Good evening. It is 07:00, and I'm calling to order the Wednesday, October 22 regular meeting of the twenty seven j Board of Adjustment to order. All matters noticed on our agenda in any category may be considered for action as listed, and any item not so noticed may not be considered. Items listed on this agenda may be considered in any order at the discretion of the chairperson. Our first order of business our second order of business is the pledge of allegiance. Melinda, will you lead us in the pledge of allegiance? Next up will be roll call for attendance. Director Alvarado? Here.
Director Carbajal? Aye. Director Khan? Here. Director Green? Live and in person. Director Thomas? Here. Director Trujillo? Here. Director Wilhelm? Here. Mister president, you do have quorum. Thank you very much. Next step would be our commitment to governing style. The board will govern lawfully, observing observing policy governance principles with an emphasis on outward vision rather than internal preoccupation, encouragement of diversity and viewpoints, strategic leadership more than administrative detail, a clear distinction of board and chief executive roles, collective rather than individual decisions,
future rather than past or present, and governing proactively rather than reactively. Item four would be our approval of our agenda. Do I have a motion? I'll move to approve the agenda dated 10/22/2025 as presented. Second. The red light governs. Motion by director Wilhelm and second by director Thomas. Can I have a roll call vote? Director Alvarado? Aye. Director Carbajal? Yes. Director Khan? Aye. Director Green? Resoundingly yes. Director Thomas? Aye. Director Trujillo? Aye. Director Wilhelm? Aye. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Next up out of five is our twenty fifteen, twenty twenty one Bomb Oversight Committee report. The board will be presented with the report from the twenty fifteen twenty twenty one Bond Oversight Committee, and director Thomas has volunteered to present the Bond Oversight Report. Please proceed. Of course. Yeah. Our our regular report presenters were not available tonight. So I'm happy to present the report on behalf of our committee. This report covers third quarter expenditures and project progress for July, August, and September. I encourage you to read the report, for more information.
I'm just gonna hit a few of the highlights. The, we'll be closing out the 2015 bond program soon. We hear we've heard that for a while, but we're we know it's getting close. But the total interest earned over the life of the 2015 bond program equals a little over $8,000,000 8,200,000.0. The a couple of the, larger projects that were all following, Tallon Ridge Middle School totaling $60,000,000, has been sent using spent using allocations from the 2015 and 2021 bond programs, with 15,000,000 of that spent in the third quarter, and this project is 71%
spent. The district spent $9,000,000 for the North Transportation Terminal project, of which 1,600,000.0 was spent in the third quarter, and that project is now about 90% spent. And then Rocky Vista High School project has spent $40,000,000, of which 17.5 was spent in the third quarter, and that project is about 27.1% spent. Spent. We review at at our last, bond, meeting, we approved the committee approved 4,000,000 for deferred maintenance.
Caleb, who's here tonight and can answer any questions if you have questions about the report, or any of the projects. But we had about a dozen or so projects lined up for for next year. And so what we're really leaning in into is our deferred maintenance because as you can imagine, we have a very long list, especially with all of you know, you think about some of our schools being new and they're 20 years old. And so now, you know, we we've got a lot of assets to maintain. So, every summer, they they hit hit it hard and, knock out, like, all lots
as much deferred maintenance as as we can approve for them. So about a dozen or so projects for next summer totaling $4,000,000 another project that was recently completed is the vestibules, the security vestibule. Those are mostly done, all of them are functioning at all of the schools. There's a few punch list items that they're that they're wrapping up, but, but they're all in and functioning. So we do have secure vestibule entries at all of our schools. We had a presentation from the communication department, and they created an interactive bond program
investment map. So you bring up the map, and you can see it shows every school in the district, and they're color coded by, I think, elementary, middle, and high school. And if you click on it, it brings up and shows you the projects that were done, the total that was spent, when it was done. So that's a really, really cool tool for our community to follow projects, that were funded by the bond program. And with that, the committee certifies that all expenditures to date have been made in adherence to the official bond language as approved by the voters of 27 on 11/03/2015
and 11/02/2021. Thank you very much. And, again, that's what's great about that interest that we get on those bond payments is it allows us to apply some of that additional bonus money in into other great things for our school district. So that that really is very helpful. And, again, all that information is on the website. Did you wanna defer it to your special guest? Do you have any questions or anything to add, Caitlin? K. Thank you. My my special guest. I wanna say I love the interactive map and the transparency it brings to the community. It's really easy to look at and read and see exactly where the money's going,
where their money's going. I I just think that's awesome. I would welcome a motion. Okay. I'll move to accept my report from the twenty fifteen twenty twenty one bond oversight committee as presented. Second. Motion for director Thomas. Second from director Carvajal. Roll call vote, please. Director Alvarado? Aye. Director Carvajal? Yes. Director Khan? Aye. Director Green? Well, except for the presenter, yes. Director Thomas? Aye. Wondered how that was gonna go. Director Trujillo. Aye. Director Wilhelm. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you. Oh, perfect. Item six is the mill levy override oversight committee report.
The board of education will now be presented with a report from the mill levy override, the twenty twenty two mill levy override oversight committee, and, Victoria Villarreal will present the mill levy report. Please proceed. Hi, board. Thanks for having me tonight. Apologies if I'm congested. Allergies is a struggle every day of my life. With tonight's report, I really want to start off with commending the Mill Liberty Oversight Committee. In all of our interactions, we are really forward thinking, trying to be good stewards
of the community's money and intention and staying always finding our North Star with what the mill levy bond oversight committee set out to do and the bond set out to do. And so in this past meeting, which was just last week, October 14, we really had a healthy discussion around what does that mean? What does that mean for future? What does that mean today? What does that mean five years from now? And started talking about contingencies and rolling through our budgets and got some, additional insight
into where the budgets were being spent, specifically what does tech mean, what does resource mean, things like that. So, Stacy Yoshimoto, our CFO, and our, her partner, Myra, went a little bit deeper, and they have some they'll come back with some additional details later, for the mill to review as well. We also discussed, how we can partner with our, communications manager, Michael, and how, we can gain access and really tap into a 70% of the community that don't have
someone actively involved or enrolled in the school system so that we can continue gaining awareness for our bond, for our future endeavors, and things like that. So it was a pretty good conversation thinking long term. We didn't have to review or pass or approve of any expenditures during this conversation. And then lastly, so we'll have our next one, December 9, to discuss CTE, and Michael will revisit us again to discover to discuss future plans.
And then the next one will be 02/10/2026, and we're hoping to have charters come. We're still a little early out to make sure that we get on their calendar, but that's our hope for February. And then in April, we'll discuss our 2627 converse, compensation. That'll be April 14. And then our last one for the, fiscal year will be 06/09/2026 where we'll be recapping our finalized, actualized 2627 budget. Any questions there? No. Not not a question, but I serve on this committee. So just, a conversation that we had at the meeting that I had I had
brought to the committee's attention. When they were given the financial report, they were talking about expenses around, the CTE programs. And they could tell us, like, how much they spent on flour. Like, they bought this amount of flour and how much it cost. And so I just, like, I I impressed upon the committee, like, the importance of that because I feel like a lot of times, especially around election time, we get, we hear you're not we're not transparent, you know, accusations around transparency. And so it was just, you know, there's we don't hide anything.
You can look to see how much they spent on flour for the, cooking program if you care to. So that's the level of of transparency that we get when they're reviewing the financials for that for those meetings. Yeah. And to add to that, one of the ideas that sparked from that level of detail going back to our communications manager, Michael, was, hey. How about a video of the flower being unloaded from the trucks? A real physical, mental tie together of this is where your money's going that supports x number of kids, x number of projects, and things like that.
Really giving a full end to end life cycle cycle to bring in that emotional, physical, psychological tie and to continue gaining awareness and visibility. Can you just remind me or remind, like, the community in general, like, who is serving on this committee that's seeing this information and looking at transparency? When you say who's serving on the committee, you so the members? Yeah. So myself, Victoria Viral, I'm cochair with Michael. I forget his last name. Michael Cuba. And then we have Gabby Chavez, Roberto Timing, may have mispronounced that, Rhiannon Collins, Mandy
Thomas, Rachel Willem Wilhelm, and Allison Martin, all representing different districts. And we routinely have Stacy Yashimoto and Myra visiting as well as Will Pierce in attendance. And then we'll have visitors from, either the other Michael for finance or Michael in communications, Sam Ortega for safety, and then various CTE conversations throughout the time. So does have an interview beyond the In May. Yeah. I was just it was it's a highlight. I just wanted to ask because a lot of them are community members.
Not working in twenty seven j, not serving on the board, but people in the community that are making sure that we're transparent. So that was more of a highlight opportunity, like, as part of that transparency piece. Great question. Great call. It was a very extensive process to choose everyone from the community too when we did it. Yeah. I interviewed the first round, didn't get it, and then came the second time. So glad we found our way. No. But I like that piece, and I don't know that we share that enough. So that's why I was asking. Like, this board isn't comprised of people inside the district watching the money. It's it's comprised of people outside of the district watching the money.
Everyone should get to know that. There's definitely, a sense of and it's a discussion of how can we continue the communications broader in the community, not just at the school level or at the district level? How can we gain exposure on and off social media for those of all different demographics, different age groups, involvement in the, community themselves or in the schools themselves? And so it's definitely been a conversation, a heavy conversation, at least the last two, three maybe meetings even, where where which is why Michael with communications, we're like, hey.
What about this? Hey. What and I don't stay quiet. So I'm like, hey. How can we talk about this? And how can we ask this? And here's a suggestion. And, I've even gotten so far as to say, if you want me to interview a a principal and we can post that on Instagram or in the email, we can do that. He's also discussing, his approach or his cadence to how often he sends the annual, community update report. It was annually. Now he's looking at semiannually. Nothing has been fully defined yet, but he is in conversations of how can they increase that, cadence for the community at large.
Yeah. Well, please express our gratitude to the members of this committee for for taking the time out and doing this. And, Janelle, obviously, your department got recognized and Michael got a promotion, I think. But but, again, we really appreciate you guys doing this. And I, before I accept the motion, I I would be remiss if I didn't mention, in the bond oversight committee, Troy Whitmore, a long standing member, has announced his retirement. So we we're looking for additional community members that wanna be a part of that. Roberta is a past board member that serves on on your committee.
But, again, we try to get the community involved in this. So if they're ever interested and they're, would ever consider it, please reach out to the district because we would welcome, because, again, we're open to that transparency. Just like we want you to know how much it cost to buy all this flower, we want you to know, what we're spending in these schools, and know that your dollars are well spent. So at this point, I will take a a motion. I have Oh, please go ahead. Is it possible for the for people in the community to watch these meetings or possibly attend it? Is it open to the public?
It's open to the public. They are open to They're not have been have been haven't been haven't been haven't been haven't been haven't been haven't been haven't been we've never had a guest. We've never had a guest. We've never, to my knowledge, publicly broadcasted. Like, this is upcoming, like, how the school board districts have their, calendar coming. I'm not opposed to it. I think transparency is super important. Is it listed? Yeah. They are published on our on our It is published. Okay. We list the dates of of, bond and mill levy, don't we? I'm I'm sure we do. Okay. Good. Good. And they are welcome to attend, but, yeah, they are not, broadcast.
Yeah. Any more questions? I will accept that motion. Move to accept the report from the $20.22 mill levy override oversight committee. I have a motion from director Trujillo and a second from director Alvarado. Roll call vote. Director Alvarado? Aye. Director Carvajal? Yes. Director Khan? Aye. Director Green? Oh, of course. Director Thomas? Aye. Director Trujillo? Aye. Director Wilhelm? Aye. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you, Victoria. Appreciate the award. And, again, express our gratitude. Absolutely. Thank you for your awesome questions. I think the the line of questioning shows the heart, and I appreciate that very
much. Have a great evening. Super. Are you ready? Because next up is our superintendent's report. Superintendent Will Pierce will report on the activities through the district. Thank you, president Green. The the I always get I always get the happenings. I go to probably three school events a week. So this is, like, the random musings from my phone. So I don't I forget to take pictures. Like, I didn't take Prairie View Brighton football game, the the the superintendent's cup. I didn't take a picture. I don't know why. But I did take a couple of of Brighton Prairie View softball.
And if you don't recognize the the the the sweetie in the lower right hand corner, that is, Miley Carrillo. And, Brayton won the game, but she played well. Riverdale homecoming, dance. If you ever have a chance to go see really cool things that all of our on our app, we have we have a 27 j app, but there are so many events that kids are showcased and highlight from performances to dances to band concerts. You could literally almost every night go do something really cool and be just a fan of kids.
So I would just encourage all of you to go do that, and this is from my phone. So one of the things I have never done is go see the thunder heart thunderhawk pride marching band. They performed, last month two Mondays ago, at regionals, and they made it to state, which is a really cool honor for them. Mondo Solis is is the director there, and it is a compilation. They do have kids from Prairie View High School, Riverdale, and Brighton High School, and it's just a cool thing. They will compete this Friday.
They will compete at the Air Force Academy, which is a super cool honor for those kids. So I've never gone, and the amount of prep those guys, that is a an incredible undertaking. That many kids all all showcasing and being awesome. So congratulations to them. I also we because we we we were we did a lot of great work on our clarifying our global goals. I was not here, at the last time we gave this report. We we'd had the monitoring report. I was my daughter was getting married. Thank you for or my allowing me to be part of my daughter's wedding.
I don't think you guys had a choice, but I still appreciate being there. But but we had, we're tuning into that data in in our first first cycle of district common assessments. 13 of our 16 scores in all of our secondary schools improved, from last fall at this time to a year from now, so there this year. So we're paying attention there. There's good good numbers. It just shows the commitment that our schools are having at approving those scores and hitting hitting that dashboard so that we could stay compliant, which we have not done yet. So we've got work to do there.
I wanna celebrate all of you. This is this is the, like, fifth week in a row that this board has convened in some form or fashion, and I know all of you couldn't be part of all of it. But it just shows your deep engagement in our community and, lots of lots of fun stuff. So thank you for the like, every week, that's that's an extra workout for a volunteer position that only only benefit is to try to support kids. So thank you for doing that. Couple of things. We had a news story that ran, about the opening of Tallon Ridge Middle School, and I just want to include everybody in that.
We still are undecided about whether we're opening it in the twenty sixth or twenty seventh, and I'll give you a couple of the statistics because the news article got it slightly slightly miscued, and then it caused some community concerns and wonderings. We are not declining enrollment, but I think the news picked up the story thinking that every other metro area around us is declining enrollment. So why would we be building schools? We still are growing in enrollment in twenty seven j. We opened a brand new charter school, Capstone Charter School. They took some of our students that are our population of kids that the funding
that would have come directly to do February, but we continue to grow. So that that that worry about why are you building schools when you're not growing, we're growing. And so that's important to know. I have a couple bullets around matter of fiscal responsibility. We we chose to build that school because we are saving $10,000,000 every year that we we build it, or we're losing $10,000,000 every year that we don't build it. And we really believe our community would like us to pass the bond that they passed. Would they'd like us to be able to be fiscally responsible and build all the buildings that we committed to building that bond and not go back out because we
waited for a few more for another year and asked that we didn't finish that job. Could you give us more money? And so one one of them was that, and then we've got a a a a matter of fiscal responsibility and have opening a school when they have the good number of kids to officially stand it up and do it right. And then the third third thing on this topic is just being thoughtful about our twenty seven j ecosystem. Anytime you open a school, if we every time we've done it in twenty seven j's history, we grow so fast that it's like we're popping. The schools are overcrowded. Everybody's whining and complaining.
We open a new school. It opens up. It this one because the growth that and we saw this at our our groundbreaking that we're our construction of that school is just slightly ahead of the growth in that neighborhood. But if you go to that neighborhood, you will see houses popping up everywhere. We could open that school, but we would we'd also be messing with kids and their families and choices. Right? And, you know, all we'd have to do is take kids from discovery and move them over, and we'd have a middle school and we'd look genius, except for what would happen to the kids and families that chose to be a part of discovery magnet. We're not doing those things. And so it's important that you know that we are are thinking about student transitions,
family interest, and and making sure that we engage in those decisions. And then I will be sure that, FPAC has been a great partner trust, a community group that also is providing landscape for boundaries and enrollment and looking at numbers, and it it's it's complex, but we will have a official recommendation by December 19 if it's going to open in '26 or '27. And some of the news said it's we're going to not open it, and it's like, that's just not what what the the accuracy of the story. CBS four did try to do another story with me, but they ended up not
airing it because they said that's not good news. I guess the only only news you get is bad news. And so if if it was good news, they're like, this isn't a story. Would you talk to me about safe to tell? So I will. We you guys know the the tragedy that at Evergreen, and I talked about this last time, our safe to tells go up about three x, three times as many safe to tells following events like that, when something that is that everybody is really worried and afraid of that that seems kind of irrational becomes really rational and fearful,
like we see more and more of that. We I just wanna remind the community that Safe two Tell always do. I would also encourage anybody to call. I think sometimes Safe two Tell doesn't give give you the person who files the Safe two Tell the the the closure. We can't call you back. I can't tell you we've looked into it. I can't convince you that it's safe. And so, everybody has our phone numbers at the office, but please call if you ever need know anything. But, just in the last few days and few weeks, things happen in our neighborhood. It that requires to go secure, and that's what secure means.
Right? So if you look at that definition, secure, something is in the neighborhood, and and it's not a school thing, but we are going to make sure the school is locked. Kids continue to roam the halls. They they go to lunch. They do everything, but they don't go outside and parents don't come inside. We are secured that building from any outside threat. Lockdown, much scarier situation. That is something in the school itself, and that's where the one everybody worries about because we are actually locking down the school and every kid is hiding and we're in the classrooms. And that that one that one is the scarier of the two.
We had a couple secures yesterday in buildings, and sometimes people get confused over which is which. And it's like, no security just means something's happening in the neighborhood. We're we're still going about a normal normal day. And then a couple others that we don't talk about a ton, a hold, something just we want students to avoid. So imagine a a kid at Brighton High School just the other day had a had a seizure in the hall, and we didn't want that every kid to be doing passing period and have lose have that kid see the dignity of them having a seizure in the hall. So we hold kids in classrooms for a little bit so that we can help
that girl get to the ambulance and get out of the school and be taken care of, and then we do a passing period. So that that's that's a little little different. Evacuate, you know that. That's something like a fire, and we get out of the building and then shelter, that stuff like tornadoes, earthquakes, hazards where we it's safer to be inside, but but it can school continues to go. It's it's similar to, a secure, but but, because of the different parameters around with those things. I just wanna remind this group and anybody listening that we practice these.
Everybody's required to do these drills multiple times a year. Kids are really prepared for for those things, so I wanted you to know. You guys always ask that that we respond to public comment, and we're grateful for anybody that comes into public comment to speak. I wasn't here to hear it, but I listened to the tape, and then Carla helped me prepare for this one. I would thank the public comment for sharing the data and the rationale for continued reading instruction and proven our middle schools. If you weren't aware, we have a middle school. We hired a middle school person to kind of, Jackie to to do a middle
school study to identify some of the systemic problems with our middle associated with our middle schools. That's really a district wide study. Is there something in our ecosystem, something we're not doing that we could be better at? An advisory group is gonna consider study the challenges, explore solutions solutions, and ultimately make recommendations about how we can prioritize system changes for our middle schools to be better. You guys were aware of that, but I want everybody to know that, especially public comment. And then the other thing is is is is twenty seven j's top priority is continue to ensure every student has access to grade level.
We know that kids kids will perform better on CMOS and those things if they get access to You can't pass seventh grade CMOS if you don't get seventh grade standard. But that doesn't mean that we don't do interventions, and and there's there's there's four or five different examples of different interventions that we do do, including we do have elective replacements for three of our middle schools. Not all of our middle schools do that. We there's some of the resources, CDE. We use CDE's k three read plan stuff for all all kids that are that have significant reading deficit.
And then we use Lexia and HD Word programs, which are both research and evidence based. We do that. And there is support for teachers around the use of data and develop plans for instruction, and we do coach best practices, to review and use implementation materials. Just important if you if you come to speak in a public comment that we also respond to you, that's that's kinda weak. I think that's the promise that Tom says is that we don't respond. We take advisement, so we we owe you a response. And the second comment under bathroom use, we we continue to follow the advice of
our legal counsel and who stays current with all federal and Colorado laws. I know it's a really confusing time because we have, executive orders that have not yet become federal laws. They're going to cases now. Federal laws that don't always equate to Colorado laws, and in general, there's a lot of confusion over what we do in restrooms. And we have a strong interest. We still this board and myself have a strong interest in student safety in bathrooms and and locker rooms. Boys do use boys' bathrooms, and girls do use girls' bathrooms. And sometimes they think that I don't wanna misunderstand that that's that's we don't we
don't allow that. That's not like a permissible. The kids just walk in in any bathroom they choose. That's never the case. We do have general neutral stalls, single stall restrooms for any student that may want a private option. That's important to us. And then while the current state of laws may not be giving us an absolute rule or a policy that we're gonna hitch our wagon to, I would encourage everybody that's listening to this, work with your principal, work with your teacher, work with our intervention team, call myself. We just wanna make sure students feel are safe and feel safe in our schools. So just just because we don't have a law or a policy that directs that,
every kid deserves to feel safe in their bathroom and feel cared for and not so if that's not the case, everybody can use that single stall, and we can work that through it with parents. So with that, that's my superintendent update. Mister Thank you very much. Are there any questions? Again, I appreciate all that update and appreciate, again, going through that even the, the alert status in the schools. Because I think sometimes when parents hear that that the school may be under a certain hole, whether it's secure, it's not necessarily locked down.
It's not necessarily the most serious thing. A lot of times, it's it's an external factor that's affected. We just wanna make sure our kids are protected. So that's why I had him go over that. So thank you again. Next up would be our matters of public comment. The board will now hear public comments, on topics that have been indicated in the sign in sheet. Reminder that this board meeting is a business meeting held in public, not a public meeting. The board hears public comments to learn about the preferences and concerns of our community. Therefore, tonight, we will listen. We are prohibited by state law from taking any action on the items because law
requires formal public notice prior to any action on an agenda item. During our next meeting as we did tonight, we will consider your comments in our discussion. We ask that the superintendent attempt to find an answer for any of your questions at that time. The board welcomes the comments of our community members, but to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to participate, we have a few ground rules. We ask you to follow. Of course, anybody attending signs the sign in sheet. We'll call you in the order that you signed up. Speaker's comments are limited to three minutes. We ask that you refrain from any making complaints or negative comments against individual students
or district employees. However, we cannot prevent you from doing so. Such complaints and comments should be addressed first at the classroom or school level and then, if still unresolved, directly to the superintendent. Disturbing good over order by inappropriate language or gesture is ground for removal from the meeting. We thank you in advance for your participation tonight, and a live stream recording of the public comments is available at sd27j.net for ninety days. First up, I have David Pockington. He's in the district. Please come forward. He wants to talk about the no bathroom policy.
Welcome, David. Am I on? Sorry. First, somebody hit it on the head. Parent involvement. I'm all about parent involvement. That's why I'm here. A lot of people don't come because I noticed that we have a lot of teachers that actually disrespect parents. For instance, parent was asking the other day or I'm sorry. Teacher was asking a parent the other day. They didn't agree with something. Teacher asked, do you have basic comprehensive reading skills to the parent? Why? I I thought we're supposed to keep politics out of the classroom. Sorry. I just touched on that real quick. The bathroom policy. Well, you're just saying that we don't have a policy, and it's okay.
But why have a weapons policy? We have a policy that says no weapons at school. Why? It's for the kids' safety. I don't know why everybody's scared of a parent that speaks up. I speak up. I hope you guys listen. It's almost like I live in your heads free rent. Obviously, voting is going on now. Bathroom policy is a big, big issue. District 49, I've already explained that, has a bathroom policy because they actually respect kids. District eleven is actually following district forty nine. I don't know if you guys know about that. I don't know why some of you hate me, for instance, when I'm online talking
about the policy of the bathroom. My job coming here is because I have kids. I wanna make sure my kids are safe. I wanna make sure your kids are safe. Ashley, your daughter's here. My job is to make sure that she's safe too in the bathroom. I don't know why we don't have a policy on it yet. Like I said, we have a policy for weapons. We have a policy for everything else. Some of some of that stuff, I don't even know what it's for. But we have a policy for it. Why not bathrooms? I don't need your approval. I need my kids' approval. I'm up here fighting for my kids. Like I said, I'm up here fighting for your kids too. I'll be the first one to stand up and say, I I I respect kids.
I wanna make sure kids are safe. I haven't seen anything yet from you guys. I get harassed online. I get yelled at by people online. I get told at certain events from my daughter that another daughter comes up and says, my mom doesn't like you, from a board member. How's it I'm a parent. I'm supposed to be up here fighting for my my kids' rights. My job is to make sure you do your job. If you can't protect kids, then what's the point? I don't care if we're here for pencils, paper, food, anything like that.
The first priority is to protect a kid. If we can't do that, we're in the wrong business. Thank you. Thank you, mister Poggington. Appreciate you coming by. Next up is, Janine Ranfala, also in district, here to talk to us about literacy. And if you have some hand ups on, you just give them to Lynn Ann, and she'll carry them on. Thank you for coming down tonight. Good evening. I'd like to talk again about literacy. I appreciate that the district acknowledged the need for improvement in English language arts, and the efforts are being made to strengthen tier one instruction. Strong tier one teaching is essential but not enough for students who are already behind
in reading. The state's READ Act clearly requires that students with significant reading deficits receive intervention in addition to regular classroom instruction. Yet as a parent of a middle school student with a read plan, that is not what we are experiencing. In both seventh grade last year and eighth grade this year, my child has not received any literacy intervention outside of her ELA class for the read plan. That directly contradicts the statement in the district's response that the middle school intervention is occurring throughout small groups advisory and elective replacements. Furthermore, we are now a quarter way through the school year, and our family still
has not received our read plan for this year. When the district says intervention is happening, but students with documented reading deficits are not receiving it, and families are not even given the read plans until a quarter of the school year is over, This isn't just about compliance. It's about outcomes. As I mentioned last month, our CMASS results show that only thirty to thirty eight percent of students meet or exceed reading expectations, far below the state's average. That means far too many students are not getting what they need to be proficient readers.
But we don't have to accept this as inevitable. Other districts have overcome some similar challenges. In the seventy four million's April article, why Steubenville, Ohio might be the best school district in America, a high poverty Rust Belt district reaches 97% reading proficiency, not because of wealth, but because of focus and consistency. Every teacher there teaches a reading block. Struggling readers receive targeted instruction daily, and the district has followed the same evidence based literacy program for over twenty five years.
Steubenville proves that what's possible when reading is treated as a system wide priority. So I respectfully ask the board to make literacy intervention beyond elementary school a district wide measurable goal, publicly report how many students in grades four through eight are receiving true reading interventions, and track whether they are working, Ensure that all middle school students with read plans receive timely, documented, and daily literacy support in addition to ELA. Tier one instruction matters, but intervention matters just as much. Our students deserve both.
Thank you. Thank you again for coming down. Next up is our consent agenda. All matters listed under the consent agenda are operational matters about which the board has governing policies, implementation of which is delegated to the superintendent. They will be enacted in one motion by category in the order listed below. There'll be no discussion of these items prior to the time the board of directors vote on the motion unless any members of the board, staff, or public request specific items to be discussed separately and or removed from this section. And hearing none, the consent agenda consists of, a, approval of the board education minutes
dated 09/24/2025, the study session regular meeting, 09/30/2025, and our joint meeting, 10/08/2025, linkage and regular. And item b, approval of personnel items on the memorandum dated 10/16/2025, which was a confidential closure enclosure. Approval of resolution number four to designate district attendance officers and to authorize attendance officers to represent the district in truancy court. Do I have a motion?
I move to approve the consent agenda as presented. I'll second. Motion from director Khan, second from director Carvajal. Roll call vote, please. Director Alvarado? Aye. Director Carvajal? Yes. Director Khan? Aye. Director Green? Sure. Director Thomas? Aye. Director Trujillo? Aye. Director Wilhelm? Aye. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. What's up is item 10, moving through our agenda quickly, and I appreciate that. The governance process that supports our global goals. First up is ownership linkage. Director Caball or director Khan, do you have anything?
I guess I would just say at the study session previous to this, we just, kinda discussed what we're looking for as a board and who we're gonna meet with this next year. We compiled a list of what some of those entities might look like, come like, across the line, and we're gonna line those up and decide who we start meeting with at the beginning of the year. Terrific. Next up would be door board education. Director Khan and director Thomas, do you have anything? Yeah. I can just share that in our study session this evening, we earlier this evening, we discussed, how our board educations study sessions and linkage meetings, go hand in hand
and using our study session for some, board member orientation. Terrific. Item d would be our, our c would be our facility planning and advisory committee. And we are as superintendent Pierce hinted at, right now we're looking at what those school boundaries will be, when we open up these new schools. And, we're trying to find and, again, as he talked about, the best way for families and stuff so they can plan for this ahead of time. Those will be announced early next year so that you can have preparation forward.
And even if you were looking for a home, you'll be able to know which, boundaries you'll be in be for which high school you're gonna go to, which middle school you're gonna go to. And so, we're trying to work out those boundaries. And again, discussing, about the opening of our future schools that are under construction and encourage you to go on the map and on the website. You can see updates of the progress of construction on those schools and also on how much we're spending on it. Next up would be our capital facility fee foundation. We got three, director Alvarado, director Conn, and director Trujillo. Any one of you would you like to comment on that?
We haven't met recently. November 6. Okay. We'll look forward to it in the November, board meeting. Director Carvajal, do you have something on the Rocky Mountain Risk? No. I reported out last time. I'll meet too in November. Very good. You know, Mandy has something very exciting that you would love to talk about in the 27 j believers. Yes. We opened our, 27 j believers award, on October 10. Nomination form went out. We're doing a whole grateful, thankful November theme. One change we made this time that was we've been talking about it for a while. The form has always been just like a PDF form that we email out.
But because we use Google Docs for, like, everything, it was like a no brainer that we did a Google form this time. It'll be easier for, for nominators to nominate, and participate in that. So excited to get that back, and I think it'll be easier for us to review comments because they'll all be in a in a spreadsheet. And we will award that at the November meeting. It just means we're gonna have even more nominations. That's gonna be even more difficult about saying no. See what you did, Mandy? Do you see what you did? Look how much awesome this is going on.
Yes. I'm still I'm gonna hold you. I'm gonna be the hardliner. Our twenty seven day, school use tax with Commerce City. Again, the last board meeting, we, received a notification of the money that we got, received from them, and that's going to our Rocky Vista School, and we're very excited about that. The twenty fifteen, twenty twenty one bond oversight committee. Director Alvarado, director Thomas? Yeah. I mean, there's nothing else to report. We had a we had an excellent report this evening. If you do say so yourself. About the twenty twenty two Mill Levy Override Oversight Committee.
And it was a very good report. The Brighton Youth Commission, director Trujillo. Yeah. So, I kinda gave some updates on what they were working on. And so that was, like, selecting officers, and now we've finally got, like, new pod groups. So students are in charge of a certain amount of other members on the committee and getting information out, what's coming up. Something coming up is the Image Summit. It's gonna be November. So that is a Colorado youth conference. It's held here in Adams County at the Fairgrounds.
And so, basically, just helping youth learn about leadership skills and then empowering them to use their voice to help make change within their community. And that even though, you know, they are youth they are young, that they still have a voice and their voice matters. So things that we talked about was something about, like, the skate park in Brighton and then wanting to get rid of the skate park and how that would affect our Brighton youth and them to be able to go and talk to city council or different people and that they do have a voice to speak up on that.
So I'll be volunteering on November over at that summit. Terrific. Thank you. And, again, it's open to any of the area youth, so the incentives are online. Other matters of information for the board. I think director Khan has some something to add to this. Yeah. We scheduled our first meeting for a committee that hasn't been named yet. I guess we'll come up with the name on November 3, right, for our teacher recognition committee of sorts. Yeah. So we'll figure that out on the third. And I'm really stoked.
So thank you. Perfect. Yeah. I'm just curious because I don't know, but I know you have the answer. Can you kinda give me the difference of what this new committee is versus, like, believers? Like, I'm sure they're two different things, and I just don't know. I'm curious. Well, I was inspired to inquire about it because we're really constantly pushing for excellence, and I believe we have excellent teachers in our district that, should be recognized, you know, teacher of the year awards, by their principal or by, whoever we deem necessary.
I think it's really important to recognize that publicly. I see it in other major school districts. And guess what? We're a major school district now. So I think we should be recognizing teachers. I think we should also be recognizing, you know, an educator of of the year, which most major school districts, put up, what is it, statewide or is that nationally? Sorry. Yeah. And believers is more it's really open to anyone who is volunteering within the schools, staff, some teachers. It doesn't focus on just our educators. So So is it, like, selecting one, like, 27?
I think that's that will be part of it, but we're still working on it. We have our first meeting. Very good. Next up is their expectations of the board. There is no, reports that were submitted since the last meeting, so we'll move to item b where chief financial officer Stacy Yoshimoto will present the expectations of the board report through three d, financial conditions and activities internal as conveying reasonable interpretations of the executive limitations. CFO Yoshimoto, please proceed. Good evening.
This is chair. Alright. And as always, thank you for giving me the opportunity to report on the financial conditions and activities of the district. It's a it's a big a big workload, and I have a lot of people to thank that goes into this, all the work that we do. A big shout out to my accounting manager who reported to you guys in January when I was on leave. Just another thank you for for her for doing that for us and and everyone that, you know, includes or does work on this report, which includes my entire team
as well as, other departments within the district. So sorry. Okay. And then I'll close this. Alright. So this is policy three d financial conditions and activities. Just a reminder that the period monitored, during this report is 07/01/2024 through 06/30/2025. So it was entire year of fiscal year '25. Britney reported in January for the first six months of the year, and now I'm back to report for the full year. In the 10 areas that are listed in the report of financial conditions and activities
monitored for policy compliance, we're gonna report that the superintendent has complied with all the conditions with the exception of the number 10, with the the district's financial audit as it is not as it has not yet been finalized for fiscal year twenty four, it is underway as we speak. So kinda going through some of the conditions and activities. First one, the superintendent will not exceed funds received unless the liquidity and reserve requirements Taber and Ford are met 3%. So in fiscal year twenty five, the funds that we received exceeded expenses, so we
did not exceed, the funds we received by 1,000,000. And the year also ended with a general fund balance of 81,500,000.0, which includes a $6,600,000 TABOR and the $6,000,000 board reserve. So in the table that is in the report, just looking at the general fund, you can see there's our ending fund balance, and these are unaudited fund balances, but I'm pretty sure that they're gonna stay right there bearing any adjustments, Barring. Sorry.
Eighty one point five million fund balance. And then as you can see right there, revenues were 200 through 1,000,000. And then expenditures plus the negative transfers, it's kind of a weird thing. So if you add those two together, it comes to be about 230,000,000. So our expenditures did not exceed our revenues for the year. The next condition is superintendent will not borrow funds without board approval. And as Britney port reported in January, nothing has changed since then that we, issued 200 128,500,000.0
in general obligation bonds. That was the second tranche of the 2021 bond program, and we also refunded our 2016 bonds, because they became callable. So we approved that back in August 2024. So nothing changed from when Britney presented except for this. So we have since made a a debt payment. So if you see the outstanding principal or outstanding balance principal and interest, I think in the report in January, it's, like, $1.97. We've made a principal and interest payment, so that brings it down to $1.91.
And our total outstanding general obligation debt, including COPs, at the end of the fiscal years was $1,000,000,000. I think that's the first time I've gotten to say that. That's a that's a pretty big number. And as you can see, our payment for fiscal year twenty five principal and interest on all of those, debt series was 68,000,000 68,800,000.0. So within our our bond fund, that's where that gets paid from. Alright. Next condition, the superintendent will not allow cash to fall below 6% of general fund
expenditures. So the reserves the 6% of expenditures was roughly 12,600,000.0, and so we can report that it never fell below the required 6%. So those are our cash balances between fiscal year twenty four and twenty five, and 6% of expenditures is 12.6. So that's that red line. So it's we have a very healthy cash balance. I think it's funny that I used to call super intended before you the billion dollar man, and you finally have said it.
Yeah. Right? Doctor Fiedler, he used to get him red in the face, but I love to call him the billion dollar man because it was Oh, you are. During his tenure that we we hit that. So Yep. Alright. So the next condition is the superintendent will not use reserves or conduct interfund shifts not in compliance with policies. So it was reported in January that I think interfund was about 19,900,000.0, but that we upped that just a tiny bit during the amended budget period, so it ended up being 20,000,000. So on that same table, you can see transfers out of the general fund of
$20,000,000, and then you can see where that full 20,000,000 got distributed through other funds. Just give me a quick second to look at all those. Any questions on anything so far? Bless you. Alright. So next activity is superintendent will not fail to settle payroll obligation and payables on time. So for fiscal year twenty five, we paid on average 2,610 employees per month, with a gross payroll to date of a $155,400,000. Dollars. 98% of our accounts payable payables were settled within ninety days, and this included 7,905
checks that were issued during this period. So just a little sorry. From, just a little few little tables from the report. This is where you can see the 2,610 employees, 155,400,000, and then the number of checks that were issued and during the period the rate the payable periods. And you're not counting the employees as being a check? Correct. So otherwise, it'd be Yep. Payable. Yep. Alright. Next condition, the superintendent will not allow tax payments or filings to be overdue or
inaccurately filed. So this is just all mandatory deductions and tax payments were filed on time. As it's in your report. This is the mandatory deduction that we have to pay. This is how it's paid. If you would want to see this information any differently, let me know because this is kind of how we've presented it for since I've been around. So if you wanna quantify anything, I'm happy to do that, dates, anything. But, yeah, we will just conclude that all of our payments were made. Alright. Next one is superintendent will not execute purchasing commitments over 25,000 unless disclosed or approved
by the board. So during this period, 381 checks, 50 PCAR transactions, a 139 wires, were paid that were $25,000 or greater. And so all of those total together to be about a 139,800,000.0. So we have all of the details listed in the monitoring report. But for this presentation, I wanted to just kind of pull out a few in the different categories. So the top vendors with a check payment are US Foods and United Power.
We pay US Foods weekly. We pay United Power monthly. On pcard, our top vendor was GovConnection. So this is where we get all of our Chromebooks, all of our computers, whatnot, about 5,400,000. And then By Wire, all of our biggest hitters were Para, which is our Para you know, our retirement payments that we have to make, both employee and employer side, the US Treasury for federal income taxes, and then Kaiser Permanente for our health insurance. So those are just the big ones that I wanted to pull up.
Superintendent will not acquire, lease, or dispose of real property without board approval. So same thing that Britney reported in January. The only thing that happened in fiscal year twenty five was a purchase of land for middle school number six, which happened in October 2024. Superintendent will not accept revenues inconsistent with the district's mission and values. So all donations and grants that were local received during the monitoring period monitoring period aligned with the district's missions and goals, and that total was about $511,006.44
received during the period, also in the report, but I wanted to pull out everything that, was received after Britney had reported. So she reported everything that was received up through October. So here's everything November through June if you just wanted a snapshot. Stacy, can I back up one slide? Mhmm. Talking about that Kaiser payment, is that sorry. That's the slide I was talking about. Kaiser, is that for the total group? Like, does that include what the employees pay into it and what we pay into
it? So it doesn't That's everything. Yep. Perfect. Thank you. And the way we have our benefits set up is that the employees pay very small amount because the district pays for benefits on the behalf of the employees. Do they pay for dependents? I can't remember. Yep. Okay. And I have one other question. That's, we also did a land purchase adjacent to Tallon Ridge. Is that gonna be on next year's? That'll be on next year's. Okay. That's just wanted to verify. Yep. Thank you. Yeah. I know we talked about it in 2025, but, like, didn't actually happen till next
year. Yeah. Yep. K. Alright. Tiny donations. Oh, yeah. Sorry. You good? Yeah. Mhmm. I would encourage more people to be like Alicia Walker and just give us donations. Look, we'll get your name. We'll read it about the school board meeting. So Get recognized. I love these businesses. Yeah. Brian Bada. We love all you people. Thank you. Yeah. And these are across the district. This is is this all the relations that we're speaking with the district? The ones that are reported to the finance office and categorized as local grants slash
donations. So is anything I think the board, policy is anything over $500 in total. Are you looking for something that Kinda about that. K. Okay. And this is just, like, for the second half. So whatever was donated or received July 1 through October, it's in the the actual monitor report. It as income. So sometimes it may be that a school this is just hypothetically, a school would
receive a check from a a parent or a business, and they would just deposit it, and we would record it as a deposit. And we wouldn't know that it was one person donating the money for a specific reason that we track it. We also have, our PTOs collect money directly, and then they pay for things directly also that don't go through the finance department. Yeah. We have some third third party PTOs, so you'll see PTOs paying. We bought it through the school. The PTO wrote the check to the school. Yeah. You see those.
You also have sometimes p you might have donated money to the PTO, and the PTO paid directly for that service. Yes. I'm not sure. Why I was asking because on here, I assume Mhmm. Mhmm. Mhmm. I just can't wait till we see Simply Pizza on there too. I mean, I see United Power twice, but I'm just, you know power. I'm just curious. What's the Oklahoma City Community Foundation?
I'm not sure. I'd have to look into that and get back to you. But, hey, reach for it. Get us. Yes. Dust. New Circle k moved into Brighton area, and they gave they they wrote us a check saying thank you for our that's part of what they do when they come into new to type it. Yes. It's really nice. Help support marching band uniforms at Prairie View High School, if you're curious what that money was spent on. I know that. So, like, if a parent wants to donate directly to the district instead of the
booster Mhmm. That would come up on this list. Either you But it does say what program it's for. Right? Yeah. But you could definitely donate it to to be a forward program. It just seems like such a weird list. Right? Like, boys basketball, like, there is a But it fund for that, then, like, it's trip like, it just seems like there's a lot more money that's being donated in some of these pots, but none of it's hitting here. That's weird. There's two reports though too. There's one in January. I see. So it may have been capturing the Oh, I see. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Mhmm. Alright.
So the next item is a super superintendent will not fail to pursue material receivables after a reasonable grace period. So this is surrounding our student fee collection. District course fee collection is up to 4044% compared to 34.4% in the prior fiscal year. However, it is down from the six month monitoring report period, which was at 51.6%. So due to the healthy school meals for all, no nutrition services meals were written off again this year in fiscal year twenty five. And there's a quick little snapshot of our fee collection based on fee type.
I have a question about fees. I know we talked a long time ago about the elementary kids when the high school students pay, the fees were due to elementary, and the cash payments coming back to them. Is that working out? That's working out pretty good. Yep. I we've asked, you know, all the secretaries whoever are allocating the money to do it, and they're it's a pretty simple it's just a little additional step, but it's a pretty good step. I have a few question too. Surrounding maybe it's just athletics, but when we're overcharging families and they're paying fees, you know, this was coming. We've had this conversation recently.
And how are we ensuring we get that money back to families? And if we're keeping overage of money, where are we putting that money? So usually on Infinite Campus, if you have an overage of money and everything has taken place all the things have taken place that need to be taken place, it stays as a surplus on the student's account. And from there, the surplus can either be applied to upcoming fees, current fees, or at the end of when they graduate, we have a lot of checks come out
for for students who have surplus balances. And for that to become a surplus, though, somebody within the district has to change that fee to no longer there? And that lies all with the schools. Okay. Mhmm. And is it a CHASA rule that we have to take funding upfront for athletics before people make teams and then we have to be able to give the money back? Or is that just imposed by our high schools at will? I have to get back to you on that one. And, our graduation requirements are required that you have to have all your, everything paid off. And it walk across the state.
Correct? Correct. And it is a one of the policies that says that all fees have to be paid in order to participate in any extracurricular activity. So field trips, athletics. Even the tech or other fees too. Right? Yep. So Yep. Tech. You basically have to be zero balance. Transportation, everything. Yeah. Any extracurricular activity. Yeah. I the the some background on why I asked that question is when you go out to play sports at Brighton High School, they collect your funding before you make the team. And then they say you'll get your money back, and then no one's processing those payments. And then we like, then she's chasing down that money to give it back to
families. So, like, they didn't make the team, and then they have to go say, hey. Can we get our money back because we didn't make the team? And so I'm just trying to figure out how we don't make that impact on families. I put it on super. Alright. So then the last item, yeah, superintendent will operate with adequate internal controls to prevent unauthorized payments or material dissipation of assets. So this is the last one that's we are currently undergoing the audit with Ruben Brown, and they will be giving their final report at the December board meeting. Is that just a time thing? Usually, is it done by now?
Or is No. It's always we always we will almost always they just were on-site, starting the October. Yeah. So. Yeah. It will never Maybe we ought to change the wording of that so that it doesn't look as appears that you're not in compliance because we're in compliance. It's just not finished yet. Right. Yep. So here's the conclusion. All financial practices were aligned with the board's goals and fiscal policies ensuring the district's financial health and operational integrity. Any questions? Any more questions?
Then let's move. I'll move to accept the expectation of the board report through three point d, financial condition and activity as conveying reasonable interpretation of the executive limitations. I'll second. Motion director Carvajal, second for Jack Mulholl. Roll call, vote. Director Alvarado. Aye. Director Carvajal. Aye. Director Khan. Aye. Director Green. You betcha. Director Thomas? Aye. Director Trujillo? Aye. Director Wilhelm? Aye. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you, Stacy, for that report, and I I think you should be penalized for
not putting a picture of your beautiful children at the end of that. Except as our policy review schedule, in, November, we'll talk about, policy three h, the emergency executive session. And then our December meeting, we'll talk about born awareness and support and financial conditions that activities will have Stacy come back. Item 12 is a proclamation recognizing November 17 through the twenty first twenty twenty five as American Education Week. Director Thomas, would you like to read that for us? Good. I'd happy to.
American Education Week. Whereas public schools are the backbone backbone of our democracy, providing young people with the tools they need to maintain our nation's precious values of freedom, civility, and equality. And whereas by equipping equipping young Americans with both practical skills and broader intellectual abilities, schools give them hope for and access to a productive future. And whereas education employees, be they teachers, substitute teachers, paraprofessionals, and department staff that work in transportation, nutrition services, custodial, office, technology, communications, finance, safety and security, student achievement, intervention
services, human resources, construction planning and operations work tirelessly to serve our children and communities with care and professionalism. And whereas schools are community linchpins bringing together adults and children, educators and volunteers, business leaders and elected officials in a common enterprise. Now, therefore, the board of direct the board of education of twenty seven j schools does hereby proclaim the week of November 17 through the twenty first twenty twenty five as the annual observance of American Education Week. Thank you very much for reading that.
What is the, feelings of the board? Let me I'll do it. I The mic's up. I move to approve proclamation number 02/2026 declaring November 17 to the twenty first as American Education Week. Second. Oh, director Thomas, the motion. Director Khan got the second on that. Thank you. I didn't hear it. Roll call vote. Director Alvarado? Aye. Director Carbajal? Aye. Director Khan? Aye. Director Green? Okay. Director Thomas? Aye. Director Trujillo? Aye. Director Wilhelm?
Aye. Motion carries. And FYI, during that week, cookies will go out to the entire district from the board of education, and there will be a copy of the proclamation attached to all of that. So from you. So yeah. Yeah. Do you need my address? Just checking. Tom, you can deliver, and I will never count how many cookies went into your car and how many came out. Alright. That I I think that'd be super fun to deliver that. That'd be I I think you see some participation team. Participating will in. Yeah. Yeah. So you got some So is it I have to tell you It's very strategic
because they all go out the same day and about the same time. Because if one school's getting them and by the end of the day, another school doesn't have them, they're calling me and going, where are our cookies? So it truly is everybody goes out about the same time. So if there's something that you would want to do I'm I'm looking at the secretary group too because they're making visits to the schools on a regular basis as well. And so they're taking them. Sometimes our facility guys take them because they're out and about at seven, 07:30. So, they get distributed. So, yeah, if there's a particular school and I can let you know the day
and as long as you're there picking them up and having them there as soon as possible by maybe before lunch. But, yeah, it's it's it's a it's it's a pretty good cookie brigade. K. So if you can meet the parameters and and we don't wanna shortchange the school or have them be going where to spend cookies. So Don't be late. We're getting close here, guys. Next up is the scheduled meetings, but before our next meeting, there is something happening in our community. It's the election. So I would encourage you all to vote. There are candidates for the school board on that election.
There are candidates for your city councils wherever you may live. And, there's also a ballot measure that the board has supported, LL and And I would encourage you to look that over too. So, get out there and vote. If you don't vote, you don't get to complain. But next up, November 12, that's after the election, will be our next, regular meeting. And that'll be the only regular meeting of that month, due to the fall break. Depending on when the election is certified, we may have a special meeting in December, or we may wait until our December 10 meeting, to swear in, our reelected or
elected board members. So, and then again, at the, December 11 through the thirteenth, it's the Colorado Association of School Boards Winter Conference, which is a very informative and wonderful meeting. And I encourage us all to attend and, learn more about policy governance and the actions and activities of, being a school board member. The next quarterly meeting evaluation will be at the December 10 regular meeting, and director Trujillo will present the evaluation. Are there any closing comments? Hearing none, I am adjourning this meeting at 08:14.
Thank you, guys.