##VIDEO ID:jbp3VpH1Jv0## e e e e e e e e e e e e good evening it's 702 and I'm calling this December 11th meeting of the Board of Education to order uh the board of education is committed to the school district's overall success Improvement the central focus of all of our meetings and discussions will be on establishing monitoring and supporting the district's goal we will actively engage all segments of our community in this ongoing focus and provide an instructional program to assure that our students meet or exceed the highest and most rigorous standards I'm calling this meeting to order and as soon as the uh secretary gets back we'll even move forward uh all matters noticed in this agenda in any category may be considered for Action as listed any item so noticed may not be considered not noticed items listed on this agenda may be considered in any order at the discretion of the chairperson first up we'll do is the Pledge of Allegiance please stand thank you very much director carbal uh next up would be our role call for attendance director carbajal I director Khan here director Green in the spirit of Christmas I am present director Thomas here director tro here director wilham and we know that director wilham is on her way but I'll Mo her absent and I'll make note of when she arrives thank you thank you very much Mr President you have Quorum uh the board will govern lawfully observing policy governance principles with an emphasis on outward Vision rather than internal preoccupation encouragement of diversity and viewpoints Str iic leadership more than administrative detail clear distinction of board and chief executive roles Collective rather than individual decisions and future rather than past or present and governing proactively rather than reactively next up would be the approval of the agenda do I have any uh changes um we're going to remove item five from the agenda the student advisory Council will not be joining us this month so I uh move to approve the agenda on the revised agenda dat December 11th 2024 as edited I second I have a motion in a second roll call vote director carbajal I director KH I director green C director Thomas I director tro I motion carries thank you uh next up then we will move directly into the superintendent report superintendent will pierce please report on activities throughout the district all right well good evening uh just uh we'll get started witha old news for everybody but worth I think we updated you last time uh we we did uh have some operational challenges with our district calendar so I think everybody's been informed of that we just moved the calendar back two weeks and then that means two weeks past uh when when we used to conclude so that that had some some changes to it but we're we're excited in the added flexibility every year at the beginning of the year um with our our our crammed in 4-day schedule we were having to figure out when we would start school and some days it would give us next year was scheduled to give us like one or two two days of on-ramp new employees before we started school and there is as an organization you just can't start school after just two days so um having that flexibility we're back to something consistent and I think this will give us um greater consistency as a communities we go on but but there were a couple changes the other thing that added in there is that we have a couple of assessment days um built into the schedule that don't happen this year um so we've used to in the old days way back when we were in five day school we'd have finals week and kids could have time to assess and do this stuff in this new schedule every day we have to go it's pristine and so um this gives us a couple of those days back for both elementary and middle and high and so generally internally for our operational challenges it was necessary um appreciative of of uh that we were able to make that change and listening to feedback in our community it was about 30 30 40 about 30% didn't like the changes about 30% loved them and about 40% didn't care um but we're going to move forward anyway and I think that's that's that's gone on and the parents have been notified of the calendar changes and where can they find those that updated calendar the calendar changes are on our website if you go to our website there was a little box that like a link box that would we you'd have to hover on to to get into our website to make sure that they knew and then they they got them via email and um they'll be communica again and again as we head into the new year um next year so excited for that um other stuff just it was it was a quick turnaround between Thanksgiving break and then casby and so there's not a ton to this update but this was something cool I got to go to Mr BHS and I've never been to Mr BHS competition National Junior Honors Society puts it on at Brighton High School and I was thinking you know Mr BHS like am I even going to like this kind of event it was one of the coolest things to see and they raise money so the way you become Mr BHS is kids put money in your bucket to fundraise for you to become Mr BHS but it's it's much more talent show it's much more um uh they asked hard questions of kids on the panel like it it was really cool and and the winner Jonathan Green that you have a photo that you're oh are you guys not see oh I'm not presenting I'm sorry thank you sorry I'm not pres like hey yeah you guys can see it you what are you looking at thank you yeah uh uh Jonathan Green he he he raised over $10,000 um to that they did for fundraising so that it's just a just an overall cool event and uh when you're there in the presence of all those kids doing great things and talking it was it was it was pretty incredible to be a part of so I was happy to do that I also uh for the first time ever I've known we've had Esports and I don't know if you guys are familiar with Esports is but I've never watched kids compete against other kids from around the state in video Gam games um and so I had all these biases like well these kids are gaming against other kids I mean these kids ran like a team their coaches calling out remember the secret Tom you know Mario Kart this is what they were playing but the kids were like giving cues I couldn't understand they were falling back and taking care of each other as teammates they were all competing and going hard as a game and I just got enthralled with it the BHS team I'm sure we've got lots of teams have not been to prayview they have teams as well but the Brighton High School team finally lost we lost last weekend Friday night when we were at casby uh they lost um in the the final eight teams so they they did a really good job representing us well uh they won on this day but it was it was pretty cool to watch these kids if every kid in our school district could be hooked to something in our school it would be the school district it would be what we'd want but these these the the this is this is legit Aras in the colleges yeah Tom you you missed your college I I saw I saw you playing and I'm like you got to check this out but it was cool I also uh uh Friday right before Thanksgiving break I got to go speak to the Quist Middle School web leadership uh kids about leadership uh just fun to be I don't get many chances to teach and talk and hang out with kids and uh I I I had an hour and uh I just enjoyed the heck out of it I'm not sure if the kids took anything away from it but I had a great time talking about leadership to to Young leaders and uh one of the most disheartening things and we all can represent recognize this I asked these kids we're working through our values um 27j values and one of them was believe so I asked kids and I would ask this game with our team you know when remember when you were four years old and the picture I had was a kid in a cape like on the roof a four-year-old on the roof like thinking he could do anything fly and I said remember when you were four years old and think talk to your neighbor about all the things that you could do when you were four' what you're going to be and what you're going to then I said all right you guys are like 11 12 13 maybe maybe a couple 14 year olds in the room like what happened to those dreams are they still alive can you still do them or are they gone and most kids said they're gone already at 12 and I was like where did they go who took them from you who who said you couldn't you know and it was like well my friend said I couldn't I realized it's not cool to do like all of these excuses and so we spent the first 15 minutes like debunking the fact like we would all agree when you're 12 man you all your dreams are still game man I'm I'm in my 50s and I still hope dreams dreams are real so that was cool uh construction Department if you went to to go look around Talon Ridge is in progress and on schedule there's a couple pictures of Talon Ridge Middle School uh we have North Transportation terminal right there behind the ESC it's in progress and on schedule people working it's cold but they're going at it uh and then Rocky Vista in planning um but it's on schedule in going and I I thought that picture was pretty funny like there you can see the picture off to the right of what Rocky Vista is looking like right now it's still not much in the ground but a lot on paper uh I gave a report two weeks ago that Ro Justin deel or La two months ago about Justin Deo getting a a a a a big award well he got another big award he is the national yearbook adviser of the year so that's two massive awards for a guy that's really really deserving so I just thought how do we not include that in the presentation today yeah it is a cool picture great great great teacher and I I owe you guys the need to bring in a yearbook I when I saw him and congratulated him I said I need to borrow one of these yearbooks so that you can pass it around and just see how incredible they are uh I had a great time with all of you uh we missed you Rachel that you couldn't be there I know I texted you Friday night and really meant it that we missed you but uh just uh our community doesn't always get a no and we don't you guys are often cheerleaders for all of us but they don't get a know just how incredibly lucky our community is to have you representing our school Community um I like when we argue I like when we disagree I like that when we come together we're trying to come together to do what's right for kids and and raise the expectation and stand for 27j schools and um you couldn't be more grateful for that grateful for lenan and all the work that she did uh to help make sure that we had a good experience down there because I can't even imagine planning all the details to that stuff I'm grateful for Terry for for for showing up and being part of part of our learning and stuff and I know that on the 21st we'll debrief even further and set some priorities that we might have learned from that conference which will be really productive and good for us to be a better school board going forward so thank you for that and then the last reveal uh State you may notice Stacy yoshimoto is not in the room but that is Calvin uh and he last Friday Stacy Stacy is good she's healthy she's well and Calvin was I'm told is a big baby 8 PB 10 ounces 20 20 20.25 Ines so that that that's it and with that that concludes my superintendent report this month oh any questions at all if not we will move forward uh next up would be our matters of public comment the board will now hear public comments on the following topics that have been indicated on the signin sheet a reminder that this board meeting is a business meeting held in public not a public meeting the board hears public comment to learn about the preferences and concerns of our community therefore tonight we will listen uh we are prohibited by state law from taking any actions on the items because Law requires formal public notice prior to any actions on the agenda uh during our next meeting of appropriate we'll consider your comments and our discussions and we ask that the superintendent attend to find an answer for any of your questions by that time uh the board welcomes the comments of our community members and I do have two but to ensure that everyone will have an opportunity to participate we have a few ground rules we ask you to follow anyone intending to address the board should sign in the speaker sheet as they have I will call speakers in the order which they signed in speakers comments are limited to three minutes if more than one person wishes to speak on the same topic we ask that the speaker limit their comments to only new information we ask that you do not repeat views already expressed by other speakers although we cannot prevent you from doing so we ask that you refrain from making complaints or negative comments against individual students or District employees however we can't prevent you from doing so such complaints and comments should be addressed first in the classroom or School level then if still unresolved to the superintendent disturbing Good order by inappropriate language or gestures is ground for removal from the meeting uh we thank you in advance for your participation tonight uh the first up would be Patrick Riley please St come on up tell us where whether you're in District or out of District in the topic you wish to discuss and then you'll have three minutes good evening everyone um I was here on September 23rd and name industry sorry Patrick Riley I'm in district and the topic topic um I'm following up from stuff that I shared on September 23rd regarding concerns at Riverdale regge so um I shared some pretty deeply personal stuff on the 23rd about a situation as it uh revolved around uh in particular the basketball program and some pretty personal concerns of abuse that my son had suffered and I was pretty open at that point in time that I was not seeking uh Personnel discipline type conversations that I had was coming here more asking for intervention from the board from a policy standpoint at the end of that that um very very difficult conversation I emailed every one of you and as a response to that I had a meeting with star thank you for your time I got an email from Andy I think you had intended to call me we were never able to connect and I was met with Silence from everybody else which was disappointing um to my knowledge nothing else has happened I followed board minutes I I've seen no policy suggestions um I again have heard nothing nobody has followed up with me nobody has asked for further details nobody has asked for suggestions I work in the government sector um I am super familiar in how policy gets to be a thing um I would love to be proactive and help out again reading on how your governance happens I believe what you said is governing proactively instead of reactively which is how governance should have um again I am here asking to please have that occur I believe my son was not the first person that was put in a bad situation it took courage to stand here and tell his story it takes courage for him to sit in this room tonight I'm looking for courage from you all I don't have a certificate of election you all have a certificate of election your constituents put you here with trust to go protect our kids I am simply asking for that to occur so in action at a point becomes action that action eventually becomes endorsement of the things that have happened and where we're at right now is is getting perilously close to to that endorsement of the actions thank you appreciate your comments next up is Peter hoper did I say that correctly well done oh all right again name in District or out of district and the topic you'd like to discuss I'm sorry could you hear me before sorry it's all right thank you um as I will say I I hope there will be a chance for more conversations in the future I've been fortunate to see where a 4-day school week has been in place for a long time in 2022 I spent a couple of days in Campo and VIIs these are districts with fewer than 45 students each and they cover a vast territory the past 5 years I've enjoyed visiting the Elbert School District all 288 students in one K12 building and currently I'm an unofficial mentor to a first year English teacher there fouryear districts can make sense I see that even if I doubt any school can offer the same quality education in 147 days as it can in 170 or 180 days which is the school year in 31 States including where three were I taught Massachusetts Vermont and New York when PLO 60 in District 27j chose to convert to a 4day school week I began to pay attention in 2020 I wrote a newsletter focus on the drop in District 27j scores in its first year on the shorter week tomorrow's newsletter titled District 27j after six years on a 4-day week a report card tracks the decline in scores on state assessments from 2018 the last year on a 5-day week through 2024 this fall I sent you most of what is in the newsletter so it will not be new to you I'm glad to make Corrections if you find errors I'm here this evening because I'm well Ware that the people doing their very best to serve students in 27j will not welcome what might be seen as an unkind and perhaps an unfair report and from an outsider unfamiliar with all the challenges a large District faces budgets buildings teacher contracts and much more it would be disrespectful of me to speak as if I know what to do with this information I don't but conversations help I have appreciated my talks and exchanges with superintendent will pierce and with Carla Ryder these past couple of years I would always be glad to talk with and listen to any of you anytime works for an old retired fellow about the issues in this newsletter I hope it will be useful to you thank you for giving my report a close look and thank you for your time this evening thank you sir appreciate you coming out uh that does exhaust our uh public comments uh and now we'll move on to uh item eight which is now seven the consent agenda all matters listed under the consent agenda or 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 will be no discussion of these items prior to the time the board of directors votes on the motion any member of the public who wishes to discuss the consent agenda should have notified the president of the board at the time requested and be recognized by invit of the president to address the board seeing none the first item on the consent agenda is a approval of the Board of Education minutes dat November 13th study session and regular meeting and the second item is Item B approval of personnel items on the memorandum dated December 4th 2024 do I have a motion I move to approve the consent agenda as presented okay I'll second I have a motion from director con second from director willhelm please roll call vote director carbahal I director KH I director green yes director Thomas I director TR I director willome I thank you motion carries and you did note when director will Holm came in thank you uh next up I'm going to move uh item 11 and so item 11 is the fiscal year 2025 certification of Mill Levy uh chief operations officer Terry Lucero will present information concerning the certification of the FIS schol year 2025 mil Levy please step forward Mr Lucero good evening uh I'm not Stacy yoshimoto I'm not exactly sure how I ended up uh doing this and drawing the Short Straw to make this presentation but have a baby Britney Britney took credit for me being here so she's going to stay there and point out where I'm where I'm wrong here so anyway on behalf of Stacy and the entire Finance team I'd like to uh walk you through this M Levy certification and overview uh the board item is in your packet if you look at the packet uh there's all of the board policies that requires us to do it there's a graph I'll talk about that for a minute and then there's the statutes that uh that require us to do that this seems like a pretty mundane and routine uh thing that the board has to do I'm here to tell you that it may be the most important action you take during the course of the year if you don't do this we don't get funded right if you look uh on on the second page of that these are Pages 13 and 14 on on page 14 uh it talks about CRS 39.5 12281 and 39224 1026 and both says that we have to certify this Mill Evy uh to the county commissioner and to the Adams County Treasurer right by December 15th the the reason let you get caught up there thank thank you thank you uh the reason that that we have to certify this is two things number one they're going to put these numbers on your property tax bills okay and so they need to know what to put in your property tax bill that you'll be getting in January the other part is is this forms what becomes the state share of our funding okay so uh with with h Mr Pierce's uh permission I want to dig a little deeper into this so that you understand this process a little bit and uh and then we'll have any questions before you take action on this well if you'd like to uh go to the next so that chart is is on the back page and that's actually the certification that you'll be approving this evening I want to talk about that in kind of uh segments the first is the general fund Mill Levy and the thing right under it that's called abatements okay uh the state across the state established a maximum of 27 Mills so that's the amount of Mills that gets charged to everybody in the state that is set by Statute it's 27 Ms you don't have any latitude in that decision the number under that is the abatements and that really is a catchup cost for people that are appealing their their uh assessments and and Adams county is not exactly sure where they're going to come out so they allow us to in essence over collect to make up for that so it's 27 Ms plus the abatements okay and this is the general fund portion of our of of our budget so that's those first three items over there the next is the mil Evy override we've talked about this several times in the year 2000 we passed a mill heavy override that was for $750,000 a fixed amount theot at that time did not allow you to set a mill that would go up as the AV went up as the assess valuation came up so now that $750,000 is is produced out of a233 Mills Mills the 22 mil EV election was for 8 Ms so you see the the the 8.2 33 for the mil Evy override okay the first section is the state Equalization right it's the base amount that we get that's supposed to be equal across the state local jurisdictions have the opportunity through the M Levy overrides to get more money than the base and that's what the 8.23 three is the last is the bond Redemption Mill Levy we went out borrowed $515 Million worth of debt we charged our taxpayers to do that it takes 20 Mills to pay that that goes into a fund that can only be used to retire that debt at the very bottom is our total tax Mill that we charge everybody in in the county if you want to go to the the next slide will if if so where does all this money come from it comes from property tax pure and simple right and this is the formula the way that it's and and and I'm using 500,000 as as just a a number there we would plug in the actual value of your home if you were trying to figure out your taxes but for for for examp exemplary purposes I'm going to use $500,000 they take that number and they multiply it by an assessment rate which is 6.7% and then you come up with that 33,500 that's the assessed value that is what you're taxed on is at33 ,500 if the number was bigger the actual value on your house was twice that the assessed value would be twice that does it make does that make sense straight math then they take that assessed value the 33,500 and they go to that M Levy that was on the previous chart okay so you remember that total the very bottom showed 56.64 Ms that's the math so your property tax for schools if you owned a $500,000 house would be $189 $1,897 57 okay go to the next slide so this is and I took uh just two property tax bills you can go on the on the on the Treasures website and and you can look up anybody's property you can look up my property tax I can look up your property tax but if you look at the very bottom you will well you'll see the one on the right it says M Evy 113 Ms my total that's actually my property the total Mills that IM assess is 113 Ms if you go to the bottom of that you can see that 26 Ms goes to Adams County 6.85 goes to Brighton Central Colorado you see all of those Metro districts and those are the Mills that they get out of this the total Mill that I pay for my property is 113 Mills but if you look at at at school district 27j it's that 56.2 n Ms everybody pays 56.2 n MS now here's another house that's in the Buffalo Mesa subdivision their total Mills is 169 Mills okay they have more Metro districts right they pay different things than I pay for but if you look under School District 27j 56.2 n Ms okay so when we tell people that our property tax in my case is about 49% of of my bill goes to the school property taxes it would be much less than 49% on the one on the one to the right does that make sense so the 56.2 N is what you're certifying this evening and that and that is how they apply this fairly and equitably to every property and I'm just doing residential here there's another assessment rate for for businesses and for agricultural properties but most of us deal with with with our residential rate so so I just brought up these tax view bills to show you that regardless where you're at in the district your home is taxes the same rate regardless where you're at same rate remember the math value getting to assess value assess value times rate is property tax does that make sense so anyway uh well if you want to go to the next one uh so here's the other thing that's that that happens is this determines our local share all right the state has a formula that used to be be called Equalization act and basically the idea is every kid in the state is supposed to get the same amount of money before you get to the middle have you overrides right the base funding every kid gets the same amount of money right so there's a local share and there's a district share okay so we come up with the number that we generate off that 56 Mills that's the property tax that goes into the funding formula and the state back fills that go to the next slide so because of that that is not equal in every District okay so if you live in Aspen your local share may be 95% of the funding formula right and the state only has to backfill 2% why because the AV in Aspen is so much higher if you live in the poorest part of the state the state may be backfilling it 98% and your share is only 2% right so Dr Fiddler used to talk about the pi okay the pi doesn't ever change our share with in The Bu changes does does that make sense to everybody and so anyway just wanted to demonstrate how how we all contribute the same amount in this District to contribute to the local share the state back fills with the state share that's not equal the total is equal but the state share or the local share is not equal in every District in the state why is that not so the state sets your total program right and then by some complicated formula they determine how much comes from the local and how much comes from the state does that make sense I I guess I have one question the uh midle Levy override and the bond Redemption wouldn't be part of those will not be part of those calculations okay so that 56 is not really true because we right it's it's the 27 point right exactly that's that's the the local share that's that's correct the mil the mil Levy is because we pass those particular two particular M Levy overrides and the third one is to pay our particular Bond redemption or our our our payments to our bond okay so the 27 uh whatever that whatever that number is 274 right 27427 is what makes up that that that total program funding correct yeah the base funding and for a lot of these people looking at the bottom line that's where it gets confusing for him because of those uh different city taxes different uh uh Metro District taxes and everything else so just looking at the bottom line is not representative but everyone in the 27j school district pays that same 56644 that's correct un Residential Properties that's correct the 52.9 so so it it is increasing just a small amount from last year the the total millage is increasing I actually have that number it's going up uh 354 Ms from last year right and that's all to get to that that local share so we have three districts that we got to collect assess valuation from we get it from from Adams County from Weld County and from Broomfield county this stuff is really time sensitive in fact we got the notice earlier today that the final number came in from Adams County right and by the December 15th we have to certify this so at the end of this action if it's approved we'll sign notices that go to the Adams County Commissioners they notify the Adams County Treasurer to put on to put on your property taxes that you'll get next year and and we informed the col Department of Education and they start figuring out this portion of it the reason they do that abatement piece is it gives us the opportunity to catch up and if every District had abatements those things that were in appeal processes the state would have to backfill even more so we actually assess enough to allow us to overcome those abatements does that make sense so anyway uh that's kind of that story story uh next slide will uh so every property gets evaluated in odd number years this is an even number year so the only increase from last year to this year in our total value is new construction okay if we didn't have new construction it would it would go up during reassessment years which are the the even the odd number of years an even number of years it's just the new construction so we're just we're coming out of an even number year so you don't see great increases next year the value of your home goes up our total valuation is going to go way up right they do not value your property every year they do that every other year and that's my state statute so just so you'll see this pattern will be kind of flat for a year and then property values will go up and then we'll be flat for a year and then property values will go up and that's just the way it is and that's the way it happens all the time go ahead will uh just as a reminder uh uh we passed eight Mills that eight Mills will generate 25 million next year in our M Evy override uh 20% of that goes to the Charter goals but the three bullets are the buckets that we can use by that ballot safety of students staff and Community compensation to attack and retain uh uh teachers and Career and Technical education right that's the only thing it can be used for so we take the 25 we uh we we take 20% out of that to to share with our charter schools on a per student basis and and uh uh that's what that number is for does that 20% change based on student count yes yes 20% is just the the rough number based on actual student count right the next slide and the last slide is uh a long time ago in 2000 was the only previous mevy we had at those times you had to tie it to a specific number so that's $750,000 and there those are the four things that we can do with that $750,000 so in the chart it showed uh the 8 Mills then it showed the 0427 no excuse me the. 233 which is that old M Levy override does that make sense y I think that's all was there I think that was it wasn't it yeah the only thing that I only thing I would add in in and uh since you're talking about Mill Levy all of this goes against the AV right so so when you look across the state and you just looked at mil Levy rate the 56 Point 23 or you look across state well how much does Denver get how much does Adams 12 get you you'll see a few 70s that have passed a lot of Mills that that have up M Levy overrides lot a lot of M Levy overrides a lot of them around the rate are the same but how does our M levies how how come we're like 20% below everybody else's mid Levy well the AV right so if you you had eight RSS value is around three million3 billion doar in 27j 8.8 time 3 billion that's that's our rate well DPS is around 121 billion their eight billion eight Mills would would be a lot more Revenue that their kids would be able to their school would be able to use to support their kids so you've heard us talk about for consistently about 20% less than many of our school districts around us and it's all just that and so when we get in those arguments around our community doesn't like us as much we can't pass Mills it's like no they'd have to love us like 10 times more to make up that we we' we'd have to add like 40 mil million or Mills Mill levies to get to the same rate that DPS can get on an 8 mil does that make sense in the mathematical formula every Mill is not created equal because if the if the the multiplier is 10 times more by that same Mill they're going to generate 10 times more money well just to we're talking about that I know that that's always a source of like curiosity but as Terry did a great job explaining this and when he asked Can can I take a little bit before you just vote on this know what you're voting on and how significant it is and it also gives you just a great St a great rationale to tell why why it is and it will will matter you see you see the governor talking about wanting to make local shares take over more of the money than the state shares well how would that ever be possible in a district like ours right and and and that that will be political and cuming and I don't know what that means but just thought while we're talking about it you could also understand like 8 Ms for us generates 25 million extra above the state formula 8 Ms for DPS would generate way more yeah way more well and also we live by the sword and die by the sword if the assessed values were to go down that's going to decrease the amount of money that this is going to generate for us that's the only time we get in real trouble is if AVS went across the whole District we would have to raise the mevy rate to be able to pay that debt in the bond Redemption fund does that make sense because we have a we have a fixed amount of money currently uh we contribute about uh 42 a half% of the total program fund for that general fund and the state is backfilling us about 57 A5 per. so we're we're we're collecting about 109 um $109 million this year the state will be contributed about 148 million for a total of the base program funding of about $258 million any additional questions so they ask the person with the most simple mind to do this because if I can understand it then most other people can too so so you have the the motion there in front of you you have uh what we're certified as I said immed medely upon you doing this we have the letters back there I'll be signing the letters and I'll turn it over to those it is time sens I'm out of the picture I move to certify to the board of County Commissioners in Adams Broomfield and weld counties property tax amounts and Mill levies required for fiscal year 2025 budget as presented in enclosure a furthermore we authorize the superintendent or his designate to modify the final Mill Levy to generate the budget property tax revenues as may be required by final calculations made by the Colorado Department of Education in accordance with the implementation of the Colorado school Finance Act of 1994 second I have a motion by director Thomas and a second by director Khan roll call vote director carbajal yes director Khan I director green of course director Thomas I director tro hi director Wilhelm hi motion carries thank you uh you know what I think we can squeeze out uh item 12 uh Carrie are you ready for item 12 lenan or lenan are you gonna do it I think I'm just GNA do it from here because um that's uh the board of director districts uh the Colorado revised Statute CRS 23-21 d110 requires that school board director districts be reapportioned every four years by December 31st the Board of Education received reviewed various scenarios at the November 13th 2024 regular meeting uh do you want to go over those or do we want to um I'll just refer you in uh page 15 of your packet there's just a summary of the statute that we do it every four years um that you reviewed those scenarios back in November as well as the last time it was adjusted was November of 2020 um you chose oblique view Consulting and Matt was here in November and presented the various scenarios that you guys looked at um and then uh you reached an agreement amongst yourselves staff did the uh work and in front of you tonight you have the numbers that show on page 16 what the variables were currently and that's that chart at the bottom of page 16 and then on page 17 is the chart with the number one 18 is is oh the map itself right here and so that shows that with the adjustments that were made by the scenario number one in those boundaries that they're all within 3.6% of each um director District so making that more um equal amongst the residents in that area and then on page 18 is the map that is scenario number one that you guys had seen before and Page 192021 this is just the legal descriptions that Matt has drawn out so that we can draw them on the map and that type of thing so once this is approved just so you know I will get magical maps from Carrie Monty that will show each director District we'll link them to the website under those and um we're required to do it by the end of the year let's do it any questions do I have a motion no I lost it move to approve the reapportionment of director District boundaries as presented in scenario number one I'll second motion from directoral second by director kahal roll call vote director carbahal I director Khan I director green yes director Thomas I director tro I director Wilhelm I motion carries thank you and we'll get those all updated as soon as possible and appoint of privilege since this is Carrie Monty's last meeting we want to thank you for your service to the district and all the work you did put this together we're going to miss you tremendously and I know your replacement has been highed but there's no way he can replace you we're going to miss you thank you very much for all the work you've done uh wow now since I've been jumping all around uh let's go with the governance process that supports our Global goals uh at this point we're going to give reports if remember if you don't have a report uh feel free to pass but the first up is ownership linkage director cball or director Kong um you know we haven't met but we did take a lot of um communitybased type workshops at casby and got some great ideas there um so hopefully plan a meeting in early January yeah and I think that'll be a big topic of conversation on the 21st which is going to be our board retreat uh next up is the Board of Education director Khan director Thomas either one of you um yeah I have nothing to report other than we're meeting we have a board I guess it's kind of a board Ed session I mean we're going to do a lot of Education um on the 21st uh next up we'll go through our board committees the fa facility planning and advisory committee uh which I've been sitting in on uh we are uh currently having discussions on uh what we're going to do about Talon Ridge and uh how we're going to uh apportion the numbers for the uh each School that's going on right now so that's currently what our discussion is uh and we have several good ideas and several things that we're going to uh kick around in our next few meetings uh the uh Capital facility fee Foundation we have not met so we have no report uh Rocky Mountain brisk director carbal yeah we had a meeting and we're kind of just going over like the process of how that works um much like the M Levy there's a bunch of numbers and how we divide that amongst districts and so we're just doing some education work around what's happening with Rocky Mountain risk pic thank you uh director Thomas wants to talk about the 27 J Believers um yeah so we'll do it in the spring I was just I was just asking Tom you do March or April throw it down march yes because so we don't run into spr break yeah we'll do it so the we before spring break so we'll shoot for March and those are always fun uh the uh Commerce City and School District 27 use tax committee we have not met uh the 2015 2021 Bond oversight committee I was not at the meeting director Thomas were you I was at the meeting but we don't have a meeting this month so I nothing to report not since our last meeting I don't think yeah we did you missed it no I was there but we didn't we don't have a meeting this month we're not meeting this okay uh the 2022 mil Levy override oversight committee director Thomas and director willham uh we just had a meeting last night it was really great they are soft rolling the new security system in all the major high schools it sounds like they are really glad that they did a soft roll cuz there's been a lot of hiccups but I know um the security team and Jamie and all them have done a great job taking feedback talking to students talking to parents working out the Kinks I think the loose plan was that they were going to be more final in January um but really interesting students are um getting more comfortable with it the systems are getting better um that was really cool to hear Mandy you have any yeah um yeah yeah um I it it was yeah the presentation was really interesting the only thing I would add is that they're doing some tests that we can we are invited to go watch and so one's tomorrow at Riverdale Ridge um so I was going to go watch that one and I don't know I didn't take the to the other one yeah the other one was uh prayer rev viiew was going to be Friday I think um and they were doing some testing and you could go be a part of it but it sounds like it's becoming a lot more streamlined people are just getting more comfortable um so good stuff I got that text today and it was on Prairie View TV if you ever watched it they had a little segment on that Cur that I watched and they have gotten it streamlined to where the only thing that sets it off right now were Chromebooks and those big giant water bottles but everything else they they were doing pretty good so I've been watching the updates and it's good to see uh director tril would you love to tell us about the Brighton youth commission they met while we were at casby so nothing to report and I had the privilege of hearing from them last night at the city council and they just got back from their National League of cities trip and so they're pretty excited about that and sharing on that so and they have plenty of things that they're going to start up in the spring including the speak walk yeah Tom we actually got an email from Tanya Russell today regarding that all of us in our inboxes so there's a very good thank you break out those emails uh I think they just walked in the door can oh wait we have other matters of information for the board please elucidate us well because I had my dates wrong I didn't I thought we hadn't met since um told I thought the bond hadn't met but I was there okay I was there um so I looked on my notes um so at the B last Bond oversight meeting we discussed deferred maintenance um the staff has put deferred maintenance into a list like category three category four category five the ones and twos are things that have to be done because that's life safety and things that need to be done um and then three four and five are kind of the would be really nice wish list so um they presented the Deferred maintenance list to us and then we discussed um interest usage for Charter Schools very good I knew that was a me I knew I know I wasn't there because I had other conflict that's my problem with these surday uh next up is the expectations of the board uh item 10 uh there's nothing uh no board reports to accept or reject submitted since the last meeting but we'll move on to Item B which the external expectations of the board report through 3D Financial conditions and activities partner Rodney rice and uh manage it it just says manage but I think it's probably manager uh Max Habor both from Ruben Brown LLP will present the independent auditor report which is a separate enclosure you guys have there and that includes the independent auditor report from Ruben bound LLP Gentlemen please step forward just as soon as you walk in the door we're going to put you on the spot but it'll help you get out of here quicker that seems like perfect thank you for joining us uh make sure that the mic is on you'll see that it lights up when you're speaking you have the introductions I suppose you don't need those again but yeah perfect timing for the evening um thank you as always for a few minutes on your agenda as I think I probably told you last year this is actually the fun part of the job right here getting to come and visit with you folks and and talk about what we do for you um we have completed our off AIT of your fiscal 2024 financial statements that are included in the annual comprehensive financial report we don't audit the entire comprehensive financial report we audit the statements and the footnotes to the statements that are included therein and we have issued our audit report which is what is referred to as an unmodified opinion an unmodified opinion means there are no modifiers in that opinion that it would sound something like except for there are no except fors which are modifier so refer to it as an unmodified opinion which is um some people may refer to it as a clean opinion for slaying that's what we're all shooting for um we can't do what we do well unless your team does what they do well they put the records takes them an entire year to put the records together and uh we do audits of selective te test of data samples um statistical work um and then we draw conclusions about entire population based on such statistics and samples and that kind of thing so they do what they do uh we audit what they do and issue our opinion there on which you know is a very voluminous document 158 Pages if I remember correctly which is just a tremendous tremendous lift uh by the finance team so really are um kudos to them for the work that they that they do the other report that we issued is what we refer to as a viewpoints uh really the Crux of that document is our required auditor Communications to you we're working with the finance Team every day they know what we're doing they know what we're looking at they know the questions that we're asking um with the finance team uh under the superintendent super Invision supervision however you as you know have fiduciary obligation for the organization we report to you you are not privy and aware of those kinds of discussions and questions so the auditing Standards Board which is the uh or organization that that issues and governs audit rules in the United States a number of years ago said Auditors you need to communicate to the governing body uh well I I think I always use the term cliffnotes um I guess I can use that in a school can I cliffnotes are there still such thing superintendent yeah okay uh give you a not supposed to rely on that give you a cliffnotes uh you know version of that audit and that's what our required auditor Communications are it's buried within that viewpoints doc document there are some other things in there as well that are not required written items but we put them in there as just kind of FYI here's what's coming down the pike think about this think about that here's something else a recommendation maybe to consider here's a new standard coming in the next year or two think about that um what else you know can we give you for three four five weeks working with your team um other than just a three or four page report that's kind of how we look at it so those are the documents that we have issued I will turn it over to um my colleague Max aborn as you know who is the manager on the job and has been working um as we both have with your organization for quite some time very familiar with it he'll give you just a few highlights and we'll open it up for questions and that will be our prepared remarks thank you Rodney um yeah I will briefly go through um that Viewpoint document that Rodney was talking about what the required Communications we are um required to communicate to you um on the board at the end of the audit um Rodney did talk about um issuing two um reports but it's important to note that that big old AER that you get actually has three separate opinions in it one is for the financial statements and then there's also a compliance section in the back that also includes a uh governmental auditing standards report also called a Yellowbook report which is basically whether or not during the year you are complying with uh various levels of comp of certain compliance and you know financial statement controls um that are test Ed in relation to the audit process if we detect anything from a Control process that would be something called a material weakness or a significant efficiency we would be required to report it on that which this year there were none which is a great thing to say and then we also have the single audit report which is basically a audit of your federal funds that were spent during the fiscal year any organization that receives and expends more than $750,000 in any given year is required to file one of these reports um and that also came back with a completely uh clean opinion on the major programs that we tested we tested um idea cluster which is special education Title One and title two all three of those major programs uh came back without any issues noted from compliance or from an internal control perspective which is the best you can hope for and that roughly um accum or accounts for about half of the federal spend expenditures in any given year for the district so a pretty representative s of what you're doing from a federal um perspective so those are the three reports that are actually included in the AER and then obviously we have the viewpoints document which I'm communicating to you right now uh a couple of things that we are required to talk to you about um in the preparation of the financial statements there are things that the internal um accounts have to estimate and those are accounting estimates that we have to look at and determine whether or not they're reasonable during the year and if there are significant estimates that go into preparing the financial statements we do have to report that to you there are two that are in your um financial statements both of them are related to your pension and then to your other post employment benefit plans through perah those are um technically estimates based on the work of actuaries who are projecting you know out what those uh liabilities are going to be out into the future for all your employees that you're paying into for those plans um they're pretty significant balances but they're based off of the work of estimates by the actuaries um there's also a couple disclosures that are significant those that like the notes for your pension plan and your oped plan also your notes for your long-term debt which is um significant um other things related to note 3A with risk management and then note 3D which relates to your commitments and contingencies for a long-term perspective um we're also required to communicate uh whether or not there was any uh adjustments that were detected by US during the audit and Ma and subsequently made there were none for the year uh we did detect one uh adjustment during the audit process that we determined that was not Material so we elected to consider it with in concert with um management to be considered a pass journal entry which means that it's not material enough that needed to be made so it was left off um but it is noted in appendix uh I believe appendix a of your report uh in the viewpoints if you'd like to reference that um there's no other things that as Rodney talked about it require us to modify our report in anyway shape or form there was no significant matters during the audit process that we had to consult with anybody outside our audit team um and then there was no significant um difficulties in dealing with your team uh Stacy and Britney have been great to work with um obviously one of the Hallmarks of of what they've done this past year is the fact that we're here at the December board meeting and not at the January board meeting which is good I think that speaks you know volumes in my opinion so um it also helps that there was no real significant changes to any of your reporting requirements thankfully gby has kind of slowed down their um uh their whatever path they've been on so it'll won't be so significant the new accounting standards they have to deal with on a regular basis and we'll talk about that uh here in a little bit um actually we'll talk about it right now so upcoming uh financial reporting changes there is one for next year it's just relating to gby statement 101 it's effectively trying to talk about um any compensated absences balances so any potential type of long-term leave that employees may have accured but is not particularly you know uh has not been historically brought on as a liability on the balance sheet um that's something that there's going to be a change for in the future based on our preliminary analysis of the district and you know the types of leave that they have it will not create a significant change to to any of the balances or disclosures of the act for there may be some slight tweaks to numbers some slight tweaks to some um estimates of what's do within one year uh as opposed to do within more than one year but other than that we don't believe it'll have a significant impact going forward for the district so that's good news um other than that I think that covers our required Communications um any questions on that I have one question you said that you pulled uh three different samples about half the expenditures what is the like percentage that you need to pull and does the sample size change based on what you're looking at yeah that's an excellent question there's actually a uh formula that we're required to use from the Office of Management and budget um which is you know the federal guidelines uh dictate um that threshold is at least 40% for the district um so we have to test at least 40% of the funds in any given year um for this uh Year's audit and then the sample is just based on method ology set out by the aicpa which is our you know Trade Organization that says this is the uh appropriate amount of samples we need for certain amounts in populations certain populations large populations have larger um dictated samples smaller ones which things like compliance reports other you know requests that are more done on a monthly basis have smaller samples so yeah perfect and though the samples change each time so like next time you come back to us could Title One be in it again or do you move around when you're choosing so yeah usually what we what happens is that the large dollar value programs are Ro are AED on a rotating three-year basis so yeah you'll see that most of the time though we won't always get coverage on a three-year basis for 27j so you might see Title One get tested a lot student nutrition uh funds get tested a lot just because we need to get to that threshold to say we've tested enough federal funds so it doesn't always hold true for you know an organization that's kind of in a weird position between you know having one you know a lot of Grants or a lot of times you'll see organizations have one or two grants and you know which one you're going to test almost every single year or you have counties and cities big big organizations where it's very formulaic about the you know the a programs that they're going to be testing every single year but 27j is kind of in the middle ground where it's like we we know we have a programs but there's not enough of them to have a true three-year rotation and that calculation is something that we have to follow every single year but that the guy behind it doesn't change year to year programs where the federal government identifies it as a high risk yes and therefore we're kind of locked in on that one even though we may not need it for the coverage perspective thank you yeah will you tell us more about what the thing about the charter schools where did I read that oh yeah so uh what the thing that we found during the year and this is actually detected by Britney during the process of reconciling the capital assets was that um it looked as if the cap both the charter schools themselves and the district were capitalizing the projects that for these buildings that were being built on the charter school level and really when you're dealing with that they should only be capitalized on one or the other and so what happened was is that the CIP that had been accumulating from 27j on these um charter school projects needed to be written off but it was not material to the um overall government-wide financial statements for the district so it that that was um passed through uh or flown through during the year to um conclude on and we're at the end of the year we're in a right the correct position and there is no more in CIP related to these charter school projects and when we say material we mean on a statistical basis not on just a flat dollar amount is how does that number fit into overall statist statistics when you look at your what to referred to as the government-wide financial statements most look at the fund financial statements but the government-wide financial financial statements pulls in your Capital assets very large number pulls in your debt and your OPB very large numbers those numbers aren't on the fund basis financial statements like the general fund uh nutrition fund that kind of thing that's a very large hundreds of millions of dollars so even though this was a seven figure number in relation to the size of a government your government-wide financial statement it was considered statistically small small enough that we didn't have to ask for that journal entry to be booked for us to issue our report that said there's reasonable assurance that there are no material misstatements in the financials it's a long way around but it's important to connect all those dots is this one what is the award that does it come from this report government Finance Officers Association the um the certificate of achievement that you get for submitting it to that process which is not required um and Acer is not required to meet meet the basic requirements of the state of Colorado but an AER is something beyond what a basic financial statement is it has you know all of the pieces in it like the um the leadup the um introductory portions of it the statistical samp the statistical information at the back um that document could be a lot shorter if they chose to but the fact is they're striving for a higher level of achievement and a higher standard and going for that award is the mark of hey we accomplish what we set out to do with this AER as opposed to just a standard financial statement so the trade Association for government Finance or Finance officers runs that program what they do with your AER is they they take that and then they send that out to two different practitioners such as like we're practitioners in public accounting can't be us can't be anybody in your state so they'll send it to a government auditor like us outside the state of Colorado to two different ones that they select people these organizations um like ours volunteer to grade these things I I did that for a number uh of years and write comments send them back to the gfoa the gfa's own staff will be a third review of that so your a gets three reviews three votes either for the certificate to be awarded or not for the certificate to be awarded that's how they come up with the award this this is exciting to [Laughter] them accounts aren't boring people they get excited about boring things other people's make sure you share with Stacy uh how much we appreciate uh what the fin team is done and your cooperation on this and your diligence because that it really shows especially from their report that you guys have uh dotted all the eyes and crossed all the tees on this one and we really appreciate the work you do there hi hi Stacy love that baby but yeah and thank you for this thorough report and uh anytime we can get this kind of a clean report we really appreciate it and it shows that the the notes you gave last year have been followed in imp implemented and carried through so we really appreciate your diligence on this I would say anecdotally I can't speak from Max's experience but mine is it's not that often that we do an audit of an or organization your size and have no audit entries good job there we go whole team uh do I have a motion I can move to acknowledge receipt of the 2023 2024 annual comprehensive financial report second I'm Mo from director carbahal second from director tril can I have a roll call vote director carbahal yes director Khan hi director green proudly yes director Thomas hi director tro I director Wilhelm yes motion carries thank you thank you gentlemen for coming in tonight have a good evening happy holidays I'll say Merry Christmas uh next up will be our superintendent will pierce will present the expectations of the board report threei board awareness and support as conveying reasonable interpretation of the executive Li limitations superintendent go soup uh it was that that that's exciting news good job to the finance team th this this this entire budget was under Chris's supervision so like you'll notice in Pages people have caught the editing like wait this is Chris's name this is well it's his name so no this I get none of that but that Finance team does and they've worked really hard to deserve it so that's awesome uh this this is your limitations report uh 3i board awareness and support and and really if you were to read each of it and and I I won't bore you with reading it all but it's making sure that you're you as a board are informed and supported it's that we don't withhold information from you right that we're we're we're we're you're not aware of we come and tell you compliance or non-compliance and all honesty and integrity right it's aware of any incidental information or changes ET if uh if if we are in compliance we'd let you know if we think we're not going to be in compliance if we think we're breaking the law we let you know it's it's making sure that you have the support that you need to make good decisions like what Terry offered tonight making sure that you have maybe more information than you even thought you might it to know because um this doing board work is really hard for an organization that that many of you don't fully understand all the end and outs of all the laws and all of the the things in there uh making sure that you have the clerical assistance and the environment's pleasant and there that that that that that our reports aren't too lengthy and complex so if you were to look through this report it's pretty much just as you would imagine when you think about how do we how do we prove some of those standards each section I kind of broken into this board report to try to um uh taking each one of those expectations and put them in chunks so that you would know how this first one's about how we we think that you've been informed and supported and so you have access to our entire team they are always at the meetings we could ask questions anytime you want to about those things we we try to make sure that our presentations our study sessions are ahead of you voting for important things so that you you know how significant your vote in the decision is and um that's what that section is that's a compliance but if you were to go through each section in this report and I I don't really want to bore you with it but I'm happy to answer questions I could walk through each section and tell you how we are how we aren't how we aren't how we aren't here's proof that we told you were're non-compliant on three reports and why we said compliant on all the other ones that we we are honest and truthful and try to be upfront as ever um in in the end this these these limitations you have are expectations on myself and my staff that we do that um we want to be the best organization we can and so so in the end it doesn't hurt us it doesn't do us any good to lie or cheat or do anything that that that our goal is to be the best so let's let's be honest let's be stare things wide open with our eyes wide open let's take on hard things and um we think we do that in this report throughout the whole entirety of it is a bunch of I comply I comply I report compliance I report compliance I report compliance so if there's questions about the report I I know that you get this ahead of time we we do send all these meetings and notes and everything ahead of time um you you all all reach out um you all can reach out um to ask questions if you needed to ahead of the meeting but um I I in summary I would report compliance on this report and I guess I would say one of the uh Pleasant additions has been Lan's role as a Le Lea onto the board making sure that we get all the timely uh Communications and information that we need ahead of time so I really appreciate you too yeah any other questions comments I would accept the motion move to to accept the expectations of the board report through three I board awareness and suppor of as conveying reasonable interpretation of the executive limitations I motion from director Tree Hill second from director will Holm roll coote I was like what director carbal yes director Khan hi director green yep director Thomas I director tro I director Wilhelm I motion carries and thank thank you Tom for your kind words that's nice I meant them I don't I don't just throw this stuff out I'm not a nice guy we know this and I do think for for a matter of this report different than any other report we've we've we've tried to always be honest that that that that is us even leaning in more to making sure you're supported and and thought of so I I I would agree lenan has been fabulous in this role and exceeded my expectations by far so I don't know what we'd do without her so that's great ad time uh next month will be the treatment of faculty staff and volunteers and also the internal Financial conditions and activities and then in February we're going to talk about the graduation rate and the postsecondary Readiness those three e along with the treatment of parents and Guardians so that's stuff to look forward to uh our next up is our schedule of meetings of course we've talked about it December 21st we're going to have our uh casby conference debrief and our uh uh we're calling it a board retreat basically some some goals or outlines or expectations for what we' like to keep going with this and and I think we're on a great path so look forward to that and sorry Mandy but we're gonna do it the fabulous gtic chain and lynan is gonna be a part of it and so is will I'm just volunteering him right now uh and then next up into January uh January 8th and January 22nd will be uh January 8th will be a linkage or planning session I'm waiting to hear from you guys and then the January 22nd will be our regular board meeting next up is our fabulous board meeting evaluation where director Thomas is going to give it to us so please take over thank you president green um well this is a fun evaluation to do just right after casby because I think we just had such um such a great time I mean the learning was fantastic but also just the bonding and spending time together outside of this room I thought was really helpful and um for our relationship so for starting with governing style outward Vision um I gave us a five s strategic leadership I gave us a 4.5 collaborative teamwork for initiator of policy 4 um board member code of conduct arrived on time for meeting I said four um I I just want to say that for um I know tonight especially because there's so many things going on I think the president of this board has always been family comes first always and so um never feel bad I think about being late or um of course it's important for us to be on time but we understand when they're um that your familyes come first and you spend a lot of time here so um just know that that's always that's always a a good pass um properly prepared for meetings for gay full attention to the meeting 4.5 worked in a business-like manner five listened to and responded to um statements five and then conducted lawfully five we don't break the law um and um no I just thank you all for for your time um this might be my last evaluation I get to give I think so so um yeah I appreciate you all and thank you for all you do for your community thank you very much any comments about her evaluation of us are there any you get to review yeah we can we can I'm opening the floor yes a rebuttal some when Leon did it I wanted to rebuttle um uh is there any closing comments for this evening seeing none uh we have concluded our business and therefore I am uh adjourning this meeting thank you very much we'll see you next month oh no see you Saturday the 21st Saturday thank you very much guys 9:00 a.m. information