Mics are hot. I call this meeting to order at 6PM. Claudia, will you take a role, please? Yes, sir. Director Sherry Yeh, will be joining us shortly. Director Duncan? Present. Doctor Kiki, I understand, will be joining us shortly as well. Director Mallory? Present. Director Reinhart? Present. Director Tasker? Present. Director Tom Wing? Present. Thank you. Please join us for the pledge of allegiance. Well, the next item is approval of the agenda. I would like to make a motion to approve the agenda. Do I have a second? Second. Director Tomine second.
Claudia, will you call road, please? Yes, sir. Director Duncan? Aye. Director Mallory? Aye. Director Reinhart? Aye. Director Tasker? Aye. Director Tomoy? Aye. Thank you. Next will be our student performance. We will now turn it over for Lansing Elementary students under the direction of music teacher Anna Barossi, who will perform become yourself by Vicki Tucker Courtney. Are we over at Mount Massive? If you all can join us over at Mount Massive it's Mount Massive. Right? When you come back, you can take the seat you're sitting in right now.
Alright. Alright. Thank you. Let's Alright. Thank you. Let's give it up another applause for Lansing Elementary. Thank you, Vicki. Thank you, Vicki, Tucker, Courtney. That was a wonderful performance. And I invite you all to go with us to go to the boardroom. Thank you. Give it up for our student performers again, please. Now I'll pass it to superintendent Giles for recognizing excellence. Thank you, president Duncan, members of the board, members of the audience. Again, we will continue with some recognition of the excellence around our district.
I wanna start with honoree Elodie Jackson and Diego Armendariz. Would y'all come up? So in alignment with board limitation number two regarding the whole child, I'm proud to honor Charles Burrell, visual and performing arts junior Elodie Jackson, and Aurora Central School junior Diego Armendariz Miguel for earning a spot in the prestigious twenty twenty six Colorado All State Choir. Yeah. Congratulations to Diego for making the All State Mixed Choir and Elodie who made the All State Treble Choir. Both performed in the All State Honor Choir Festival at the Beul Theater and truly
shined during the final show. Thousands of students from across the state face the demanding audition process judged by highly respected experts, yet only a small percentage advanced. Students were required to showcase exceptional musicianship and singing skills from high quality solos to singing acapella from a variety of, starting pitches, tone recall exercises, and much more. They even had the sight sing, one rhythmic sight reading exercise, and two melodic sight reading exercises in different key signatures. Elodie and Diego,
the dedication and heart you have for your craft is inspiring. Earning one of the highest honors in high school choir is no small feat, and we can't wait to see where your talent takes you next. Congratulations. Alright. Let's give him a round of applause again. Alright. And the next recognition goes to a group of individuals. I'm gonna call up mister Curtis Quigg, Angelique Green, Maureen Davenport, Shaniqua Brown, Adam Gelman, and Jennifer Burgess. I can see. Thank you. Alright. So in alignment with board result number two regarding graduation, I'm proud to honor Aurora Central High School principal Curtis Quigg and his extraordinary leadership
team. These barrier breakers, courage, belief, and relentless love for their students have rewritten what is possible for this school. In partnership with students, families, and the community, they lifted Aurora Central to an improvement state performance rating for the first time in more than fifteen years. Let's give them a round for that. This newly earned status represents a truly significant and praiseworthy celebration. Curtis and his team worked tirelessly to ensure every student is engaged in succeeding at school. This year, the Trojans earned 48.2 per points out of a 100 on the state performance framework,
renewing hope across their campus. While this achievement marks a significant step forward, they remain focused on strengthening instruction, supporting student growth, and building meaningful family partnerships to reach the next improvement milestone. Curtis, Angelique, Maureen, Shaniqua, Adam, and Jennifer, this achievement is proof of what happens when leaders are relentless. Because of you, Aurora Central is no longer defined by where it has been, but by the future, its students know is now possible. Again, congratulations. Alright. Let's give the Aurora Central team one more round of applause. And president Duncan, before I turn it over,
I just wanna take a quick moment to recognize this Black History Month as the hundredth year anniversary of what was originally called Negro History Week. So today and every day, I think it's important to acknowledge the many contributions of all people of the African diaspora. One such individual, who I'd like to call the name into this space tonight, is the late reverend doctor Jesse Jackson, who we lost last night. Yeah. Jesse was a pioneer, a leader, a champion for justice, and one of our greatest contributors to our American democracy. We mourn the loss while we celebrate all that he gave to this country and
the world abroad. So, again, let's celebrate his and the many contributions of Africans and African Americans this month and throughout the year. And with that, I'll turn it back over to you, president. Yeah. Thank you for that, superintendent Giles. I that's news to me. I didn't I didn't know that. Jesse Jackson was a member of the greatest fraternity on Earth. Black History Month, Negro History Achievement Week was started by Carter g Woodson, which is also a member of the greatest fraternity on Earth. So I just wanted to take time to say that
and tag that line. So, next opportunity for audience, I 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 board. When you address the board, you state your name and limit your comments to three minutes. First up, miss Nadine Schoffner. Is there a timer? Okay. Good evening. I am going to speak into the Green Book Initiative this evening. If that language is new to anyone here on the board, I invite you to sit in your negligence because we have been communicating about some
issues through the Green Book Initiative for several weeks now. For those who are onlooking, I'm gonna add some context for the community. In 1936, Victor Green produced the first motor green book for Negro motorists to understand where they could go dorm, dine, and entertain without the danger of lynching or the humiliation of Jim Crow laws. Our organization has taken that concept, and we have layered that over education to ensure that we can start assessing what
schools and governance bodies are safe for our black students, families, community, and staff. The green book initiative has been activated in the city of Aurora through Aurora Public Schools. There have been a couple of schools that have come through. When the green book initiative first was presented, it was under the Edna and John Moseley community. And we received pushback because we were told that it seemed scary, or it seemed like it was an attack. Our organization is an entry point for families and your school community to come in
and to express when there is psychological trauma or harm that is being that is happening inside of the building. This recent case was through Vista Peak Preparatory. We have done an extensive empathic listening series for that school community, both current and previous, and we have provided you with a findings and recommendations report. The reason I'm coming here tonight is because the silence of the board and the superintendent is very loud. When we reached out to you and when we do this work, we extend an invitation for you to be a participant in this process.
Not to on look, not to give room for the school to do more harm, which is exactly what they've done. And you all have been silent. And I'm sure that you rationalize that through decorum or some type of charter that you leverage. I'm here to tell you that there is no rule, logic, or theory that should posture you as a bystander. You are elected, and you have an obligation to activate when there are problems. That is what you were elected to do. And if you decide to remain silent and on the sideline when our children are
harmed, we will ensure that that's the story that is written for you. Ase. Next up is Adelise Montoya. Hi. My name is Adelise, a paraprofessional at Aurora Highlands, and I probably worked in the district for seven years. Thank you for passing our policy as written that we submitted on August 19. I also wanna thank AEA for welcoming and advocating for classified staff throughout the process of building our union. When we win our union, my first bargaining priorities will be work safety and work overload. I've experienced how ESPs are often asked to take on more than what is outlined
in their job description. We show up every day for students, and we deserve safe work conditions that are reasonable workloads so that we do our jobs effectively. I also want to highlight that the NEA ESP Bill of Rights, which is a national effort to ensure fair compensation, workloads, respect, and voice of educational professionals. This work has helped move legislations forward across the nation. Here in Colorado, the ESP council is working to create a bill of rights to formally recognize the classified staff as ESPs and to protect the right of the state level.
ESPs are essential to our jobs and to schools and recognize the value that it's important to step forward. I hope to see you guys all at the bargaining table and that we can work together to create a strong contract to help staff and students. Thank you for your time. Next up, Maria Cimento. To begin, my name is Che Caster and I am translating for Miss Simmental. Hello, my name is Miss Maria Simmental. I work in the kitchen at Rangeview High School. I am very excited to be here today because the school board is getting ready
to, adopt our union policy. I am ready to start negotiating. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Next up, Emma Hernandez. Ready? Okay. Good evening, board members. My name is Emma Hernandez. For more than twenty years, I have proudly served the rural public schools as a family liaison. Building bridges between our schools, our communities and families, staff and students. Tonight, I stand before you not just as an employee, but as someone who has experienced firsthand white classified staff desperately needing union recognition. In January,
I was called to what I was told would be a one on one check-in with my supervisor. When I arrived, four administrators were waiting for me. I asked directly, is there anything I should be concerned about regarding my job? I was told no. Yet, after that meeting, I was subject to a new punitive requirements not applied to any other family liaison in this district. On February 9, my daughter Yesenia, that's sitting behind me, was violently assaulted at work twice by a student.
She lost consciousness. No administrator called me or my daughter. No one checked on checked up on her or her well-being or her welfare or well-being. The very next day, February 10, I was pressured I was presented with a letter of reprimand. My supervisor tried to have me signed it without reading it, handing the pages hiding the pages behind the signature line. When I refused to sign under intimidation, feeling pressured, I was told I couldn't leave until I signed.
I left anyways. That evening, I received a text message by my administrator I had resigned. I never resigned. I said I was leaving for the day. The day after my daughter was assaulted with no support from administration. Board members, do you know what could have happened and what could have changed every single one of these moments? A union. With union recognition, I would have had representation in that administrative meeting. I would I would have had someone to advocate when punitive requirements were imposed only on me.
I would have had protection against being coerced to sign documents when my employee falsely claimed I resigned rather than face accountability. Classified staff are sorry. Classified staff are the backbone of this district. We are the family liaisons connecting you to the community. We are the secretaries who keep schools running. We are the paraprofessionals that advocate for our students. We need a union.
District members, we really need a union. Thank you. Next up is Cheryl Carter. Hello. I have several letters from parents, but I'm gonna try and at least get through one. Let's see. I'm here today, because of the ongoing issues of Vista Peak, preparatory and and that have not been addressed effectively. Parents and students have continued to feel overlooked, dismissed, and, in some cases, undermined. There has also been troubling incidents, unfounded allegations, negative and verbal responses concerning, what has brought forward what has been brought forward. We're seeking accountability, transparency, and solutions,
and this is a letter from one parent. I don't know if I'll get to the other one. I'm a parent who's deeply concerned about my daughter's safety, and this is in reference to the the cheerleading coach. I'm I'm deeply concerned about my daughter's safety, well-being, and lack of communication surrounding several serious incidents. What has been the most troubling is not, is not only what occurred, but the absence of timeliness, acknowledgement, transparency, and follow-up from the school. Given the seriousness of the incidents and the emotional and physical impact that they have had on my daughter, I expect proactive, outreach and clear communication regarding the school's review process.
Instead, I have had to seek, information on myself without receiving clarity about the actions. I'm trying to get to this. Let's see. Specifically, there have been statements made by the coach that the the kids are that they're not good enough. Sorry. I'm trying to get through all of this. Children have been well, HIPAA violations have been, violated. Let's see. Medical let's see. Medical conditions with another minor is is deeply concerning. They're not taking serious, incidences. They're not taking serious medical situations seriously. They're saying that they they have a medical that they have allergic reaction to something.
They're telling the students that they don't have that. They're not following the district policy. Sorry. I'm trying to get through this. But we're mainly concerned about the way that the children and and I've and I've sent this to to some board members and to superintendent in regards to all the things that are going on there. And it's it's so you have the opportunity to look at it. We'll make sure that it's shared, but we're really concerned that this is an ongoing pattern. It hasn't been addressed. The girls are humiliated. They're told that they're not good enough. Telling the girls they have medical, which is documented,
that they have mental health issues. Six girls have had concussions this year. One has had a spinal injury, so that tells me that their the coach isn't prepared to coach. But just the verbal abuse that, the students have to endure, This has been circulated. It's out there. No one seems to do anything. The principal's made aware of it and and they continue to hide the true issues. So we're asking for accountability and that you you deal with it because we won't stop here. We go to whatever strength unless we need to. Thank you. Next up is Derek Price.
Hello. Good evening. My name is Derek Lucy Price. I come to you as a librarian, media assistant, and credit recovery specialist at Gateway, an educator, a parent, a scholar, a born and raised Coloradan from right here in Aurora, and as someone who understands what institutions feel like from both the inside and the underside. I am here tonight because recognizing a Classified Workers Union in Aurora Public Schools is not some abstract vote for me. It is a decision that affects my life,
my livelihood, my child, our students, our children, and our futures. I grew up understanding that schools are not neutral spaces. They are ecosystems of power. Whose voices get heard? Who absorbs stress? Who carries the burden of invisible labor? Who is expected to just make it work? We are here as a collective of classified workers, the people who hold the nervous system of a school together, the pairs who sit with the kids in meltdown when no one else can or
even wants to, the custodians who outwork the hours of the sun itself, the nutrition staff who sustain our thousands of unique bodies and tastes as a district, the bus drivers that safely transport our kids to school every single day. The office staff who translate our native tongues, triage endlessly updating demands, and provide stable order to chaos. In Aurora Public Schools, where many students are working class, immigrants, multilingual, so too are our classified staff members.
We carry cultural knowledge, community trust, and oftentimes economic precarity. When the lowest paid workers in an institution ask for collective voice with the right to strike, it is not a threat. It is a sign of care. It means we want to stay. It means we believe that this system can be better. Union recognition is not about creating conflict. It is creating structure for conflicts to heal rather than lead to turnover and quiet resentment. We want to trust you enough to negotiate with you openly.
As someone who studied media and power at UC Berkeley and who has lived inside inequities since birth, I know that institutions don't become more stable until voices previously unheard become not just integrated but integral to the process. If we want students to believe in democracy, especially in this political climate, they need to see it practiced and not just pretend to read about it in their civics textbooks. They need to bear witness to how healthy adults relate to each other and lift
each other up and celebrate our differences with dignity. Recognizing a classified workers union and voting on measures as written is a practice of integrity and is a recognition of the sacred divinity in everyone here tonight and so many more too tired and worn down to come out, and some still working right now at this very moment to keep our schools running. Wind workers, our respective That's best your time. Thank you. Students feel it. Thank you. Thank you. Next up is Sherry Bright. Good evening, president,
board, board members, and superintendent Giles. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. My name is Sherry Bright. I am a retired teacher of twenty years in APS, seventeen years at Kitten Elementary School, and my last three at Lynn Knoll. Over my career, I have seen reforms come and go. What has never changed has been student success depends not only on what happens in the classroom, but on the supports and opportunities surrounding students. Across Colorado, too many students grow up in opportunity deserts, communities where academic, wellness,
and enrichment supports are unavailable, unequal in quality. These deserts are not caused by a lack of talent or effort. They are the result of policy decisions and system misalignment. Some students face proficiency deserts with limited access to mental health services, tutoring, and enrichment. Others experience education deserts where access to high quality schools and consistent learning supports, especially beyond the school day, is uneven. Where college advising, career exposure, and experiential learning are out of reach.
These challenges are not new. What is new is our understanding that they are connected and that addressing them requires coordination across systems. When students are healthy and supported, they are ready to learn. When they attend great schools, they succeed. And when they are exposed to college and career pathways, they are prepared for life beyond graduation. School boards play critical roles in shaping these conditions. The choices you make today will affect students long after we leave this work. I urge you to engage families, educators, and students as partners, align education with health,
housing, and workforce systems, invest in learning beyond the school day, remove barriers that create opportunity deserts, and support HB 20 six-ten 55, the MyColorado Card, expanding access to cultural arts, recreational, and extracurricular opportunities for students in grades six through 12. After a career in education and still finding joy in serving students and their families in Denver, I ask you to support this bill. I can say with confidence when we remove barriers and expand access,
students rise to the occasion. Thank you for your leadership and continued commitment to Colorado students. Thank you. Next up is Brielle Erde. Hope I pronounced that correctly. Hello. Hi, everybody. I'm Brielle Erde. I work at APS Avenues as the art teacher, and I'm speaking on behalf of the staff. At Avenues is one of the AEA Association representatives, and avenues might sound familiar to you as you've received a flurry of emails, from staff with concerns regarding the alternative education campus proposal to turn our program into a school.
So to begin with, I need to give you all a heartfelt thank you. Without your intervention and direct support, we would not have reclaimed the job security that we did, and that is straight up thanks to you. So thank you very much for that. That's what an educator friendly union endorsed board looks like, and this is what it feels like to truly be supported. Another win coming up is some members of the initial task force are coming to our campus tomorrow to speak to staff directly and answer our questions. We hope we continue to receive this level of transparency and cooperation moving forward and
we strongly believe we should have received this kind of engagement and involvement from the administrative task force from the start. We are stakeholders in our community. We love working at avenues and have worked hard to build a supportive and inclusive culture for our students there. So in that regard, my following statements are a mixture of my own feelings and some other staff as well. In the recent draft of the proposal, it appears that we're to lose our middle school online teaching team. Although I have some major concerns with how this situation was handled, like the lack of communication with our middle school families who still don't know that
they don't have us as an option next year. My larger concern has to deal with our dwindling dwindling enrollment numbers. APS currently serves one of the largest concentrations of immigrant, refugee, and migrant populations in all of Colorado. We are seeing a devastating hit to our enrollment numbers this year and potentially next year. And I think it has everything to do with the loss of protections and changes to immigration policy. This federal administration continues to increase the violence towards citizens and non citizens alike. And so, I'm asking that APS considers increasing our online options at this time,
not decreasing them. And I know online school is not ideal for every student or every family. However, providing options for families right now is imperative. So I'm asking for the board to find funding to maintain or increase our online options at Avenues and increase the marketing for these programs so that we don't run the risk of losing more teachers in the future. So I wanna thank you for your time and thank you again for everything you've done for Avenue so far and what I hope you plan to do for all students in the future regardless where they come from. And please, to show your continued support for our workers,
please vote yes on the recognition resolution tonight. Thank you. Next up, doctor Asse Ali. For the past twenty five years, I have shared students with APS. I have an organization. I have been active for black and brown children for twenty five years. I come from a family, and, also, president has I've been able to contribute to him, and I am honored and proud of him being on this board. So I very much just wanna say that to you, president Duncan. So I am here on behalf of families from Vista Peak.
I am a dance dancer of twenty five twenty eight years. Don't age me. And, part of what I have always done was performing arts education. I have shared APS students for all of these years because of it. They have been in my program, and I share alumni with Vista Peak as well. To see how the culture of this school has dwindled is heartbreaking. To know that this cheerleading coach in particular is one, probably not following CHASFA, probably not doing things that are by the law,
violating HIPAA, violating FERPA. And I am here because so many families are coming to me as a community advocate that often I am who they come to in in conjunction with Medea and in conjunction with even miss Cheryl, who you just heard as a grandmother. She is also a very active community member who has also been a mentor of mine. So I am here for the board to please take into consideration. From my understanding, there has been, awareness of this problem at Vista peak for at least a year. And when we have students that are suffering from concussions,
as a coach, that is letting me know that there are not measures being placed properly. As an educator, I am very disappointed in the administration, building schools myself across this country. I'm very disheartened at what and how the principal, the administration, and clearly covering up what these harms are for these black young girls who just wanna cheer. That's all they wanna do. We have one of these young ladies who have even got accepted into the prestigious Howard University. So we know that these students are here to be student athletes and operate in
excellence. This is not a student problem. This is not a parent problem. This is a school problem, and we are coming to the board for some real accountability. The findings, the research, the empathetic interviews that have been conducted, please take into consideration why there hasn't been a response. I am, very disappointed to hear that as well. So I am here on behalf of community. I'm here as a board member of the epitome of black excellence in partnership in conjunction with Madine as well as all of the families who are here to say they are tired of their students being ignored,
and they are tired of the voices of the parents not being supported. Thank you. Thank you. Jenebri Karkamo? And I hope did I pronounce that correctly? Yeah. It's Janibri. Janibri? Janibri Karkamo. Janibri Karkamo. Mhmm. Good evening, president, board member, and superintendent. My name is Yanabri Karkamo, and I'm a high school student at Gateway High School. I have been with Faith Bridge for two years, and those two years have been I have been able to build new friendships, with students from other schools, learn many things, and I've been able to go out of my comfort zone and do things that I've never thought I would do before. For example,
give a speech here. After school programs are very important for students because it lets students join an environment where they can be creative, where they can build new friendships, and where they can feel welcome and express themselves. I'm here because opportunities in Colorado are still too dependent on where you live, and students can feel that every day. Across our state, many students grow up in what are often called opportunity, proficiency, and education deserts, where high quality where high quality schools, after school programs, or academic supports are not equally
equitable available. These challenges don't exist in isolation and neither do the solutions. When students are healthy, supported, and safe, we show up ready to learn. When we have access to strong schools and consistent learning opportunities, we succeed academically. When we're exposed to college and career pathways, we begin to see real options for our future. School boards play a critical role in shaping these systems. The policies to support influence whether students gain access to opportunity or continue to face
barriers. I'm asking you to center students and family voices in education policy decisions. Advocate for alignment across education, health, and community systems. Support learning enrichments and career connected opportunities beyond the school day. Remove policy and funding barriers that limit students across Colorado, and to support House Bill 20 six-ten 55, the My Colorado Card, which gives students in grades six to 12 access to cultural arts, recreational, and extracurricular opportunities across Colorado. Students are ready to work hard.
What we need is a system that will that works well for us. With your leadership, we can replace opportunity deserts with pathways to success and ensure every student has a fair chance to thrive. Thank you for your time and your commitment to the Colorado kids. Thank you. That concludes our public comment for tonight. Thank you to everyone who addressed the board this evening. Although we did not respond, it does not mean we didn't hear your concerns. So I'll just encourage you all to continue to come and speak in front of the board. Next step is approval of the consent agenda.
Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? So moved. Second. Motion moved and properly seconded. Claudia, can you call Roe, please? Yes, sir. Director? Yes. Director Duncan? Aye. Doctor Kiki? Aye. Director Mallory? No. Director Reinhart? Aye. Director Tasker? Aye. Director Tomlin? Aye. Thank you. Next is our action item. Tonight, we will review the resolution establishing the process for consideration of a classified union. The floor is open for discussion. Is Brandon come out? Based on the board's direction at the last business meeting,
we prepared the resolution, which is substantively the same thing that was presented to this board, by the requesters. The only additions had are essentially a header and a signature line. Any discussion colleagues? I was wondering, did we make any changes that was proposed to this resolution? No. Based on the conversation at the last meeting, my understanding of the instructions were to accept the resolution as is, and to rectify any concerns during the negotiation process. Thank you so much for clarification.
If there's no discussion, do I hear a motion to approve? So moved. Second. Motion moved. Properly seconded. Claudia, will you call Roe, please? Yes, sir. Director Charlier? Yes. Director Duncan? Aye. Doctor Kiki? Aye. Director Mallory? Aye. Director Reinhart? Aye. Director Tasker? Aye. Director Tom Wing? Aye. Thank you. Based on the passage of this resolution and the previous submission of our class classified staff, we charge you, superintendent Giles, to initiate the union formation process outlined in the resolution.
Got it. Thank you, president Duncan. We will. Next up is our enrollment projection update. We're gonna skip over a legislative update because our lobbyist isn't here yet. So when she gets here, we'll have her come up. So we're waiting on Brett Johnson, and Josh Hensley to come in. I'm sure they're out there. Right. Slow client. Good afternoon, evening, depending on what time zone you're in. Brett Johnson, CFO, COO. I'm just killing time until he pulls out his presentation. I'll let Josh introduce himself. You now you can hear me.
To speak with you a bit about enrollment, in Aurora in Aurora Public Schools. All right. You can go to next, please, and the next one. Next one, please. So I'd like to first start off with providing some context on the enrollment trends across the state of Colorado. So as you may be aware, the state experienced its largest enrollment decline since the pandemic of twenty twenty, during the most recent school year. With the exception of a modest rebound in 2021, statewide enrollment has declined, in each of the last five years.
It's important to note, however, that this downward, trend predates the pandemic and has been occurring for more than a decade. And you can see that with the graph that there's been, this started really in around 2010 with a declining rate of increase in the state of Colorado. So we, demographers in the state demography office realized that there was a downward pressure that was going to be occurring on enrollment in the state as a whole. Can you go to the next slide, please? Slide highlights enrollment change among the 10 largest school districts from 24 from last year
to this year. The same demographic factors driving the statewide enrollment declines are also affecting individual districts. All 10 of the largest, school districts in the state decreased in enrollment during this period. While the table indicates that APS had the largest drop of all the, school districts, the 10 largest school districts, There is about half of the, enrollment decline in APS was due to, Global Village Academy moving from APS to, to CSI. So with that,
controlling for that change, we're somewhere in the middle of the pack as far as, enrollment declines this year. Next slide, please. This is a graphic that illustrates the annual percentage change in enrollment for APS managed schools over the last fifteen years. Overall, the data reflects the general trend of declining enrollment over the last decade followed by a period of recovery after the pandemic. APS projections are informed by these long term trends. However, enrollment in Aurora has historically been more sensitive to stunning community changes.
As a result, APS experiences larger and more abrupt year to year fluctuations, which are visible in this graph. This anomaly makes, makes year to year enrollment projections, and a district, has characteristics such as Aurora difficult in that. It's often, hard to predict these large swings in enrollment that we see, although we can see the the general trend is which we project along. The next slide, please. And this is a lot of numbers. I'll try to explain it. But, APS monitors enrollment on an ongoing basis and then compares the control,
current trends to prior years. This ongoing tracking allows the district to identify unusual or, emerging enrollment trends. During the twenty three-twenty four school year, APS experienced a steady increase in enrollment throughout the year. The growth was driven primarily by the arrival of new immigrant families into the district. In contrast, during the twenty four-twenty five school year, enrollment declined consistently over the course of the year. Observing these within the year enrollment changes provides early indication, the actual enrollment would differ from the initial projections,
which allowed us Last year to make, adjustments as needed and to support schools and students, as we witnessed this change occurring within our enrollment. A key concern this year is that enrollment has continued to decline through the first half of the school year, at roughly the same rate or more a larger rate than, what occurred last year. So, we still have a lot of those factors and downward pressures that are impacting our enrollment. We took that into consideration in doing projections for next year, although we did not project as large of a decline as what we've experienced,
for this current school year for next year. We did, project a fairly significant decline. And we're monitoring that as we go through the year to determine what adjustments may be needed to support students. Next, please. So this is, just a little more detail on that showing, you know, how our enrollment changed after October count for the last couple years. And a key point here is that we've always been a district that has a considerable amount of transiency over the course of the year where we have a similar number of students leave the district and arrive in the district.
That, you can see that uptick in 'twenty three, 'twenty four when after October count, we had over 4,000 new students enroll in the district, and fewer than or fewer than 3,000 leave. So, we had a net increase that you saw in the previous graph. That was, the opposite last year where we saw a larger number of students leave. But, equally as or perhaps more important is that we saw fewer students moving into the district. So we've always been a district where enrollment has been influenced by new immigrant families
moving into the community. And one of the big changes that we've seen, Jankar, is just fewer students moving into our community over the course of the school year. Next slide, please. We see a similar transition during the summer. Typically, over the course of the summer, about 13 to 14% of our students that we expect to return, move on or go to a different school, school district, in a different area. And we see that replaced by almost an equal number of student new students that
come in, to the district. What we're seeing what we saw over the course of the summer is a decline and more stability in the number of students who left. That decreased by almost 300 students, this summer, but we had a, far larger, decrease in new students. So we're seeing a little, slightly more stability within the, the students who are currently with us in APS, but we're not seeing that normal, that normal group of new students, the same numbers, joining the district during the summertime.
And then, looking more specifically at our new immigrant families that we've welcomed over the last five years, You can see that big spike. We had over 3,000, new immigrant students join our district, in '23, '24. And that number declined to 1,600 students in, 2425. And this year, has dropped off. So far, we've had about 400 students, which puts us at the same level of, new immigrant families that, came during the pandemic school year.
So clearly, we've had a significant drop off in the number of new immigrant families that are arriving in our rural public schools. Next, please. Another key indicator that we look at, is birth data because birth data drives our kindergarten enrollment. Kindergarten enrollment is often the most difficult to project, because these are, for the most part, are kids that we do not have experience with before. They're arriving with us brand new. So, we look at both regional and local birth data and then try to project the number of kindergarten kids we'll see
five years later. And we have a roughly pretty, pretty stable ratio. It used to be about 80% of our kindergarten enrollment was roughly 80% of the number of births the previous years. That went up a bit, last year, and then we had about a, almost a 8% decline in, that ratio this year. So for one reason, well, we have a couple ideas of why that is. We're still looking into that, But we're seeing fewer kindergartners than what we expected to see.
In fact, our kindergarten numbers were down about 10%, less than what we thought we would see. So, we're looking into whether we have, kids that we have fewer kids in the community that are of that age range or if it is that we have kids that are in the community that are either attending programs or delaying, their academic start to another time. So, that was a brief look, or maybe it was. Can you go to the next slide, please? Maybe there's something else. So, again, I mentioned that,
we are projecting another decline. Oh, this is, within district managed schools of about 2%. We saw about a 4%. So what we did is look at various different scenarios to, you know, again, if you think back with that third slide that showed our, enrollment change over five years and bounces around quite a bit. So we looked at, you know, different scenarios, that would give us an indication of what enrollment, would go would look like for next year. Some of those scenarios said, you know, that look at more long term would think that we're gonna be more stable.
Those that are looking at the last two years where we had a lot of fluctuation in our enrollment says that we'll we'll continue to have significant decline. We have erred on the side of, that we are still in a, a difficult part or a difficult time in the community with regard to enrollment. And, we're expecting to see continued declines next year. Now this again, we, when we look back at if you look back at that third, we general our general trend is we have a we see significant or a cost
for increase in enrollment over the long term. We have, large investments in our school facilities. We have program investments within our schools. We have development continuing at roughly 80% of where it was at the peaks. We still have lots of homes being developed that we're continuing to invest in. So, we believe that, long term, APS remains a destination district and will continue to welcome new families, from different parts, into the into,
our APS community. However, we continue to be cautious about short term changes based upon variables that are beyond the district's control. So in closing, this is a this is a snapshot of what we're working with. We, you know, we we try to tie, to the best we can, our our budget process to enrollment, because it ties to what we will ultimately be funded during next year's October count. And and, we we ask no action at this time, but it's a good snapshot of what's going on. I think, you know, we're we're looking at it as as generally kinda stable in a way that we
had we had significant declines over the 2010 decade. It stabilized around 2020, 2021. We had mixed historic increase of new to country, kids, and now we seem to be back at that kind of normalized amount. The question is moving forward if there are any sustained impacts on on enrollment relative to, our new to country enrollment. Thank you for that update. Any questions, colleagues? Director Mallory? So for the students that unenroll sorry. I apologize. In the midst of the year,
do we track whether they're moving out of state or what district they enroll into? Yeah. So as a school district, when a school leaves us, we do a, a withdrawal process, and we code them. We're required by CDE to code them based upon where, the records are sent. It does not necessarily get gran as granular as, you know, if they move leave the leave the state and go to another state, which school they will be to. But, we have a a general code that tells us whether they,
were a dropout or left the country or left the state or left for another district or left for another district and school. I believe there's probably about a dozen codes that, get us there. Then within that, we have notes that says, that the person who received those records or the person who, unenrolled that person will put some information in there. For particular questions, we sometimes mine that information. But it's a little more difficult to do and doesn't often,
have the, have all of the, I guess, accuracy that we would that we get from the more broad look at it. Would we be able then to get the data of who maybe went to a DPS school, who went to a Cherry Creek school, or who went to a CSI school from that, or a rough percentage? Yeah. I mean, we can definitely get, numbers for that. Specific students would be more difficult to acquire. I would also add to it. Sometimes those numbers aren't wholly accurate, especially when we have students moving from one district to the next.
So it may show a Cherry Creek, and then it could show another district. But we could track it. I just don't know how accurate it would actually be. Yeah. And I think one other, I don't know if it's unique about, Aurora Public Schools, but most of our students are fairly stable. So if a student, starts, school with us, I believe it's about 75% of them remain stable throughout the entire school year. But you have a certain group of students that are, more transient, may have multiple different, stops along the school year, for various different reasons. Those make the the the information a little noisy in some of those very specific
things because it could be the same students been back you know, been jumping back and forth. Doctor Kiki. Thank you so much for this presentation. We're seeing a trend across the state. Right? I think the last report was about 10,000 kids that the state is losing. I mean, traditional public school is losing out to whatever it is. Right? I am wondering for APS. We I know we've seen a huge influx of migrants and immigrant kids,
right, at some point. Mhmm. I wonder if they're dwindling that we're seeing. I wonder what's the percentage of those kids are, you know, immigrant kids that we've lost, due to transient, families and also due to what we are facing with this immigration nonsense. Yeah. I there are a lot of variables, and it's it's extremely difficult to predict. And each year, one variable may be having a larger impact than others. I think you can see by if you look at this,
this is the state of, Colorado. So you could see, in 2025 there, you you nailed it. 10,000 students, the, the, the state lost. If you look at between 2013 and 2019, you have to see that kinda sustained gradual decline. The largest variables that were that we believe were, impacting the statewide enrollment at that point were, smaller birth rates. So you had these larger classes that were exiting the system being, replaced by, by,
school class sizes that are smaller. So maybe you had 2,000 kindergartners entering and 3,000 seniors leaving. So, you'll have this, decline by attrition, which is why you see this small there's also some other variables mixed in there with school choice, affordability, you know, items like that. But all of those are kinda baked into that slow gradual. Then you can, that that gets disrupted with, like, the pandemic where you see these big losses. When we look more specifically at 2324, you see that, overall decline,
and we're in a period of decline. Perhaps in the absence of new immigrant families moving to the state in 'twenty 03/2004, you would have seen a larger decline than that. Perhaps this year, it would have been more or less than the 10,000 depending on, if you controlled for the new immigrant family. So I think it is is making an impact with, the year to year changes. But, again, as we as longer term, we think that we still have a trend that we're following,
that, that is falling in the same direction. Thank you so much, Josh. One more question. And that one is for, Brett. I wonder how deeply this is impacting our overarching budget and the distribution of it in our schools. Doctor Kiki, are you talking about the statewide budget? No. The the districts. Sorry. In the short term, it had a minimal effect because we are still benefiting from, a four year average, declining schools benefit to their funded people count
pulls from the average enrollment for four years. And so if if you have, you know, a thousand kid decline and following some positive years, it may not matter too much. What happens is that that that sustains a more cumulative and sustained decline over time. So they kind of they slow down the impact, but it it still means that we're budgeting at a negative trend, which can eat away at whatever increase from inflation that we received from state PPR.
And one last question. So that one is for the superintendent, I guess. So I guess the question is what are we gonna do? What can we do even about this enrollment issue, understanding that it's not just isolated to APS. So but I'm just wondering if there's even a solution. I don't know that I have a solid bullet for that. I think the paying attention to legislation and making sure that our voices are heard with what leverage points we do have to maintain some funding that may be I mean, that,
the state does have. I know there's been some conversations around potential, what sort of redistribution of federal funding. And so using our voice there too to ensure that, you know, we're centering our needs here in APS. I think that's probably the biggest impact that the board can have. And then, of course, us just in, in the district continuing to do our work to advertise, communicate, you know, why if kids that are in within the surrounding area come to Districtwide, they'll get the experience that they want for their children. So that's just more of us promoting those experiences and pathways that students need.
I just wanna add to that point, as well as the funding in in the district. There are some bills that are currently in the process through the legislative, through the legislator on the on our side of of getting in funding to our district. So if if we're able to see the the tracking of these bills, then that can better answer, I guess, the question on on how we're getting the funding or how the funding is coming in, when it will when we when we will see it. I'll just slow that question down.
So more to that point, there are bills out there. They're just it takes time. Sure. So we'll get it. The the good news is it sounds like the legislature, is intending to fund us at our constitutionally required, inflation, increase. The bad news is that the state is facing its second consecutive roughly billion dollar shortfall. It sounds like there's a priority for us to be left similarly unscathed as last year. But if this sustains itself,
we will be affected by that, and that will compound with whatever enrollment issues that we experience. And and so this this continues to be a sustained problem. There's a lot of mouths to feed, at the state that and we're just that that pizza. Medicaid is is a a significant cause of the budget shortfall for the state, and it's affecting how we pay for roads, for k 12, for higher ed, etcetera. Any other questions? Director Tom Wing. Thank you for all the information. I believe, just at the state,
Colorado as a whole, we're also seeing some trends with increase in online school and homeschooling as well. Is that something that we need to keep an eye on here in Aurora? Is that could we tell yet? That has been an issue, that we, have been following for, quite a while. Even prior to the pandemic, multidistrict online academies were the fastest growing, educational environment within the school. We've estimated that roughly 5% of the students that live in APS attend one of those type of schools or similar type.
With with FERPA rules and the fact that a student who open enrolls in another district is that district student. We have, some difficulty in sharing information with regard to that, but we, you know and and looking at different data sources, we can estimate that. We know that that impact is growing, and it is something that we're looking at. And, it it's something that you're wise to recognize because it is an impact, within, education in or both Aurora Public Schools and the state of Colorado as a whole. I appreciate the chance to talk with you today.
Thank you. Thank you. If we can go back to our legislative update, it looks like our lobbyist, Mary Kay Hogan, popped in the room. Welcome. Thank you. I'm a push through that again. Nice to see you all. So I'm here tonight to share our legislative update with you so far. We're about a month in. You all kinda tell me how you wanna roll on this. I was gonna go through some top level things just that we are seeing some trends, talk a little bit more about the budget, answer any of your questions about any of the bills that we are seeing and
working on, or just any general discussion that you'd like to know about how it is down there. Is that fair? Yeah. That's fine. Through that way? Okay. So just interrupt me at any time. So as I think all of you know, we're about a month of our four months into the legislative session. We generally see about 700 bills introduced every year. We're at maybe three fifty or so so far this year. That doesn't mean we're gonna see less, but I think we'll see maybe 50 or so less. It just means that there are a whole lot of late bills that you're gonna see our bill list, grow significantly in about the next three weeks.
That mostly has to do with just the strain on the drafting office at the General Assembly. So don't be surprised when you see a big influx of some more bills coming. I think you all are acutely aware that we started our legislative session all about the structural deficit, you know, going, gosh, we're about $850,000,000 short of just being balanced. So today was a rough day. We've spent the last week doing what we call supplementals, which is we're in the middle of our state fiscal year. State fiscal year starts July 1, runs through the June.
The house had gotten through basically our midyear balancing. Everything is based on forecasts. So we're kind of trued up when we get out of the house. It's still not a fun process. We're over in the senate doing supplementals right now. Everyone's kind of like, okay. We're getting through this. And here comes an announcement to the joint budget committee today from the governor's office that, oh, we have to find $70,000,000 more this fiscal year in 2526 for Medicaid overages. That's going to translate right now the estimate is a need for another $136,000,000
next fiscal year. Everything's braided together, okay? It's incredibly frustrating because of the timing to begin with, and honestly, I want to talk about mismanagement of the Medicaid system. I can sit here and do that forever, but I'm not going to put you through it. Let's just say that over the last ten years, Medicaid, enrollment's gone up 7.6% and the administrative budget at that department has gone up 101%. And that impacts us. Okay? We're all in the same pipe. Tabor's called the black box. You can only spend what you have in that box,
and when your needs start to bubble out, you're kinda stuck, and that's what we're dealing with right now. It's incredibly relevant to pay attention to the Medicaid budget. So, what are these bills? What are all the themes about this year? Affordability is certainly at the top. Housing affordability, utility affordability, all of those issues. But we're seeing a lot of bills that kind of have an adverse impact on that. They say this is about an affordability piece like surveillance pricing, but at the end of the day, it can have the adverse impact of cutting off discounts on things.
So these are just examples of hot button topics that you might see that look like, oh yeah that makes so much sense, but then we dig a little bit deeper and it just gets a lot more complicated just like Medicaid, just like our health care costs. One of the big things you're going to see in the next couple weeks on our tax policy discussion at the state level is more decoupling from the federal form. So Colorado is like this with the state and the federal tax form. When HR one passed and a lot of credits were extended indefinitely at the federal
level, it brings down our revenue at the state level unless we basically divorce from that. So you're gonna see four different areas that the state's going to try to do that and they will be controversial. But the reason I'm raising these with you is it comes back to the general fund. And I would say with the Medicaid announcement today, with these discussions on tethering and decoupling from the federal tax form in certain areas. Everything's on the table. So the governor's budget when he did start this year had education revenue staying and
spending being pretty equal. I'm not as confident about that right now just because of the unknown that's out there. So is everybody dedicated to and saying, yes, we want to see the new School Finance Act implemented on the trajectory that it is intended to? Absolutely. Is education the last thing that anybody is going to want to touch? Okay, yes it is. That's in a bipartisan manner, But right now, I don't think there is any guarantee that we're not impacted. That can be in the form of per pupil funding growth,
program programmatic investment, timing of school finance. It's just really tentative right now. So I think, to one of your questions to Brett earlier, when are we going to know? We will do the revenue forecast in March, and we'll have a little clearer picture of what we're dealing with, in terms of Medicaid growth and other pieces and revenue we actually think we're going to be receiving. We will run they're going there are two competing school finance acts. One of them will prevail in April. And then just remember that we always just have a supplemental true up.
So we know and we have our School Finance Act. By the end of session, we have a budget in the School Finance Act, but we have to come back through the process we're doing right now mid fiscal year to true things up. So I don't mean to have a total black cloud over this presentation. I just wanna be completely transparent that just when we think supplementals are done in the house, this announcement comes today on Medicaid, and it's kind of turned everything a little bit topsy-turvy to say the least. So, you know, those are that's the main theme that we're seeing right now at the General Assembly
is just no new programs, saving like the fundamentals of government right now and patching gaps. I will say one thing that's been really interesting that I haven't seen in all the years that I've worked down there is a lot of different bills are coming forward going, okay, now I can't have general fund, I know I can't do fees for this because it impacts Tabor, so we're gonna do gifts, grants, and donations. I found XYZ Foundation. This group, that group, they can fund the cost of this bill.
And it's just getting a little intriguing, I think, with both Democrats and Republicans going, hey. We're starting to see a lot more external funding of basic government services, and it's not necessarily sustainable. That might be great for this year for your bill, but does that gift grant donation last for three years, five years, ten years? Probably not. So we've seen it in the past and it's always been really limited, like a foundation will come in and do something maybe on greenhouse gas reduction or higher ed outcomes. That's pretty normal,
but this is just coming from all over the place. When anyone has their fiscal note, they're going into the Appropriations Committee, like, I've got a letter for gifts, grants, and donations. And it's just odd. It's awkward. If you think about if that happened to you all the time and people were just coming with gifts, grants, and donations, you thought, well when's it gonna run out? And that's just a question that we have right now at state. So I know that's very 500 foot level. I'm happy to get into any of the bills that you'd like to talk about right now without our School Finance Act set. I think that's probably the next discussion we have when I come back later in
session that's gonna drill down a little bit more on that, but, you have our list and, you know, I can hit either the hotter topics that we have or just answer your questions. It's completely up to you. Thank you. Just hold on. Colleagues, any questions? Doctor Kiki. I may have missed the APS list here, superintendent. I don't see the bill tracker for APS or even if we have one. But here's my question. Thank you first, Mary Kay, for giving us the 500 foot overview of what's going on there. But
let's zoom into education, and let's zoom into what APS is focusing on this legislative session if you wanna talk to us about it. I I am familiar with what CASB is working on because I'm active there, but I would love to see a comparison so not to go and advocate for a bill for CASB that APS is not forcibly, you know, or vice versa. Yeah. So Generally, we're pretty aligned. And right now,
I would say the vast majority, except for one that came out a couple days ago, the vast majority of bills we are you know kind of in the same mindset on so you've seen some changes on things like there's a bill on biliteracy certification and as that started it's kind of like oh okay great idea that there's no funding with this and how is this going to work? So it was amended in committee so that now a student who is seeking this certification, it's up to you as a district,
are we going to provide the tenants for some a student to be able to do this in which language? And if you don't have the ability or the desire any district to do this, the student seeking that certification now can go to another district that you have an agreement with. So if it's something that just is and you can think about the rural districts and some of the smaller ones going, 'I I don't know where to begin to try to figure this out.' if you have some of these programs, you could have some districts coming to you saying, 'Can we partner with you? Because we know that you have some of this in place and you may do
the opposite. So you saw some more spirit of flexibility with something like that that was not in the original bill. Another one that is still causing some consternation has to do with when a Social Security number is required for non work experience. Think of it a little more for higher ed. So you have, say, Colorado Mountain College and there's a nursing school, and that nursing school, I think Edwards wants to have their students do clinicals. Some of the students who want to do clinicals that they're not getting paid for
may may not have a Social Security number, because they are not naturalized. So what right now they're really kind of trapped of what opportunities can this person have to go get that experience. So this bill is trying and it is from Representative Ricks and Senator Weissman, so from members of our delegation, trying to find a way to say you can also use an alternative tax identification number that isn't necessarily a Social Security number. As you can imagine, the spirit of that people are very interested in,
but when it gets technical of different insurers and others saying, boy, do you get the same background check with that information? That answer is not clear yet. So I think there's still a lot of trying to work through the basis of sound policy, but it still has to be figured out a little bit more. The original bill, not the one that was introduced, but did have student teachers involved in that and school volunteers. They've pared that back a little bit and are trying to look more at clinicals
and internship type of opportunities. But for instance we may have some different experiences that you're either interested in making sure students have access to that may not have a Social Security number or your insurers may also come back another saying, Pump the brakes a little bit. We need to really be careful before we move forward. So something like CASB may not be as microscopic of looking at different types of programs and how that may work and maybe a little bit more up here and
we may get a little more granular on pieces like that, if that makes sense. One that came out the other day that our chairman of the Senate Education Committee, Senator Kolker, is running deals with at risk funding and I believe it's Senate bill 103 out of all my numbers in front of me. It's frustrating at best. I think CASB, Case, and others may start going, okay, we're in amend or we're in a monitor position and we're probably gonna tend to be more opposed to it because it's looking and saying okay if you have if
you get at risk funding that is taxpayer funding you get a bump under what's called the at risk factor that gives you a little more extra in your budget. Senator Kolker, who is Cherry Creek Schools, is saying I want to report on that and I want you all to pass a policy, every school board, on what you are doing with at risk funding. It's what you do. When you are passing your budget in the light of day, you have a very high risk at risk population. I don't know what else they want us to do in a policy or for
transparency on that. And so in a breath, some may feel that's a little insulting. And I know your rural districts are also very concerned about that. And the bill, as stated, talks about providing additional resources to an at risk population without giving us any additional resources. So those types of things I think we get a little more in the nitty gritty of either trying to make it something that does no harm or be able to stand up and say, just take a beat, and
we're doing this now. Thank you so much. Mary, today. Bills too. Sure. There's one that also caught my attention. I don't know if you're following that and I don't know what APS I don't know if it even applies to APS. It's the, the school board bill. Yeah. I'm trying to get to it. The state board of education advisory superintendent advisory group? No. Not that one. The it's I had it, and I We talked about it this morning. Our belief that, really, it should remain local control as opposed to state.
Right. I can't remember which number it is. So I I am trying to The twenty six zero five seven school board elections director district. Residence? Yeah. There's that. But you can't have that at large or everybody goes at large. And then we have to go to district special. We'll just talk about it. Yeah. The school board election. Yes. Director Tamwin. Thank you. I'm trying to figure out the For no at large seats? Yeah. That was it's I think that's got a tough road ahead to say the least.
Oh. When you look at it going to a committee that you not normally go to. Uh-huh. To to bed. Very interesting. The light of day. Thank you. Any other director Malorie? I more have a question for us and being new. I found the bill tracker, but I don't see where we put positions or, whether we're pro, whether we're con as a district. Is that somewhere else besides the bill tracker? Or am I just not looking at this website correctly? Mary Kay, can you speak to the bill tracker itself? Absolutely.
And if we need to, we can do a couple different things. There should be we normally have a and I'm looking at my notes, not the one that you all get, so excuse me. If not already, there should we can put a line, and there's normally a column that has the position that we take in that. And so if that's not in that, that could be an error of what we've sent you because it shows up on mine, but it could not be in the report that you're getting. And I'd I'd like to add too, just bringing just as a reminder to the whole board, we've put the weekly and the weekly update, we always put the bills we're tracking. So I'm looking at last week's right under the legislative update.
You have senate bill, 57 with the at large district representation, and we indicate that we're opposed to the bill and we state why. So the information is in the weekly update there. Superintendent, can I make a suggestion and have that attached into, our, what is it called? Board in board docs for us, so that it's easier to find because I'm a be honest, not all of us read the superintendents, and I'm just being transparent. I appreciate that. Yep. And if the link that I sent you does not have that column, that's on me. So we'll put that, make sure that that goes out. Okay. Because you're probably getting both.
It maybe went shorthand to that one, so I apologize. Any other questions? Director Tom Wing. Yeah. So just to clarify, so right now, there's just one that we're opposing, and we think everything else we're just tracking and monitoring. Does that sound about right? We had let's see. I can't sorry. Which number it is, but we just talked about today, the superintendent, counsel for CDE. Was supportive. And I think there are a couple of them that we took a stand for. Consolidation of the early childhood programs for streamlining those. We'll update that column for you. There's some you know,
at this point, we may change a position too because they are absolutely going to be amended like the Social Security number bill. And it may change to something that you very much are supportive of, but right now we're tentative before hearing more. Any other comments, questions? Hearing none. Thank you. We'll get that fixed for you and email anytime. Text anytime. Call anytime. Thank you. You're done. Next up on the list, CVE update on North Middle School and Aurora Central. Thank you, president Duncan, members of the board. We're really happy to be here tonight,
to share a little bit about, some updates around schools that have state board directed action. Here in Aurora, I'm joined, by Andy Swanson, the executive director of innovation and improvement at CDE as well as some of our colleagues, from TNTP and Aurora Leadership. Sarah and, doctor Toussaint, do you wanna introduce yourselves really quick? Good evening, President Duncan, members of the board. I'm Sarah Lynch. I'm the partner with TNTP and I manage the coherence work, for all of our work with with APS. Hello, I am Doctor. Sue Lynn Toussaint, I'm the executive director of school performance and I also support the teams that support
the work at North Aurora Central and Gateway. Next slide. As a reminder tonight, we are here, for schools that have state board directed action, and in our work, we're required and privileged to give you all updates about the progress being made at your campuses that have state board directed action, which includes Aurora Central, Gateway, and North Middle School. So tonight, we're gonna be sharing, sharing some information about those campuses. We're gonna provide some updates around the recent hearings and the rehearings at Aurora Hills
Middle School and Gateway High School. And our hope that our hope for tonight is that you'll walk away with a better idea of some of the goals and priorities at each of these campuses, the supports they're receiving as part of our state accountability system, and how things are progressing so far this year. Next slide. And so we wanna start by just revisiting briefly. We know you as board members take in lots of information and you're not always thinking full time about our state accountability systems. So I always like to provide a little bit of a refresher of how that
system works, and we'll do that on the next slide. So as part of our Colorado accountability system, schools receive performance ratings every year, and the lowest two ratings, priority improvement and turnaround, are how schools accumulate what we call years on the clock or on performance watch. They receive those ratings using three data points, including academic achievement, academic growth, and post secondary and workforce readiness. We also wanna highlight some celebrations this year from the fall's release of frameworks in
in Aurora. Number one, the district as a whole for its rate rating maintained its improvement rating, for another consecutive year. We also wanna celebrate that of the schools that were fully off the accountability clock in twenty twenty four, ninety seven percent of those schools remained off the clock for their 2025 ratings. And then we also saw progress for schools that were on the clock in 2024. 50% of those within Aurora improved their school rating in 2025.
And I think another celebration here is that zero schools within, Aurora Public Schools received that lowest rating of a turnaround rating. But for some schools that are on the accountability clock, we have that end of clock process shown in this flowchart, seen on the slides here. When schools reach year five, they're required to appear for a state board hearing, and as they progress, they appear every two years for a rehearing to update the state board on their efforts and request any changes to the directed action as needed.
So here you can see that Aurora Public Schools has one school at the year five mark, Aurora Hills, which Andy will speak to a little bit later in this presentation. And then we have one school, Gateway High School, appearing for a rehearing in April that I'll provide an update on later in this presentation. Before we do that, however, let's talk a little bit about the progress being made at Aurora Central and North Middle School. Next slide and then one more slide. So up here, you can see the multiyear performance history of both Aurora Hills and North Middle School. For North,
you can see that they earned, an improvement rating in 2024 and then a priority improvement rating in 2025. So they moved from year six to now year seven, which mean which would mean that if they had earned another priority improvement or turnaround rating next year, they would appear before the state board for a rehearing, potentially in the 2027. For Aurora Central, they earned an improvement rating, which I believe was their first, improvement rating in their accountability history as a school, which is really exciting to see, which means, that this is just a progress monitoring year for Aurora Central,
and there's lots of great things going on at both campuses. And to provide more nuance and on the ground updates on how the work is going at both campuses, I'd love to turn it over to Sarah Lynch from TNTP to talk about some of the school's priorities and celebrations this year. Thanks, Sam. We're gonna start with, North Middle School. What you're gonna notice in in all of the updates, about the schools that TNTP is supporting are some trends. When schools, are on the accountability clock, there are some things that we know work, that students deserve. And so you're gonna see us talking about,
ensuring access to high quality instruction materials, tasks are aligned to standards in every instructional space. Ensuring leaders and teachers are getting the professional learning they deserve, so that they can be better the very next day. That looks like supporting leaders and observation and feedback cycles and facilitating professional learning communities to ensure that teachers really get, collaborative learning time to internalize content, and then ensuring students get the support they need to be able to access grade level standards. We did hear from the state board, that they're looking for our support, of APS to include some direct to teacher professional learning opportunities,
and that's something that we're talking to the team about at this time. At North specifically, we are focused on three big rocks, getting observation observation feedback right, ensuring teachers are getting better, in service to children. Professional learning communities are well facilitated, having teachers internalizing high quality instruction materials and making sure PBI the PBIS systems on campus are working effectively. Next slide, please. So lots and lots of celebrations here. What what I would share, is that we're seeing an increase in the number of students at or above grade level and a 10% decrease in students multiple years below grade level,
which which at the end of the day is what we wanna be seeing. Kids moving in the direction of more frequent, mastery of lessons. We're also seeing an increase of classrooms, really performing at a proficiency level, and the highest percentage of North classrooms, that is that that we've reached, in one point five years, which is really exciting. North is on track to meet all of their culture goals this year, and their goals are really focused on reducing exclusionary discipline and increasing student survey data particularly related to belonging. We have it on one slide. Next steps, you can see it here.
Can we go back here really quickly? We're just gonna continue the data driven, decision making protocols that we've been doing on campus, really ensuring, all the instructional leaders in the building are in classrooms, really monitoring progress and giving teachers the support that they deserve, and making sure professional learning for teachers is high quality. Can I ask a question? If we can do all questions at the end, I have a few of my team members here, that can speak directly to the work on the ground, and we'll bring them up to answers your questions specifically. Okay. I could be on the next slide, please. At Central, at Aurora Central, very similarly, we're working on three big rocks.
Getting professional learning communities, right, making sure the facilitation is high quality, ensuring teachers are internalizing high quality instruction materials, getting observation and feedback cycles tight. Teachers are getting the feedback they deserve to be better for kids, and really focusing on the transition from eighth to ninth grade and ensuring a high quality ninth grade experience for students. Again, you can see here lots of celebrations. ACHS had moved has moved up to improvement status, which is exceptional. We're moving in the right direction. We have 700 scored observations on the e two tool,
and and that is a lot of adult presence in classrooms, ensuring teachers are doing what they've committed to and supporting them and serving kids. And you can see that we're we're actually seeing some pretty significant movement in academic outcomes here. Four of seven UIP goals are currently on track. One is not yet started and two are slightly behind where we wanna be at this time. And specific questions about that, Sam, you can answer those. Correct? Excellent. Again, really focused on making sure learning opportunities for adults are high quality. We're spending time in classrooms,
and we're really using that time, develop to develop teacher practice and really be a part of the work to ensure students are mastering lessons, and, really, I continue to focus on assessment participation because we know that's gonna be really important as we try and get off the clock. At Gateway High School, so you can see here also, we're working on high quality professional learning communities. Again, in in internalizing high quality instruction materials, getting the right tasks in front of kids is the number one priority, in the turnaround space, ensuring teachers are being developed and, again, really focusing on ensuring ninth graders,
have a high quality experience that they really feel a strong sense of belonging, so that we can keep kids in school and and keep them on track to graduate. Again, lots of celebrations here as well. We've seen oh, man, my glasses. 360 classrooms off observations here. Again, that's that's a lot of classroom observations. That is a lot of leader time in in classrooms ensuring teachers are improving their practice, students are getting the feedback they deserve, the tasks that are in front of kids are worthy of their time, and you can see an improvement in teacher practice over time.
Again, really looking to increase coaching impact, making sure that when we are in classes, we're not just there taking up space, we're we're there improving practice, so that kit more students are mastering content every single day, and really to accelerate learning in the ninth and tenth grades, especially in mathematics. Next slide, please. And some other TNTP supports that you may have heard about, some that I've been very involved in, which has been exciting, is a focus on ensuring high quality professional learning across the district. So you can see here, we've done a PD for all district level staff really focused on the APS instructional
framework. We believe it's high quality. And in order for it to be executed at a high level, everyone needs to be using the same language, and driving towards the same priorities. We've completed four PD sessions for school leaders and four sessions for educators more generally. And as you can see, the folks who are attending the PDs are highly satisfied. They believe that they're getting better when they're when they're in the space with TNTP facilitators. And then finally, next slide, please. And then finally, next slide, please. We are continuing to work with the middle school cohort. We partner with five middle schools across network six. We're supporting lesson internalization of high quality instruction materials.
Sounds very similar to the work happening in the other Schools have already shared, but really making sure, that instruction is leading to mastery and therefore more students are, proficient, on on high stakes assessments. And here, Hinkley, on this side, you can see, that we're focused on supporting these three schools, with their big rocks within their UIPs and their ninety day plans, really focused on improving ELA proficiency data. And you can see that we've seen consistent shifts from partially to approaching, in in the first two quarters of the school year, which is moving the right direction. And 80% of ninth graders are currently on track,
which is a significant increase, from 69% earlier in quarter one. This is really driven by targeted support. And then last slide here for me. Oh, I'm gonna pass back to you, Sam. Thank you, Sarah. President Duncan, no problem. Superintendent Giles, members of the board, thanks for this opportunity to be here in front of you all. I'm gonna have a very brief update specifically focused on Aurora Hills and the the work that's happened there. So let me go to the next slide. Sam presented on this one before, but just wanted to highlight where Aurora Hills is at and then Sam will talk about Gateway High School.
Aurora Hills did get to year five on the accountability clock with this last, priority improvement plan type on the 2025 school performance framework. So that put them in, a hearing this year, and so they just underwent that earlier this month. Next slide, please. As just a reminder, there are two key components to a directed action from the state board which Aurora Hills, just received, that we'll talk about here in a second. One, and that's new from, the twelve seventy eight educational accountability bill that just passed last year is stamping the
pathway plan as this larger improvement plan that is an aspect that districts bring forward. This is something that you all have been doing with your sites coming forward for state board directed action for the last few years anyway. Is something that we consider best practice, so we're really excited to see that come through in the statute. And then the second part that has always been there, is a directed pathway, which is kind of a a mechanism with which that plan should be able to go forward to be able to improve the results at the site. The new part that just came forward this year with that same twelve seventy eight bill is the district proposed pathway,
which the statute gives a few examples of possibilities, but is really around this more flexible option of something of greater or equal impact, I believe, is what it says within the statute. So providing a little more flexibility for areas where, in sites where the other statutory options really are not functional or the right improvement efforts. Happy to go into any of that further if that's if that's helpful for you all. If you go to the next slide, Aurora Hills, like I said earlier this month, your district team, and the Aurora Hills leadership was in front of the state board for three hours, answering every single question that they had,
quite well. The state board overall was very pleased with the plan that was put in place, with the things that we're moving forward with Aurora Hills and passed that pathway plan with an eight o vote, and a lot of really, I think, encouragement to the team and the plan that was putting forward and the hard work that's going on there. The pathway that Aurora Hills and the district team put forward was a partial management plan with TNTP. TNTP has been working off and on with the school and this is an opportunity to actually deepen some of that work, with that leadership team and so we're excited to see, that work move forward,
as I believe that's already starting even more assertively this February even though state board directed action doesn't take place until next school year. So we're excited to see that team move forward with even further support both at the district level and with TNTP. And I think with the next slide, I'll pass it back over to Sam to talk about gateway. Awesome. And unlike Aurora Hills, Aurora Hills appeared for their first initial hearing. Gateway, has earned two priority improvement ratings since their 2023, June rehearing. And so this April rehearing will be a chance for the district to share what
the new plans are for Gateway, which I think right now is the plan to, have a partial manager relationship with TNTP in addition to Gateway's innovation programming that they've already had in place and starting to build from. And so I've been in close contact, with district leadership here in Aurora to start to plan and get ready for that. We wanna see Gateway have as successful as a rehearing process as Aurora Hills had a hearing process, just this last month. And I think it's really exciting to know that Gateway has already started that work
with TNTP and has started to see some strong progress this year, particularly in some of the local assessment data that I know, Aurora Public Schools is tracking. So, I also know that some of the focus areas around improving the ninth grade experience are also, paying off for, not just Gateway, but a lot of Aurora High Schools. So, I think there's an encouraging plan being built that's gonna be shared with the state board in April, and we're excited for the public comment period that will open the next few weeks for Aurora community members to weigh in on that and offer up some thoughts.
And then I know we had some board member presence at Aurora Hills, in February, and we'd love to see local board members. And I know our state board loves to see local board members in attendance for those hearings, to to share their support. Next slide. And then just as a final note here, we wanna share some of our continued next steps as the state department of education with Aurora. We'll continue to do progress monitoring at sites with directed action. We'll continue to provide you all annual updates with the work that's going on. And then I just wanna speak to the quality of partnership that we have.
We have a really strong relationship with your district leadership here in Aurora. One of mutual support, we feel like we can learn things from your district leadership, and we really try to be there to answer any questions and do whatever air traffic control we can for them. And with that, we'd love to open it up for any questions and answers either for us here at the table, or for some of our other TNTP colleagues here in the audience tonight. Director Sherry. So, my question is is sort of a two part question and maybe one of you answered while I was out there, but I was thinking as I was, out there.
How are the teachers, principals, and overall staff, included within your your partnership? And what does the ninth grade experience look like? When you mentioned that, I kind of wanted to to understand a little bit more of what that is. If you could, if any this so this quest those questions are for any of you. So we recognize that, in order to ensure positive student experience in every instructional space, the teachers have to be invested in the work that we're doing. And so, one of the things we heard from the state board and and I think we're
we're talking about as a team is how do we get directed to spend more time direct to teachers. Right now, we are working through leadership teams and instructional leaders in buildings, really thinking about how our teachers experience collaborative learning. We want teachers to have great learning experience. We want them to be getting better every time they come together. So my team is on the ground really supporting leaders and facilitating high quality experiences for teachers, and ensuring that what we're putting in front of teachers from a professional learning, perspective is high quality. They can feel themselves getting better. They have an opportunity to practice.
The same is true for leaders. And so there's a there's a lot of, my my job is to ensure that leaders are having a coherent a coherent experience across all schools and making sure that anyone interacting with TNTP is getting a high quality experience, that's making them better in their role. And so what that looks like from a leader perspective is what are we doing when we go when we go to class? What are we looking for? How are we really narrowing the focus to ensure teachers know what's expected of them? It's really clear. They're getting feedback on the thing that they've been learning, and and we're motivating and influencing by storytelling and making sure we're elevating bright spots
across campuses so that we can replicate that across classrooms. So a lot of that is happening shoulder to shoulder with leaders in classrooms, in admin, instructional leadership spaces, and in professional learning communities. Before you jump in there, doctor Doussaint, I'll also just share something I've seen TNTP leadership coaches do effectively is I think lean into the distributive leadership model that Aurora uses to guide that improvement work. So there's lots of different kinds of stakeholders at the table when they have those step back meetings to assess progress. And I think there there's a lot of good examples of measuring teacher perception on
the priorities. Several schools that have directed action have goals around, you know, teacher perception surveys that they're using to measure, like, what's the efficacy around this strategy. So there's lots of different ways that they're engaging that I wanted to add to what Sarah said. So just a little bit about the ninth grade experience because I could talk a long time, really excited about this work. Just the alignment with Destination APS, we have an eighth to ninth grade transition strategy in that work. School leadership and support has partnered with teaching and learning,
and we're working with principals with the Center for High School Success. So all of our high school principals just recently spent a couple of days in Arizona on a site visit, really looking at that work around ninth grade experience. This work really started about a year and a half ago where all high schools identified a consistent big rock around the ninth grade experience and really started small. Like, let's make sure we all have a strong ninth grade orientation experience. But since then, in partnership with the Center for High School Success,
we're really talking about how do we create a really robust MTSS process for our ninth grade students. One of those components is called kid talks, where teams have shared students and come together to discuss students who need additional support, whether academically or social emotionally. So we're very new to this work, but there is a lot of collective excitement about it and a lot more to come. So I have some questions, but I wanna preface it with they may seem like I am
being a little harsh, but I think it's important for us to really ask tough questions when we have the opportunity. How long has TNTP been working with APS? So, I would say that for the middle school cohort specifically, there was a district design and led grant that was applied for. So this is they're closing the second year of that grant specifically. So that grant supports work with the middle schools as a collective group. TNTP has also been working with a couple of our schools more deeply than that,
Aurora Central being one of them, North being another. The partnership with Gateway and Hinkley are new this year. So the partnership with North has only been going on for two years? For a year we're closing in on the second. So about a year and a half at this point. It would have been June 2024 was the beginning of the partial management relationship for North and Aurora Central with TNTP. How we determine because someone said quality of partnerships. Mhmm. Again, I'm I'm just probing. How are we determining quality of partnerships?
Like, what is our particular ask for return on investment with these particular partnerships? Absolutely. I think that for me, the most poignant way that we look at that structure is through our step back meetings. So once a month, we have step backs where TNTP facilitates those at our schools with their leadership team, but district leaders are there as well. Sam has been in attendance for those, not every single month, but quarterly. He attends those also. So really we look at the specific school goals and are those goals making progress,
right? So, I think that there is definitely strong communication between TNTP, the instructional director, district leadership. So for me, the quality of the partnership is around strong communication on one hand, but then the on the other hand, making sure that the identified goals are moving over time with support. Yeah. How how we measuring the goals that are outlined. Mhmm. I can speak to that. So the expectation if we are using state funds,
easy grants, is that we're moving SPF numbers. We're improving the student experience in every instructional space. I would anticipate and I think we can see it in the data, task alignment to standards increases across instructional spaces. Teachers are getting better at their craft. Leaders are getting better at their craft as measured by the E2 tool, and leadership competencies that that leaders are evaluated on. And we would expect we would see belonging scores come up on your student surveys, as they're having improved instructional experiences across their classrooms. I think what makes it challenging for me,
and I'll speak for myself as a as a board member, is sitting here getting data presented to us saying that our district or at least the students in our district aren't isn't performing at the rate that they need to, yet our partnerships are strong. And we need to continue to strengthen our partnership, but are we really evaluating and, again, I'm I'm just probing, but I know APS has a lot of partnerships. Are we evaluating our partnerships to make sure that they are right for what our students need? If TNTP is the partnership, that's great. But I know there's other partnerships that we are in relationship with,
and I just wanna make sure, like, are they doing right by our students? Because that's money that's going to them. That's coming from the general fund or our student per pupil, wherever it comes from. We need to really be intentional about how we're spending our dollars, especially when we're getting reports that our money is gonna dwindle, budget's gonna get restrained. Like, we need to be cognizant of how we're spending that money, which is why I'm asking, you know, what is what's our measurement for success with these partnerships? From a board from a board member seat, success looks different. Right? You can success to you all.
The communication is good. But up here, when we're getting our reports, it's like, are we really making the progress that we need to be making? Are the partnerships that we have as strong and beneficial as you all are saying? A lot of this isn't even our realm. But I'm asking these questions because it's important. We need, like I I can speak for others. We need answers to what's going on in our district. We need a post check. President Duncan, I I appreciate those questions, and I think they're the right ones. And I think TNTP, Aurora leadership, and your CDE support staff believe that student results are the bottom line to this
work. And I will also share that Aurora is always on top of applying for Colorado's EZ grant every year. And through the EZ Grant, they've been able to fund the relationships with TNTP through those state improvement dollars to make sure that that state board directed action as an unfunded mandate is funded at least through that pathway option. So I will share that that is something that Aurora's team is on top of from our perspective, and they're very keen on that, but the rest of your comments are well taken.
Doctor Kiki. Thank you. Thank you again, CDE, for coming and collaborating with the board on this, important issue here about our schools. I have one question, and it's about gateway. I'm not sure if this question is directed to the superintendent or, CDE, but I remember I want to say in 2024 or if not early last year, 2025, Gateway had a hearing. Was it in 2024? Would have been 2023.
June 2023 was their most recent hearing at Gateway. Okay. And that hear that hearing was because Gateway was not at where we were expecting Gateway to be from the previous hearing and the previous instructions, collaborations that were given. Here we are. We revisited the plan. Right? Board, if you remember, gateway principal was here. They presented the plan. We asked all the questions,
asking how can they tell us how this is gonna work, if it's gonna work, how are we gonna measure this, all of that. And we had a wonderful expose. We walked away being feeling good about gateway, and here we are. So what exactly is the root cause? How can we treat it at the root to get this high school with thriving students out of the clock? Because I do remember, I think it was last year, a few students from Gateway, were among the bright bright stars or bright lights,
whatever, that had graduated early. There are bright minds there. How is it that this this school cannot get out of the clock despite everything that we're doing? And, again, I'm not being hard. I'm just asking the hard questions because as Tremaine said, somebody gotta ask it. We absolutely share your passion, and there is no excuses to be made for not having the results that we need to have in service to our students.
What I will say is that we are committed to identifying what, as you said, are the root causes of the underperformance at Gateway. And we work in partnership with not only TNTP but also our CDE partners to continue that work. I can't say anything to you, doctor Kiki, but we're continuing to do that and we're continuing to move forward to answer exactly what you're speaking to. Isn't finding the root cause step one before treating the problem?
So if we are treating the problem right now and we haven't found the root cause, like, what are we doing? Well, part of our UIP process, right, is and and the root cause isn't always something that just remains the same. True. Right? But through the process of our UIP planning, we really do have to get down to what is it that we need to as adults what do we need to do as adults to change in order to provide better outcomes for students? And that's some of how we got to the big rocks that we identified,
that were shared with you earlier. We just had the UIP, we just looked at the UIP a few meetings ago for the majority of our schools. Gateway was part of it. So what I'm hearing you say is that UIP that was, presented to the board or sent to the board a few meetings ago, I think it was last month or the month prior, Days are running into each other at this point in my life. But a few months ago, was used that UIP was used to find the big rock to come up with
the big rocks that is being present that are being presented today? I would say that it's not all always a perfectly linear process. But what I would say is, for example, oftentimes, one of the root causes of underperformance for students is what professional learning and support do teachers need in order to better support students for I'm using this as an example. Mhmm. So then from there, observation feedback and a focus on lesson internalization are the next steps or the strategies
that would come out of an identification of that kind of a root cause. I don't know, Sam, or you know? If someone can walk me through the end of clock process for gateway one more time just so that I have that. If you wanna go back actually, to slide 23, and then I'll go to 22 Mhmm. I think I might be able to provide some helpful context here. Thanks. So you heard Andy mention there we go. That one to start. Yep. You heard Andy mention that this past legislative session in the 2025,
we codified this idea of the pathway plan as a key part of a school receiving state board directed action. When Gateway appeared for that hearing in June 2023, the only thing that was directed and it was a key requirement of that process was directing one of those five pathways that you see up there in jewel tones, beautiful jewel tones, I might add. As you can imagine, many of those tools up there are pretty blunt tools, and many of them, it takes a long time for them to trickle down to the student experience.
Right? Innovation status is a great strategy, particularly for comprehensive high schools that are trying to overcome structural barriers to enact their improvement plans. And that was that stage of Gateway's progress and journey. And now they are layering on top work with a partial manager, in this case TNTP, and a really strong pathway plan that's still being built that's identifying within the four domains of school improvement some high leverage root causes to start to solve for.
I don't have that draft plan in front of me, but I know that the gateway team and Aurora in general is focusing in tight alignment with TNTP around how do we make sure rigorous grade level tasks are in front of students every single day, How do we make sure ninth graders have the success and supports that they need early in their high school career? So that way, they're not trying to credit recovery their way to graduation. And I think really importantly at the high school level, as more and more students continue to,
overcome some of the learning loss of COVID, how do we use data driven PLCs to make sure we are responding to student learning week by week? So I again, I don't have that plan in front of me, but I know that if I pulled it up right now and were to talk through some of those root causes, I think those would be a couple of the greatest hits that would be on that album. Director Cherrier. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Go ahead. So really quickly, how how exactly I guess I guess I can go back and find it, but, how are you prioritizing, the the need for,
I I guess how how do I wanna word this? I I guess I just did. How do you prioritize what what is needed? And mine is a double edge. It's always a double edged question. Before going back to the community and giving them, time to speak on on or ask you more questions or ask you questions that they've asked in the past so you can clarify, how do you, prioritize what you're doing right now in Gateway High School specifically since we're on Gateway and, yeah, to get these outcomes. Are are you are you doing it by funding?
Are you doing it by what your limited resources are? Or does that make sense? Does does my quest my two edged sword question make sense? I think I think it might be late for my brain. Could you try to rephrase it one more time, and I'll I'll make sure I get it. How are you prioritizing what the needs are specifically for Gateway High School since we're speaking about that? Yep. And you said earlier that you're gonna go back into the community and ask the questions again, give public comment.
Mhmm. Are you going to be able to, put out another survey? Or how how how will you layer that for the public to come in, the community to come in to ask these types of questions that we're asking you right now. Yeah. I don't I don't know if that makes better sense. I think that makes sense to me. I'll I'll do my best to respond, and then doctor Toussaint, feel free to layer in. So six weeks before, a state board hearing, public comment opens for, schools and school districts to solicit, community opinion upon those plans.
And schools have, obviously, their local engagement processes, whether it's their parent accountability committees or their district accountability committees, where those kinds of things are solicited continuously. Right? And then in addition to that, I think as we develop the plan, we try in off years of board hearings to make sure that schools and districts are continuing to engage with their community around how things are going and what the student experience looks like. But I'll let doctor Chasson speak to anything else locally in terms of how things
get prioritized and things like that. Sure. So, there's really an ongoing process. I'm thinking about both the community engagement part, which, Doctor. Schneider spoke to with the SAC involvement, but there's also staff feedback that's provided as well. So usually there is an engagement with staff that happens, I would say more specifically beginning of the year and midyear, and usually that's coupled with a data review. So here are the areas that we've prioritized. Here's what the data is telling us about those areas that we've been working on,
and here's what we need to tweak and change moving into the next semester in response. Okay. That thank you. I appreciate both of those answers. And the reason why let me let me I should have explained this first. Going through some of the comments in the in the survey that we we just got in, the majority of the community wanted clarity. Things aren't very concise and and speaking from my cell phone, this is my first time on a board. You have to really kinda dig and search for the answers. When when when speaking to a community this large who who depend on that feedback
to come in to where it makes sense, not just being thrown, here's the data, here's the percentage, here's this, it's not cohesive. Does that make sense? So before you go back out to the community, how do we fix that? How do we prioritize that so that parents like myself and others can come to these meetings and say, yes. Okay. This is what I I need from you. These are the answers that I'm looking for. So I I should have started there. I'm sorry. Okay. Any other,
Director Reinhart? Thank you. And I'm really just asking for a little bit of clarification. I think, Doctor. Kiki, when you referenced hearing a presentation, that was when Gateway provided their innovation plan? Yeah. Is that something? I believe that was the year. Yeah. Okay. So they have had that in place, and then I'm following t n p t TN, whatever those letters are, has been layered coupled with that. So now, did you say first or second year for They've they've technically just wrapped up their first year partnership with TNTP Okay.
Or their first semester of partnership with TNTP. But in reality, a partial manager relationship is different than just a partnership in general. A partial manager usually has a little bit more intensive involvement, a little bit more coaching, a little bit more support, a little bit more what's on the ground, if you will. So if that has been offered in year one at Gateway, it was at some it's been at some of our schools a year prior, so there must have been some success felt in that prior year to then bring it to the gateway site. That would that's my understanding.
Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions, comments? I think in the same breath of us having high quality partnerships, I also think it's important for us to hold those inside of school buildings charged with the work accountable for carrying out some of this work as well. So it's not just want you all in the partnership. It's on the individuals, the educators, licensed professionals inside of those buildings to help carry out that work too. So just wanna make a note to that. We have the date for that hearing,
and I'm without a doubt, we'll be advised of the time that it gets scheduled. And is it at CDE? Do we know that? I don't know if maybe you guys know if it's gonna be most likely at CDE, but as soon as we have confirmation, we'll get it out to invite board members. April 8 then? April 8. It will be in our in our state board our state board. Thank you. Thank you. We appreciate it. Next up is a policy update from director Tom Wayne. Alright. So thank you, president Duncan. President Duncan and I have been working on this for, since last year.
Probably a few maybe, like, q two last year we started. So we're wrapping up our policy review, and these are specifically our board policies. So if you probably go to the APS website, there's dozens more, but the ones that we focused on, the ones that, under section b, for the board policies, and this is just the final one. We reviewed about, eight in total recently, but we didn't there were no no changes to them. So, or recommended changes to any of the others. So this is the only one, BDA organizational meeting, and there was just some you'll see the comments there on the right hand side.
There was some clarity around, that Brandon helped us, identify because there were rules or the way that, let's say they had, like, an assistant secretary and there are different things, that, that were mentioned there that we don't necessarily adopt here in APS. But it is, you know, at a a state level, this policy is written that it could apply if things were to change. Yeah. So somebody have any comments or questions about, the changes or just the the comments that would stay on the on the right
hand side? Director Mallory. I more have a question about, the process of the review. So do you guys start from the beginning? And if we have changes to anything that is in the b section, would we submit those to you? And is this an ongoing rolling review? I don't recall, but there's a recommendation. I don't know if it's I don't recall if it's annual, but we do I don't this might have been the first policy review we've done in a while, yeah, as a board. And I know doctor, he Yeah. Drills a lot of this. This is the first policy review in
five years or so. So, it's been on a battle before it started, and now we're here. And we are working on only what is pertaining to the board because, though I would say we can work on policies that, pertain to operations. It is recommended that we stick to what is just for the board, but we are not exempt from. I don't know that I'm clear on so is this the completion of the policy review board?
For the board? The We are complete For now. Yes. Yes. And okay. For now. Mhmm. And when will we pick it back up again? What is the cadence of this review? We have not talked about the cadence, though there should have been a cadence. But this is not something that we have talked about. Ideally ideally, every two years, there should be policy review, but we've not this board has not set a cadence. We didn't get there. Last question. Is when did this policy review begin then?
Of course. If this is the completion. It started about two years ago. No. Yeah. A year and a half. I have been late. So Yeah. Close to two years ago because Tom Wing and I Tom Wing and I started it maybe a year ago. Yeah. A year ago. I remember it was two years. Yeah. Well, again, to my defense, days are running into each other. No. That's totally But it started a year ago. Ago. And, Tamuni and I started and then Yeah. Delivered it too. But what we can say is the reason why it got it was that fast is because we only looked at
the board's policies. So to answer the question, I think and, Brandon, you can chime in. I think we can do a policy diet whenever we see fit, if we're in agreement to doing it. Our governance model says every two years. But But if there's a policy we wanna review We we we can always do that. Policy. Right? Yes. Yes. Maybe I can give a little bit of context of just policy review in general. So, we have about a two and a half year review rotation for all of our
policies that includes administrative. Prior to working with Great City Schools, that was done administratively and if there was statutory changes then we'd make recommendations to the board to consider those. With bringing on Great City Schools, part of the evaluation was for the board to take greater ownership of the policies that it specifically owns, specifically the board governance policies, which is the b section. And so this board took that on, started the process, went through that. I mean, the board sets its own cadence.
I can just tell you broader context, we have about a two and a half year just because of the number of policies. The board can really set up with whatever you want but I think, Doctor. Kiki is correct that according to the great City Schools guidance, I think it is every two years. But, President, Duncan is also correct that at any point, if the Board wishes to amend any of its policies, it can always initiate that process by working with the President to get it on the agenda. I hope that helps. Yeah. That's pretty much it. I just wanted to highlight, looking at the comments,
there was one line that was deleted, Following election and appointment of the officers, the board shall appoint the staff members who will fill the offices of secretary to the board and assistant treasurer. And, Brandon, I guess you don't have any legal concerns with that. Sorry. That line being omitted, we just thought that's not our process right now. Those positions are elected as as part of the office's election. So statute requires the president and vice president be members of the board. You can actually delegate secretary and treasurer to staff members.
Traditionally, the board has kept that within the board. That's just been our process. But statute also allows for an assistant, secretary and assistant treasurer. I think I'm saying that right. But we've never had one. And so I think, director Tomlin's recommendation is that we've never had one. We never used it. Let's just clean it up. It's a simple deletion. And if we ever need to bring it back, it's still in statute. It's not taken off the table. It's just taking up space at this point though because we don't use it. Yeah. Yeah. And it was just a little confusing as to who these people were at one point. We're like, we don't have that.
Do we need that? Yeah. That was pretty much it. Any other recommended changes or clarity needed, just for next steps? So for clarity again is that, if this is approved as is, then it will just go on consent for the next board meeting. Any other discussion about the policy BBA? Hearing none, moving on to open dialogue. Does anyone have items for open dialogue? Director Tom Lee. Oh, just wanna know, if we need to discuss the, contract for, City of Great Schools. Council. Council of Great Schools. I was gonna get to that. Sorry. Yeah. Sorry for president.
Any other comments? Doctor. Kiki. I wanted to start with community engagement. Visited a few schools. Don't even remember which schools I visited at this point, but the visits went really well. It felt good to, to see how the goals and guardrails superintendents are really now part of the conversations at every level. Again, it shows the work of the board. Like, Germaine, you remember being elected the first time, like, we didn't even have that conversation.
So thank you, superintendent, for that. Visited the what's the name of it? The welcome center, who is amazing. I just wanted to point out that they need donation, gently worn donation. These are things that our families and students when they get there and they finish their intake and all of that, they have an opportunity to shop shop. And sometimes, you know, the storehouse gets depleted. And so they're asking for the donation so the board can think about that, Germaine. I remember you wanting to donate all your shoes.
I mean, you can go there. I'm just saying. And that and, if I may, mister president here, I wanna touch a little bit on some of the comments, public comments that happened today, the one at Vista Peak. It is is it English underway in the works? Yeah. It's yes. So I I just wanted to point that out that it's not that the board is silent or nothing is being done at all. There have been multiple meetings. And you all know that it doesn't take one meeting to fix a problem that
has been ongoing. I was involved into that, escalated it to the superintendent. So it's not that the board isn't doing anything or the board is is completely apathetic and silent at all. The board is doing its work. If one board member is doing it, it's the full board that's doing it depending on the situation. And when the superintendent is moving forward and also escalated it to his team for, further investigation and all. It takes time and sometimes,
you know, we ask our parents and, community members to when they bring stuff to the board to to give us a little bit of time and a little bit more patience even when it is a situation that's been going on for years. If it comes to the board's knowledge, we know it's been going on for years, but it takes time for the board to navigate that. So I just wanted to point that out and thank the superintendent for taking, you know, the lead on that. Pushed the wrong button. To add what doctor Kiki was saying, director Reinhart and I,
we were at Vista Peak not too long ago together, and there there there's always open discussion for what occurs at high schools, at middle schools, and elementary schools. And again, to, doctor doctor Kiake's point, we are seeing and hearing good things from the Hinkley I I visited Hinkley not too long ago too and, the principal there is excited about, everything that she's implementing and, again, the the goals and guardrails are being realized,
and it it's being, and people are excited about it. Staff, they're excited about it. They love to talk about it. They like to share what it what what is happening in the schools. Montview is another, school that doctor ran director Reinhardt and I, went to. We went to a lot. And I think you and I went to some last week as well. Everyone is excited about what's happening because they get to they get to see it in real time. They get to, speak with the students, work with the students on on their goals and aspirations.
Even after school, after after, they graduate, they get to bring some of the students back to speak to the younger kids, and and they share these ideas. And it's, I don't know, it's it's inspiring. So I I just wanted to say that that along our walks together, doctor KiKi and I and and director Reinhardt and I, we we we were motivated. We're we were more motivated than not. And so, I mean, enough to say, oh my gosh, this is pretty exciting. I wanna talk more about it. So I just wanted to add that.
That's all. Sure, yeah. As mentioned, I have visited a number of schools. Montview had an amazing Black History Month celebration. Several of us were there for that event. The very collaborative seed event that was held at Montview was beyond amazing. The room was packed, people from all aspects of the community, surrounding our schools, that was amazing to see that. And I do think buildings are eager to share with us when we're there, that they're recognizing it and implementing work around the goals and guardrails.
And superintendent Giles, you did just send us an email addressing the Vista Peak. Thank you for that. Alright. So I attended, Toll Gates Elementary special spotlight family night. And so, really, that was a celebration of learning. And it was, like, amazing to see the family, like, families and teachers and as well as students engage and really celebrate what they've been working on. And then as far as school visits, I visited Aurora Frontier, and there's a couple of things. So one of the substitute teachers that were there,
miss Newman, It's just she's a retired teacher at Aurora Frontier from Aurora Frontier, a k a also my science teacher, but that's not important. But, she really engages and is really active with the students, and it's beautiful seeing that within the classroom. And another shout out I wanna give is to miss Pazarati. She's a social studies teacher, and she's doing a project with the students. And I got to sit in the classroom and watch their projects, their presentations where they're bringing leaning in to bringing, like, technology into the classroom.
So they're using Minecraft education, and they're building a museum, of a historical figure. And so it's really interesting just to see how teacher how ready teachers are able to lean into technology, the use of technology in the classroom with how it's been progressing. And then also, I've been to a few doc meetings or I've been to a doc meeting. And then, today, I visited Vanguard at the East Campus, and it was amazing to see how educators are listening and seeing the students,
in regards to, like, culture and belonging and listening to what they have to say, how they feel inside the school setting and adjusting based off of that. So yeah. Director Tomlin. Thank you. I just wanna, just share a brief story. So I I did meet at one of the, events that Montville Elementary hosted. A lot they have a lot of moms that are involved in this school. They they should they're there all the time. And I'm not just talking about one mom. It's like a group of moms. So speaking and speaking with one of them, Mavia Elementary offers, English learning classes for the parents.
I think there's about 30 student 30, parents, I think, that participate now. There's a morning session and then an afternoon session. And then one of the moms said recently when we met up at the Black History, celebration, that, these these classes are giving her the opportunity to complete her GED, and I thought that was amazing. And she just spoke about how her son and other moms, you know, was talking about how, how important it is for their kids to, like, see them in there, like, see their parents in the in the school and be, active in this in the school and how much that mean you know,
it means a lot to their kids, to them being there. So just wanna share that. So the impact you're having is not just on your students, but it's, it's a community. Right? We're empowering a community to do amazing things, and that's really important to call out. Anyone else? Yeah. Go ahead. Two consent jobs. Okay. I'm sorry. I wanted to save it for for the end. I just wanna acknowledge the board. I appreciate the conversation and the push that you gave my team and I during the, the presentation with our CDE partners and our TNT partners. For us, I'll speak on our side.
It gets a little scratchy and it feels a little heavy because of the questions that you're asking that are so important, but they're so pointed, but they're the right questions. You're asking us to interrogate ourselves, how we're not only using funds, but using the funds in service to, improving student outcomes. And so I can appreciate that. I assure you we have those conversations at our table on a regular on on a routine basis, but I know you need to see and hear that when you're being brought these presentations. What I'll share with you, the the the dissonance that's caused for me is that we wanna see.
And at the end of the day, what really matters are the student outcomes. But similar to what, our coach says in the governance model and similar to what was said, here at the table, is that student outcomes won't change until adult behaviors change. And I think if you see a lot of what was presented in this slide, a lot of what we've been sharing, with our UIP is that we're trying to get the right human adult behaviors in place so that the outcomes can accelerate. By no means am I saying it's okay to be have the slow increment incremental, progress that we're seeing.
We have to accelerate these outcomes, but we have to get the structures in place. We have to change the behaviors of adults. And I'm not talking about just teachers. I'm talking about principals. I'm talking about everybody at my, district leadership table, and I feel like we're doing that work. So I just wanted to plug that and say, I acknowledge the the hard push that you're giving us because it's you're asking us the right questions. So thank you. Thank you so much, superintendent, for acknowledging that. And, we don't say thank you enough, and we don't say we see you working enough. But rest assured,
we do. We see your effort. Even when we're pushing, we know that when we push, it makes you think and act. I didn't say react. I said act because you guys for some reason, whatever we did right, we know thoughts align. So I wanna say thank you. And, I also wanna say the reason why we are pushing is because the community is also asking us some of the same questions. So if we don't have the answers, we have to come to who hired us, not who we hired.
Doctor Rodriguez, can you come up to the thank you. I'm only asking because you're you were a part of the initial conversation. So council of Grace City Schools extended our contract or has offered to extend our contract to June 30 to give us more time to determine if that's where we wanna move next. They're also offering a two day workshop that's already embedded within our contract that they wanna come out and facilitate for us and potentially another school district. We're trying to figure out what days they can make that happen,
but it's already within our contract. It's paid for. So I think we should take advantage of it, especially if we're choosing to if we do decide to move beyond Council of Grace City Schools, then we need to get everything that we spent our money for. So that would be my 2¢, doctor Rodriguez, if you can chime in. Yeah. Just to add on the, Council of Great City Schools has offered to amend the existing contract at no cost to take us through the end of the school year. So that's why the June 30 date is there.
Part of their offering is acknowledging that the board is, weighing, options and and deciding whether or not to continue with the council. And so that way, extending it through June 30 would allow for the board to not have any lab service and support from the council as you all make your decision for how you move forward. I'm interested in a two days workshop because that has been in the work for years. Right? I'm interested in that. Yeah. Once we Did you guys go in length into that, or it was just thrown at the table for us to discuss?
Yeah. There's there's a few dates that they've shared with us that they're available. I think that, one of the asks that we have for them was that either AJ and or Greg specifically are the facilitators then so I think that limits a little bit their availability. Of course, the council has tons of coaches who can offer the same training but, being that we we anticipated there might be a preference for the two of them specifically or either of them, their their availability is a little bit
Yeah. But, yeah, they've thrown some some dates for us. That is also at no additional cost, so it's part of the current contract agreement. We would just have to pay for, I think, travel and accommodations for the one or two people who decide to come. And it was mentioned that it it can could be extended to staff and other district. Is this something that we wanna discuss, or we just wanna just limit it to ourselves? Ourselves? Well, from their guidance, it should be with another entity.
So it's not blur in the lines of us talking about board business when we shouldn't be talking about board business. Yeah. Alright. Thank you. Any other questions, comments? I do I do wanna make a go ahead, direct Malorie. I see you moving your finger. I'm open to the two day training. I think it would be important to have an idea of what we're going to cover in this training, if not board work, specifically as someone who works too. That's a full weekend.
Right? And so I'm open to it, but I would want to see in a proposed agenda or what we're going to get out of it before I'm fully on board. I have some hesitations. That's fair. Director Rainer? Let me ditto to what she said. That was maybe my question is what are we training? What are we what are we doing? It's also a very busy time of the year to have a two day commitment thrown at you. Yeah. We oh, I'm sorry. Director Reynolds. School things, family things, that's that's got to be taken into consideration that this is gonna be a very
short notice to do this. Yeah. We have until June 30. So if we wanted to do it after the school year ends, that could be an option as well. So I don't want us to feel like we're locked in to doing something before the end of the school year because I don't believe that's the message that they were sending to us. Just before we go, I do wanna say, hey. Finally, we got to a point to where we could vote on the ESP resolution tonight. Also want to make sure that I maintain our stance as this, like, a collective because there was a comment made about
us being a union backed school board. And although we were endorsed by the teachers union, I just wanna make it known that we work in the interest of APS and the students of APS and families and communities. And when people are making comments like that, it could give the perception that we're working in collaboration with one entity and not everyone else. So I just wanna make it clear that we are here as representatives of the entire APS community and not just a subsector. Any other questions? I'll make a motion to adjourn our meeting.
Moved. So moved. Can you hear me? Second. Claudia, can you call a roll, please? Yes, sir. Director Sherry? Yay. Director Duncan? Aye. Doctor Kiki? Aye. Director Mallory? Aye. Director Reinhart? Aye. Director Tasker? Aye. Director Tom White? Aye. Thank you. This meeting is adjourned at 08:48. Director Sherry, you need to sign some papers. Awesome. Recordings