of our decisions as a network and as a school. Next slide. We also recently have taken a firmer stance on educational equity. So this is our educational equity statement that we use as a network and as a campus. Next slide. And what brought me to DSST initially was our focus on the human condition.
So we believe as a network that every human being strives to be fully known and affirmed for who they are and to contribute something significant to the human story, both in our students and our staff. Next slide. All of this is then in service of our graduate profile. We know that in order to develop students, it has to go beyond the scope of academics. So we try to develop the whole child through college readiness and developing a sense of self and trying to develop those STEM skills and mindsets that will make them successful for their futures. Next slide. We have an instructional vision that centers on preparing students for a world that doesn't
exist yet. We know that the marketplace is changing for occupation and also the soft skills that kids need. So we try to focus on developing students' STEM mindsets so that they can adapt to the ever changing environment we find ourselves in. Next slide. And we couple that with a culture vision that centers on joy, equity, and belonging. We do that through our advisory programming, our partnerships with external partners, and our social emotional wellness programming. Next slide. We wanna take a minute to review some of the data. So a little bit of a highlight reel and then focus on what we're looking
to grow in in the next cycle of our charter. So starting off with our SPF data, we achieved green with 60.2% of total points. This was the highest score for any secondary APS school in 2425. We saw reading and writing growth by 1.5 points for MGP from '23 to '24. And we had reading, writing, math, and access MGP that were all green this year in our most recent SPF cycle. In terms of academic data, our last year, we had the highest reading and writing MGP among APS schools and the second highest
math MGP. That was inverted the year prior with the highest second highest reading and writing and the highest math. And while there are gaps, our AST high school students disabilities and MLL students had higher MGP than all APS and this Colorado average. The thing that I'm also proud of is that we had the fourth highest math MGP for our black students, landing us in the ninety fourth percentile in the state of Colorado. Next slide. Our attendance data, you'll see is something that we're working to continue to improve. But at the end of last year,
we did have an 87% attendance rate, which is 2% above the APS average. Next slide. And then our college success data is something I'm very excited to get. What you're seeing in front of you right now is our network average because we have our first founding class graduating this year. As a network, ninety nine percent of our students are admitted to target graduation rate schools, which means they are likely to graduate within six years, and ninety six percent are in their ideal graduation rate schools. On our campus, we do have some preliminary data that we've been collecting right
Now, our average application from seniors is to 7.2 schools. 100% of our seniors have applied to college and university, and eighty six percent have completed their FAFSA so that we can try to get them access to funding for those opportunities. Next slide. And then we conduct a family survey as a network every year. We have a net promoter score which means there was an eight or higher I believe on a Likert of 10 that they would strongly recommend our campus of a 61. We are continuing to work to grow that score, and we do that through responding to family survey feedback that we get in two
cycles each semester. Next slide. The areas that we'd like to continue to grow in are kind of bucketed on the screen for you here. We want to work on addressing growth gaps for our students. While we have seen significant improvement especially for our exceptional learners, we know that we continue to have work to do. We have a large leadership team with directors of curriculum and instruction who coach each of our teachers, and I provide development alongside network leaders for those coaches to ensure that they can do weekly lesson internalization meetings. And we've been investing pretty heavily in different curricula in different grades and spaces,
to ensure that our students have access to rigor and opportunity. We want to continue to improve our educational program by learning better and best practices for MLLs. We're trying to improve our intervention spaces like MTSS, mandatory tutoring, and our makeup day proctoring. And then we're working to improve data cycles so that teachers are responding to internal data beyond the scope of our PSAT and other interims. And then finally, like I said, while we are performing above the average in APS, we want to continue to improve attendance because we know what drives academic outcomes.
So we have an attendance team that meets weekly. Our goal is to get to 88.2 for our attendance at the end of this year. In terms of finance, our school has been doing rather well. So every year since opening, we've met our school specific budget target. This has resulted in an ending fund balance in the 2025 of $642,000. 2526 is our first year as a fully built out school and our enrollment came in higher than the network model. So we have a balanced budget and look forward to growing into the future. And then I'll end with this.
You all got to hear from four of our seniors. There are a 118 of them who have stories like that, and they inspire me every day that I'm at our campus. So we're just excited to see them move on and then to continue to serve this community. Thank you. Colleagues, questions? We can do questions now or wait until APS gives their recommendation. Okay. Thank you. Amelia, do you mind coming up to share our assessment and recommendation, please? Hello. How are you? It's great to see all of you tonight. So just for, for the process, I will go through a big,
a large overview on charter renewal, especially since we have some new directors in the in the room. It's so nice to meet you. Thank you for being here. And then I will go through the superintendent assessment on Aurora Science and Technology. And then I will do a pause and have Vanguard come up and present their presentation, and then I will follow-up with the finish of my presentation with regards to their school. So should we do questions school by school before you have Yes. Yeah. Can we do question school by school first?
Yes. And if you have and I'll do a large overview and then go through my presentation around Aurora in science and technology. And then if you wanna ask questions after that Okay. That might be the best time for that. Okay. Okay. Alright. Thank you. So the purpose of today's, presentation and charter renewals is to clarify the renewal application process with all of you and to provide an explanation and context for the two schools that we have in renewal today, Aurora Science and Technology High School and Vanguard Classical School. And we would like for the board to consider the superintendent assessment and make a
decision during this meeting, a vote on those Renewal applications. The this aligns to our vision and mission around high accountability for our charter schools and making sure that, we uphold high standards for our schools with autonomy and protecting the public interests. And this is our board policy LBD. So the board responsibility in this, we, authorizers should ensure high quality oversight with regards to all of our schools including our charter schools. The three core principles that we adhere to is maintaining high standards for schools,
upholding school autonomy for charter schools, and protecting student and public interest. So today, the board will vote at the end of all of this to make a renewal decision based on the analysis of a comprehensive body of objective evidence defined by the performance framework and charter contract. So we, these superintendent assessments come from looking at an entire body of evidence, that we have available to us and that our charter schools present to us. The board makes these decisions,
based on that, that full analysis, and on the principles of high autonomy and accountability. So our application process, our charter renewal process, our application starts in August. We start with the schools presenting and giving us, and, submitting an application. We have, individual committees review those applications. We do a comprehensive, interview with our charter schools. That that finally leads us into a final review and then here where we are today for the APS board, presentation.
So with this interview or sorry. With this renewal process, we have our charter schools do a reflection, present the evidence on past academic, organizational, and financial. And then we ask that they do some planning and really look at where they're headed in the future so that we can look at the capacity for the next term as well as analyze and, assess their past, performance. The school's performance consists of our programmatic review reports, so our site visits that we do annually, our annual performance reviews, financial audits,
school performance framework, our SPF, UIPs, and APS compliance reports for any corrective actions should there be any, and original charter application and contract We also have supplemental questions that we ask our charter schools for any areas that we may have additional questions if there were compliance issues, or information, records of performance. Then we ask those supplemental questions during the charter interview as well as during the application process. And we found that gives us a better, understanding around the capacity of our charter schools.
Our, review committees, my department really, we do the process. So we are outlining the process and and running this process for renewals. Then we have our internal, re, application review committee. And this really is our directors, our special education directors, our experts, who really are, working in the field around five zero fours, special education, multilingual learners, etcetera. And then we have our DAC, our community members, as well as our, thank you, CSAC, which is really consists of other charter,
principals who are reviewing the on the review committee as well, community members in addition to, our individual APS staff who are working in the charter schools, and they have a more intimate, understanding of our charter schools and work within those, communities. So options for charter renewal term, there's our five year maximum charter term. The school would participate in monitoring and oversight regardless of the five year term throughout the throughout its charter. The one to four year shortened charter term. The school would be subject to increased monitoring and oversight by Aurora Public Schools and
my office. And then there's the non renewal. Schools do not receive a charter and must close at the end of the current school year per our APS policy. The board has been provided with separate motions for each school and we'll go over those at the very end. So our charter renewal application assessment considerations. So Aurora Science and Technology. Thank you for being here. So this is just a little bit about AST around their academic operations and governance performance, and all of this is included in your board packets. This is just a high level,
for their academic performance over the contract of their term. You can see that they the school has been in performance for Aurora Science and Technology High School through, its entire term. The renewal considerations for academic reviewers and the body of evidence noted concerns throughout the renewal process, specifically regarding multiple compliance, requirements were missed during the term, including timely complete development of IEPs, advanced learning plans and read plans. DSST and AST high school have created an action plan,
to address the concerns moving forward. And I'll talk a little more about that. Other, considerations were the organizational performance. There were noted concerns specifically, with gaps. Again, with the AS the DSSD network systems and site level implementation at the at the site for Aurora Science and Technology. Broader organizational framework is strong, so the network is really strong, and network expectations and systems just were not consistently being, executed. However, I would add that I have been working really closely with DSST and AST this
year. They're aware of these gaps. They have been working on these gaps, and I meet with, with their leadership regularly who is monitoring their compliance and working with them on systems and structures to get those those gaps closed. And so with that, I would add that, we don't have significant concerns at this moment, as we work through the process. It's an ongoing monitoring. With regards to the performance for financial viability, the five year budget was determined viable. We don't have any financial concerns.
The review committees did not note any significant concerns. Superintendent assessment? So given the data that you saw before you, everything that Amelia, shared and then, just my coming to to know the leadership at DSST and how closely we're working in partnership with them, I do recommend a renewal of the contract, for a term of five years. So Thank you. Any questions for either myself or the school? Colleagues? Director Mallory? Mhmm. Okay. Perfect. So I wanna take a look. This is a question for DSST if we look at slide 14
of your school performance framework. Well, first of all, I wanna congratulate you on your young people who came tonight, and, I wrote some notes about the supportive community and the coaching and the teachers. And I think that says a lot when high schoolers come out on a weekday. But, I do wanna focus in on the school performance framework. It looks like in 2024, your scores were slightly higher, with approaching and then meets and then exceeds. And then this year, there were some struggles and a do not exceed or do not meet.
In my line of work, they would always say anything that's red, I'm gonna zone in on. So do you have any additional insights on what happened with the academic achievement and how are you going to kinda correct course? I'm learning how the mics work. Yes. So I actually came over to AST in February to support with academics. They had some lapse in leadership that led to some concern based on internal projections about how performance would look. We have internal measures right now, which project as green in performance for those spaces,
and we're working diligently to improve the rigor in classrooms and the alignment between that and the PSAT to move to proficiency. I think one consideration, just given my experience in different schools as their founding, is as they build out, there tends to be a dip because there's new measures that aren't accounted for in the initial SPF. So now that we have grades nine through 11, now that we have some next year, graduation data, those things might impact or create some flux in performance. But I think in terms of achievement, we're moving in the right direction and we have particular plans to support students defining
success there. Doctor Gigi. And just to add to my colleague, '25 was is a year that a lot of districts and schools have struggled to meet academic achievement. That's why we celebrated growth instead. I just wanted to point that out. And my question. It's more for Emilia. In your presentation, slide 14, can you speak more about the the concerns that were voiced throughout. Yes. And I I I believe Jacob spoke to it. There were some leadership changes,
and I think some of those pieces that led to those concerns were, leadership changeover and then not quite knowing who was holding the, the next piece that needed to be submitted or, understanding who was holding which, bucket of work, I suppose. And those, those conversations were ongoing, but this year have been really successful with, beginning to create some systems and structures to close those and then having consistent leadership. And, in my work, we've we've talked a lot about who owns which parts of the work and really
defining that so that I have a better understanding of who needs to be, reached out to, who I can direct my teams to to ensure that we're all on the same page and getting the right information. So when we say APS, we continue to monitor the school's capacity to maintain compliance. Is that what you just explained? So in addition to our regular monitoring components, I have been meeting, with Carrie Ramsey from their leadership team, and we've been meeting monthly, to go over any compliance needs. And if there's anything that is bubbling or popping up,
we are addressing it, in real time so that and with follow-up emails to ensure that nothing gets dropped and that we're all on the same page. So we do have our regular systems and structures for our site visits, our annual performance reviews, and our general our monthly benchmarks that come in. But in addition to that, I am meeting with the leadership team regularly. Thank you. Any other questions? Director Reiner? Really, just some clarification. Your current enrollment is five thirty five twenty five twenty six.
Or maybe I got lost in some of the presentation. Do you have this senior class, the kids that present, are they 26 graduates? Yes. Okay. So you've gotten to adding all the way Yes. This is our first year with seniors. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Your ESS population is 12.9, almost 13%. How many staff do you have on to serve those kids? Sorry. Could you tell me which group I just need to put the data on? With disabilities. Oh, yes. So we have, four full time case workers, one per grade level,
for our students with disabilities, and then we have a SPED admin on our leadership team who manages that team to support them to meeting their minutes. So case workers are the teachers certified licensed staff to work with them in their academic or whatever their goals are Yes. In their IEP mental health. Do you have a self contained program? No. No? Thank you. There is also mental health supports for some of those students. Sure. Sure. That's part of what that do the the four teachers. Yeah. Separate from the four. So psychologists, social worker. Yes. We have two social workers. Thank you. Other questions? So director Mallory actually took that question from me,
so I'll let you have that one tonight. I I do wanna inquire about the attendance. The attendance has dipped from 22 to 24, and I'm just wondering, like, what are the strategies that you all are using to get kids back into school, especially when, like, we as a district have a a partnership with ASTN, have ideas about other campuses coming into the district. So I just wanna make sure that we're doing our best to strengthen our partnership and we're giving our students the best academic opportunities that they have coming into APS.
Yeah. I also would like to make sure of that. So we have an attendance committee which consists of our operations team, so our front office team and my assistant principal of operations, and our culture team, which would be our deans and my ASD of op ASD of culture. They meet weekly, and we look at student attendance data in tiers. So if a student misses two consecutive days, there would be a tier one or two concern, and the advisor for that student would reach out to families to see what's happening, any supports that they need if the student is sick. Those tiers go all the way up to seven,
and students in tier seven receive home visits from my leadership team to try to create attendance plans to understand what the barriers are to coming to school. We also leverage district resources like McKinney Vento. Often, we find that our students who are experiencing the largest gaps in attendance have significant health concerns or homelessness concerns, and we try to get at the root of the issue to get them back into our campus. Do you have a daily attendance goal for the school year? Yeah. So my culture team monitors the goal.
They do that in that weekly attendance meeting, and then my ASD of culture also looks at it. Our end of year goal is 88.2, so we're always trying to move in that direction. I think right now, we're roughly 3% off from that goal for this quarter, and we started at goal in quarter one. So we're working on different incentives to bring students back to campus and revamping some MTSS supports to improve that attendance further. Thank you. Any other question? Director Reinhardt? Sorry. I meant to ask this. What's the percentage of students in attendance that are live within APS boundaries?
I do not know if I have that data. I mean, I'm sure I do have that data, but I do not have it available. Sorry. We can pull that data and make sure you get it. Is there a motion to approve the charter renewal for AST High School if we don't have any other questions? So moved. Second. A motion moved and properly second. Claudia, can you call Roe? Is the motion for five years or one to four? Let's make a motion to, move forward with the district's, recommendation of five year renewal. Thank you for that. Thank you.
And who's the first and second? Sorry. I'm the second. And Thomas. Tommy. First and doctor Tasca's second. Thank you. Director Cherrier? Aye. Director Duncan? Alright. Doctor Kiki? Aye. Director Mallory? Aye. Director Reinhart? Aye. Director Tasker? Aye. Director Tomwein? Aye. Thank you. Thank you, AST. Congratulations. Congratulations. We're gonna have Vanguard present first or Amelia? Same way. Amelia, can we can we do it the same way we did last time where the school presents and then you present? Yes. That would be perfect. This is Karen Secour
Secour. Sorry. Excuse me. Say Karen Secour, and she's the executive director for Vanguard. Can you go to the next? Thank you. Good evening, esteemed members of the Aurora Public Schools board, colleagues, and our community partners. I'm Karen Secor and I'm serving in the role of executive director for Vanguard Classical School. I stand before you with immense pride on behalf of our community. We're not here to simply request another renewal but to reaffirm, reflect, and reenergize our shared vision for a school that serves not just students but futures.
Since 2007, Vanguard Classical School has been committed to one clear mission. We're here to facilitate individual academic achievement, character development through a safe, equitable, global and content rich environment. We founded our West Campus in 2007 with the second charter granted by Aurora Public Schools. East Campus began in 2014 with the first high school graduating class in 2017 and we commit to improve academic growth and achievement for every student who chooses to attend with us.
Across our East And West Campuses, we serve over a thousand students, the majority of whom are multilingual learners, come from economically challenging backgrounds, or students with disabilities. But at Vanguard, we don't define them by their labels. We define them by their potential and prepare them for greatness through a classical education built on two thousand five hundred years of wisdom and relevance. We are governed by an independent board of directors consisting parent representatives from each campus and community members who bring broad understanding of how to support our school into the next generation. Our leadership team includes me as executive director,
our fully licensed school principal, Kira McCafferty, five assistant principals, two deans of students, and two exceptional student services coordinators working in concert across both campuses. This model was initiated in the 'twenty three, 'twenty '4 year to combat leadership turnover and the resultant loss of cross campus institutional fidelity. With the consolidated leadership team, we've been able to return to the fundamentals of success that have been in place at both campuses and to work collaboratively with the entire staff toward a common goal of delivering a superior educational product for every student.
Our student body is a reflection of Aurora, beautifully diverse, resilient, and full of promise. As the city says, the world in a city or in our case, the world in our school. Over 70% of our students are free and reduced lunch, up to 60% are English language learners, 12% are gifted and talented and up to 15% receive special education services. And yet year after year, families knock on our door with hundreds of students on our wait list at peak times. Because Vanguard's offer something rare, we offer rigor with equity,
tradition with innovation and a community where every student is known by name and nurtured with intention. While we, like all schools, face challenges during and after the pandemic, we've shown resilience and measurable growth. East and West Middle Schools outperformed APS averages in the English Language Arts on CMASS in 2025. Our access test growth for multilingual learners rose from the thirty second percentile to the fifty third percentile, a remarkable increase in just two years. Elementary gains in English language development paved the way for stronger middle school success.
Our progress learning and I Ready math implementations ensure targeted interventions, diagnostics and real time instructional improvement. And we remember the human side. Through executive functioning lessons, student connection rituals and whole child supports, our climate survey data show that students feel more prepared and connected than ever before. Looking ahead, our strategy is simple. Early literacy remains an academic cornerstone. ELD and MTSS continue to guide how we intervene, enrich and elevate every learner. Concurrent enrollment, AV pathways, workforce readiness and college prep programs empower our high school students to graduate not just
eligible but equipped for a forward moving world. We're also proud to announce that we are a full fledged member of CHASA. We've moved out of probationary status into a full fledged member. So we're growing our partnerships, strengthening governance, investing in professional development to ensure our model that brought us this far can take us even further. At Vanguard, we don't just prepare students for college, we show them the possibilities of building character. We support actively engaged citizenship, we facilitate contribution on an individual basis for each student who chooses to attend Vanguard
classical school. Similar to our twenty twenty five year renewal, the West Campus lease expires at the end of next school year. We're actively engaging in efforts to secure a long term solution for our West Campus as we remain committed to serving students in the Northwest area of Aurora. We've made a competitive offer to purchase the West Campus building and continue to work with realtors, bond brokers, lenders, and our own financial team to secure a long term solution for our West Campus just as we did in 2019 for East. We ask that you see what our families see and what our students feel and
what our data affirms. We're a school worthy of renewal because our purpose is enduring and our results are real. The aim of education according to Albert Einstein is not just knowledge of the facts, but training the mind to think. We look forward to continuing our noble endeavor together. Thank you. Thank you. Miss miss Amelia? Yes. Thank you. Perfect. Thank you. Again, thank you for participating, and letting us bring this the renewals to you today. So for Vanguard Classical School, we looked at, our reviewers looked at the academic operations,
governance, and finance for this renewal. Here are the Vanguard Classical School West Academy performance over the contract of the term. So this is the West Campus, and you can see, that as compared to APS in three through five, six through eight, and nine twelve, for both ELA and math. This is the Vanguard, classical school west academic performance over the contract of their of their time. Again, three through five all the way through. So sorry, math, for ELA and math.
This is Vanguard Classical School for the East Campus, for their academic achievement for the same grades, only they are, a have nine twelve. So the Vanguard West has k eight and then Vanguard East goes k 12. So you can see those high schoolers in this, overall performance here. While Vanguard has highlighted isolated gains, SPF data shows no meaningful advantage over APS and no upward trend in overall points.
APS analysis show, again, that, that not an upward trend overall SPF, and no statistically meaningful advantage over APS. Performance gaps in elementary math, ELA, proficiency, and subgroup outcomes, special education multilingual learners, persist well below APS averages. Performance gaps in high school, PSAT, SAT math, ELA proficiency, and subgroup outcomes, again, for special education and multilingual learners persist well below APS averages. APS will continue to monitor the school's academic capacity and compliance systems.
Vanguard classical school for CLDE. Performance, varies significantly by campus and year to year, suggesting gaps in system structures and instructional consistency. Special education and section five zero four there were significant compliance concerns for both. Both of those were noted in the twenty twenty four-twenty five school year. So for organizational, reviewers and the body of evidence indicated organizational and operational concerns throughout the renewal process. There have been significant administration,
leadership, organizational structure changes over the term of the most recent contract. There is a discrepancy of performance enrollment and student retention and compliance between the East and West campuses. Again, APS will continue to monitor the school's capacity to establish a consistent and effective leadership structure at Vanguard. Renewal, additional renewal considerations are the facilities. The Vanguard application outline plans for a new facility for the West Campus. West Campus has a current lease that will end in the conclusion of the 2627
school year. Vanguard classical school is in the process of purchasing and or leasing a new location. At this time, no contract leases or facilities have been secured. A failure to secure a facility prior to the termination of the lease would create serious concerns regarding their ability to run the West Campus, which could significantly impact operations for the entire school year. As Vanguard is currently in negotiation processes, this will be addressed, any concerns regarding the facility and securing a facility would be addressed throughout the contract,
and will be presented to the board or, sorry, contract negotiations and will be presented to you again and the board, in March, or sorry. May or June early June. So you'll have a chance to review that and see, the progress with their campus and any needs around that. Vanguard Classical School's record of performance did not reflect any significant performance related to financial viability. The five year budget was viable, and this is assuming the West Campus facilities issues are resolved and,
or amendments are made to the to account for the purchase payments. So we'll take a closer look at that. But as current financial, there weren't any concerns by the reviewers. Contract terms, three year term. Three year terms allow for two full years of CMAS access, PSATSAT, and local assessment data, given APS's more reliable, or giving us, our office, a more reliable basis for evaluating academic progress. Schools can fully, implement improvement plans.
This allows them a three year renewal would allow them to implement, plans and monitor progress and adjust academics and organizational structures with enough time to demonstrate real results. Main this three year renewal does continue, APS retains the ability to act if performance were to decline. A three year term does not limit oversight or accountability. And here is the, superintendent's assessment. Before we go to the, or I'll go through the assessment really actually, let's ask questions first.
Sorry. Let me before we go to that, I just wanted for the board, I won't be redundant because I think Amelia did a really good job on slide 26. But I will be honest with you. We had a very healthy conversation as a leadership team when we received this, presentation and assessment from from Amelia around, I won't say so much whether to renew or not, but the terms of renewal. And I just wanna double down on the data that she presented on slide 26, Got me to a place of landing on a three year, recommendation. Of course, the board determines what it's gonna be, but, I felt like that data was sufficient and as to why we would do three
years. So I just wanted to kinda put a a stamp on that that slot. Thank you. Any questions? So I had a question, primarily towards the five zero fours. Did I see that it they increased? They did indeed. And so sorry. I guess this goes into my next question. I guess that that would lead me to ask how how how in case you don't get the renewal contract with security measures, knowing that five zero fours are important, to keep the safety not only for the child,
but the staff. Mhmm. How do you see yourself overcoming that obstacle if if it presents itself if you don't get the the contract renewed at the other campus. Does that make sense? Like, if you don't asking if the West Campus were not to be able to, secure a location, how would we manage our five zero fours? I think regardless of the location, we've got a really strong, ESS coordinator at our West Campus. They're, Amelia, you can correct me but I feel like we've got really good compliance there.
We do have some increases as we've been more successful in identifying students. I just think the location will be of a limited impact. I can add just a little more context. For section five zero four, those are for our students who have identified, potential disabilities under ADA. And, if if they're if they were not to, secure a lease, for the building, we would have an opportunity and you as a board would have an opportunity to review what that actually would, would mean, whether that West Campus would close in those and that would impact all of those
students to, relocate either to another APS school or or whatnot. Yeah. Or they could potentially go to the East Campus. Any other questions, colleagues? Director Reinert? Thank you. On slide 22, there were concerns about compliance, ESS, and five zero fours. Can you talk about that a little bit? You bet. We did have some challenges in particular last year around proper identification and compliance on the ESS front. We're meeting with Emilia and her team on Friday and we're looking to put together
a plan that ensures full compliance that resulted from a change in a a staff turnover event last year that happened two days before school started, so we got caught a little behind. You mentioned, having a coordinator, ESS coordinator at each campus Yes, ma'am. And a team that works under or with alongside that coordinator? Do you have Yep. Teachers, psychologists, mental health providers We do. We have speech language. Yep. We have the whole suite. We have two social workers. We have one psychologist that shares both campuses.
We have SOPs and, again, the whole suite. Doctor Kiki. I was trying to look through the archives here In 2022, Vanguard was here for renewal. Am I correct, Camille? 2020. Is it? 2020? Yes, ma'am. I feel like last time Vanguard was here, similar. The the issues that we are discussing were the same. I, I was maybe a week into the job at that point. So I'm struggling to recall that entirely.
However, I would say that, the performance concerns that we saw, if you look at their SPF over time, has, has struggled over the last year or so, has gone down. There's other SPF. I don't know that the exact same concerns were there. What you may be recalling is that they did not have there were concerns last renewal. Sorry. I'm catching up. My brain is catching up to your question, so I apologize. During their last renewal, there was a concern around being able to secure the lease for their current West
Building. Mhmm. And so they were reviewing that, and there was a conditional renewal, that required them by a specific date to have a secured lease. And they were able to secure that lease and we were able to, have them go for their full five year renewal because they were able to demonstrate that they had a secured lease for the term of their entire contract. Secondary concern was our separation from Ability Connection Colorado, which caused some noise in the system for us as well. Got it.
Okay. I guess, Amelia, what are the concrete systems that we have in place to make sure that there are, before they come back in, let's say, we give you the renewal, we we vote yes on this renewal here, this recommendation here, three years from now, what are the systems that are in place to make sure that these concerns are taken care of for whichever board that's gonna be sitting here? Yes. So what I would say is, what we do is we have really tight oversight. So the school submits monthly benchmarks,
and we are looking at their SPF SPF data when that comes in. We're looking at their UIP and making and and where does that align to their SPF data. We're look we have site visits, and so we're doing annual site visits. You'll get you will get an annual performance review that we submit to the board, every year regarding all of our charter schools to give you an update on just where their status is and where there, where there may be any compliance issues along the way. So that's outside of the just the renewal itself. So you'll get charter school. So it's really the onus is on them with us making them aware and holding
them accountable to those pieces. But they it really is on them to make sure that they're figuring out what systems and structures are gonna do to address these concerns and and that we're aware of the concerns and that we are bringing it to their attention so that they have the opportunity to put those systems and structures that meet their community needs that will turn it around. If they were to fail, that would be where we would all come back here and, in this and it would go in front of the board or if their SPF were to go,
lower, then we have, contract language in there that says that if they are not meeting expectations, if they go into turnaround, etcetera, then we would we would act sooner than within that charter. To add to that, I really wanna take a page out of AST's book and look at having Emilia together with our leadership team monthly to make sure that we are producing those structures and concrete supports that Emilia can help guide us with so that we can be successful. Director Mallory. Thank you.
Okay. I'm gonna say I'm I'm struggling here a little bit specifically. If we look at the Aurora Public Schools, slide 21, the report that you've done that said performance gaps in math elementary math, ELA proficiency, and subgroup outcomes persist well below APS averages. That's concerning to me because I think one of the things, and I'll get to my question. I just wanna provide a little context for it, is that when we're approving of these charters, we're essentially giving the green light to our community to choose a school that they
wanna be part of. And in interpreting this, what I believe it to say is that if they choose the school, they will have below APS out outcomes for our other schools. So that being said, you said something interesting that if they fail, we will revisit that. So what exactly does that mean? Because in my understanding, this is our opportunity to do as a board to do the check. So oh, sorry. Here we are. So here you can see, for the, the growth of the term.
So you can see whether and I think this question came up earlier is were they in the same situation the last time they were up for renewal? So this is for the term of their renewal, and you can see their SPF, dipped in '22, '23, and it has gone up for, Vanguard Charter School East to some degree. Where there, when I say below, you can see, three grades three five, 44, whereas APS is 47%. Their middle school, is 52%,
whereas APS is 51%. So the school is not in turnaround based on this data, current. Right? Even though we are seeing significant concerns both with their elementary school and their high school, according to this data. And if we could go to the next graph as well. So here is, the West Campus. Again, you'll see where because they're a k eight, so high school isn't applicable here. But you can see West Campus is at 40%, whereas APS is at 47%.
And then and four three five. And then again, that's for ELA. And then math also 30% versus 50%. So, again, with their current data, when you look at six eight, that is keeping them out of turnaround and they're in priority performance. So in our contract, if they were to dip another level, we would be following a similar process where if they become turnaround, then that we have a clause in our charter schools that says we can we can close them. Go to Duncan.
May I? There are a lot of students in my communities that go into that school. What we are looking at here, no matter how we call it, it's bad. Let's just not sugarcoat it. It's bad. There are families who barely speak English and trust this school to educate their kids, to make sure that those kids get the education that they need to be able to be successful here in America, in Aurora. I know plenty. I'm gonna ask the question again. What are the concrete VAC systems
in place to make sure that when they come here, if I was to vote yes, I don't even know if I am, in place to make sure that when you come back here, these numbers are different. Again, our our goal is to meet with Amelia monthly. Are there any board member here with you? I want to hear from them. Again, our goal is to be able to meet with AMELIA monthly and demonstrate consistency and performance that allows our families to get the education that you correctly indicate that they deserve.
And you know, one of our challenges has been that relative to Aurora Public Schools, we have 70% free and reduced lunch where APS has 55%. We have 60% ELLs, English Language Learners, where APS has 40% at large. So we're working with a population where growth is the key for us. We can't build academic achievement until we build English language learning and until we build those foundational toolkits.
I've got folks sitting back here. I'm looking for Zach and the team and we're doing daily push ins with our teachers so that we're concerned about making sure that we're providing that English language foundation so so they can be successful across the board. We're running practice testing across the grades to make sure our kids understand how to take a test on a laptop when they haven't necessarily done that before. So we're working on those fundamentals to make sure that we're building the right tools
to be able to help them be successful. Thank you. I want to hear from the board member that's here. What are they doing as leadership to ensure that there is accountability? We meet monthly as a board to make to hold this school accountable. I have been with Vanguard for fourteen years, and I can tell you, I have a fourth grader who started at Vanguard East in kindergarten and her fellow student who came from Columbia, who did not speak a word of English and would cry daily out of frustration
because he couldn't understand what was going on around him, by the next year, this child was speaking English and was happy. And I can't I'm a parent. I have no pedagogy whatsoever, but I can tell you these children are thriving and they feel valued. And the instruction is there because our staff cares about these kids individually. And I can only share with you what I've physically seen with these children who are growing every year. And a child like Miller who came in speaking zero English and is now thriving
in fourth grade, he he is on the, the high honor roll almost every month. I mean, it's amazing to see the difference. What we are doing as a board is we are holding our staff and our our our principals specifically accountable for these kids growing every year. This does look sketchy, but I can tell you these kids are growing and striving, like, thriving in our community, and it feels like a family. Like, we care about these kids. Director We we know these kids and we care about them and the staff that we
have here, they know all these kids individually. It's a family. And I will say that one of our challenges is that we don't get any noise dampening from having large, large groups taking the test at one time. If APS is running 10,000 kids through the testing system, we're running maybe 30. And so if you look at the 2223 year for, Vanguard West, we were in a high performance status that year. We had a challenging group the year after and it cost us dearly because again
you swing 30 kids into a different group, it's not a cohort test, and we can show those big swings because we're only talking about 30 or 40 kids. But again, we're working as hard as we know how to work and again one of the things I'm looking at now is to bring Amelia in every single month to make sure that we're getting that accountability with her, to make sure that she's comfortable, that we're doing everything we can do, and we can speak to that, doctor Kiki. Oh, that's fine. It's alright. What? Thank you. Yes, ma'am. I just wanna say and acknowledge that there are staff members here in the audience.
And I want us to ensure that how we ask questions is being done in a way that is gonna help them leave and be better. Not saying that it isn't, but I don't want you all to come up to the mic and feel like you're being put on the spot. As an administrator who is currently working in a turnaround school, some of these questions are difficult to sit and answer. Sometimes the data that you see presented at board meetings don't necessarily depict the true story that's happening within those buildings. But the questions my colleagues are asking are valid questions.
Like, we have to ensure that the students of APS are going into whether it's a traditional building or a charter building and getting the academic supports that they need. And right now, clearly, my colleagues aren't seeing what they need to see to feel confident in you all moving forward. So to doctor Kiki's point, I would really like to know as someone who's currently working in a turnaround situation. I'm not saying you're in a turnaround. Clearly, you're not in turnaround. But the systems that are in place are important. And I hear doctor Kiki really asking what are those systems that are in place to ensure that when you come back in three years of granted this recommendation,
like, that you're not gonna be in the same situation. Because I don't wanna see our students in the same situation, and I don't wanna see you all in the same situation. But I also don't want us to renew your contract for three years just to continue this cycle of students declining and not growing. So I'm gonna bring, mister Lewis and, miss King up to talk a little bit about that. Mister Lewis, is our assistant principal at the elementary school at East, and miss King is our assistant principal one of our two assistant principals at our West Campus.
Thank you. And to echo what my colleague just said, I am the most favorable of charter schools because a lot of kids in my community go to charter schools for good reasons. But I I I can't sit here and accept underperforming charter schools as well as much as I am a cheerleader for charter schools because I know what they can do in a community, I am also the worst critic.
That's more than fair. Thank you. Good evening, board and, superintendent Giles. Those are very valid questions. I'm thirty years in administration, and this is the first year that I've not been in, turnaround. My whole career has been turnaround, and those questions are fairly valid. So I wanna speak on two things that we have in place to address, some of your concerns. The first thing is, our EOD department has grown. And the one thing that we've noticed, last year from our ACCESS data is that our reading and writing scores, they were not growing. They were not growing. So we had the conversation with our ELD coordinator in the back.
What can we do moving forward for this year? This is my second year there. We doubled down on our ELD program. So our students get two ELD, dedicated, classes. And then the rest of the students that are not in ELD, they have an enrichment class. So that's one of the things I can speak on as it relates to our English language learners. The second thing is, our administrative team has built a very strong MTSS tier one, two, and three, protocols. One of the Tier one is we've identified instructional things that we want to see
across the board and we have weekly walk throughs as it relates to those things. And we, the team, in our building, we debrief on Fridays to identify what our next steps are for the following week. Our Tier two is our Intervention. We have an Intervention Block and we have a dedicated, Data Wise protocol that we use between both campuses. Morgan is trained in the DataWise process as well as I am and that's the DataWise protocol that we use as it relates to making our decisions based on data.
Our Tier three is monthly NTSS, Tier three meetings for the students that are not meeting the protocol as it relates to our Tier two. And we have some very crucial conversations as it relates to one, the data, qualitative and quantitative, making sure that we're providing the supports for those students. Also, particularly at the elementary level, we've implemented wide scope small group work throughout our elementary school. And part of that, we've partnered with AmeriCorps, Reading Corps, and Math Corps, to support students on a one on one and small group basis.
Our gifted and talented coordinator is also an incredible educator who helps us to support teachers in their small group work, throughout the day, with some dedicated additional educators including paraprofessionals. We have dedicated small group work small groups running, in every grade level throughout the day within those enter intervention blocks and also in reading and math blocks. And I do wanna mention, as it was mentioned earlier in, earlier meeting is for our ELD population, we're trying to get them to the point to where we're having them the opportunity
to progress through their learning development. And with that said, as it was mentioned earlier, holding them accountable for the state standards is a little hard when we're making sure they're progressing through those, learning language development and getting them to the point to where they are proficient, so where we can definitely monitor their growth and their achievement as it relates to the state standards. Thank you. Director Mallory? Again, my question is for Emilia. So in your recommendation, it says three year terms allow two full years of CMASS, etcetera,
giving APS a more reliable basis for evaluating academic process. I think, my colleagues have and myself have expressed some very real concerns. I do wanna acknowledge that you guys are taking on some of our tougher populations, our underserved populations, and that's a big undertaking. It's also for me, I view that as, like, it's even more critical that we get it right. So if we were to only extend for a year so that we could have this conversation in a year,
is there meaningful data we could not get the amount of meaningful data in that year to see whether these processes are put in place? Yes and no. Right? We continue to monitor, and we continue to look at, academic data across the board. So if we gave them a one year renewal, the way that our process, we would not have SPF data. That's that's my concern. Yeah. And if we don't have SPF data, it's hard to know whether it's, significant meaningful,
impact. Right? So, because our renewal process starts, really around August 1, in August, that's when we start getting ready for their they're putting together their application. It's submitted to us in the fall, and then we're reviewing it. And then in December, right, so they would have from and they would have submitted already their application to get us to this point by December, in, October. So there isn't, so we would start this process next August if they had only one year renewal.
And so that would be challenging to look at the academic data and see meaningful progress, I guess, is my concern. Okay. And I'm not against three years. I'm just as a new board member, I'm also trying to explore because I guess one of my hesitancies is three years is a long time. Mhmm. And let's say I'm rooting for you. I truly am. I'm rooting for you, and I'm rooting for your school. But let's say that the systems that they put in place don't work and we do this three year extension, then, theoretically, we could lose three more years of progress and fail three more years of students,
which is where my internal struggle is, is two years enough to get SPF data? So two years would give us one year of SPF data by the time they went into renewal. The other thing to consider let me look for Brandon. The other thing to consider is we we can, collaborate on building some milestones in their current contract around demonstrating some academic progress that we can monitor along the way that, that could give us some,
leverage with them around making sure that we're having, a more rigorous lens on that. That that comes through the contracting negotiation process, and we would work with the school to figure out what are the the right data points to be progress monitoring academically and otherwise to ensure that we're having some different kind of critical conversations, might be another way to address that if we were to stick with a three year renewal. That doesn't, we we wouldn't have that in front of you now,
but you would have a chance to see that Okay. And to review that in, May. Okay. Director Reiner. Thank you. Your CLDE department, I've been working with your I don't think I've your ELL population is what percentage? Somebody said it. 50%. Okay. So how many across campuses, how many CLDE licensed personnel are serving those students? At the, East Campus we have two CLDE licensed personnel. East Campus we have one person who is in the final application play and then
we have a new CLDE certified teacher beginning on, July or January 1 due to fifth due to some staff turnover that we had. Okay. And are all of your staff who who are and I'm gonna go on, say your all of your staff are involved in academics. Mhmm. What training do they get to help serve the CLDE population? You guys can both go. So once a month, we have PDs, and as administrative team, we meet to decide what our PD is going to be representative
of. In our past, two PDs, we focused on, language objectives. Feel free to help me. We focused on language objectives, making sure that our teachers are in line with the expectations, the WEDA expectations. We've also provided what was the last training? Sorry. Board superintendent. Nice to meet you all. So, yeah, my name is Zach Caudle. I'm the CLD coordinator for the East Campus. So in the last couple of PDs, we've done content language objectives, which is a form of lesson planning. We've also done differentiation practices as well. And then, we're all we've also done a lot of,
work on, thinking messages, a form of graphic organizers that we use, that just creates, like, a universal language for the students so that it's transportable between classes. And then, ongoing, I'm in classrooms pretty much every day, all the time. I'm trying to coach teachers on how to differentiate for their English language learners because we have so many. So I end up being in pretty much every space because there's always half of the room is an English language learner population. Right. You might have already said this. Dedicated time for language ELD learners, second language learners
every day, are they consistently getting an instruction in developing their English language? Yes, ma'am. So, currently, we do forty minutes a day for our, elementary school students. We do, forty seven minutes for our middle school and fifty three minutes for our high school. That's four days a week. And then we also have created, advisories for, high school newcomers and middle school newcomers as well as, intervention times, for our, newcomers in the elementary school is one of our big, focuses. So they get a double depth during the day, and we're seeing a good amount of growth from accelerated growth from them as well.
Thank you. I applaud all the what I'm hearing about small groups, interventions, because surely there's a lot to target specifically. You mentioned testing and you said the number of 30 to 40 kids testing, what only 30 to 40 kids or what testing? You said we might have 10,000 kids and yours is 30. So in the, elementary school In the elementary school at at West, we peak out at 50 kids per grade. So if a if a child doesn't test for one reason or another,
again, we just have, not a whole lot of kids so we have a lot of noise in our data. That's a smaller Yes, just because it's a smaller population. Thank you very much. And we don't consolidate East and West scores. Right. West has one set of scores, East has one set of scores. So East would have larger scores. Yeah, depending on the grade. We try to have, our goal is always to have, 75 kids per grade. Mhmm. We don't always meet that goal. Okay. And I think, Amelia, this one might be more for you. You talked about the three year, authorization,
and it states in here that there are mechanisms that APS could step in and say this does this didn't meet this, and something more significant could happen at that point before the three year charter is Yes. So if they were to move into, turnaround or drop, then they would, we do have a clause, that it is a breach of contract if they drop into turnaround for any all of our charter schools. That's in all of our contracts. With a three year renewal, the piece that, again, I think, may be helpful to consider is to have some critical benchmarks in what you all
would want to see, in that charter contract that we would be, that that we would draft and and put in front of you, to have a closer monitoring and set expectations for the school around academic progress and what they would need to to show. Right? We don't make unilateral conditions anymore with any charter school. However, we do negotiate with our our charter schools around, some benchmarks that we need to see in order to, for the board, right,
to feel comfortable providing that renewal and what are the consequences, should they not meet those terms or not meet those, conditions. And if this three year authorization is approved now, then we would see that we develop? Make yes. We would do we would be working between now and May to put in front of you a, charter contract that would, mutually, right, that we would work on together to make sure that we had some more critical academic benchmarks on what the school would need to be submitting to us,
what frequency, what we would want to see, in those pieces to see that turnaround. And I don't know if, Brandon, you have anything additional you would add. Okay. Director Charlier? I think, director Reinhardt actually asked the question that I was I was going to ask if we voted yes, on it, when we would be able to change the verbiage in the contract? Is it during the three years or after the three years before the next renewal? So the if you were to vote on a three year renewal today,
that would set the terms, and then we would go into contract negotiations with the school between now and May, and you would have your eyes on that contract and what those benchmarks we would be asking of the school to submit to us. And that would be in front of you for a board vote in May. And at that point in time might be where where we we could, adjust some language if needed. But that really would be around what what do we wanna see and how would we address that, with our staff and expectations. Director Mallard.
And I don't know if this is a question for our legal counsel, but do we lose because you said this has to be a mutually agreed upon contract. So do we lose if we vote for this three years, do we lose our leverage? I I guess I I'm not fully seeing how exactly this is going to work. Good evening. I'm Brandon here at District Legal Counsel for those of you who are new. One of our standard, contracts it is going to be mutually agreed, but one of the standard provisions that we fight really hard for that is in most, if not all of our contracts, is a provision that if you go into turnaround or priority improvement and you do
not increase your performance level in the next year, that is an automatic breach of contract and that would start the process. I can tell you based on the current data and appeal to the state board would be much stronger under that scenario than the current scenario with the application. And to add to that, we very much want to do the very best for our kids so we would not put ourselves in the position of fighting whatever the board and the district view to be the best practice. So it's our job to comply with best practices. It's our job to produce the very best educational product we can.
It's our job to continually improve and so we're not in any way interested in failure. We're interested in providing evidence of success. We're interested in providing ongoing improvement. So we're, it feels like to me that we're aligned with the goals that you're asking for. Any other questions? Thank you. Is there a motion to approve the charter renewal or accept the superintendent's let me go back. Is there a motion to accept the superintendent's recommendation or another motion for Vanguard classical
charter school? So move. Gotta make the specific motion to accept the superintendents. It's you just made the motion, so I said to move. I said I said to. Is there one So there so is are we accepting the superintendent's recommendation, or are we making a separate recommendation from what the superintendent already doing? Okay. I'm gonna make the motion to move forward with the superintendent recommendation of three years. Second. Motion moved and properly second. Claudia, can you call Roe, please?
Yes, sir. Director Cherrier? Yes. Director Duncan? Aye. Doctor Kiki? Aye. Director Mallory? Aye. Director Reinhart? Aye. Director Tasker? Aye. Director Tomlin? I'll be recusing myself from the voting. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Con congratulations. Congratulations. We appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you. As a part of the process to open up the new PA sixth Avenue two way dual language magnet school. Oh, that's long. The board of education will be presented with and actually consider the district leadership team
and superintendent school name and recommendation, which were developed by the respective community of students, parents, community members, staff, and school administrator. This item will be on the January 13, Virginia seeking agenda, excuse me, seeking director approval. Alright. Thank you very much. We are excited to be in front of you, as this exciting next step is the naming of our two way dual language elementary school that will open up in the fall. So with that, we've already sent the video presentation.
So, what we'd like to do is highlight a couple slides and then we can go back and answer questions, and go from there. But so we're going to start. Claudia, will you go to slide 12? And we'll jump straight to the meat of the presentation. Hello. Good evening. So through our engagement process with the design team, and we presented three names, out of a list of candidates that were also presented by the design team and the community. So the three names, for the community's consideration was Berry Benavides, Rodolfo Corky Gonzales, and Margarita Barela.
Berry Benavides was an activist in Colorado, cheerleader for dual, you know, bilingual education. Rudolfo, was, Corky Gonzales was a bilingual poet, a boxer, among other many other things. Actually, they both, Berri and Corky Gonzales, collaborated on many, civil rights movements. Margarita Barela was another, community activist. We're not able to find a picture, but it was also, you know, for consideration. Alright. And I'm gonna I'm gonna pause this just for a sec because I would be remiss if I didn't, introduce this team who has done some significant work. So I apologize for not starting with that,
but I'll have Jenny introduce herself. Hi. My name is Jenny Tan. I'm the instructional director for Network two and in charge of the opening of dual language. My name is Annabeth Ruffell, principal of the bilingual school. My name is Kelly Forrest. I'm the operations director that's supporting the opening of the dual language school. So, Claudia, if you will go to slide 17. So after a robust community engagement process, we wanna put the recommendation in front of you all and give a little context of why this is the recommendation. So we are,
very excited and proud to, you know, bring in among, you know, like Craig said, the community voted number one. 65% of them were parents who voted for this, for Betty. Like we said, she was, she honor a Latina, very true sorry. Leadership in not only in America, but also Colorado. She was through leadership. We were able to get her congressional record. She served in Congress, from nineteen nineteen seventy to 1974. She author and endorsed the first,
bilingual education bill in Colorado, specifically in the public schools in the area. And, also, I was, you know, lucky enough to connect with her children who were honored and humbled to hear about this potential, you know, opportunity. Nothing has been named after Betty, after everything she you know, what she represents in Colorado and for, you know, education in our state. So they were very honored and, very excited about this this opportunity. Alright. So with that, we will pause and open it up for questions. Colleagues. Director Mallory. I just wanna congratulate your team.
I think the history and the naming convention is so special, and I really believe in this vision and the impact it's gonna have on the school. So no question, but congratulations. Other questions? Well, thank you for the quick presentation. Thank you. Yep. Next, we have the annual comprehensive financial report for the fiscal year ended 06/30/2025. Colorado revised statutes requires an annual financial audit of all district funds. Plant and Moran has performed the required audit of the district's funds and component units
for the fiscal year ended 06/30/2025. The board will be provided with the annual comprehensive financial report, from Plante and Maria. Take it away. Good evening, board of directors. Brett Johnson, CFO, COO. I just wanted to do a quick introduction of of what we're looking at. You know, oftentimes, our staff is managing three fiscal years at once, the prior year, managing the current year, and looking forward to the next year. This document and presentation represents kind of a culmination of our prior fiscal year.
By statute, we are required to hire a third party auditor to present to the board, its findings and results to make sure that we are we are dotting in the right decimals and adding up correctly and and doing our processes with Fidelity. Plant Moran is is that auditor, and Jamie will be presenting. This process starts really in June as we look towards financial close for our team. So it is a long process to get through this,
and we really appreciate working in concert with Plant Moran. And, with that, I'll I'll let third party auditor take it from here. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me with you here today. We are very grateful for the partnership, to serve as your independent auditing firm. My name is Jamie Essenmacher. I do serve as the lead engagement partner on the audit. I am joined today in the back of the room with two of my engagement team members, Q Park and Canyon Combs. I do just wanna also extend before I get started a special thank you to
Mary Cooper, Lisa Boilers, and Brett Johnson for all their hard work through the audit process. So kicking off a few key audit highlights here, starting with the financial statement audit, Plant Moran did issue an unmodified audit opinion, I which represents a clean audit. This is the highest level of an opinion that we can provide. It is essentially what you've hired Plant Moran to do. The audit was performed on-site with the team primarily in July and then back through the month of September and a little bit in October.
The report was issued in November, and there were no findings related to internal control or compliance reported within the financial statement audit. In regards to the financial state in in regards to the federal compliance audit, the federal programs tested were the student financial aid cluster and the district's title one program. The district received approximately $66,000,000 in federal funds in the current year. I did want to highlight a couple comments as it relates to the federal compliance audit. Plant Moran's audit deliverables were due to the Board slightly before Thanksgiving.
And at this time, the federal compliance supplement had not yet been released. The final compliance supplement was released on 11/25/2025. Plante Moran has been working with, district's district management and leadership to finalize the single audit, and the expectation is that the single audit will be issued before December 31 or shortly after the new year and will be provided to the board once it is final. It is currently in draft form as we work for the final compliance supplement and
any changes that it had. In regards to the federal programs tested, we for title one, there were no issues identified and an unmodified clean opinion was presented. In relation to the student financial aid cluster, which operates out of the Pickens Technical College, several control and compliance issues were identified throughout the audit process, which resulted in findings and has had an impact on the opinion. The district has taken ownership and responded quickly with corrective action plans, many of which are already underway. The corrective action plans and those identified as responsible for those plans will be included
in the final report provided to the board. So I'll pause there for any questions before I go over the required communications, related to the financial statement audit and some financial highlights. Any questions? Next slide, please. In moving to some awards and acknowledgements, related to the district. So a couple of things I wanted to highlight here. In relation to, what we call the GFOA award, the district will be going for its forty first consecutive year in relation to, the GFOA award. This stands for the government GFOA stands for the Government Finance Officers Association of the
United States and Canada. It's, the award represents the certificate of achievement for excellence in financial reporting. An additional award that the district has received for now what will be the seventh consecutive year relates, is from the Association of School Business Officials International, also known as the ASBO award. Both of these awards require extensive time and technical skills to create financial reports that meet an extensive criteria in both awards year over year, and it is a great accomplishment for the district to be proud of.
So I just wanted to take a moment to highlight that forty one years is a really long time to have. So in turning to the next slide, I'll start going through the required communication. In terms of the plan, scope, and timing of the audit that was conducted in accordance with the timeline that was originally communicated in person with the board president on June 30, a letter summarizing that discussion was additionally electronically distributed to the board for review. All significant policies of the district are described in note one of the financial statements. Additionally,
in the current year, as described in note one, the district did adopt a new GASB, accounting statement called one zero one related to some compensated absences. There was not a significant impact on the district's financial statements, but under accounting standards, we are required to disclose this within our communication. There were no significant transactions that have been recognized in a different period that which the transactions occurred. When we take a look at the significant accounting estimates on the district's books, they relate to the PERA pension liability as well as the OPEB liability.
This represents the district's proportionate share of those liabilities. This these liabilities are recorded on the government wide financial statements. They're not recorded within the fund level statements, so they're not recorded in the statements that you use to operate on the on the day to day basis. For the, pension plan, that liability at June 30 was approximately $812,000,000 and approximately $14,400,000 for the for the OPEB liability. And in relation to the disclosures, they all are all neutral, consistent, and clear with the accounting standards.
And moving to the next slide. A lot of no's here on this slide, which is all good things to see. There were no difficulties encountered in performing the audit. No audit adjustments. No unrecorded audit adjustments were identified. We did have one small past disclosure as it relates to the presentation of the foundation within the financial statements. This is a presentation item only, not a control item identified. It was consistent with the prior year and deemed not significant to the financial statements or the presentation and discussed with management. There were no disagreements with material weaknesses or significant deficiencies identified. And moving to the next slide,
again, no issues identified, no management consultations with other independent accountants. We did date our report November 14 and no fraud or illegal acts were identified. In moving to the final slide on the required communication, again reiterating we did issue a clean opinion on the financial statements. The financial statements are the responsibility of management, and district leadership here takes that responsibility very seriously. Plant plant Plant Moran is responsible for rendering an opinion on the audited financial statements, and we did complete the audit in accordance with generally accepting accepted auditing standards,
within The United States Of America. And moving to some financial statement highlights. For the remaining part of the presentation, we are gonna focus on the general fund, which is the district's main operating fund. But if there are any other questions on any other funds or parts of the report, you know, feel free to let me let me know. So starting with the asset, the assets here, the district ended the year with approximately a $135,200,000 in assets. This is a slight decrease from the prior year of approximately 7,000,000. Of those assets, approximately 109,000,000
of the assets were, in in cash and investments. The remaining part related to accounts receivable, some, interim funds related to transfers with in amounts due to other funds within the district, and the remaining portion is related to prepaids. Moving to the liabilities, the total at June 30 is approximately 38,300,000.0, down about 2.4% or about $950,000 from the prior year. A significant portion of that liability, about 75% of that is related to the accrued compensation, which is primarily the teacher's salaries and benefits,
accrued for those summer months at June 30. Also included within those amount, within that liability amount is the accounts payable as well as the compensated absences. The amount there that's called deferred inflows of resources represents deferred property tax revenue, which relates to the timing issue of when the district receives their property taxes as well as some, amounts related to leases payable. And then the final final amount there related to fund balance, which for the general fund ended the year at approximately 90,000,000,
with a decrease of about 6.7 in the million in the current year. We're gonna take a further look at this fund balance here in a couple slides. And moving to the next slide, focusing here on the general fund revenue and other financing sources. So here, this compares revenue by source, key sources, between the current year and the prior year. So in looking at this, your total revenue is up approximately 6.7% from the prior year. The biggest source of the general fund revenue, as you can see, is in the property and specific ownership taxes,
which is up in the current year, as well as the state aid revenue, which is from your equalization payments as well as grant as well as your grants. The other revenue includes your charges for service, your building rental income, some net investment earnings, and some other small miscellaneous revenue. I did just wanna note here as well that the federal revenue depicted here does not include the bulk of that federal revenue in the 66,000,000 I shared with you earlier, which is accounted for within the grants fund, and a different fund within the district's financial statements.
And moving to the next slide, this slide here compares expenditures by key categories within the general fund between the current year and prior year. So with when we when we generally see an an increase in revenue, we also see that increase happen in your expenditures. So expenditures are up approximately 8.1% from the prior year, which is consistent with the expectations. As you can see here, our transfers out your transfers out are up a little bit. Transfers out in the current year included a transfer to your capital reserve funds as
well as a transfer to your nonmajor funds. There were no other significant swings in your expenditure categories as a percentage when you look at the total from the prior year to the current year, so fairly consistent from year to year in in those categories. And moving to the next slide, this graphic shows the general fund balance over the past five years. In the past three years, you can see, consistency, which is really what we'd like to see here. The general fund did have a slight decrease here of 6,700,000.0 to end the year at approximately 89,800,000.0,
so decrease of approximately 6.9%. Again, that increase is is really being driven from the from the transfers as well with some increased expenses related to transportation cost and some, increases in in instructional expenses as well. And moving to the last slide here, this slide takes a look at, the fund balance to the net position reconciliation. So if we take a look at that, the graphic that starts with the fund level total. So, really, this takes a look at the fund balance of the district's individual funds.
So what you all use to to manage the funds on the day to day operations, taking a look at the capital project funds, which is your building fund and your capital reserve fund, as well as that new bond redemption fund that's now on there, and then the nonmajor funds, which include your athletic fund, your Medicaid fund, the Pickens fund, and the Pupil Activities Fund. So that really takes and makes up the total district's funds of the $831,000,000 And then when we move over to what we call the government wide total, this takes up what we call through a a series of accounting,
transactions, what we call GASB 34 entries and adds in, the long term liabilities and including that pension obligation, long term debt, the district's compensated absences as well as capital assets to end with, the government wide total of net position at year end, which is the, a negative 69, 500,000.0 million dollars. And so what I typically describe to people when I look at this is basically when you look at the fund level, that's how you manage your day to day. And when you move over to the government wide level,
it's, like, kind of taking it to that commercial entity level where you're kinda moving it into that, where you're adding all that long term debt in those in those more longer term liabilities. And then the categories of net investments and, the net investment categories at the bottom, I just did just wanna take a minute to, walk through those because I think at times they can be a little bit confusing. The categories of net investment and capital assets, restricted and unrestricted, are really driven by accounting standards, and the district does perform a calculation to determine how those are categorized and is classified at year end in that calculation.
And the detail of that is found within note five of the financial statements. So I know I went through that rather quickly. Just wanna be mindful of your time. Happy to answer any questions that you might have, at this time. Thank you. Colleagues, questions? Hearing none, thank you for the presentation. Thank you. We are moving into board work slash open dialogue. Does any of do any of you have any open dialogue topics to discuss, talk about? Director Tomley. Yeah. I just wanna talk about a little bit about,
some, reflection on the CASB conference. I think one of the things that and I know every sort of every year we think about this, but really being maybe bringing it up more to the forefront, was a reminder, hearing from our students. I know we've started the student district council, which has been amazing, And we we had an option to speak to a few of them, during the conference as well. And so just be be more intentional about creating a space for them and bringing them into the conversation, with you know, especially when we have, like, all these engagement listening sessions, making sure we're partnering with them and other organizations across our community,
specifically around, bringing in our student and youth voices. And then even have that possibility, and I don't know what this would look like, but, one of the districts had a student, cabinet, which build a relationship, lays all with the board themselves. So just being creative around that. Right? I think it's something we can definitely work on. Yeah. They're they're amazing. They're bright. They're brilliant. I I don't have to say this. I know you all all know are aware of this already about our students, but, yeah, creating that space for them to to be part of our conversations, on a more regular and strategic intentional way. And to To ask her.
Thank you. And adding on to director Tom Wing's, what she was saying about this, student leadership. And I think that it really opens up opportunities and resources for students. For instance, at CASB, I went to the empowering student voices, session. And one of the things they talked about is a possibility of gaining, high school credit, and as being a part of a student advisory committee or a student board member. And I think in any way, we can support our students in excelling in their educational career.
We should take that opportunity. I also attended one of the keynote events, which is talking about, you know, having a nontraditional school school. For instance, they want to he was encouraging to support environments where, students and staff can thrive, and I think that's something valuable that should just be looked into. Thank you. Director Reinert? In that same vein, if you will, I had written myself a note earlier tonight to ask if on our next agenda we could have some information shared about whatever youth leadership,
youth councils have been started that are being discussed, just to get the specifics because you had mentioned at one point something on youth violence as well. Absolutely. And I won't I won't I'll save it for a broader report, but, yes, we do have, students demand action, which is in the process of we have a few students. We're trying to get more students into that, and I've been talking with doctor Kiki about that for some time. And then we have the district's, student leadership council into which, Jamin was just and listening to what you would offer, and we're looking at how can we, get those students concurrent enrollment,
for participating in that. And then there are other things across the district, but I'll give a better report at a future date. Doctor Kiki. I'm really super excited about student demand action. This is something that we've been working on for almost a year, superintendent and I. So I can't wait to see the baby be born here soon. Director Mallory. Alright. I will echo, what director Tom Wang said. I also went to the student, leadership one of the student leadership breakouts where Durango presented on the fact that they
have five board members, and then they have five student advisers, I guess, student board members, that don't have a legal vote, but they have, say, an input. Then it also occurred to me that we have seven members and seven high schools, so that might be an area of opportunity, for us in the future for the board to be thinking of. I also attended the session about cell phones in schools and the impact it's having on our children, and I took a lot away from that about how we improve academic achievement through limiting technology.
And then lastly, I do have my own town hall tomorrow. If you have things you wanna come talk to me about, I will be off of 6th And 225 Kitty Corner from, the McDonald's at the Masonic Cultural Center from six to seven. I plan on speaking about the things that I took away from CASB, the things that I learned, and then we'll have, representative Mandy Lindsey, who represents Northwest Aurora in the state house, talk about her legislative agenda and followed by the Colorado Working Families Party will give
their legislative agenda and priorities. And my goal I sent this to my colleagues, but my goal is to have these ongoing listening sessions, on a quarterly basis. So find me, and I'm open to hearing from students, parents, and other community members. Thank you for that. Just so it's on record, when board members are hosting individual events, they do not speak for the entire board. We speak as one. There has been a lot of conversations around the unionization of our classified employees.
We will have that on the agenda for our business meeting in January. I just wanted that to go on record as well, because I know people are wondering. So we just have to have that conversation. So any other comments for open dialogue? Superintendent Johnson? One yeah. A couple of things. First of all, I really enjoyed the time that we had down in CASB. A lot of the learning, a lot of the conversations, and then just to socialize and, and getting to know one another as a board. The other thing that I want to just remind, we have our new board members, orientation this Friday. It'll be from eight to twelve,
so we'll have a chance to come to get together. You'll get to meet the rest of the district leadership team, and then we'll do a tour of the district so you can see the landscape, and ask questions as we ride along. And then the last thing I just wanna highlight because tonight's, conversations or presentations were heavily steeped around student outcomes and performance. And I share with the board that, you know, each year, we have an opportunity to appeal to the state for them to, reconsider our school performance ratings, and we submitted five. And all five of them got approved, which is a great feat. And I really wanna celebrate Lansing Elementary School because they got moved into performance rating,
and they haven't been there for over sixteen years. And so that's huge. So I just wanted to say that publicly as we think about student outcomes. Thank you. I guess we'll go ahead. Go ahead. You you basically said what I was going to, speak about, which which was the, coming together for the classified. So thank you. I just wanted to say thank you for that. Next is board monitoring. Director Duncan took track of time tonight. Kiki doctor Kiki didn't fire me, so I figured I'll have this job and that one. So, we spent two two two hours and forty one minutes
on board monitoring. The next regularly scheduled board of education meeting will be held on January 6. Wow. 01/06/2026. Is there a motion to adjourn? So moved. Second. Claudia, please call Roe. Yes, sir. Director Duncan? Aye. Oh. I'm sorry. Director Cherrier? I was about to say sorry. Fault. Director Duncan? Aye. Doctor Kiki? Aye. Director Mallory? Aye. Director Reinhart? Aye. Director Tasker? Aye. Director Tom Wing? Aye. Thank you. Thank you. We are adjourned at 09:39.