Recording in progress. At 06:01. Yep. Yep. Yep. Do it again? Okay. I am asked to do it again. So I'm gonna use my teacher's voice. I call this meeting to order at 06:01. How's that? Claudia, would you please call Roe? Yes, ma'am. Director Carter? Present. Director Duncan? Here. Doctor Gerken? Here. Doctor Kiki? Present. Director Reinhard? Present. Director Tasker? Present. Director Tom Wing? Present. Thank you. Thank you, Claudia. Would you please join me for the pledge of allegiance?
Superintendent, can you lead it? Pledge allegiance to the flag, The United States Of America, and to the Republic, which is the state, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all of our lives. Thank you, superintendent. Hey. I'd like to welcome everyone in attendance to in joining us today. Alright. Next item is the approval of the agenda. Do I hear a motion? I move we approve the agenda. Thank you. Do I hear a second? Second. It's been moved by director, Gherkin and seconded by director Duncan. Claudia, would you please call row?
Yes, ma'am. Director Carter? Director Duncan? Aye. Doctor Gerken? Aye. Doctor Kiki? Aye. Director Reinhart? Aye. Director Tasker? Aye. Director Tom Wing? Aye. Thank you. Thank you, Claudia. And now to my favorite part. Would you please join me and the Hinkley Sands Station, team under the direction of, Richard Clark? And they will be performing the white winter hymnal. Let's all meet at, in Mount Massive. Thank you. You won't lose your seat in here if you go across the hall.
You can come back and sit at the exact same spot. Thank you, everybody. My name is Richard Clark, and this is the Hinckley Show Choir soundstations. We will be performing the song, the White Winter Heminal by the Pentatonix. Enjoy. One, two, three, four. Thank you. Please let's give it another round of applause to the Hinkley SoundStation. And thank you, Richard Clark, for your dedication to our students. We appreciate it. Thanks, everyone. Please join us back in our boardroom for the board meeting. And we'll now turn over the meeting to, our superintendent for recognizing excellence. Thank you, president Kiki.
Good evening, everyone. As you stated, this is one of my favorite portions of the, evening when I get to recognize the great excellence that's occurring across our district. So we have three individuals who'll be who will be recognized this evening. I'll start with the first, student being Nora Pulaski. Is Nora here? What's going on? And forgive me. Culture and core climate and culture coordinator. I said student, but there you go. So in alignment with our board limitation number two regarding the whole child, I'm thrilled to recognize Virginia court climate and culture coordinator, Nora Pulaski.
According to principal Will Thompson, Nora stepped into her role and made an immediate impact on the school's culture. In her first leadership position, she has shown significant growth professionally, socially, and emotionally. Nora approaches every student, especially those who need extra social emotional support with empathy and patience, meeting them where they are. Her humane approach allows her to address behavior that is not conducive to learning with much care and respect. Students love her for helping them develop the skills they need to reach their full potential even when they're experiencing big emotions. Survey results show dramatic improvement from spring fall to,
from spring to fall twenty twenty five with staff agreement on clear behavior expectations and effective behavior management rising from roughly 12 to 18% to 85%. It's a huge jump. These gains represent jumps of more than 65 to 73 points, highlighting the significant positive impact of Nora Pulaski's leadership as a CCC. Outside of work, Nora enjoys pickleball, hiking, and travel, and we are proud of her journey as a leader and grateful for her the heart she brings to our school every day. Staff members like Nora truly make APS the destination district.
Congratulations, Nora. No. Thank you. Let's give another round of applause. Our next recognition goes to someone who is a student, and that is Logan Brewster. Logan, do you wanna come up? Alright. Logan, remember what we said, practice that big smile. Smile? Alright. There you go. I'm excited to celebrate, Arkansas Elementary School second grade student, Logan Logan Brewster. According to principal Lori Peterson, Logan has shown remarkable growth in ELA, writing, and social emotional learning. One word and one sentence at a time. He has developed impressive essays, writing skills,
and confidence as a learner. His determination and positive attitude inspired those around him, proven that hard work and heart go hand in hand. Despite the challenges he face he has faced, Logan radiates kindness and has become a role model for his peers. He always includes others and make sure everyone feels welcome, exemplifying what it truly means to lead with heart and lift others up along the way. We hope the skills tip in his favor as he pursues his dream of becoming a lizard when he grows up. However, he has a solid back back backup plan to work for his dad's company.
With with this humor, curiosity, and compassion, Logan reminds us all of the joy and wonder that come with learning. We wish this Star Wars lover the best in all his endeavors. Congratulations, Logan. There you go. Yeah. We get appointment. Congratulations. And then ask for you. Alright? Good job, Logan. Keep it up. Love the skin. Where do I get everybody, bud? He's like, no. Okay. Yeah. There you go. There you go. Alright. There you go, Moses. There you go. That's what it's all about. And then we have one more,
one final recipient. That's Emily Van Heitzma. Is Emily in the room? I am proud to honor Clara Brown Entrepreneur Academy fourth grade teacher Emily Van Heitzma. According to principal Shelley DeGaro, in only her fourth year in education, Emily's commitment to students' innovative instructional practices and results driven approach have helped every student thrive. Through meaningful project based learning, Emily creates opportunities for students to apply knowledge, think critically, and collaborate, connecting academics to real world context that foster curiosity and success beyond the classroom.
Emily holds high expectations for all students, balancing rigor with support, and help her team reach 80% median growth percentile on CMath and mass and math. Passionate about anti racist and anti bias education, she cultivates an environment where all students are seen, valued, and empowered. Emily also serves on the instructional leadership team and as an AEA building rep, making an impact as both the building leader and a district leader. Outside of the classroom, she loves hiking, camping, climbing, and learning guitar. Emily is truly a treasure,
and we are proud to have her on our team. Congratulations, Emily. Alright. Let's give her another round of applause then. Madam president, that president, that concludes our recognitions for this evening. Thank you, sir. Next item on our agenda is opportunity for audience. Claudia will call audience members who have signed up to speak to the board this evening. Please remember, the board will not respond to any comment today. And as you approach the board, please remember to, state your name and limit your comment to three minutes. Claudia, how many do we have today?
Yes, ma'am. This evening, we have six speakers who have signed up. Our first one is Heather Morgan. Thank you. Welcome. Please state your name, and you have three minutes. My name is Heather Morgan, and thank you for your time this evening. I'm speaking tonight because I recently joined the classified employee council. And I would like to thank superintendent Giles and miss chief of people officer, Joy Ross, for working directly with us on the current CEC policy to better serve all classified employees in the APS. I appreciate the time and effort you have taken to listen to some of the
concerns we have told you about and you your willingness to find solutions together with us. I am also here to address some rumors about myself that have been brought to my attention. I was told by a few people that the organizers for the union were telling people that I was paid to speak at the last board meeting. I just wanna I would just like to say that I have never been paid to speak. I've never been paid to speak my mind. No one has to pay me to speak my mind. I speak it very freely. You do not have to pay me. So I this is one of the reasons why I did not want to be
a part of the union because of stuff like this. If the organizers of the union want to talk about me, then maybe they should explain to the people why I'm not in the union anymore. I appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Oriah Owens. My god. This seat is high. This is can I oh my god? I'm short. State your name, and you have three minutes. Okay. Hello, members of the board, teachers, parents, and students. My name is Aria Owens, and I'm a junior at Vista Peek. I'm here tonight because I wanna speak up and because I care. I I I've noticed over the past few days.
That being said, over the past few weeks, the demeanor of my school has changed in a negative way. There have been fights, rumors, weapons, and a lot of fear. Hello? Oh, can I start over? Or Yeah. Okay. Yeah. It's fine. Okay. I deal with mics all the time. It's fine. Okay. Hello, members of the board, teachers, parents, and students. My name is Oryah Owens, and I'm a junior at Bispieke. I'm here tonight because I wanna speak up and because I care. I care about my school and the community that makes my school my school Because it's very important to me. I'm here because I love my school, and due to that, I feel the need to speak up on the issues I've noticed over the past
few weeks. That being said, over the past few weeks, the demeanor of the school has changed in a negative way. There have been fights, rumors, weapons, and a lot of fear. And, it's made students question how safe we really are. It's gotten to the point where parents are scared to send their kids to school to to, students are scared to show up. Last week on November 5, it was a normal day for me. Until after school, I was notified by a classmate that there was a student with a gun, but Admon had already taken care of it. I was shocked by this statement because I and none of my other classmates knew anything about this.
None of us knew our lives were in danger. I wanna reiterate, there was a student with a gun that was possibly loaded. There was no lockdown. No teachers were notified. No extra precautions. Nothing. Apparently, that same day, the school had sent a message out to guardians, but not every guardian got the message. I was one I was the one who had informed my parents on the matter and some fellow classmates, guardians, also didn't get the message. Skip forward to November 7, another fight where a student pushed an officer, others harassed and hurt a student, and only then when parents started demanding answers do we get any kind of communication.
That's not okay. We shouldn't have to wait until things get worse before we're told the truth. The day after this, November 8, there was a gun threat. The but the school never addressed it until two days after it had already happened. Nobody knew it wasn't a threat until Monday. People were afraid to show their face at school. Afraid of what may happen to them. Afraid of what may afraid to never see their loved ones again. So many stayed home. I understand that admin and staff are trying their best to keep things calm, but there's a difference between keeping calm and keeping quiet.
When something serious happens, we deserve honesty, we deserve communication, not rumors, not silence. Because when you don't tell us, it doesn't make us feel safer. It makes us feel like our safety doesn't matter. We've seen more guards, ID checks, and tighter rules, and those things help for a while, but they don't mean much if they disappear a week later or if we still feel like things are being hidden from us. It's if safety is really the goal, then transparency needs to be a part of it. We wanna feel safe walking into our classrooms. Our our teachers deserve to know what's happening. Our parents deserve to trust that their kids are protected.
Vista peak is full of amazing people, students, teachers who care so much. People who genuinely wanna see the school thrive. But we can't do that without trust, and trust starts with truth. Please don't let this be just another meeting where concerns are heard and forgotten. Let this be the moment where things truly start to change, where safety and honesty becomes more than just words but actions. Thank you. Thank you. Next, we have Lacey Lindblom. Hello? Okay. Hello, everyone. I hope you're doing well. You heard from Araya. I'll be talking about the same thing. I'm gonna get straight to the point, because I have a few questions and concerns.
First of all, I'm sure you're all aware about the recent spike in violence at Vista Peak Preparatory. Oh, I'm a junior, by the way. Two weeks ago, not one. Two weapons were found on campus, a firearm and mace. Not only were students and parents not notified of this, but it was not clarified what actually happened. I was not a 100% sure what happened on those days, and I'm still not a 100% sure what happened now. And I understand that a lot of it is none of my business, and my business should lie within my education. But my education is very important to me.
I look at it as a privilege that not everyone else has, but it is hard for me and my peers to stay focused when we are left in the dark. Silence is loud, but not loud enough to overshadow rumors and speculation, and I think it is very important that these things are addressed. Second, violence in schools has been a prevalent issue in America for the past thirty ish years, and I want to know why we haven't taken any steps to prevent it when we know how to do it. Secured access points, adequate communication between staff, students, and families, as well as preparedness, and most importantly, mental health support.
All of these things, we should be looking for in emergent in an emergency situation. Lately, we have had, inconsistent safety protocols, and it seems as though we have, been cracking down on less important things such as cell phones. In fact, there are many things that have been banned instead of guns. How many school shootings have happened in this past year? And now that we don't have access to our phones during school, how many students have not been able to call for help? How many students have to die before we start making change? I could go on and on about this because I am angry.
My parents are angry. My peers are angry. And we are learning about these things through damaging rumors instead of a trusted source. So I was hoping to see some change in that. Thank you. Thank you. Next, we have Alexa Gayheart. Sorry. Hello? Alright. Start when see it. Okay. Well, hello, everyone. Good evening, board members, administrators, and community members. My name is Alexa, and I'm a junior at Vista Peak Prep. Let me be clear. My intent is not to create more conflict or divide anyone at all.
The school means so much to me, and it's where I've grown and made memories with so many people. But then November 5, a student brought a firearm to my school. The way this district handled it wasn't just disappointing, it was dangerous. A gun was reported in the morning. Staff tracked the students and removed him from his class and found the weapon. And then silence. No lockdown, no alert, no hold. Students kept walking the hall all day. We weren't told until 4PM after school ended. Why couldn't teachers be informed and hold students in the classes without causing any chaos?
Where was the when the communication finally did come in, it was said that there was no serious threat. There was a gun at my school and that is a threat. One of my teachers told our class specifically, it wasn't that big of a deal. When I asked my stew if I asked to know the student if they knew what happened, half of them said no. That's not protecting that protecting us. That's hiding from our accountability. The same school held us in locked classrooms for over an hour because someone broke a radiator in the hall. A broken pipe and a small flood get students held in class for an hour,
but a gun gets silenced. How does that make sense? It's not just wrong, it's illegal. Colorado law requires districts to have an emergency response plan and to follow it. That includes immediate communication when there is a threat. That didn't happen. The district calls itself a destination district. That's the marketing that's been told, but here's the reality. According to the Common Sense Institute's 2024 report, Aurora Public Schools ranks among the highest in Colorado's largest districts for drug violations, violent incidents,
and chronic absences. We have two to three weapon reports every single week, something most parents don't even know. Last week, a student physically shoved a police officer during a cafeteria brawl. No consequences. Meanwhile, our graduation rate went from forty eight percent in 2012 to seventy six percent in 2022, and that sounds great. Except our academic performance on state test stayed completely flat. We're not educating students better. We're lowering the bar. P r over reality, image over safety, and silence over transparency.
I'm not here to attack anyone. I care about this school. I care about my teachers. I care about my friends, and I care about my dad who works at the school. That's exactly why I'm trying to speak up. We say never again after Columbine, STEM school, and after Evergreen. But when a gun shows up here, all we get is silence. This time we got lucky. No one was hurt. But luck isn't a safety plan. And based on to two to three weapons reports per week, there will be a next time. So I'm asking follow the law, follow your own protocols, and tell the truth because see our safety like it matters more than your image
because right now, it doesn't feel like anything's happening. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Valentina Moreno. Hello. My name is Valentina Moreno, and I am currently a junior at Visipi Preparatory. As students in 2025, we are scared to go to school every single day. I ask most students I know, and they would tell me how in every single classroom they enter, they have a way out, a way to hide, and a way to stay alive. In every hall and every section of our school, I have a plan. Last week, when I heard from a friend that there was a weapon on campus,
my first thought is that I was horrified. I wanted to go to my mom because I know she didn't know. My mom currently has two jobs and has no time to answer the phone, look at emails, know anything that's going on. When I told her, her face was horrified, and her first instinct was to make sure I was okay. And I was, but I was still upset, upset that I went over five hours in school and had no idea I was in danger. And at the end of the day, not only did I know, but I found out from a friend. We live in a state and a country where we are no stranger to gun
violence and school shootings. Most people in this room have had personal experiences with gun violence. In January, my 16 year old cousin died because of gun violence. Two months ago, an hour away, Evergreen High School had students injured and killed, yet so many students at Vista Peaks still don't know this happened. So many students are left in the dark as and as we as students should be aware of what's going on in our school because most parents don't talk to their kids. I'm lucky to have a mom who tells me these things,
and the school is also not informing us. I'm in student council, so I get most information some students don't get. What about the other many students who don't know that this is happening? What about the 2,000 other kids who don't get this information? My purpose of sharing is to get more communications between administrators and students, not to blame or berate because I know you guys are altruists trying to do your jobs. But we are all just students who want the best for Vista peak and APS as a whole. Thank you guys for your time. Thank you. Our final speaker for the night is Linnea Reed Ellis.
Hello? I'm here tonight to speak on a completely different topic than our very well prepared and, educated and eloquent students. So good evening, members of the board. My name is Linnea Reed Ellis. I am an elementary teacher currently serving as the president of the Aurora Education Association. And I'm here tonight to give thanks to our two outgoing board members for their years of service, Directors Gerken and Carter. On behalf of AEA, the Union of Educators, and APS, thank you for your dedication to students, staff, and community of Aurora Public Schools. As this is one of your final meetings,
I'm guessing that you might be disappointed that you're not able to grant one last parting gift to the community of APS by publicly voting to support the union of the education support professionals. But we're confident that you will continue to support the workers of Aurora and all of Colorado in new and different capacities. With that shared value, AEA made a donation to Colorado nine to five in your honor. Colorado nine to five is a nonprofit organization that has three goals: To push for fair workplaces that include higher wages, paid leave and are harassment free to foster the leadership of women and non binary
people of color to have the support and tools needed to thrive, build power and make lasting change and to ensure that all people can live and thrive on their own terms inside and outside of the workplace. So again, thank you for your years of service to the APS community. I believe that concludes our, public comment this evening, and I wanna thank everyone who have addressed the board. If you'd like to stay, now is a good time to stay and, hang out with us. If not, it's also a good time to,
deport. Okay. Next on our agenda, the consent. Do I hear a motion to approve the consent agenda? I move we approve the consent agenda. Do I hear a second? Second. It's been moved by director Gherkin and seconded by director, Tasker. Claudia, would you please call the role? Yes, ma'am. Director Carter? Aye. Director Duncan? Aye. Doctor Gergen? Aye. Doctor Kiki? Aye. Director Reinhart? Aye. Director Tasker? Aye. Director Tom Wing? Aye. Thank you. Thank you, Claudia. And now on information,
item agenda. I believe, superintendent, you have, staff presenting to the board this evening? I do. Thank you, madam president. As we've been alluding to over the past couple of weeks, we have some new curriculum that we're gonna propose for the board's adoption. So this evening, you'll get to you've received the report already with the video presentation, so hopefully you found that meaningful. But the staff is here to talk a little bit more about that and then entertain any questions you might have. So who you have with us tonight is, Kenny Webb, instructional coordinator of electives, Jenny Saubach, director instructional of, math science and electives,
and then Samantha Doodley, instructional coordinator of secondary science. And I didn't know you're gonna be joining us, Jen. Well, thank you. Welcome. So you guys I'll turn it over to you all. So we're here tonight, to present three, curriculum reduction for the 2627 school year. Alright. So we're here to, talk about three curriculum that we're presenting for adoption for the 2627 school year, because Envision math, which is middle school math, and was adopted during the pandemic, when the previous curriculum unexpectedly went out of publication, and so therefore did not go through a comprehensive review process.
High school science standards have been revised since the last curriculum adoption in 2013, and PE curriculum has not been reviewed or updated since 2007 and also has updated standards since that time. So we're asking, the board to approve the adoption of the recommended curriculum for middle school math, high school science, and k 12 PE. High quality curriculum in all contents is directly aligned to the APS, mission and vision. This also relates to the third, sixth, and ninth grade board goals along with graduation and guardrail two guardrail two around educating
the whole child. Next slide. For math, the recommendation is to adopt illustrative mathematics with the option for accessing print and online materials via OpenUp. Next slide. The curriculum review committee for middle school math was made up of 22 members from 11 schools, AEA, and the central office staff, and over four sessions, they developed and refined a rubric, evaluated curricular resources, and ultimately reached a consensus on what programs to pilot, and the things that they focused on were rich relevant tasks, practice, and teacher usability.
Next slide. In their last, meeting, each member of the committee, received two votes. The outcomes of those votes are on this slide. So Exponential and Illustrative Open Up were the two front runners. In June 2025, the decision was made to remove Exponential Math from the pilot because it was created internally by an individual staff member, was not supported by a publisher, not formally reviewed by EdReports, and was not meeting accessibility standards at that time. So most schools that were planning to pilot Exponential decided to pilot illustrative open up
instead, which means that 16 of 18 of our middle schools and p eights are currently piloting illustrative in at least one grade level. And below you can see the, ed reports, the perfect ed report, ratings for illustrative open up. Next slide. The unit one data you're looking at here shows, students in engaging with the Envision curriculum across the top in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade, and then across the bottom, you see illustrative unit one assessments. This is not a perfect comparison because the content is not identical in those unit
ones, but this is a snapshot of where we were at the end of unit one in October. Next slide. Teachers and leaders were also surveyed about how aligned they believe the current curriculum or the pilot curriculum is to the look for's that they reviewed for. And as you can see, the strong majority either agree or strongly agree that these indicators are showing up in the pilot curriculum. Next slide. When asked to give an overall rating, teachers and leaders gave, this curriculum 3.6 out of five stars and because,
Exponential was removed from the pilot options in the summer, teachers were also asked, if given the option, to pilot new, materials or to continue with illustrative. Over 85% said that they wanted to continue with illustrative because it is a high quality resource and because they value the consistency and coherence of sticking with one resource long enough to get good at at it. Next slide. Here are a few assets of the curriculum, including the perfect, ed report rating, the alignment to APS instructional model, and the embedded instructional routines to support all students.
Next slide. These are some challenges that we know we'll need to address in year one of implementation, namely, needing comprehensive training on the design of the illustrative curriculum and the embedded instructional routines along with access to printed materials for teachers that want to use those. Next slide. And then this is an overview of our implementation process, starting with making materials available for all teachers to access per the AEA master agreement starting in January and, again, providing that comprehensive training for all teachers and instructional coaches in middle school math.
Next. I would ask that you jot down any questions you have specific to the math curriculum so that we can talk about science and PE and then take questions at the end. So I'll turn it over to Sam to discuss science. So for high school stop you for a second and ask my colleagues if that's okay. Awesome. Thank you. So for high school science, we're looking at recommending OpenSCIED for biochem and physics. Next slide, please. So in science, we had a curriculum review committee process as well. We had three two hour sessions. The first two meetings were spent, digging into the equip rubric and really helping teachers define what a high quality instructional
material in science look like and entailed. And meeting three was where they made a recommendation for pilot, and all 13 committee members had a 100% agreement that they should move forward with open sci ed. Next slide, please. This slide just describes what the EQIP rubric is. So there's three phases to the EQIP rubric. There's the alignment to the standards, which is bucket one. Bucket two is the instructional supports that are that are supposed to be provided within the curriculum. And then bucket three is how they monitor student progress as well as the culturally responsive teaching practices.
Next slide. This slide is describing, that all the units in middle school and in high school would have the NGSS design badge. Next slide. The slide describes that EdReports has given the highest rating for all of the curriculum we're looking at for physics, chem, and biology. Next slide. The professional learning that happened prior to pilot, this is what this slide is referencing. So the teachers were given a pre pilot professional learning, which was a deep dive, into the resource and what they could expect. And so this was asking them their preparedness.
So a 100% of them agreed or strongly agreed that they were prepared and ready to pilot. There's quotes on the bottom from teachers specifically. So, that's just so on every slide, you can see what the teachers are saying. Next slide. After the pilot, we had a 100% of the teachers recommend the resource for adoption. Next slide. The student experience surveys were provided, to us with CU Boulder and doctor Penuel's research team. So there were three three survey I was trying to think if we did three or four. We had three surveys that we gave kids throughout the unit.
They took one the very first day. They took one mid unit, and they took one at the end of the unit. And on these, there were achievement questions, but there were also questions about relevancy contribution, and coherence from the student perspective. So the slide or the graph on the left of the bar graph I'm sorry. The line graph is, about ethnicities and how they rated the questions, and the charts are by gender. And so the two highest ratings were the the first highest was that all kids felt like they did contribute 80% or more,
felt like they contributed to the day either as partners, as whole class, but they definitely felt like they were members of the community. The second highest was for whether they thought it was interesting or not. And then, of course, in true teenage fashion, when we asked them, do you would you research this outside of class? They were like, no. We're okay. We'll come back tomorrow and reengage with you. So, that's obviously an area of improvement and something we need to think about in professional learning, but that is true across, both gender and ethnicities.
Next slide. So this is the student achievement trends. The big ones that we noticed were that they had a that they struggled with interpreting scientific graphs and applying models and connecting data to scientific claims, especially when it was about scale or cause and effect and abstract concepts. So that's developmentally, that's pretty normal. We would see that nationwide. It also correlates with math. The other thing that stamps that is in chemistry, students really did struggle with the idea of scale and stoichiometry, and that's the mathematical reasoning at a really small scale or something that they can't
see. So that tells us a lot about what we need to think about in our professional development. So what we need to really emphasize is promoting contribution and making sure kids feel like the learning is relevant, and then we also really need to push them on the mathematical reasoning, specifically around abstract concepts and cause and effect. Next slide, please. This is the implementation process that is gonna be very similar to math. Number one is in the spring, we would definitely wanna make sure that teachers have the opportunity, for the same professional learning that the pilot teachers gave high ratings for.
And then we also wanna make sure that the pilot teachers, inform any type of implementation process moving forward around any professional learning they they received during the pilot and post pilot. And now I'm gonna hand to Kenny. Same thing. If you have any questions, just jot them down, and we'll address those at the end. My name is Kenny Webb. I'm the p PE, instructional coordinator for I mean, instructional coordinator for armies of PE, dance, and drama. Sorry about that. And we are recommending two curriculums for k 12 PE. The first is open. It is a k 12 resource, but leans heavily into the elementary space.
And then dynamic PE ASAP is also a k 12 resource, but leans heavily into the secondary space. Next slide. So the process was very similar to math and science. We had a curriculum review committee. We, had an initial list of nine different curriculums, that we looked at. The PE advisory group narrowed those down to five, and then the 10 members of the, curriculum review committee, vetted those five, curriculums. We had three different meetings, varying, lengths, but the purpose was to really dig in and see, what we were getting. Next slide. So the criteria for adoption,
we looked at three different things. We created a rubric to make sure that these, curriculums were, accessible for all of our students in APS. We don't, PE curriculums don't get vetted by ed reports, so we didn't have that as a resource that we could look at. So we took recommendations from our national organization. But we used, their rubric and kind of pared it down so that it made sense for our students. We also looked at cost. We wanted to make sure we were getting value, for our curriculum and then teacher usability. Next slide. The pilot schools that we had were from different, networks, across all grade bands. So you can see here who piloted what.
Next slide. Oh, we didn't get the updated ones in there. I apologize. At the point when we delivered this to DLT, we did not have any student data. But the overall, consensus was we showed growth in skills, and we showed growth in language development around vocabulary that was specific to, the units that were being, piloted. And we're really looking forward to developing some common formative assessments out of this work, that PE PE has never had, strategically across the whole district. Next slide. We did get some teacher experience data. A lot of,
the students really liked the worksheets and handouts that came with the lessons. The skill work was beneficial, that some of those students haven't done since elementary school. And then on the flip side of that, the high school students didn't like the skill work even though they said they liked the skill work, so they're just being high school students, I guess. But we've got some work to do there with our implementation plan and and how we balance, the skill work versus play and things like that, and then creating more visuals so we can really support, all of our students, specifically our MLL students. Excellent. Oh, and our implementation process is similar to,
math and science. We will start, next spring if this if these two curriculums are adopted, allowing teachers to become familiarized with them. Not start implementation next spring. Sorry. That's not what I meant. But, giving, teachers access to the resources, and then really kick off in August with our all day PD, around the implementation plan and how that's gonna work the rest of the year, and then really focusing on micro PD, so they get just right, just now PD when they need it, and then also tapping into, whatever the calendar committee comes up with for,
PD days, moving forward. Next slide. And now we will field all of the questions that you have. Thank you very much. Board, any questions or comments? Director Gherkin? Thank you for your presentation. It was very informative. I did have a question about the science curriculum. I I love that this was highly rated, especially if in physics, chemistry, and biology. I know we teach other sciences as well. Are are these, is open SCI ed also available in those other areas such as geology or, anatomy,
whatever it it might be? That's a great question. With the standards revision that happened, Earth science is now embedded within the units, and so they will get astronomy and geology and all of that built into and, a lot of environmental science. K. Thank you. I had one other question, if I may. You noted the things that, needed to be addressed during professional development for teachers. And I know that often we or the the easiest kind of professional development, especially around a new curriculum or taking it district wide is this is how you
use it, this is where you find it. It's just the process kinds of things. My understanding this is pretty easy to use. So will that how well, how will that allow you to, really dig into the kinds of things that students need, such as how to teach cause and effect and how to teach, the things that, the kids were showing you weren't working for them just yet. Yeah. I love that. So a lot of it is done in PLC work. And with the standards revision, it talks about cross cutting concepts, which are cause and effect and scale, and so that's the way we want kids thinking about the content.
Another part of the standards is the science and engineering practices, and that's what we want kids doing with the content. And so, the biggest professional learning that has to happen for teachers is the shift in instruction. We are no longer focused on content only. They have, the skills and the thinking that we have to really address, and so that's where the a lot of the professional learning, falls. Great. Thank you so much. Yeah. Can I just add to that as well for any of the curriculums that we are adopting both from last year and in following years? We want to build strong implementation plans. So this team,
along with their colleagues, are working on a longer than one year plan for implementation because we know implementation can be using the materials. And if we want deep, rich experiences for our students, it needs to be integrated for multiple years and be a priority for multiple years. Director Carter. Thank you. So my my question is, is there a top down integration with the sixth, seventh, and eighth grade, or or do those middle school teachers have, I guess,
some kind of say or the ability to work within the curriculum. I only say that because part of my last last month, I went to about four or five different sixth grade science classes, And each one was doing something different, but it I'm wondering if we're still gonna give those teachers That ability to be creative. I had everything from cups to stem to snakes. Yeah. Will there be, like, some type of I still want the the integration, but will there be the the the ability to be creative at the at the
lower levels, for those, middle school science teachers. Yeah. So the clarifying question, you spoke of visiting sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. So when you say top down, are you speaking specifically specifically of, like, taking all of the science standards and the adoption materials and bringing them into middle school? Is that what you mean? Is there some type of integration? Are we just this is just for these grades and that's gonna be end of it, or is there gonna be some kind of integration but still leaving those those middle school teachers the ability to be creative with the with the curriculum? Yeah. So this that,
I appreciate you asking that question. This is a six it'll be six twelve. So, essentially, middle school we is who we adopted first with open side, so they already are doing it. And And so now we're just bringing high school in alignment. So there won't be any changes at middle school. It'll be just the high school. Okay. And then Alright. Cool. And that was the question. I just wanna make sure they were still allowed to have that freedom even if we implement this this curriculum, especially in those lower levels because that's where the engagement starts. Yep. They've been doing it since 2020, so they're good to go. Right.
Fletcher Weinhardt. Thank you. When I was at home and I watched the videos, I was ready to jot in my notes how much teacher input did you gather for this, and you presented that, so thank you. It was very well organized. Teacher if adopted, teachers will have access to the curriculum next semester, January, for that term across the board so that everybody has the same access, same amount of time. And that's not a we're we're judging not judging. But it's not a full it is an implementation, but it's not a full where we're watching and making sure you're doing a,
b, c, d, and that comes next. Right? Correct. So our master agreement states that we need to to, have those materials in the hands of all of our our teachers one semester prior before they begin to teach. What I would advocate as we have moved more to many of the digital resources is that it's not as much about putting those materials in hand as it is about starting to provide the necessary required training and support teachers need so that they are going to move into both spring and summer ready and prepared to start the
school year. So that is part of the implementation work that's happening now. Or should materials be adopted, we will plan to make that happen in the spring, options in spring, summer, and then again in the fall to support that implementation. So we've had time to learn it before we actually have the expectation of full implementation. Thank you. Director Tomlin. Thank you for sharing this information. I really appreciate that the science curriculum, included the student experience data. I did notice, however, I just wanted to confirm if that similar data was captured for the other curriculum,
so for math as well. And I know you said you mentioned it's definitely p. And if we observed, what do the demographics look like and if that's take you know, being taken into account? And then just sort of an add on question, do we know how many of those students were multi language learners or if we had that population represented? Yeah. So, the seat data or the student experience surveys were in partnership with CU Boulder in a grant that we did. We do we do expect to continue that. Teachers found that very helpful. We did have I did mean I so thank you for bringing that up because
I did forget to mention that. We had all populations. We had the newcomer house at Central. They were a part of the physics, and so their voices were in there. And we also had students from APS avenues. So they were all in there. And to your point, director Tomling, as we continue to think about, curriculum adoptions in the future, we do want to ensure that we have a comprehensive process, whether it is math, science, literacy, etcetera. So this group of people is helping to kind of pave that way, and then we'll set some we have some standards that we'll follow moving forward.
Quick question. Can you remind me how long we have implemented Envision for middle school math? So Envision, I believe, was adopted in the twenty twenty twenty twenty twenty one school year. The company that was, formally used moved, and we had Envision that we adopted then during that COVID time. So we've had Envision for about three three, four years Four years. Close to four years. And now we are changing to
illustrative. I think we've had that conversation several times here to where we know that it takes at least two to three years for a curriculum to show its strength or not. So if here's my question. If every two to three years we are changing curriculum, how are we gonna have a what's the word I'm looking for? Someone help me. Director Tomlin. How are we gonna have, consistency for our students? That is a terrific question, and I thank you for bringing that up.
Part of our goal in looking at the curriculum was to ensure that all k 12 pre k 12 students have high quality access to materials. One of the things that I also feel is important to bring up is as we looked at our bridges adoption from last year, we moved to a three point o bridges. One, because the resource was better. They had made some enhancements connecting to some scaffolds as well as some equity centered practices. And through that process, one, we know that we want there to be that alignment from k 12 in our
math system. And with the Envision program, we felt that it was time that we needed to look at a curriculum that could be used really, potentially, six eight, but then that continuum of nine twelve. And so as we looked at that and as we knew the implementation for Envision was one that went through that difficult transition because we did not get to choose that. This gave us that option to make sure we were aligned to standards and to the practices that we want to elevate in Aurora Public Schools.
I would agree with you and say to you that as we have worked as well, we don't want to be switching or adopting curriculum every few years. Ideally, we would look at using the curriculum for anywhere between eight to ten years at least. And as we move forward in the curriculum adoption process, we are going to be very, particular about why we would choose any new curriculum connected to, a change in standards or if a curriculum were to go out of print,
or if there is new research or findings that would would would say that that curriculum is not good curriculum. But that is part of the adoption process and part of the work that the instructional team is doing to ensure that we can start building that consistent, framework so that there are no longer lots of adoptions happening and lots of change happening for teachers. We need those high quality materials connected to those instructional practices, and we are going to soar. One more question. How long have we been implementing illustrative math?
I know we have been piloting it. Right? Sorry. Piloting illustrative math. Right? Yes. And it is How long have you been It has only been piloted this fall. So there was some professional learning that happened in in late spring last year to help people look at the illustrative and the exponential. And then there was some learning that was done this summer connected to illustrative, and people have the option to choose whether or not they wanted to stick with Envision or move to illustrative for a pilot.
So it has been a short amount of time. And how many schools have been piloting it? There are Yep. 16 of the 18 middle schools. 16 of the 18. Mhmm. Okay. Thank you. Director, Duncan. Yeah. I I just wonder. Is the goal to get teachers to use a curriculum with fidelity, which I'm sure is yes. But then how are we ensuring that we're building teachers' capacity to understand standards at a deep level to be able to utilize it and be autonomous like Carter
was alluding to earlier? Thank you for that great question. We've actually been using the term implementing curriculum with integrity. And it actually came from part of the work that we did with our Bridges implementation because we know how important it is that we have our teacher, our students, and then the curriculum. And we need to have that instructional core and understand all of those pieces so that we can provide the best possible, education for our students. Will you repeat your question, please? Yeah. How are we because, again,
working doing work on a daily basis is Yeah. Like, we need our teachers to understand standards at a deeper level to then be able to differentiate more effectively, scaffold more effectively. Providing a curriculum is providing a curriculum, and we can have teachers read it verbatim and still not get what we're at want them to get and deliver that tier one instruction. So how are we developing the skills for them to learn a standard or develop the standard at a deeper level so they'll be able to differentiate more effectively? Yes. So, Art, thank you for that.
Our focus right now as an instructional team, and I'll let you all chime in if there's something I missed, is we're really working around some lesson internalization work as well as some unit internalization work. So we are taking a look at what are the standards within that curriculum and then how is that showing up within the lesson, and then how are how are teachers able to determine what are the best tasks and connections to the work connected to assessment, connected to, the rigor that they are doing in the classroom while they are teaching.
Director Gherkin. And I I think I wanna piggyback on that because I I think my question is perhaps going along with director Duncan in that we wanna have teachers not just understand what the standard is, but the science. Yeah. Uh-huh. You know? Maybe they don't know cause and correlation and, you know okay. Enough. I mean, just it's such a big deal, yeah, to be lifelong learners. Yeah. I think in the lesson internalization, piece, what's critical is that they understand the instructional routines or the way in which kids
are supposed to experience the learning. So experiencing that them themselves is very critical for them to be able to make those decisions later. To director Carter's example, in middle school, what a lot of the teachers have done is they've internalized the instructional routine so the delivery model is student centered. And what is making their autonomy come in is what what lab they wanna put in front of kids. Right? So we just have to make sure that they truly understand what's the outcome, what's the student exemplar, what should kids be experiencing and saying. And then where their autonomy comes in is,
well, I like this lab better than this lab. That's great. Like, does it get to the same thing? Can we get the same things accomplished? To your point about furthering their learning, in science, we are an applied subject. So we have ELA and we have math. And so what our teachers really need moving forward and something we need to think about in the implementation plan is how are we partnering with math and how are we partnering with ELA in order to support our teachers in their in their learning of of those things. Right? Because sometimes it is like, in if for example in math, I was in a classroom and they can put either variable as an x or
a y, right, when they're first approximating with it in in algebraic thinking. And in science, like, that's not a thing. Like, we have an x and we have a y of an independent dependent variable, and it matters where they go. And so I think helping our teachers really understand those data buckets, and data science is is gonna be critical in implementation for sure. Sorry. That was a passion point. Yeah. Okay. Director Tom Wing. Yeah. President Kiki, thank you for bringing up the reminding us about envision and the adoption because that, just feedback even from just some of our teachers in regards to the curriculum changing
every few years. With this presentation, as part of the implementation and rollout, if it hasn't been already, the presentation and teachers understand the why we're doing this again and how we got here. Is that gonna be shared with them as well? We absolutely know how important that is, and we look forward to our spring professional release days to start to have those conversations and engage with our teachers in a way that helps them understand not only the why, but but why this is in. Why to them, but then why it is important for our students as well.
K. Directed on Kim. I just wanna ask. When we implement new curriculum, what happens with the old curricular resources? Because I know what happens. Mhmm. So Yeah. Just curious. We, in in several of our areas, we didn't have necessarily new or any materials to discard, but we do typically look at how and what the materials that are being used can still be recycled. So the best example I could give you is in a literacy classroom. If there are additional books that they can put in their school library or in
their classroom library, we would want to distribute those in that way. Many of the other materials such as teacher additions of of, a curriculum would then be discarded, and we work with our learning resource team to discard those. Is it on the school to discard those resources, or does the district help those resources? Do you mean by, like, physically going and helping them pack them up? Getting rid of them. Do you know what the answer to that would be in the past? Yeah. So in the past, what has happened with,
like, actual texts, they box them up, and then the warehouse picks them up and takes them to discard. So they're not actually physically moving them beyond putting them in a box and, labeling them for discard. But they're not taking up spaces in our classrooms or other storage areas in the building? Yeah. I thought you meant, like, do we physically go out and help them pack them up? Like, how do you does the district I know they've done it. Help in ensuring that those old curricular resources aren't taking up spaces that can be used inside of our building. Yes. That is correct. I'm sorry. I misunderstood your question.
Well, it's me. You know, we're also happy to go help if this is now on record. I think superintendent Giles said oh, no. Sorry. I've got his tenies on him. He's good. One other thing, director Duncan is, if the resource is still deemed viable, it's moved to the supplemental list, which means it's no longer the basic curriculum, but it's a supplemental curriculum. So, like, a lot of the textbooks that we adopted back to in o seven for PE still have a lot of great activities and stuff in there, so we would not discard those. We would move them to the supplemental list so they're still available in buildings. They're just not,
the core recess resource anymore. Any other questions or comments on the curriculum? Alright. Thank you very much, superintendent. Do we have the next presentation? Yes. We do, madam president. Thank you. You all received the report similar to this previous one around Horizon uptown boundary and naming. We thought it'd be really important to just share have the team share with you that process and then name that we landed on. So, Craig, I'll kick it over to you to introduce who's with us, and then y'all can take it from there. Yes. Absolutely. Good evening, board. Again, my name is Craig Wilde,
chief of schools, and I have the privilege to introduce the team that has put in a significant amount of work in the planning for our new p h school that has led us to our boundary and naming recommendations. So with that, I will hand it off to Megan to introduce herself. Hi. I'm Megan Ortiz. I'm the principal at Clyde, and I will be the new principal at the new building. And I am doctor Kelly Forrest. I am the operations director that supports our p eights. I'm Mary Ann Sammons. I'm the strategic development adviser. Will you go to the next slide, please?
Today, we're here to present about the new p eight school that will be in the up, the Horizon Uptown community, in order to, move forward with the boundary and naming recommendations set forth today. This is, exciting news, to open our new PA in that area and we are excited to talk to you about the attendance boundary for that school as well as the naming process. This is linked to our guardrail around stakeholder insight. There was lots of opportunity for feedback that we were able to collect today that we'll share a little bit more about as well as board policy around naming a
school. Next, please. So, our outline today is just going to go over that stakeholder feedback and engagement, our boundary determination, and our school naming process. Next, please. The stakeholder engagement process was one that we utilized in, getting information from both the Clyde Miller families as well as the families that are at Vista Peak that are in the horizon uptown boundary. And thinking about how we can get all of those stakeholders involved in thinking about the names as well as the impacts of the boundary that we'll be presenting today. We did a couple of in person meetings to be exact with those stakeholders.
There was interpretation provided as well as, access to our boundary website and personal outreach that that was done by Megan, specifically as well as our other leaders involved. The survey was sent out, about our boundaries in our name to get information from various stakeholders including parents and staff and community members and we were able to then move forward with our determinations and our presentation for tonight. Next. We can go to the next slide and the next one. So to start off with the boundary process,
I was just gonna, you know, refresh, take us back about a year to the decision to move forward with the the p eight at Horizon Uptown and, specifically, the decision to close the school facility for Clyde Miller, but not the actual Clyde Miller School. And some of those reasons why, you know, one is that Clyde Miller is a substandard p eight facility. You know, we currently have a p eight in a converted elementary school building, and so it doesn't have the same facilities as some of our other p eights that can afford our middle school students.
With that, Clyde Miller has a lot of renovations it's in need of, some significant repairs. And even if we would move forward with those, it still wouldn't be able to, be comparable to other p eights if we we just renovated the school. Similarly, it also doesn't have space that where the Clyde Miller School's currently at for the size of school that we would need for a p eight, and so we had the opportunity to develop it at the Horizon Uptown location. Next slide. So, here's a map of what we anticipate the, boundary for the new P through eight to be.
This was the boundary process for this was fairly, straightforward given that, the decision that Clyde Miller that the school would partially be a replacement for the Clyde Miller building so that the new attendance area will encompass all of Clyde Miller, including the the Tower Triangle as well as a, a couple of apartment complexes that have been recently built, in the north side of the attendance area. The second half of the building, or the, attendance area will be, the Horizon Uptown community itself,
which is a square mile, that's shown there outlined. There's also a small large lot community just west of that that would be included in that area. So, essentially, what that would do is take all of the portions of Vista Peak, exploratory that is West Of E 470, and then, Vista Peak would remain serving, its current attendance area East Of E 470. We anticipate opening, the school with approximately, 650 students. That building has a capacity of around 900, so we have room to,
to grow, as the Horizon community expands with a new residential development. This attendance area would also provide some capacity relief, to Vista Peak as we, move those families in the Horizon uptown to the new school, as Vista Peak continues to grow with housing development as well. Due to this boundary recommendation, we wanted to make sure we did survey a variety of stakeholders. So you could see here that we got 151 responses ranging from parents and guardians at Clyde Miller to parents and guardians at that Vista Peak that would be impacted
by this boundary change and, students as well as staff members. Next. Our survey results are here, in terms of describing how people feel about the new boundary. Majority of the stakeholders surveyed are excited either very excited or moderately excited, for this boundary change or neutral. Next, please. We also wanted to make sure that we knew how to support stakeholders moving forward. And so, a part of that survey was to ask how we could support them in this transition. And so, we have already started to work on some of these inputs that our stakeholders have
asked for in terms of communication, being able to tour the new school, and more details about that. K. So with the naming process next slide, please. Next slide. So we use, the guidelines that are presented, through the board. And the next slide, we have this is the culture and vision cadre. So with closing down a building and opening a building, we have specific members from across the school that supports with the planning. And then in addition, that's not, pictured as our parent advisory committee.
We have five consistent members at a time. We have, asked over a dozen families to participate as well. Next slide. So this is our building, that is being built. I was just in a construction meeting today. It's big, and it's beautiful. We're very excited for it. So next slide. So as Josh, went through, this community is, encompassing many different this school community is encompassing with Tower Triangle, Horizon Uptown, the flats at, a Walden Apartments, and the lot large lot.
So we know we have to have a name that is inclusive, to all of these different communities. Next slide. So part of the work I did, I reached out to two community members who have lived in, the larger lot homes. They've lived there for over forty years, and I just asked to get, like, the background of the community. So one, community member shared that, where the school is, built was a wheat farm. So that's where Wheat View came in. And then, obviously, we stuck with, Horizon View because of the view of the prairies and the mountains.
And then I spoke with the gentleman, Kevin Martin, and he, he's been living in that community for over fifty years, and he really talked about the, Coal Creek Arena and how it the importance in that area. So I did some digging, and I didn't have to dig that far, because Coal Creek was one of the first school houses in Aurora. The school house is, placed on Delaney Farm rated first and second. And then Josh was able to share, the body of water. It's a very small body of water that, does go through that area as well. So those were the three names we presented to the community through all of our
stakeholder engagements. And next slide. So based on, stakeholder feedback and survey results, you will see that Coal Creek was, the majority had the majority votes and then horizon view. So then we presented to the district leadership team. Next slide. And so for, we presented Coal Creek because one of that was, our stakeholders' first choice. It's neutral. The school, as I said, will serve multiple communities. And in the direct connection to the one room schoolhouse that was originally in Aurora and then to the Coal Creek Arena.
And the second one, second choice is horizon, Horizon View P 8, and that's the connection to the name of the community and just the view of the range and the prairie. And then the core team, the superintendent's recommendation was, Coal Creek P 8. And then, next slide. So through the stakeholder engagement, we also, did surveys for our mascot. So the mascot that, the community has chosen and the with the support with district leadership team will be the prong horns. Next slide.
Any questions that we could answer. Thank you very much for that presentation. Board, the floor is open for questions or comments. Yes. I have a, question. So, how are are we addressing the individuals who are impacted by the boundary boundary change? Will open enrollment process be an option, and will those who are impacted have priority? Yeah. This situation is specifically addressed within the board policy on boundary changes. And, there is a priority list there,
with regard to, the selection for open enrollment. And, students who have been impacted by a boundary change are part of that criterion amongst the top of those. So, yes, it will be a priority. Also, as I mentioned, that we have room, for growth at the Gold Creek School, as well as, we will be moving some students out of Vista Peak Exploratory, so they should have some room to, to address those families with needs, particularly those who have been going, for example, to Vista Peak for their entire career and are in their final,
years of that school. We, typically try to accommodate those whenever possible. And one exciting thing, I think, to add to to mister Hendley's, response is that Meghan and, the principal at Vista Peak Exploratory have worked together to kind of create a plan to support students who are transitioning, to the new school and try to encourage that, transfer for them. Richard Tamlin? Yeah. Just a a comment. So when I, became a member of the board, like, two years ago, I remember, driving around the bus with director Taske,
and we drove past I don't know. It's about, like, eight hours driving around Aurora. Aurora is so huge. But, driving, and we did pass the building. So it's just very exciting to see within two years. And now I have, you know, an image of what the new school's gonna look like. So well done. Thank you. Director Reinhardt. Just a comment as well. The inclusive process that you presented here is is very appreciated, that you've drawn from every corner of the communities around there. Thank you. Director Carter, can you please, nudge better? Okay. Go ahead.
Yeah. I wanna thank you guys for your your stakeholder. It's it's appreciated. I will say when I was first going through the, original presentation, I I it felt like it should be something related to Horizon just because of the area. But I I was very appreciative appreciative that you settled in the, Coal Creek. I think it's unique, and I think it's impressive. Also, Proghorns, unique. Impressive. Can you just do me a favor? No green, no blue. No maroon either. I I I go to those soccer games all I go to soccer games all the time. Everybody's got green and blue. So just We've ruled those out.
Yeah. We appreciate that comment. I think it was really important to get something unique and and new to the school. And also be inclusive of the variety of stakeholders that are gonna be coming to this school. Mister, Greg. I was just thinking how cool that, you know, you had two primary ideas for names, and then here's one stakeholder who says, but what about this? And one person standing up expressing an opinion just caught on and, connected so much to our history. I love it.
Thanks. Thanks for all your hard work and all the different ways you did this. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Alright. That concludes, the presentations, for today. We are now going to move on to, open dialogue. Any report board? Director Reinhardt. I can't remember. Director Carter, please. Thank you. I can't remember if I've been went to the not one more child before or after the last board meeting, but I have actually gone to one of their quarterly sessions at the DA's office where they,
there's a program called Sungate Kids that's in many school. I learned I didn't know that. So I was grateful to have been there and learned more about the work, more specifics, and will continue to attend those. And I went to industry partners summit. Is that where I went to, Patty? Yes. With it was at Highland at the Highlands out there at that school. They had many representatives from industry partners, from the community, and they talked about all these things that that students can get into now to
to help them plan and and learn more about what they really are interested in and want to do. And it was very impressive, and the access that they'll have is pretty phenomenal. Nice. Thank you. Director Carter. Anyone else? Thank you. Director Tamara? Yep. I did attend, the last board meeting for APS Foundation, and I think it was really good that they represent spoke about the innovation grant program, and they had a recipient from William Smith High School, Jason Widmer. And as you know, William Smith High School is a project based learning school.
And, he was just talking about the type you know, how they're gonna be used this this funding, with creating projects with logos and product designs. It's actually very hands on and very, yeah, experience for the kids and designs using, Adobe Illustrator, Procreate, eventually helping the students to build out a portfolio, and including how they're gonna be using AI to generate ideas and concepts and characters. So this is all really great. It's just really good to see how, well, one, with the support of APS Foundation, all the wonderful work that we're doing, partnering with them, and giving these experiences to our students. So thank you.
And I I do wanna do a small plug in for Montview Elementary as well. I connected with Susan Gershwin. They have their winter giving event coming up, and they're asking for toy donations, for their 400 students and gift cards, due delivered to the school anytime between now and December 8? So they would love our support. Thank you. You mean the seven of us not kidding? Yes. If each one of us and anyone listening Yeah. Can help. Thank you. Director Gherkin. Thank you.
I, along with director Tom Wing, went to the public education, and business coalition dinner, which is always a fun time, and and they're great partners for us. It was Absolutely. My last my last public appearance with the board, in that capacity. So, it was great. And So beautiful. Speaking of that, I I just wanted to show you that, tonight is my last board meeting other than the changing of the guard on December 2. But I, keep track of all my notes for all my meetings in various notebooks over the
years. And last page tonight Oh. Down to the very end and in the margin. So it must be meant to be. And miss Bartle. That's right. So if I may just have a minute to say Of course. Finishing up two terms, eight years, serving Aurora Public Schools has been an honor and a privilege. I, it's it's just been great. And I wanted to conclude my service by saying thank you. I wanna say thanks to my fellow board members, those around this table, and those I've served with in past boards.
Thanks to superintendent Giles and our amazing leadership team. Thanks to all the wonderful school leaders and teachers and staff out there who work with our children every single day, do an amazing job, and not just teach them, but hold them. And speaking of staff, thanks to our amazing board assistant, Claudia Posgwasic. You bring, professionalism, a sounding board, happiness, sunshine everywhere you go. Thank you so much. Thanks to my family,
especially my husband, Phil, who encouraged me to run for this seat in the first place and has supported me every step of the way. So thank you, thank you, thank you, all of you, for your dedication to the children and families of Aurora Public Schools. Thanks for loving them. Thanks for channeling that love into action. I'm so proud of the work that we've done together, the lives we've touched, and the difference we've made. So now I wish you all the best as APS moves forward.
So thank you. If you're saying that now, what are you gonna say on the second? I'll just say dinner. Just be dinner. Hi, director Gerken. Thank you. Never say never. Yeah. I what I heard is you need another notebook. I wanted to continue. Who's this? Hey. Jake, Dakota, your turn. Thank you. You're welcome. No. I wanted to say what I've done I kinda mentioned it earlier. For those who don't know, my wife's been a teacher in this district for twenty plus years. She's a very sixth grade science teacher for twenty plus years. And so part of one of the last things I wanted to do was to
I watched her stay up late, make lesson plans. She's still teaching sixth grade science, but it kept moving. It kept evolving, and so did she. And so one of the last things I wanted to do was just go to other science classes, other literal sixth grade science classes and just see, you know, what what they were doing and and and and and already appreciate what she was doing, but I just wanted to watch other, science teachers and and how they were working their curriculum. And then like I said before,
we we saw cups, which is a big one. We stims. We saw robots. We saw snakes. And, so, Murphy Creek, Marachek, Columbia, Horizon, Aurora Hills, and that was part of my last, round as a director, and I wanna say thank you also to the Murphy Creek, p through eight. They put on a Veterans Day event. And I, you know, I don't wanna say I'm jaded. I'm saying I was there, and it's a bunch of these veterans.
And the and I she had never done this before. The music teacher comes out, and the fifth graders start playing a cadence. And a cadence is, you know, airborne. And, I remember turning to my my baby girl, and I go, I want you to watch all the veterans' feats because they're all tapping. They're all tapping on beat. And it was it was, like I said, we've been I've been doing this for four years. I was very impressed. I felt I felt at home. I was gonna I was gonna march if they let me.
And so that's what I did this week. Thank you, sir. You will be missed too. Okay. Good. Good to know. Good to know. Any other report? On my end, I did have the opportunity to step in for director Carter for the Hispanic Association of Colleges and University, conference. That was, I can't even remember because the days were running into each other. I was in the middle of the of a very interesting campaign and, all of that as well.
So I can't remember, but it was it was really interesting. And director, Tom Wayne did mention, going somewhere in AI being the topic. That was exactly what the Hispanic Association also were talking about and merging all of that together and how AI is really now being embraced in our classrooms and how we can make that better from k 12 to higher ed. And I thought it was, interesting since the conversation is also going to be happening this legislative session,
and take precedent there. So that was really good. Then I, I am part of the, CASB convention planning. So our meeting went on last week. It's gonna be good. It's gonna be really good. I'm excited for that. And then lastly, I, I had a meeting with the Remsel board. You're going strong. The school is getting more and more diverse as we have been asking, them to consider, and the new ED is is amazing. Always looking for ways to connect with the different,
leadership team of the district students that she serves, and that was really good. And so that's my report for, the last two weeks or so, three weeks, whatever. And, superintendent, do you have something for us? I do. Thank you for, thank you for giving me a few seconds to talk a little about a little bit about something that I'm really proud of, when I think about who we are as a district and a community. So as we all know, the government shutdown, for quite a bit of time, the longest shutdown we've experienced. And during that shutdown,
a lot of our community members lost their SNAP benefits, and and that's just the beginning. I mean, a whole lot of other benefits. And as I share with you as a board, I know Aurora doesn't get everything right, but one thing I do think we get right is our care for community and for our kids and coming together to support them. And so as such, if you'll humor me for about a minute a minute or so, I just wanna read to you some of the things that we've done to be responsive to the needs of our community to ensure that our families have food to eat. And so just to start with context, if you did not know, one in seven children in Adams County and one in nine children in Arapahoe County
experience food insecurity. So across both counties, over a 131,000 individuals receive SNAP benefits students who qualify but are not yet enrolled. So that's just to give you some context of the students in the community that we serve. In response to the urgent needs, though, APS's Medicaid, grants, nutrition services, and FACE have rapidly deployed a coordinated and cross departmental response. And I appreciate all of you around the dice because you've also contributed contributed in some way asking, informing people, even asking about volunteer opportunities.
But what we've done in the district, we had emergency hybrid markets that is set up by Face and Nutrition Services. So that's seven additional food markets that take place that took place during the month of November will continue to take place, providing families with fresh produce, protein, and starch options. We wanna thank, Arapahoe County. They gave a grant of $10,000, and then I also have to acknowledge our own foundation. We went to them. I reached out to them and asked would they be willing to contribute 5,000. They said we'll do even better. We'll, double that and make it an additional 10,000.
So that's how we're able to do, some of the things that I'm sharing with you tonight. FACE also put together a resource guide, both internal and external food assistant options that have been made available, to the community. Benefit enrollment. Our Medicaid team has been attending the food markets to ensure that families are signed up for benefits and they get the support services that they need. Super Snack Expansion, so that's our nutrition, services program that would they will extend to allow every student to take a snack at the end of the day that's bolstering their daily new nutrition. And then weekly meal distribution,
through nutrition services and face. So using high schools, we coordinate the distribution of a thousand meals to families over the week for four weeks, and that's through drive through and walk up services that are provided. And then lastly, Thanksgiving baskets. FACE and Food for Hope has donate Food for Hope has donated a 164 Thanksgiving boxes for family liaisons to distribute to families the week of giving. And so that's just some of the things that I wanna highlight. But as you know, they're our schools are doing tremendous work that we haven't even highlighted in this, and this is on a daily basis, but to respond to the needs of our community.
And I just thank you for your support in helping us uplift, these efforts to be responsive to the kids that we serve every day. So thanks for giving me a moment to share that. Of course. Thank you so much. Not even talking about all of the other partner organizations that are also coming and helping as much as they can. So thank you so much. Director Tom. I would be remiss to add on to what superintendent Giles said. I had the pleasure of visiting the welcome center recently. Nasibu and his team of 12 who speak 21 languages on our,
like, core, families all across our district. They also partnered up with, Sprouts and Medicaid to provide, meals. I had I was able to walk through the market that they put together, and it was very impressive. It looks like a looks like a mini snack market. And, so it was re really good. And they, gosh, they do a host of other services just within that small group. Powerful team. Small team. It's powerful team. They, provide clothing and shoes, and they have new new clothing, new shoes, and equipment that just not just the kids, but the families need in that community.
And they were able to serve recently, intentionally reaching out to 200 of the families, the most needed, the the ones who needed it the most, to provide was, just food baskets as well, and then a day for them to come in and collect stuff from the market. So it was, really, really good to see. Thank you so much. Any other comment or report? Alright. Hearing none, director Duncan will now provide us with the actual time spent. Yeah. Fifty three minutes. Amazing. Alright. This thank you, director Duncan. This concludes our meeting
today. And then our next regular meeting, board meeting will be December 2. And, this is the time where I ask, do I hear a motion to adjourn? So move. Do I hear a second? It's been moved by directors, Duncan and seconded by director Gherkin. We are before we adjourn, Claudia, can you please call Roe? Yes, ma'am. Director Carter? Aye. Director Duncan? Aye. Doctor Gerken? Aye. Doctor Kiki? Aye. Director Reinhart? Aye. Director Tasker? Aye. Director Tom Wain? Aye. Thank you.
Thank you so much, Claudia. We are adjourned at 07:46.