Yes, ma'am. Director Carter? Present. Director Duncan? Present. Doctor Gerken? Here. Doctor Kiki? Present. Director Reinhart? Present. Director Casker? Present. Director Tomlin? Present. Thank you. Thank you, Claudia. Would you please join me for the pledge of allegiance? Superintendent, can you lead us? Thank you so much, superintendent. I'd like to welcome everyone in attendance for joining us today. Next item is the approval of the agenda. Do I hear a motion to approve the agenda? So moved. You're second. It's been moved by director Tom Wing and seconded by director Duncan.
Claudia, would you please call Roe? Yes, ma'am. Director Carter? Aye. Director Duncan? Aye. Doctor Gerken? Doctor Kiki? Aye. Director Reinhart? Aye. Director Tasker? Aye. Director Tomlin? Aye. Thank you. Thank you, Claudia. For our student performance this evening, we'd like to welcome Aurora Central High School Trojan students under the direction of Danella Iverson who will perform Can You Feel the Love tonight. Would you please join me, across the hall for the performance? Thank you. Good evening.
My name is Danila Iverson, and I'm the vocal music teacher at Aurora Central High School. And these are some members of our Trojan Airs, And we are going to sing an acapella arrangement of, Can You Feel the Love Tonight with soloists Olivia and Hayden and Blessing. There's a calm surrender to the rush of day. When the heat of the rolling world can be turned away, An enchanted moment, and it sees me through. It's enough for this restless for your choice to be with you.
There's a time for everyone if they only learn that the twisting kaleidoscope saw in turn. There's a rhyme and reason. The wild outdoors in the heart of the star crossed Voyager. With your own. Home. It's enough to make his and then a voice. Believe Can you feel your love tonight? You're crying. This was a beautiful performance. Thank you, Aurora Central, for that beautiful performance. Can we give them another round of applause?
Alright. Now we will turn it we will turn the meeting over to superintendent Giles for recognizing excellence. Alright. Thank you, madam president. Good evening, board and members of the audience. At this time, we'll continue with our recognition of the excellence across the district, and we'll start with honoring, miss Jasmine Baker. Is Jasmine in the room? Alright. Jasmine, come on up. Alright. So in alignment with our board result number three on sixth grade equity, it it is a true honor to recognize Meracek Middle School social studies teacher, Jasmine Baker. Known for bringing out the best in every student,
she creates an environment of high expectations, accountability, and critical thinking. A recent James Madison fellowship recipient, miss Baker is deeply committed to academic excellence and civic engagement civic education. I'm sorry. Beyond the classroom, she uplifts students and sponsor as sponsor of the Push in Affinity Group, providing meaningful opportunities for girls of color to explore identity and self love. She also leads the Step Club, building a strong team of Marachek steppers who perform at school events and embody discipline, teamwork, and pride.
Most recently, she partnered with students to launch Marachek's inaugural Living Black History Museum, a powerful showcase featuring students who identify as black, celebrating their heritage and contributions. As a veteran, wife, mother of four, avid runner, and traveler, miss Baker gracefully balances each role while pursuing her master's degree and mentoring future educators. Miss Baker, you are a pillar of strength and inspiration, shaping a school culture of inclusivity, leadership, and excellence. We are cheering you on as you continue to inspire and empower the next generation.
Congratulations. Thank you. Alright. Let's give him just make another round of applause. Alright. Alright. So our next recognition goes to Thad McCauley. Is Thad in the room? Alright. Come on up there. In alignment with limitation two, which focuses on the whole child, it's an honor to recognize Aurora Frontier p eight arts teacher art teacher Thad Macaulay, whose artwork is out of this world, literally. As a young boy, Thad dreamt of being an astronaut. And while he may not have traveled to space himself, his digital masterpiece of an astronaut riding on a rocket skateboard soaring through the stars
is currently orbiting Earth inside the International Space Station. Wow. When the winners of the International Space Art and Poetry contrast contest were announced, Thad opened the website and was stunned to see his artwork displayed inside the ISS with Earth and the Stars at as its breathtaking backdrop. As far as he knows, he is the first art educator to have their work featured inside the ISS, an achievement that speaks to his talent, his passion, and his dedication. But what sets Thad apart is how he inspires his students,
reminding them that the sky is not the limit, it's just the beginning. He challenges his students to dream boldly and create fearlessly. Thad, we are incredibly proud of you. We know this is only the beginning of the mark you will leave, not only in the classroom, but in the world. Congratulations, Thad. Oh, wow. Thank you. Oh, thank you. Appreciate that. Oh, there you go. Uh-huh. Stick your other Thank you. Thank you. Let's get one more round of applause as our final recipient. Okay. Good. Okay. So our last recognition goes to Nabil Umur Nabil Umuri.
In alignment with, board limitation two regarding the whole child, I'm honored to recognize Aurora Central High School senior, Nabil Amari. As a top wrestler in his one hundred and fifty pound weight class, he is not just a competitor on the mat, he is a testament to resilience, determination, and the unyielding spirit of perseverance. Originally from Afghanistan, Nabil has broken barriers that would stop many in their tracks. When he arrived in The US roughly two years ago, Nabil had to navigate how to express himself. As a student who was deaf and whose native language is Afghan sign language,
American sign language was completely new to him. Yet that never stopped Nabil from competing at the highest level of his sport. With the support of a sign language interpreter at every practice and competition, Nabil has faced every challenge head on. He began the season on JV, but his skills and unshakable determination quickly earned him a spot on varsity. He played a key role in helping Aurora Central take second place in the Colorado League Wrestling Championship. Nabil's story is about pushing forward when the odds seem stacked against you. It proves that barriers exist only to be broken.
Nabil, you've shown us that success is not defined by circumstances, but by the will to rise above them. You're an inspiration to us all, and we can't wait to see what you accomplish next. Congratulations. Let's give him another round of applause, please. Madam president and the board, that concludes our recognitions for this evening. Thank you, superintendent Giles. Next on our agenda is opportunity for audience. If you'd like to stay with us for the rest of the meeting, you'll feel free to stay. You're more than welcome. But if not, now is the time for you to, to leave.
Alright. So next is opportunity for audience. Claudia will call audience members who have signed up, to speak to the board. Please remember that the board will not respond to any comment this evening. We'd also like that when you are called, you state your name and limit your comment to three minutes. Claudia. Yes, ma'am. We have six speakers this evening. Miss Rebecca Finney. Welcome. Please state your name, and you have three minutes, miss Finney. My name is Rebecca Finney, and tonight I'm gonna talk about, a little history of mock trial team at Aurora Central High School.
In the early two thousands, my oldest son was at Aurora Central and on the mock trial team. They had a coach who had originally been directed to a different school who had wanted to go to a school where the kids were more minorities and a little underrepresented, but Pete got recruited by Ms. Taylor, the teacher there, and, they Ms. Taylor was able to nab him as a coach and ended up being a long term relationship. Miss Taylor sponsored the speech and debate team as well. With expertise in English language acquisition, miss Taylor knew that having English sec as a second language learners in these class
or, you know, in these programs was beneficial. She also said she made the comment that the English language learners made great witnesses because they actually listened to the entire question before they tried to respond as opposed to the other witnesses who were native English speakers. My son's team went to the state championship, and, they were the training partner for Saint Mary's, which went to Nationals that year. There were other teams at Central that and my middle son, he was in the late two thousands, early two teams, you know, 02/2010.
Superintendent Barry was the superintendent. He was very supportive, aware of how well they did. The Pete had recruited a a judge and some other lawyers to help coach the team. They did really well. They went to, I believe they went to Nationals. I'll have to have to look that up for a minute, but, then, you know, Pete got married. He has, you know, he had a set of twins. He got divorced, but he was there until, again, under Regal Mundt's tenure when Aurora was considered a failing school. So here's hey.
They did really well. They won lots of awards. They're well known for that. In the last year, when they became a failing school, miss Taylor left with all her expertise in English language acquisition. Pete left. The district that had a superintendent who was a lawyer, and there was a different lawyer on the board at that time, seemed to pay no mind because that last year there was no mock trial team at Central. This is just a I could go into more details, like, all the the things the judge did,
all the things the lawyers did, representing a young man from Cote D'Ivoire who had had some criminal charges representing a victim of human trafficking on a pro bono basis, but, you know, don't have to worry. You have a failing school that has successful mock trial team that it stopped happening with Rico Munn and being labeled failing and screwing over the teachers. Next on our speaker list is Allison Douglas. Welcome. Please state your name, and you have three minutes. Hi. My name is Allison Douglas, and I'm a speech language pathologist or an SLP at Virginia Court within APS.
I also represent our special service providers or SSPs on the AEA board. I'm here today to talk about SSP educators and the essential role that we have in supporting students in APS. The list of SSPs includes, but is not limited to, adaptive PE teachers, audiologists, early childhood special ed teachers, nurses, occupational therapists, orientation and mobility specialists, physical therapists, school counselors, school psychologists, school social workers, SLPs, teachers of deaf and hard of hearing, and teachers of and teachers of students with vision impairments. Whew. As an SLP,
I advocate for equity in communication. I provide speech language services across environments, complete case management services, and legal paperwork such as evaluation reports, Medicaid billing, IEP development and progress reports, support with MTSS, adapt, create educationally relevant materials for students in mild moderate programming, and also specialized programs, align services and interventions, as well as collect, analyze data, and support, progress towards grade level material. The list continues. I love my job because I support students in understanding and advocating for their differences. A few of our students' communication highlights,
or firsts from the week before break include: a student who stutters and used to avoid speaking in class wrote an informational letter to others outlining his strengths and also facts about stuttering a student clearly said his teacher's name because he's generalizing his speech articulation sounds. A student set boundaries for the first time with peers by saying no, stop. A student accurately identified and described three related events from a grade level fourth grade level text using her AAC device. I don't expect everyone to become as excited about these firsts as we do,
but I hope you still recognize the importance of this growth. How exciting is it that a first from an SLP's perspective is probably different than from another SSP's perspective, gen ed teachers, paraprofessionals, custodians, bus drivers, etc. That's how we help develop well rounded students who are prepared to succeed. We don't do this in isolation, we do it together. When we all have the capacity to support students, we need to recognize the importance of a realistic and manageable workload for all educators. We can't support our students without creating sustainable jobs for all educators, especially SSPs who are spread so thin,
they're required to support anyway anywhere from some to thousands of students at one or numerous sites. APS needs our SSPs. We have some incredible and experienced SSP educators who currently work in APS, and I hope you feel the urgency to retain those educators but also attract more in coming to APS directly rather than an ex through an extremely expensive third party agency or accepting vacant positions, resulting in even more inequitable workloads across our district. I stand in solidarity to advocate for better working conditions for SSPs and also for
more equitable pay for our doctorate level SSPs. Thank you. Thank you. Next on the list is Nate Madsen Dion. Welcome. Please state your name, and you have three minutes. Good evening. My name is Nate Madsen Deon. I'm a fifth grade math teacher at Loretta Elementary, Home Alliance. I'd like to talk to you about the great need for SSPs and APS and the significant need for improving the working conditions of this essential cadre of educators. As a classroom teacher, I have the opportunity to work with a multitude of SSPs. My students who still can't can't quite can't quite get their O's, it's see their SLPs. My students who are struggling with emotions or have mental health challenges received support from
psychologists and counselors. My student who had a brain injury at birth received a host of services, physical therapy to help build his strength, speech to support his ongoing language development, psychology to help him with his feelings and in building relationships. Typing and other skills. All of these are essential pieces of my students' development that do not happen without SSPs. I also know that SSPs are overwhelmed. They have massive caseload such that they're constantly finding ways to add new students to already overloaded schedules. I personally have never seen an SLP in particular sit down at work. They're constantly sprinting to pick kids up to provide their essential and legally mandated services before returning them to class and moving on to the next group of students.
I know many SSPs who don't eat lunch at work because it's just not possible with their caseloads. And then as soon as students depart, they're tackling the mountains of legal paperwork and medical billing that come with the job. I don't know an SSP who can accomplish the entirety of their work during the duty day. Our District's new strategic plan, Destination APS, talks about the importance of equity and names quality talent as a priority for the District. The strategies aligned to that priority are robust talent acquisition, talent development and performance evaluation. It's disappointing that none of these priorities address the working conditions of educators nor the salary that allows people to maintain these positions as careers.
This is the crux of the issue. The district wants to attract talent, but as yet has no meaningful plan to keep that talent long term. Finally, as an Aurora resident and taxpayer, it's frustrated to see how much public money the district sends to private entities through, for example, hiring SSPs via third party agencies. Public money is to be in the hands of public entities and choosing to pay what I can only imagine are exorbitant sums to a private company to provide the services for which we should be hiring employees is at best not ideal. This further complicates and exacerbates the challenges SSPs face as it spreads people out and creates more silos. I stand in solidarity with all the workers of this district and especially in this
moment for our overworked SSPs. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Next, we have Nicole Negri. Good afternoon. My name is doctor Nicole Negri, and I'm a bilingual school psychologist at Kenton Elementary with an APS. I'm here today to talk about the importance of special service providers and more specifically the role that our special education mental health providers play in supporting our students and their families within APS. I love my job because each day looks different from the previous. I get to help students grow socially, and I get to celebrate their successes with them. For example, just before spring break,
a student of mine independently asked another student in their class to play and made a new friend. This may seem like something small, but we had been working on that skill for months, and I got to watch all of their hard work pay off. Another student in one of our center based programs has been working on asking for a break using their AAC device and after months of practice, they did so. Even their parent was excited. As a school psychologist, I help students succeed academically, socially, behaviorally, and emotionally. I provide mental health IEP services where we work on social skills, emotion regulation, behavioral skills, or executive functioning skills.
I complete paperwork including evaluations, Medicaid billing, and other IEP paperwork. I create individualized behavior plans which require training all staff that work with the student. I support building wide with MTSS and other building systems. I adapt materials so that students can access their education regardless of factors such as native language, cognitive ability level, or diagnosis. I support students in our center based programs as well as students in our moderate mild moderate special education programs. I support student needs through consultation with their family and with the rest of the school team, which may include deans and classroom teachers.
These are just some examples, but there are many more responsibilities. As a mental health provider, another big responsibility is providing crisis response as we are specially trained to do so. This includes responding to student behavior in the moment. It also includes safety responses such as conducting suicide risk assessments and threat assessments. On top of the caseload that we work with, we have to be available to sup support crisis level behaviors for all students across the entire school. As you can see, school psychologists and other mental health providers are crucial for student success in school and outside of school. School psychologists are necessary to support all students' mental health and well-being,
staff well-being, and school safety. Although I advocate for student safety and well-being, I must also advocate for my safety and well-being as a staff member. We need to have safe work conditions, sustainable caseloads, equitable pay, and adequate resources in order to do our jobs effectively. These are basic needs that when overlooked lead to burnout. These are crucial in recruiting highly trained professionals to work in APS. For example, a lack of a doctorate level pay lane is something that likely prevents highly trained professionals from even considering working in APS. A lack of compensation for skills such as bilingualism is something that also likely deters
providers from working in APS. We need these providers to help educate our diverse student population in APS. Thank you for listening and learning about how mental health providers support our APS community. Thank you. Next, we have Melissa Beach. Hi. My name is Melissa Beach, and I'm a kindergarten teacher at Harmony Ridge. And first off, I wanna start by saying that I appreciate all the hard work that you guys do, and I know that it is not an easy thing that you take on for us. So wanna thank you for all of that. And today, what I am asking is to ask you to adopt the resolution to support not
cutting any more funding in education. We know that our schools are drastically underfunded. I know you have no control over that, but I am asking you to support educators and start a resolution to help support and push through with our local governments that teachers have a right and a need to have funding to keep our classrooms running appropriately. I know in our school, there are teachers who don't have class sets of textbooks, and they're making copies for kids to be able to read what they need to
learn. If we don't have the funding for paper even, that's gonna be an issue. I know that this year in kindergarten, we had to ask parents to provide construction paper for our kindergarteners. That's a big ask on a lot of these parents. Yet without it, then they're you know, the options are either you send in some paper or your kids can't do any hands on kind of projects to support them in their learning at a developmentally appropriate way. So I am just asking that you do that for us.
And, again, I appreciate the work that you do for us and continue on. Thank you. Lastly, we have Mackenzie Porter. How are you? So, my name is Mackenzie Porter. I'm a physics student, a business owner, and have worked as an early childhood educator for the past eight years. I priorly was the half day preschool facilitator at Crawford Elementary School. I was pushed out of my classroom due to making the following observations and attempting to have them rectified to better serve the Crawford community. While at Crawford, I observed concerning health environments,
including roaches at our play centers and cabinets, rodents running around the classrooms with students actively learning in them, and black spore growth, and students as young as three being served non expired yet spoiled milk. All of these issues individually are concerning. When they're added altogether, they become alarming. With the steps I took to work in collaboration with Crawford Administration and Aurora Public Schools to create a healthier nontoxic learning environment for my students, I was provided with one of the two Airstream testing results reports done by DS Environmental Consulting in contract with Aurora Public Schools.
In this report, it states that there are no spores found, excuse me, but that there are elevated levels of Penicillium aspergillus that were successfully remediated. Oxford languages defines remediated as to provide a remedy for, redress, or make right, which then showcases that there were elevated levels of penicillum slash asparagus in the air. According to Newton Microbial Laboratory, penicillum asparagus or excuse me. Aspergillus are a fungi spore that are incredibly adaptive, abundant, and fast growing. The spores are common in the outdoor environment,
so having a low concentration of them indoors is not a cause for concern. However, when they are colonizing indoors at a high concentration, they can cause numerous health issues, especially to children, the elderly, and immunocompromised people. These health issues include causing allergic reactions, responses, and harm to respiratory, lymphatic, and nervous systems. I would like to strongly implore the board to give careful consideration to district wide, Airstream testing for black mold fungi grow or black mold and fungi grow. Especially to schools that were built prior to the February, I would also like to strongly implore the board to look deeper into their contract
with Metal Gold Dairy in correspondence with the horrendous milk being served at Crawford Elementary School. Through my community research, it is evident that milk issues are prevalent city, state, and nationwide. However, that does not mean that our students in Aurora Public Schools deserve to be served soiled milk. We need to do better. Thank you for your time, consideration, and action with this. Thank you. That concludes opportunity for audience this evening. Thank you, Claudia. I wanna take the time to thank everyone who addressed the board this evening. We definitely hear you, and we appreciate your advocacy.
K. We are going to move forward with the rest of our agenda. And before we move forward, I would like to remind the the board of our working agreement. It is attached in, on the agenda. We urge everyone to abide by it and also remind, everyone that director Duncan is our timekeeper. Now consent agenda. Do I hear a motion to approve the consent agenda? So moved. Second. It's been moved by director Tasker and seconded by director Duncan. Claudia, would you please close with me for the log?
It's all good. Yes, ma'am. Director Carter? Aye. Director Duncan? Aye. Doctor Gerken? Aye. Doctor Kiki? Aye. Director Reinhart? Aye. Director Tasker? Aye. Director Tom Wing? Aye. Thank you. Thank you, Claudia. Board, we have been presented with a recommendation from the superintendent for a teacher dismissal. Directors, are asked to acknowledge receipt of this information, but we're not supposed to take action. So it's just informational. Thank you, superintendent. And on to limitation progress measure targets. I believe the board received,
that presentation via email. Are there any questions or any comments regarding the new targets in this, goal? Looks like we're doing wonderful with this new way. I love it. Hearing none, we are going to move forward. Thank you, superintendent, for that information. Onto board work. And as such, I believe Greg is on standby. Correct, Claudia? Okay. But you've received a, a bunch of information for this, part of the conversation. We are going to talk about community engagement,
community diet, and policy diet. If I can take a moment of privilege and change the order of things, I think we can start by we can start with the the what I think is the easiest, which is, committee diet and have director Tasker, go over that and, speak of the work and how what she started and what's next. Alright. Hi. So, with looking at that it's separate the different committees, I had sep separated the, reorganize the committees into three different buckets,
and I'm gonna go over those buckets, briefly. So the first bucket is committees required by statute, local contract, or bylaws, and required by statute, local contract, or bylaws for a board representative to be on the committee. The second bucket is committees required by statute or local policy, but not required for a board representative to be on the committee. And the third bucket is the other committees. And so for the first bucket, our recommendation is for no changes.
For the second, for the first couple of committees, it's our recommendation is to keep a liaison and not a committee member. And liaisons don't need to attend every meeting, but are to be available as a point of contact for the committee to be in touch with the board. And for the last three committees in the second bucket, it is to our recommendation is to clarify for each, if board members are acting as liaisons or as committee members.
If committee members are desired, policy the policy needs to be updated. And, please consider that or please think of that most of these committees provide specific instructions on how committee membership is to be formed, and in doing so, they do not specify that board members shall be committee members. And then for, our other committees, for the third bucket I'm sorry. For these and overall, it is to discuss how the board wants to handle updates from individual board members And, again,
clarify if needed the difference between what it means to be a liaison versus a board member or versus a member. Sorry. Thank you so much, director Tasker. We discussed a while back about reviewing our committees and trying to figure out which ones we would like to keep as a board and, which ones we would like to Not keep. The goal of that is to to remain focused on our, governance our current governance model. So the floor is now open. Having read the document that director Dasker sent out.
Any comments? Any questions? What are your thoughts? Next step, director Gherkin. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you very much for, compiling this and your your work on that. Great work. I I I just wanna clarify that, when we say committee member, we mean voting committee member, and and, normally, we're saying ex officio. Correct? I mean, that's how it is, on the other pieces, the the legally required ones. My recommendation would be that whichever committees that we keep, that they all be ex officio,
because we have our we have a voice here on the board, and it would be important to just leave space for other community members and stakeholders to have a voice in other, arenas. And then the other, piece that I would say, and I just a recommendation would be maybe to instead of saying in, bucket number three, other committees, I might say not call them committees, but call them other leadership opportunities. Just because, you know, it's it's not a committee if you're a delegate.
It's not a you know, I mean, it's just a little different. Just so I was thinking that there could be many other kinds of things that board members were a part of, and they might show up and people know that they're on the APS Board of Education, but, that they that these not be a a requirement necessarily. I do like that we have a delegate, on the on CASB. And I think all of these other things are laudable and important. But, other than CASB, only because it's so local, I wouldn't necessarily recruit for the others.
You know what I mean? I guess. Am I making any sense? Yeah. Do you wanna be a little a little clearer which others do you think Well, on on number three for other committees, like Aurora mental health, I think that's wonderful, and I personally wouldn't mind being on that committee. I think it's it's good work. I don't as we're trying to fill out who's on what committee, though, you know, trying to fill those in, I I wouldn't worry as much about that as I would I I do think it's important that we have a CASB delegate,
for instance, because it's very central to our own work. That's what I was thinking. Thank you so much. I don't even know. Some of these in in, again, in bucket three, I don't even know, how active we are in the majority of these director Tamwin. Oh, I was just gonna say in that third bucket, does anyone know how we came about with of course, CASB is obvious, as you said. Mhmm. But the others and if there how we came about that list? Good question. They've been here as long as I have and probably many years before.
I know there may be other opportunities that might be more applicable today, and I'm not saying they are, but maybe something to consider. Right. And as far as my knowledge, I don't know how we can about all of the committees because it's they happened before I was here. But I do know that this list of the several committees or positions, they were all in an email that I had I had to dig up, but it was like a color coded email. And and then seeing that email and also the lavender spreadsheet,
it was a little convoluted between the two. And so, this is eye opening to me because I'm learning a lot about committees. So yeah. That's what I that from my knowledge, that's all that all that I know. So one question I may have for, for all of us here is, I'm curious. How do we want up for example, again, on number three. Mhmm. How do we want updates from those, liaisons if at all? If I may, the two that I am listed as representatives on up there,
I'd have not been contacted by. The first or second year I was on the board, I was I think since that time, my name has been with the Aurora Mel Health Center board. And at one point, we got a communication, this is several years back, that that I don't recall that it was called a seat, a membership, a position was not needed. I don't know. Carter, have you been contacted by Aurora Millhouse? No. No. I have not really. I mean, other than the only the only make sure the committees that I am referenced would be that one,
the CASB, and a APS Foundation. But those were all both. And I I believe in speaking to both Tiffany and, you know, Danielle, it was kinda assumed that they would eventually be taking over those positions anyway. So but as far as the Aurora Mental Health, I've never we we've never been contacted regarding Aurora Mental Health. So is it I have not. I would be happy to be engaged, be involved. Clearly, that touches our work. Definitely. Maybe. District, but I I I'm I'm kinda at a loss. It's been like, it has been said.
It's been listed for long as I can remember. So is there an appetite I I think I hear you say it's relevant for our work, so maybe keep it and try and find some information on it to see if Perhaps. I we have staff working in, to the best of my knowledge Yep. Many of our buildings who are employed Mhmm. At Aurora Mental Health Mhmm. And they're providing services to our students. Yeah. Yeah. And mental health, I don't think anybody in the room would ever turn that away as a cause. But That's for sure.
But I don't know what I I don't understand what the relationship is supposed to be. Should we maybe dig a little bit and find out what that is and then come back and and see if I'd be happy to look up some a phone number or two and see if I can make contact with someone who has who's willing to have a conversation. I think Debbie Stafford, the CEO of rural mental health, would be a a best contact, and I think either, superintendent or I could, get you her information I'm out. Or contact. Happy to help make that connection if you need to.
The city? Is that what you need? No. She's the CEO of Aurora Mental Health. Aurora Mental Health. Okay. Yeah. Well, then I can talk with Yeah. Superintendent Giles. Awesome. See if we can get connected and have a conversation at least and see. Yeah. That sounds great. K. Thank you, director Reinhart. Mhmm. What about cube? I'm also curious. The no not one more child in Arapahoe. Like, is it even in existence? I have not been contacted. I'd I'm not sure I would know where to start. Certainly, I can look up Arapahoe County and start looking for something,
some contact info. I I've not been contacted. I think this this, the district is, within, what, three commissioner districts or two at least. So I don't know. Yeah. It's worth looking into as well. I mean, we have right, superintendent, we do have a connection with the county. Rafael Douglas, would you also help the board figure that piece out? And thank you so much. You. Thank you. Have we been contacted by Kyub at all? Are there any? No? Only at national conferences.
Only at national conferences. Are we active there at all? I mean, I wouldn't know what active looks like. Mhmm. We we purchased tickets to their event nights, for the conference events. But other than that, there hasn't been any type of communication sent to me. So any appetite to keep it and dig a little bit or just remove it? I'll remove it. We have a membership to we do have a we do. And there's a conference every fall. It I think membership you're asking,
is it through CASB or is it through it's NSBA. Yeah. NSBA. So we have a membership with NSBA and And also Cube. Cube. So But the membership wouldn't be affected by being on the steering committee. No. No. It would not. Claudia has given me a look. We have membership with NASB. And queue is part of it. Uh-huh. Direct me to the Thank you. I stand corrected. So not two memberships. One. Thank you, miss Claudia. So remove. Okay. Okay. The rest, there's
a lot of activities around that. FRN is part of CASB. Your good friend, Louie Goldstein, is the president of, the FRN committee. And everyone, as I said, is invited to, the legislative resolution committee and, also the, federal relation network committee. They would love to get to have guests there. And then as far as CASB, very, very active. I think there's the fall delegate happening in right, director Carter? In October.
Yeah. And then, I know next weekend, CASB board of directors meeting for the quarterly. So we're gonna spend two days together, and I will make sure I bring information on that. Moving forward, is there anything else that we would like to, to discuss? What's next step? I might suggest that in terms of getting updates from folks Mhmm. That as they occur, whether you're at a semiannual meeting or, you know, monthly meeting, whatever it is, that, maybe they just be
submitted in writing, a short summary, and we just take a look at them into board work somewhere, but we that we don't need to discuss it during the meeting. It's available? Yeah. How does that sound with everybody? Okay. Alright. Anything else that comes to mind regarding, committee diet? Or to Tasker, what are your thoughts? Where are you at? Sorry. I was taking notes. So far, looking at it, I you know, going over the committees, I've learned so much, and I'm so happy that I learned this much.
It was it was an awesome process. Any recommendations were the ones that I just said. And then I agree with finding more on, like, the rural mental health and not one more child in Arapahoe County because I don't know. And then yeah. And, definitely, I when we were talking about, director Gherkin's, suggestion on a short summary, I agree one of the things I was thinking of, like, whether it's sent through through our newsletter or something like that to where it's not taking more time for us to go over to go over our work.
So what I'm hearing or what I'm in understanding is that, the committees that we belong to or we are liaison to, when we go to those meetings, we will submit a written summary. Is that Yeah. I'd say if if there's something of note Mhmm. You know, then submit it to Claudia in time to be, to be be included in the board work as committee report or something like that. Report. Whatever we call it. And then we can read it.
No action required. And if you have a question, you can contact the the liaison and say, what's up? You know? What's up? Just like that. Debbie. Yes. That's right. I'm curious about Pickens Technical. How active is that? It's twice a year. And I have not been invited. Okay. Good to know. Good to know. I I will say that, I don't I also have not been invited to the the Colorado preschool piece. I was on this committee before, and every single month,
I participated. And it was a very active group. They didn't necessarily need me, but, I think it might be a communication thing right now. Is it worth looking into it? Mhmm. Well, just get rid of it. Yeah. It may be worth looking into it. Okay. Sure. I mean, it's it's one of them that's, required. So it it's a great group to be a part of, and that's why I volunteered again. But Sure. So we need to also reach out to Pickens? Do you want to do you wanna take the lead on there? I'll look into that, the preschool Colorado Preschool Program Committee and Pickens.
I think doctor McConnell will be great, contact for Pickens. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Anything else, regarding chlamydia diet? I do, but I kinda lost it. And it's for, I I have a question Mhmm. For director Gerken. For the we're looking at number two. So in bucket number two, the second one for the Colorado preschool program. Mhmm. So the I guess the committee's the committee's required, but not it's not required for necessarily required for a board representative to be on
the committee. But we're we're still just gonna dig to see. I'll, yeah, I'll see what they I mean, I'm gonna guess since I haven't been contacted, they're, you know, pretty lukewarm about having a board member be a part of the committee. And they're not my presence while I was welcomed wasn't needed. Yeah. I mean, they've run very well on their own. And so Good to know. And I know, Special Education Advisory Council is coming back, the special education advisory council? Yes.
It is. I received an invite today to a planning session that will take place this Thursday, and my understanding is that there are a couple more to follow. I don't have those dates, but, miss Browning has a group of parents interested in getting that up and running. So the planning now would be to have it in place Yep. In the new school year. Great. Thank you so much. Alright. Okay. Go ahead, Pascal. Anything else you'd like to add? Or No. I think I'm good. Okay. Thank you so much.
Appreciate your work on that. And director Tom Wing, would you like to lead us into policy diet? Yep. Absolutely. Right. So, first, let me thank Greg. I know he's online as well as present Kiki through this exercise. Initially, when we started, it seemed a little overwhelming, but there's there's quite a few policies out there. But then with some guidance, as well as Brandon, who's here as well. Thank you. We were to sort of focus on the policies that we wanna actually review. Right?
Mhmm. And I'll be honest, the first two, when I first looked at it, I was like, oh, thirty minutes, done. It was not a thirty minute exercise. Right? So So Saturday morning, we spent working on it together. And I think, just so you know, this is the first step, first time we're doing it, so all feedback is welcome. And we we took the approach of, you know, the first one, which is policy adoption. Basically, what policies does the board even adopt? Right? I will say majority of them are legal or, for the superintendent and the district leadership, to to build and create their own policies,
but we wanted to make sure that the ones that the board owns, we understand which which categories and why we own them, and we actually own them. Right? So the first thing if you look at it and there are it looks like there's four documents, but it's really two policies that's in the agenda attached. The red line, the one that says red lines in the title, basically, is just showing you all the edits we made. Right? We wanted to be very clear and transparent. Anything we deleted, modified, added, and so on. Right? And then, of course, Claudia was gracious enough to include then the final version,
the final edits. Right? So just take your time to go through the edited version. We did not wanna change necessarily the essence of the policy. Right? There's definitely strategic things, and we we, you know, we ask ourselves questions like, how do we understand this? Why would this be in here? Right? Who does it impact? Why does it impact? If we removed or add this, how would it change the the essence of the policy? Right? So it was very intentional on how we went through this. It took us quite some time to even just do the first one. And I just wanna point out that first paragraph
of BGB, which basically kind of defines, like, the policies or the types of policies we're gonna own, the categories. Right? So we're gonna own goals, guardrails, school board governance and board operations. Right? These are the different policy areas. How and what it delegates, to its authority to the superintendent, and then anything else legally required by the board for its approval. Alright? So those are the five areas or categories of the policies that we we thought, we should focus on. Everything else is operational. Right? So we're not gonna own,
I don't know, dress code. Right? That is something that we want the superintendent and his leadership team to own. Right? So things like that. Right? We we're not gonna, yeah, we're not gonna direct them on how to to run daily operations of our district. But these are the areas. And then based off of that, like I said, just check the verbiage, look at the red line updates. If it's anything that we removed that you think, hey, that you know, we need to add that back or we need to at least put that in. The other thing that we try to do with these policies because we and I think we've all agreed and we've had some conversations around is the simplicity of the
language. Right? We wanted to move away from it being maybe such a technical legal language, so that anyone can read through these policies and understand it, right, including our community because these things are posted for our community. This is all about transparency and, making sure that our community understands, you know. If they have any questions, they can easily go to our website because these things will be posted, continue to be posted because they are right now, and that they can read through it, right, without having to read through it a few times, which we actually did have to read through a few times when we went through
even the first one. Alright. I'm gonna halt there before I move to the second one. Any questions, concerns about the process? Director, Gerken. Thank you. For thank you. First of all. Such a lot of work. That's why you didn't wanna join. No. You didn't even work out. This is a very fun exercise. I did other I did other fun exercises. Yes. Yes. But, no, thank you for doing this. And in my, reading and rereading of this, I felt like, the essence is still the same, that it's it's org reorganized and it's,
the words are simplified, which, really appreciated, especially the paragraph about a policy shall be presented as an information item and what the vote count needs to be. It's four. It's four. You know? It's it just, it made it so much easier. So I do like this. I would like to recommend Mhmm. That as we talk about the Voretschil adopt goals, guardrails, we've we have other places where and we say goals and guardrails also. It's part of our language.
But other places in our policy say results and limitations. Mhmm. K. I like goals and guardrails better, but whichever language we use, it should be the same, consistent. So that would be my recommendation. And then just a tiny little editorial question. Mhmm. Right after 01/23/1945, the board authorized the superintendent to adopt. Is that correct, or should it say the board shall authorize the superintendent? Because it's shall, shall, shall everywhere. Mhmm. That's fine. It's actually a good catch. I I don't I don't think we we I edit pretty well,
but I'm I don't know. These things kinda stick out to me. But, I mean, we can make it a shell. I mean, it's a It's fine. I think I think it should be consistent with the other, diction. Brandon, your thoughts? Or is it author did authorize already? No. I think it's a great catch. I would suggest just the board authorizes the superintendent Authorizes. The shall. Okay. Probably the. Okay. Versus shall authorizes. Sounds good. Mhmm. Okay. And and at the appropriate point, I'd like to point out just one element of this policy just to make sure
the board's clear on Seeing it. Okay. Is is now an appropriate It is an appropriate kind of search. There was a note that I included, but I realized that sometimes when we're reviewing these, the the side notes don't always show up. So I wanna make sure the board is clear. This the change in the policy would require a first reading and a second reading Yes. Before adoption. So it would change the current practice of just placing an item on consent agenda. And if there's, a unanimous vote, it would pass. That's fine. I just want it transparent, and didn't wanna, like,
slip that in. I noticed. Just wanna make sure it's transparent with all the board members. How do you feel about that? We grappled with it as we were working on it, and Brandon suggested, you know, we would just flag it for the rest of the board so that it doesn't go unnoticed and become an initiator. And maybe a reason it just I felt like, oh, nothing's changed really here is because that's how we did it at at first. So we've gone back and forth Okay. In how we do it. The the only real change is the well,
the only real problem is if there's a, a legislative change, some emergency legislative change that would require an immediate change, and that would it would kick it out two months unless we held a special meeting, which we could do. That's gonna be a rare instance. I'm not sure that needs to drive your decision making. I understand the purpose is to make sure that the policy making is deliberate and discussed, and it's not just put on the consent agenda and and flowed through. Mhmm. But I just wanna be transparent about the consequences of that.
Nothing we can't handle, but I just want you to be aware of. There's nothing in here that says it could be introduced, like, tonight and if we needed a special meeting to have one What's that? The next night? Or I mean, how much time and if the idea is to prevent to give time for board members to consider and for, community members to engage if if they want to. Is there a time period that we need to be careful about?
Or No. We can do it in a fairly short amount of time. The the the example that comes to mind, and it's not a policy that needed to bring be brought to the board, but recently, title nine regulations got passed and then court case shut down or rescinded the title nine regulations that we needed to immediately go back. Mhmm. If in a situation like that, we need to pivot quickly, but that's a rare circumstance. Mhmm. And we can set up two meetings in a week and take care of that. K. So that was a long answer to say,
we can do it in a short amount of time. We can we can set up two meetings in a week and take care of. This works for me. K. So what's the preference? Just another way of asking is, does anyone feel that they that we should change the current verbiage? Allow that flexibility. Sorry. Direct your time when you finish your thought. Oh, no. Just allow that flexibility if anyone felt as hesitations. I'm gonna ask Greg to, chime in really quick so that there's a full understanding before we move on. Hi. Thank you for joining.
Good evening, board, superintendent. Thanks for having me. Madam chair, you're asking me specifically about this idea of presented as an information item and then discussion and or vote at the subsequent meeting. Is that what you're asking me about? Mhmm. Yeah. I think I think your counsel laid out it very clearly. It's what you know, you could do it either way. The consequences of doing it as written in the current language is that the purpose there is that more methodical policy review giving people time and that sort of thing before it's just voted on.
The consequence of that is there may be times when the debt the the district staff is recommending a more rapid, review, and that might require the calling of a a special meeting in order to to get that that approval at that subsequent meeting. But that would only be for policies that, you you what you might be able to say is that legally required policies, you could you might be able to your your counsel, I'm sure, has better verbiage than me. But you maybe you can separate how you handle, the legally required policies versus all the other policies,
you know, giving you more flexibility to go more rapid or move quicker with the ones that are legally required and might require those updates. Brandon? And and I don't wanna get ahead of the board because I know this is the board's work, but I I do believe the next policy you're looking at is BEDB, which puts the limitations on that first meeting of the board. Mhmm. And just working off Greg's suggestion, we could carve out an exception for legally required policies that need to be legally required policies that need to be expedited. That could be another bullet that we could, allow to be put on that first agenda.
Mhmm. So that we could limit that from a two month process to a one month process. Mhmm. If that's the direction the board wants to go. Before the question is submitted, how does that sound? I I appreciate the ability to be able to move quickly when needed. Mhmm. We might need to move quickly. Mhmm. That's true. Mhmm. In our current environment. So, rather than having to call another meeting or wait an you know, longer than we really would wanna wait, I I like the idea. K. Sounds good.
K. Thank you, director Gerkin. Any other comments on this, policy BGB or director Talwin? Yep. Please do. Yeah. Same thing. Yeah. To any other questions or concerns or anything else you wanted to bring up? So would folks like to pick language of results and limitations or goals and guardrails and stick with one or the other? Oh, I apologize. I thought, we landed on, yes, making sure that, throughout the whole policy limitation though. We use goals and guardrails, and we make sure that those. So I should note here.
Does that, conflict though with what is being presented by the superintendent and his leadership team and all those awesome slides that you all put together? I feel like we should be aligned and be consistent across everything. Yeah. We have been saying results and limitations, but I don't think it's tough for us to switch to, like, we should be consistent. Okay. So it's just a matter of us to come into agreement. I think goals is definitely easier for community members to understand what we're talking about. Yeah. And guardrails probably makes as much sense as limitations. So I mean, I don't I don't mind for uniformity for the sake of uniformity using goals and guardrails in our documents,
written documents. And if we are if we are, discussing that and we alternate between goals and guardrail results and limitations, we all understand what that means. So I don't know. Yeah. I think it's more for just a community. Oh, sorry. Director Yeah. I would I would on the side of using the same language throughout. I don't know if within the student's outcomes governance model, you can just change it from guardrails and goals or to guardrails and goals from results and limitations? Because this is that it within the policy that we operate out of or no?
Well, the council's language was, goals and guardrails. Is that what we studied with? They helped us write it around results and limitations because that was our language to begin with Oh. Rather than switch it up. So I think it's whatever we like, but be consistent. Okay. That's what I would recommend anyway. Okay. Then I'm with you. Those are guardrails. Sound better. K. See him. Thank you for flagging that. Alright. So just moving on to the second document. This one's a little bit easier. So this is BGBR. The main change here was that because this list every pretty much every policy,
legally required, and we just added a column there, policy area, and we wanted to just make sure if there was anything that fell into one of our five areas or buckets that we can focus on those. As you'll see, majority of them, with exception of maybe two or three, the rest of them are legal. So that was really the only major change to this document. It was just adding that extra column there so that, we can show we knew which one of these we felt, like, we should own or, you know, pay attention close attention to. Your thoughts, Boyd? What? I don't know.
One more edit. It just, sure. Under that policy area, should that shouldn't that say legal instead of legally every time? Yeah. That's fine. Yeah. The policy area is illegal? No. Mhmm. Mhmm. Again, thank you all for doing this. Of course. And we've just started. I know. Anything else? Yep. So, yeah, just take your time. This is yeah. Go through the edits, reach out, and then I think then in the next meeting, we can then vote on it, on the changes. And thank you, Brandon. I know you're making sure we're staying on track. Yeah.
Thank you, Brandon. Right. You're all done. Thank you, director. So, what are your thoughts? Should we, linger on this, until next month, or should we already announce the next policies that we are going to work? Did we have others lined up at this time? B e Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And we can certainly yeah. B e Share those. Right. That would have been our next policy to work on. BEDB? BEDB. Yes. BEDB. Yeah. But I think this one is a little convoluted. Right? Yeah. We would just like to talk to you. A little bit more complicated.
If anyone would like to join us, you're welcome. We're we're always, you know, happy to add anyone else to help with this. But it is actually a very interesting exercise, at least for me, because I certainly did not dive into all these policies before. So I'm learning a lot just as Tiffany said. Kinda kinda forces you to get dive into there and get in there. And it's very intentional with the languages. We said we're trying to be intentional and keep it simple and make sure that I mean, the office still stands. Thank you so much. I'll I'll think on it. When when are the Okay. You think on it? It. I'm sorry? When are the meetings?
It's decided. It's very flexible among the And it's virtual. It's and it's virtual. We can meet all, eat for coffee, whatever. Yep. Would you like to join? Okay. Great. Yay. There you go. Yeah. And then you and, you know, we we'll keep telling you which policies and so there's one that you're most in more interested in than others and, you know, dive in. Yeah. Thank you. Three. Hi. Yeah. If if it's Yes. We'll make sure that it's only two. Thank you. Well, that means that one of us will get off, and I will gladly Yes. So we we can absolutely do it.
That's a possibility. Mhmm. Yeah. It's really good. Yeah. I will I will probably, get off. Just put a fly on the wall. I'm not bailing out. I'm just giving space to others. Okay. Sounds like a plan. Are we all in agreement with everything that is going on, with policy, diet. Are we all good with that? Perfect. Thank you again, director, Duncan, for joining that, the team. Greg, you have one more team member to play with. Okay. So we are going to move now with, community engagement feedback.
So what I'm thinking here is that this is this might probably be, like, the starter of the conversation. But I I just wanted to open the floor here by hearing your experience, the pluses, the minuses, how did it go before we move forward, and while we are thinking about that. Thank you, director Duncan, for putting this together, the document together. Much appreciated. So no. It was divided in Go for it, I've been talking a lot and going first a lot, so I'm happy to listen for Okay.
Fair enough. Doctor. Tasca? Yeah. So I was at Hinkley with, director Gherkin, and it was not many people were there, but it was close knit. And it was interesting because we were able to they were able to really get, I guess, it was, like, close knit and get involved with their discussion where as where their when, our community members were talking, they were engaging with each other back and forth at the same time Mhmm.
As well as making the suggestions or, like, saying what they wanna see. So it was it was great. Thank you. Any other groups? Director Wainwright? I was at Vista Peak with director Carter. We had five people in attendance, plus ourselves and another district representative or two. And the the people that were there were very engaged in the conversation. They asked a lot of good questions. I felt initially like we started out with us, not because it was me and Carter, but because of our format that we started out with us talking too much.
Mhmm. But we did get follow-up questions, engagement. And when those parents who were there, started asking their questions, they they were very direct questions, good questions. We there are a couple there whose children are not yet in high school Mhmm. But wanting to know lots of things. Talked about, you know, growth and gaps and things that were very relevant to what we were presenting, and then, of course, they had some other questions. Thank you. Yeah. I agree with director Carter. I agree with director Reinhart that the the format was kinda I wanna say clunky,
but in the beginning, it was, you know, us standing in front of them and and and kinda look at the slide and communicate. And then definitely in the middle and definitely in the end, they became engaged. And then, for lack of a better word, started challenging with asking in-depth questions about specific stuff that was they they were they were they were taking they were taking it in, taking the material, and then taking it to the next step. In the end, they were engaged. And it was that was the best part because once we got past,
kind of like the talking at them part of it and talking to them and them talking back to us, they became engaged. And we had, I'm looking at the the feedback that we have. Yeah. They have we had a lot of feedback because that was them being engaged, them asking questions, and and being like, okay. This is what I wanna see. So I I felt I, you know, I felt at the end that was it was very productive And maybe we should I don't know if we tweak the format, but somehow we wanna get more people there. Because I think if we had more people, it would have been even even even even more useful.
I agree with that. And I wonder if making at least some of this virtual will increase attendance in part we had the participation as Carter just explained, and I like the word challenging, but not in a negative way. Okay. I mean, the the gel one gentleman stopped us and said, I don't know what half cap means. Tell me, please. Perfect. Mhmm. You know? That's that's what we're there for. So are we thinking hybrid or some fully in person and some fully virtual? If I can speak on that a little bit,
that was one of the options. I was I was fortunate that I was able to go to Aurora Frontier and talk about the event with the principal that this was coming on, and he said he would put the flyer down in the office. And but he one of the questions was to see if there's, like, a virtual option, so it can be both. So if you can meet in person, but if you can't, virtual. I do know that when we were there, one of the community members asked if they can know ahead of time,
and that was another thing that I heard from another community member because they had plans. But if they knew the week prior, they would put that on their calendar, and they would attend because it was definitely something they wanted to go to. And then also in terms of, like, the format, I can see how what director Reinhart and director Carter were saying, how it was kinda clunky with a lot of talking. And then I feel that it should be,
like, when we do these community engagement exercises or not exercises, mean in community engagements, it's more conversational Yeah. Because I think we get more from our community members if it's more conversational versus a let me talk to you then format versus let me talk to you and then you can respond. Mhmm. But it was awesome. It was really, really fortunate when during our presentation, we were getting a lot of engagement with the audience as well. They were,
like, talking a lot and then we would have to pause our presentation and then answer questions. And so What yes. And one thing that worked is because we had so few people, we said, let's just sit down together. Yeah. Right. We brought everyone to the circle, to the, a table. We were in the media center. Mhmm. And we sat through the whole time and, just had a conversation. So that felt more comfortable. Mhmm. But my concern and this was brought up in, other schools as well. I don't remember which one now this. Too too few voices.
We had three families represented there. And so the the engagement was great, but the voices were few. Mhmm. And, that but it was it was good to be together. It was good to be together. Yep. I think with thinking about hybrid, virtual, in person, I I think hybrid would be difficult to manage on our end. Sure. So So I think offering alternate dates, this is a virtual event. This is a Mhmm. An in person live event. I mean, we could have kept talking to the few that we had there. They that they were there to have a conversation,
ask questions, which is great. So I guess something to think about if we anticipate increased attendance is how to manage that part of it because we had a couple people that could have easily very dominated a a an audience of 25 people. Mhmm. Mhmm. Yes, sir? Well, I'm not like, with director Tasker's talking about the engagement with the principals. And I don't I don't think we did that beforehand. Or was that something that was already Yeah. Engaging, like, hey. We're I mean, we're there. But I I don't know if we did that to try to kind push it.
I don't I don't think that was just something I I did. Yeah. So if we can, like that's why I was saying, like, maybe be notified of the event and have the flyers prior, like, a week before maybe. And then, it would just so happen that I was fortunate enough to talk to the principal of Aurora Frontier. Mhmm. And that was offered. Yeah. So that's from what? Excuse me. One of the PH, though, who could then communicate it to their community. Yeah. Yeah. Not necessarily that it's just directed towards the high school population.
Right. Right. That's a I think that's an excellent discussion. Idea. Yeah. And I think there was two session there was two that were recorded. The Hinckley One and the Gateway One were recorded. So, those right, superintendent? So, I mean, we can always look look at yes. Director Duncan. Excuse me. I don't I feel like we always and not even just as a board of education, but any type of community work that happens, sometimes we expect community to come or anticipate community showing up Mhmm.
Instead of going to them in the spaces that they're occupying. For instance, Ranger View was just in the state championship basketball tournament. Not saying we could have gone there and got feedback, but that's an opportunity to connect with parents kinda in their zone. Yep. I know with the weather becoming warmer, more events are starting to happen for end of the school year. I don't know if we can use those as opportunities to go and kinda meet them where they are to get that feedback Yeah. Instead of expecting them to come to us. Not saying that shouldn't be an expectation.
Oh, no. These are the four to rely on math, and we'll continue to get these three and four individuals. I know I'm I'm saying this, and I didn't even I had something else to do on the sixth, but, moving forward, I think we should be a little bit more strategic about how we're collecting feedback and not always holding an event and expecting them to show up. No. These are great feedback, and I think it it's it's on my note here, for me to, ask if there was any appetite, to tag into other community events. So that's that's great. Before I get to you,
director Carter, I wanted to ask since this is so timely, the comment that director Duncan made is so timely. I was just wondering, do we think that we we may want training on conducting community listening at all? Is there any Conducting what? Community listening of look. Do we want training on that? I mean, I just Are we ask am I answering this as Tremaine? No. I everybody. So you can answer as Tremaine. Yeah. I I don't believe we need training.
Okay. I don't it doesn't sound like from the conversation that training was the issue. Okay. I think maybe having more discussion around what the community engagement sessions are gonna look like before actually going out there and doing it. Like, seeing a PowerPoint and figuring out how to use a PowerPoint as a resource instead of kinda relying on it to run the entire presentation. Because I it sounds like that's what happened is that we we were caught up in the PowerPoint as opposed to having a conversation. Because we know what we wanna talk about, but the PowerPoint just seemed like to be a a big distraction.
And maybe if we have more conversation around what it should look like, then we could've alleviated some of the mishaps that Yeah. I I agree with director Duncan. And that goes back to just, with the format and strategic planning of how we how community engagements are conducted, how they're formatted. Because it's like, to me, from a presenting to hearing feedback makes me think of a lecture style. Mhmm. And it needs to be more warm and inviting versus that format.
Yeah. So I'm hearing not so much, training, but conversation discussion around how it should happen around the the format, right, before we go to the community, for our next is that what I'm hearing? Director Gerken. I I would like us to think about director Carter. You will be next. Sorry. To think about exactly what else do we need to know, know what our purpose is before we go out and put it together again. Absolutely.
And now I'll I'll refer to director Carter as well. Victor Carter? I wouldn't even I wouldn't even what I was thinking about was and it just hit me when myself I believe it was director Tasker, director Tom Wing. We were at Gateway. And what and we were kinda what I was thinking of and even when we were at Vista, they were doing a concert downstairs. Like, our our our our yeah. We were like, what?
You know, our high schools, our schools are teaming It's gonna literally join. On a regular basis. Yeah. Yeah. To be They don't be easier. Thinking we're gonna have a hundred people, and they were there for the concert. Like you said, there was a Rangeview basketball game. We were at a middle school, girls swim meet, and it was teeming with people. So, you know, we we I don't think we need to look that far Yep. To find, to to director Duncan's point, like, the people we just gotta go and and and and be there.
I think we all had the same experience. I think there was, like, two activities at Gateway. Like, we were in the library and right in the foyer outside of the library, parents were meeting. Wow. So I'm gonna go Like, it was that close. So, I think, again, to director Duncan's point, is this something that maybe we should hash out a little more at our next, upcoming, retreat to really hone this and I mean, talk about it when I I use cash out. Retreat. Yeah. We're sorry. Claudia,
help us out. The there you go. Wow. Soon. That'd be a good time, except I don't I don't think I'll. But I guess, You no. You're not. It's it's the day before Easter. It's I'm a minister. Oh my god. I was just But god said yeah. Sorry. Anyway Yes. The duties card. Maybe. Maybe. Do we look at a different date now? No. I don't think that's I I people already said that was the date they put on there. I don't wanna shift it all around for everyone else.
I it was my bad for real not realizing that. But we have something scheduled in May. That's graduation celebration. No. I have that with the community. Graduation celebration. You guys are saying too. We have graduation. And graduation celebration. Right. The community engagement. That is that. Graduation celebration. Correct. If I can make one I I think it's a good idea to be able to just just have a time set aside to talk about formatting, planning, preparation, all of them. And I will will say I can't say it anyway, but very directly Mhmm. To make it less edubabble. I agree.
No. I agree. It's don't Don't do that. Dust. I I think y'all wanna talk about the facilitation of. I don't think it was the PowerPoint appreciate. No. I don't mean it was the PowerPoint, but, I mean, we're we're putting very direct language that we're used to hearing in our conversations. That was true. The way that we would sit around this diaspora table or retreat Mhmm. And and talk about it, I think how about user friendly? Yes. Yep. Mhmm. But this is what I'm saying. Like, regardless of what was in the PowerPoint, if we talked about it, then we could have better utilized it as a resource to us as opposed to
depending on the information that's in there. Yeah. Mhmm. I also do wanna say, I don't know how we can do community engagement where all of us participates at one time. But the reason why I wasn't at our no I just saw Brandon, like, with his kids. Quickly. We was just out of the case public. But but, I missed on the sixth because my school had a family engagement night that night. And what we did was provide food for families to entice them to come out. Yeah. I don't know if we have a budget for that, but we all we didn't do a PowerPoint during a conversation piece.
Like, we gave information towards the end of the night. But what we did was kinda do a gallery walk and put questions up around the room Mhmm. And allow families to sit at the table, eat, have conversation. We were able to sit at the tables and have conversations with families. They responded to some of the questions that were on the table. Those same questions were the questions posted around the wall. Mhmm. And they got a opportunity to respond on a sticky note, put it on the post it, or they can just write what their response or answer to the question was on
my sticky note. And we, as a leadership team, synthesize that information. Not saying that's the route we have to take, but I feel like we got a lot of engagement doing it that way as opposed to standing in front of them and talking about. These are good these are good ideas. There are many different ways of doing that. Right? Many different ways. And it's up to us, the board, to decide which way we we wanna do it moving forward. And if we want to write our slide or if we want to use slides, the the the bottom line is making sure that we all have the same message.
Right? So and then also if we wanted to write our own scripts And so that it feels natural and, you know, and then also ideas of going to the community versus inviting the community. There are so many different ways we can do this and be successful. Afterwards, directed halfway. So first, I do agree with director Duncan with having, it could be any format, but something that's not lecture style, like the gallery walk or anything. But, aside from that, maybe if it would've I don't know.
It was kinda weird to have a script for the PowerPoint versus, like, could we have, like, just, like, that we all have similar talking points that we're gonna hit, but not a script. I would feel that that would make it more Mhmm. Natural. Kinda. Mhmm. Yep. I agree. Yeah. I don't know how many times I deviated from this script. Yeah. That's exactly right. There there's more opportunity to, think about all of that. I think I can synthesize is that English? I can synthesize everything that we've heard today.
I'll put it in a document for us to look at again all these ideas and also, give you the opportunity to look at the previous script scripts if that is needed. And then on the nineteenth, we can, again, talk about really the purpose, what we wanna hit this time, what questions we wanna ask. Right? And and and how we wanna start the script and and all of that and pinpoint, the next community community engagement date and time
and how we wanna divide and conquer. How does that sound? Sounds good. I'm not married to it. It's just my idea. Totally push. I'm okay if there's a push. Definitely sounds like we all had very similar experiences, and we all in alignment that we wanted to do this differently and get, you know, more engagement from our community. And I think we're on definitely on the same page as to what our goal is. So should that conversation be an agenda item for the nineteenth? K? Yep. Great. Alright. Anything else,
in regards to community engagement? Did you put up the order? Director Duncan? Is that a half day retreat? We could accommodate so that we all make it. Anything else? Just just one other thing, and I know you wanna move on. I'm sorry. They No. You're fine. No. I'm just, as I was looking at your analysis and your your, sort of, your work at trying to synthesize what came across in terms of themes. Mhmm. I saw the same themes that we already have are Mhmm. Results slash goals Yep. Around early literacy,
graduation, communication, mental health. And the two things that I saw that were different or that were raised this time that weren't raised that I recall, were concerns around multilingual learners and safety for immigrant students. So, you know, it will be interesting to see how can we these were just a few voices that we all heard from. How can we see if the same kinds of themes bubble up in the next ones?
Mhmm. Or do we ask questions that get at that so that we know? I don't wanna necessarily just start all over again, but use what we've learned this time to build on the next engagement, to build on the next engagement, and so forth. So just a thought to see how that I don't think there's a person in the world who would say, we should not work on graduation rates, you know, or this or that. But what do you let go of to lift up something new would be an important conversation. Any other comment?
Not good point, director, Gherkin. Hearing none, director Duncan, will now provide us with the actual time, percent time spent in today's meeting. Seventy one minutes, fifty four seconds. Thank you very much. Any announcement? Any observation? Any school visit? Anything? Rangeview did an awesome job in, you know, going to the final four. Mhmm. And, we'll get them next year. Yeah. Amazing. Yes. Good job, though. Alright. I just wanted to, point one thing out in regard in the light of what is going on currently
in regards to, education funding. We live in difficult times. Right? But I want to, let the community know how involved and how invested APS is. Right? Because, this issue touches, everyone. APS has been directly involved with discussion with both the speaker and the governor. We know that we have, our very own people, both, Brett Johnson and Mary Kay Hogan, at the Capitol, watching things for us and advocating for APS specifically.
Most definitely, we continue to advocate to limit reduction to k 12 and, the new, school funding formula, I e, house bill twenty four fourteen forty eight. And, you know, our this our our CFO, Brett, if you wanted to come and and talk about it a little bit. I know you are, you and other district other district CFOs are very, very engaged, from what I hear. Please come on and explain so that the community knows that we care about this issue. We are doing our part,
and it is very important to us. Thank you. Sure. Where At orders. No pressure at all. Where would you what would you like me to highlight? Or Do you wanna talk about a little bit about the, joint education committee and and, just high you know? Sure. High overview, those, and how APS is represented. Good evening to the rest of the board. Brett Johnson, chief financial officer. I think I think it's important to preface that the the state has a $1,000,000,000
shortfall on its hands that it's trying to close the gap for. And, you know, from k twelve's perspective, some of a lot of the discussion is, what, if any, of that shortfall should should k twelve own as as kind of a shared sacrifice. The the first step in this process is, by statute, the governor, delivers a proposed budget in the November. From their perspective, they wanted to, cut k 12,
kind of using a a policy lever of enrollment averaging. In terms of the way schools are funded, we have our October count that helps set our per pupil funding based on our funded pupil count. But, for districts that are in decline, it triggers an average of the prior, previously five years, now four years under fourteen forty eight, so that districts have a soft landing in the event that they're experiencing declining enrollment.
As this district and this board knows, declines in enrollment present a ton of challenges that a district has to work through in terms of what to reduce and potentially what schools to close. And those are not decisions that are easy to make, nor can they be made quickly. The governor proposed zeroing out completely averaging so that funding would be established based on your per people count in October without any consideration of averaging. Luckily,
APS is past the averaging stage, so it would not be affected. But if this were instilled at the peak of our declining enrollment and our benefit of averaging, it would have cost Roar Public Schools sixteen million dollars to put it in perspective. Zeroing out averaging, you know, we were the first district to kind of take its turn with declining enrollment, but the rest of our neighbors and basically the entire metro area is now in that state that we used to be.
Zero averaging would cut GEFCO by $20,000,000, Douglas County by $14,000,000, Cherry Creek by $17,000,000, Adams 12 by $14,000,000 It would exclusively cut $150,000,000 in the budget by taking it from the districts that are in the toughest situation relative to declining enrollment. And I think k twelve as a whole, we're, we're kind of like herding cats on most issues. But on this one, we were pretty almost unanimously aligned
against the governor's office proposal. I joined, about five other CFOs to present our argument to the joint ed committee about a month ago. And I I think there has been a lot of momentum indicating, based on what we're hearing, that the governor's office has kind of backed away from that zero year averaging option. That does not necessarily mean k 12 could be left unscathed in terms of cuts. We still maintain a position, a lot of us, that these aren't our cuts to make.
There is evidence that the cuts that the state could have cut more proactively were put off by the fact that they were utilizing savings from state obligations in k 12 over the last four or five years to kind of put off those cuts. And so when we're asked to share sacrifice, oftentimes our argument is we have for multiple years. But if the reality is that there remains some interest to have cuts, you know, the decision is also following the direction of,
well, what is your preference of what you'd like to cut if if that becomes the case? Two of the alternative options that have been discussed is some combination of decreasing the number of years of averaging or decreasing the amount of money to be appropriated into the new formula. The new formula is to be implemented based on current statute over six years, roughly a sixth per year.
So 18% next year, towards a six year implementation to 100%. One of the options is to maintain averaging for one year at the four year level in exchange for cutting that almost in half to reduce it to 10% instead of 18% of the new formula. Alternatively, there have been, discussions, well, maybe we land at three years averaging in exchange for keeping fourteen forty eight whole. I don't I don't think it would be surprising that a lot of the districts
that are are currently in that state of decline would obviously prefer to maintain at least an extra year at four years averaging. There's a lot of us who believe in this new formula and the priority of a more equitable driven model of of funding to be prioritized, to remain on schedule, I think that's oftentimes where where I've landed in those discussions. I think the good news is that there are no discussions of taking away our inflationary requirement based on Amendment 23.
And so in general, k 12 compared to some other non k-twelve budget decisions is relatively unscathed. But on the margins, we are talking about a reduction potentially based on a deal that we made but still seems fresh. It's ten months old. And so we we continue to try to be a part of those conversations, as that discussion kind of evolves. Thank you so much. Yes, sir. Yep. Thank you for sharing that, Brett. I think what's really important just to name in this space is you said we
continue to try to be involved in those conversations and the reality is we have been in those involved in those conversations. And, I guess, what I would like for the community to know is that, oftentimes, if you don't see us on the front page of the paper or if you don't get a video from us expressing all the different things that we're doing, doesn't mean that we're not fighting and advocate advocating. Brett, the our our lobbyist is down at the Capitol almost daily. I mean, having direct conversations with the policymakers, with the legislators, with the people who have, power to make decisions, and we're fortunate to have somebody with that kind of credibility.
I know I've had several conversations with with people offline also that influenced some of the shift that we're seeing. So I just wanna acknowledge that because sometimes it doesn't look as public facing as, sometimes I think we want it to, but there's a lot of work in advocacy advocacy that is going on. And I wanna thank you for your leadership around that. And we have our very own Sorry. Director Carter, representative Carter. Do do you have something to say? So just briefly, because of my position here on the board, I am, conflicted off of the education committees.
Sure. However, I have been in constant contact with both our superintendent regarding, No doubt. Issues that are going on down there, and I have every day, I I speak to and meet with miss Hogan and as well as, communicating with with Brett. So, just to be clear, because of my obligation here, I still I'm not on the education committee, but I am still going to vote. And we'll have our vote, and I will make sure the vote is is is for what what's best for rural public schools.
Thank you. So we do have strong advocacy representing APS at the capital. Two things we want to remember. Right? We share the strong opposition to eliminate the the enrollment averaging even though it doesn't affect us, and we are also in strong opposition in any k 12 cuts. We know that, and we want the community to understand that we will continue to advocate, to fight,
to put APS in the best position, possible while also supporting the rest of our, district, the rest of the the districts, in the state. So I'm pretty sure the superintendent also is on top of everything. And if there is anything that any messaging any message that needs to go to the community, it would definitely be going. Right? Thank you so much, Brett. Director Gherkin. Thank you very much. I I wanted to ask my representative who's sitting here.
I don't know if this is appropriate or not, but as as an advocate for Aurora Public Schools, I have heard that, it doesn't really matter. Like, I could contact you as my representative, but it wouldn't make any difference if I contacted other representatives. Whether they were my party or some other party, it doesn't really matter. Is that true, or is it effective for all of us, each of us, community, everyone, to be advocates, contacting every single rep and senator.
Is it is it take do people say, oh, they're not one of my constituents. I don't care what they say. What I would tell everybody, you should reach out to each member of the legislator legislation. But, in general, you should reach out to for one very specific reason, you have a relationship with the individual on the other side. Mhmm. And so when you reach out to your your your, your house member or your senator, there's a relationship, that has probably already been established. That's what I would tell people. But you are free to contact anyone, about anything. And and I've had I've had many I've had teachers that have come down and
and spoken to me. I've had students. I've had members of the board. I know Brett all the time. But the reality is, you know, if you if you really want to get involved, I would reach out to your your state rep or your state senator. Okay. And all my information is out there if you would like to reach out to me as well. Like I said, you are all welcomed, and many students and and teachers and members of the board have come down. And as doctor Rehartz said, right, most advocacy is done behind the scene. Mhmm. We don't always see it. But when it's when it comes time to,
leverage on the community, us, we definitely would do that. We have done that in the past where we have emailed, called, texted both senators and representatives throughout Aurora that are within the APS community. And if we have to do that again, we will do it. So yeah. Yeah. I'm I'm all in favor of that and and ready to you know, Ray said he'd be sending that stuff out. I'm I'm I'm gonna be doing it, and that's letting all of us know, you know, what we can do.
My my only thing was I know I have the right to contact anybody. I know you would listen to everyone. I'm not saying you wouldn't. I'm saying well, you know what I'm saying. Okay. Never mind. Yes. We do know what you're saying. We do know I know you can't speak for everyone. We do know what you're saying. The bottom line in this is there is strong advocacy for APS, and it will remain as is as is until, this issue also passes. That being said, our next board of education meeting is 04/01/2025.
Do I hear a motion to adjourn? So moved. Do I hear a second? Second. It's been moved by director Tom Wing and seconded by director Tasker. Thank you, everyone. Have a good evening or good night. But I haven't seen you guys this long. Right. I know your head. Brad was like, do you want the short one?