##VIDEO ID:tkb2Do7xY8A## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e all right good evening hello thank you all for being here we're going to call the meeting to order the board of education is committed to the school district's overall success and Improvement the central focus of all meetings and discussions will be on establishing monitoring and supporting the district's goals we will actively engage all segments of our community in this ongoing focus and provide an instructional program to ensure that our students meet or exceed the highest and most rigorous standards can I please have um a call to order all matters noticed on this agenda in any category may be considered for Action as listed any item not so notice may not be considered items listed on this agenda may be considered in any order at the discretion of the chairperson we're going to do Pledge of Allegiance all right Melinda would you like to lead us pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all awesome wait for lenan to get back to her desk all right roll call for attendance please director carbahal I director Khan here director green director Thomas here director tro here director Wilhelm madam president you do or Madam vice president sorry you do have Quorum oh thank you our commitment to governing style the board will govern lawfully 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 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 can I get approval of the agenda please I move to approve the agenda dated January 22nd 2025 as presented second I have a motion by um director carbajal and second by director con can I a roll call please director carbahal I director Khan I director Thomas I director Trio I motion carries thank you all right certification of direct Direct duly appointed the Board of Education certifies that the following candidate has been duly appointed to their respective District the appointment was designated at the regular Board of Education meeting on January 8th 2025 director district 6 for a term to be completed in November 2025 Miss Tracy Alvarado I would entertain a motion I move to certify the appointment of Tracy Alvarado is director for district 6 for a term to be completed November 2025 I'll second that okay motion by director tro and second by director um carbahal I I I I okay next we will have the honorable M municipal judge Brian Bowen will administer the oath of office to the newly appointed Board of Education member that was selected at the January 28th 20 January 8th 2025 regular meeting okay they don't need to hear me so um just a point of privilege uh once again I am impressed by the people of this Community Stepping forward to take on this heavy role for our youth especially in these difficult times thank you so please raise your right hand on this on this 22nd day of January 2025 on the second day of January 22nd day of January 2025 I I Tracy Alvarado Tracy Alvarado having been duly appointed as director of the Board of Education having been duly appointed as the Director of Board of Education district 6 district 6 school district 27j school district 27j Brighton Colorado Brighton Colorado do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will Faithfully perform that I will Faithfully perform the duties of the office as required by law the duties of the office as required by law and will support the Constitution of the United States and will support the Constitution of the United States the Constitution of the state of Colorado the constitution of the state of Colorado and the laws made pursuant there too and the laws made pursuant there too congratulations so I need some [Applause] signatures signature on both ask you to see few yes it all starts now congratulations thank you congratulations it's official um okay a brief reception will occur um please join us for um cookies and Treats in the back as we honor um the newly appointed director Alvarado [Applause] [Music] [Music] these are for you you do you want the judge in some pictures [Music] thank you thank you sir e e e e e e e e e e e e e e all right well that was fun thank you guys for um for participate that and welcome officially um the Board of Education will be presented with the report from the 20 2015 2021 Bond oversight committee Mr Kevin Kerber hello board of directors thank you for having me Tracy congratulations well done make sure you leverage everybody you know I'm here to help too in the future as well so so my name is Kevin Kerber I'm here to report the bond oversight committee uh cordal report to the board of education for the fourth quarter of 2024 presented today January 22nd 2025 today we'll be reviewing um kind of a financial overview review some of the large projects uh we'll review some deferred maintenance some project Closeouts uh review the technology improvements that that are happening in the district uh some of the safety projects that are happening and then also a report on the charter schools and then we'll close uh with a few summary items so you guys should all have the report in front of you um some kind of housekeeping here the bond oversight committee's role is to monitor the bond issues passed by 27j schools voters on November 3rd 2015 which are almost closed out and November 2nd 2021 the voters in the district authorized $248 million and 515 million in bonds respectively for those two programs the bond oversight committee presented the third quarter report to the board of education on October 23rd 2024 that was the last time you guys got a report and this report will cover the fourth quarter expenditures and project uh progress for October November and December of 2024 the bond oversight committees uh hold regular meetings in October and November the committee did not meet in December and we agreed to receive only an update from construction finance and communication staff regarding the status of both the 2015 and 2021 Bond programs um some summary of the project Financial Resources uh 2022 we've earned 16.3 million in interest through the end of December of 2024 that is made up of two different series that the 2024a bonds and the 2021 bonds that was 49,9 in interest of which $287,808 was earned in the fourth quarter um the 2021 Bond program is 16.7 million this includes uh 2.3 million earned through the fourth quarter and total interest over the life of the 2015 Bond program equals about just under 7 million um which about 40,000 was earned in this past quarter it's pretty interesting the 2015 Bond and it was a little bit smaller about 300 million earned 7 million in interest over 10 years and the newest Bond the 2021 Bond just in three years has earned 16.7 million uh so that's that's an attribute of the interest rate environment obviously and also our voters are proving a little bit higher Bond so we're able the that's real money that we're able to put towards uh our projects uh our project expenditures um have a total spending of about 300 million and5 million respectively for the 2015 and 2021 bonds uh the 2015 is almost complete and a large majority of those expenditures in the 2021 Bond uh include our three major projects that we're building today that's the Talon Ridge Middle School and the north Transportation project and the Rocky Vista high school and you can see there um what we've spent on each one of those in the last quarter second major expenditure was with our deferred maintenance and as you know this is part of the bond language when our voters approved uh the bond uh we spent about $1.4 million in the fourth quarter and then we're able to close out some of the um beginning projects that we did that were closed out in 2023 or excuse me that schools that have opened in 2023 were starting to close those out and that's Discovery magnet school which is opening and running Brighton High School stem CTE Center the prayview high school stem c c CTE Center and the Riverdale Ridge High School stem CTE Center uh those major projects um today that we're working on are the Talon Ridge Middle School um we're really just site grading um doing a speci strean on the brownhouse um let's see it looks like by the end of December concrete block grade beams and still erection uh started for the structure of the school let's see that the Talon Ridge Middle School if you guys haven't drove by that that's right off of hly in between Highway 7 and 144th you can see that structure going up pretty quickly second project is the uh Rocky Vista High School in Commerce City that's right off of 96th Avenue and reunion Parkway uh HCM is our architect and they've just completed the design development phase and they're working on the construction documents they're about 50 50% complete uh the next project uh that is underway is a construction of the north Transportation terminal uh we've got concrete slab there and also steel erected uh there as well um deferred maintenance is another big one uh projects from funded from the 2021 deferred maintenance allocation during fourth quarter include the following several kitchen re uh re rejuvenations districtwide asphalt work the vi the vcon middle school parking lot and HVAC repairs uh and then also at Brighton as well 73% of the Deferred maintenance budget has been spent already um and that budget is about 20 just under 26 million deferred maintenance continued uh We've uh finalized expenditures for South Lawn Elementary Friendship Park and Middle School land construction staff continued work on the interior lock upgrade projects at nine schools uh this was actually funded from the bonus project from the 2015 Bond program funds and as the end of the fourth quarter most of the work has been completed um with the exception of some miscellaneous so we have about $323,000 has been paid for so far in that project moving on to technology um part of the bond program in 2021 that was approved um include fiber mapping project which will provide un uninterruptable power supply that's called the ups and that has continued planning for a fiber Loop to the Talon Ridge uh middle school and Rocky Vista High School we are about 40% completed on that of a $10 million project we're just under $4 million there moving on to safety uh the largest expenditures for were continued work on the the secure vable improvements at five schools uh those are completed that's penck Elementary second Creek Elementary timing timing Elementary Turnberry Elementary and Westridge Elementary and those include um basically improving the working space and the safety of those schools using an office door new hardware automatic door openers um and uh other sensors um that help provide some safety there at their schools there are five more uh vesle vestibule projects planned for 2025 and uh those include currently they're in design but those include South Elementary Southeast Elementary Henderson Elementary the Bob sakata educational campus and Brighton High School so we're following through nicely on the promises that the bond um had made to our voters on the safety side um we are about a 30% through on that on what we what we promised voters we got $10 million budget and we spent just just over 2.8 million currently uh charter school project updates uh we have about 5.7 million spent for architecture and construction at B Creek Charter School and that's between both the 2015 and 2021 uh bonds we have just under 10 million spent for the stead school project located there in Commerce City and just over 6 million has been spent for architecture and construction at Eagle Ridge Academy all three of those are our Charter Schools uh Steed continues to work on on their auxiliary building which will be a production Greenhouse that's pretty exciting uh to see um the school received the its temporary certificate of occupancy in December and is expected a full certificate of occupancy in the first quarter of 2025 so they are excited about that um Eagle Ridge Academy and the stad schools have presented some additional items they would like to see funded that's some of the things we do as a committee uh to try to understand what are these what are these new desires that they have where's the funding going to come from and how can we help them achieve um some of their goals one allocation request has been approved for just under $160,000 uh which is allocated to the stad school for completion of their um Commons project Eagle Ridge has a potential allocation of just under 300,000 um but that has not been submitted yet overhead spending you can imagine all of these projects that are going on uh so the district has to have an overhead budget uh We've totaled about uh 574 th000 last quarter um the the 2015 Bond program is nearly complete at 99.1% total resources available in the 2015 Bond include restricted funds to totaling just under 1.3 million that is currently held in escrow and that that those dollars are planed to be used for improvements at Riverdale Ridge High School um once the city releases them then we can remove that restriction and move forward the 2021 Bond program overall has spent about 36% through the fourth quarter so uh long long way to go still with this report uh the committee certifies that all expenditures to date have been made in adherence the official Bond language as approved by the voters of 27j schools on November 3rd 2015 and on November 2nd 2021 and that concludes our report does anyone have any questions I have one question about the vegetables I know when we did the safety talks that was something that we asked about will that mean that every single School officially has those yes that's correct mhm yep move to accept the report I lost it where it go from the 2015 2021 Bond oversight committee as presented second all right motion by director tro second by director con have a roll call director Alvarado yes director carbahal I director Khan I director Thomas I director tro I motion carries thank you thanks Kevin thank you guys for the opportunity and thank you for all your time appreciate it you thank you for your time next next on the agenda the Board of Education will be presented with the report from the 2022 mil Levy override oversight committee committee chairperson Michael Kuba will present the report all right thank you everybody good evening uh congratulations uh Tracy glad to have you um as mentioned I'm Michael Koba and I am that's okay I'm presenting on behalf of the 2022 mil Levy override oversight committee um and so we had our last meeting was in December um and we had a couple different topics so I'll give a little update on what was shared in our weapons detection uh safety Grant update I'll also give a little um mini Financial update as well and then the last thing I'll end with tonight is just discussing why I'm excited for some of our future um committee meetings in the next couple months so first up with the weapons detection safety Grant update Sam Ortega our emergency response and crisis specialist and Jamie White director intervention services they came and shared with us um just the big news that happened in December about the uh security um the weapons detection systems um being suspended like the pursuant of going after that um based on some of the testing um they shared a lot of the reason reasoning as to why um the decision was made largely the system was not going to meet the needs of the school district um in other the schools um and so the conscious decision was made to um suspend that program and I think as part of that we did a little recap of the the process as a whole and I think there were a lot of um Silver Linings and positive outcomes as a whole from this uh experience I know some of the things that personally I thought were very exciting um was the communication between the district and the students uh with the parents the community with some of the safety talks um I also think it is important to note that though the weapons detection system is not going to be the one that was previously selected is not going to be used um there are still a lot of great outcomes for like the hardening of the school so to speak with um fencing and whatnot on the building perimeters um but then also um just alarms and different technology inside the schools to notify if any loose doors are open um the Big Goal here was just to keep the um single point of entrance of the school so I think overall personally and I think many of us on the mil Levy committee also believe that was a great success in still achieving uh Safety and Security goals one thing I did want to note right now as well was that the weapons detection um system was funded totally by a grant acquired by the district from the state um so absolutely none of that money was spent from the mil Levy funding so um just to make that very very clear as well with that Grant can you tell us did they um we return that then did we return the funding for that Grant or did they allow us to utilize that funding for a different type of security system I'm not exactly sure we did not ask that still working on that still working on that perfect so any other questions on that real quick before I move on cool so moving into some of the financial updates it's really quick um I did want to I'm going to share on two of them tonight um that would be the CTE program so just as a reminder the um fy2 adopted budget was $2.9 Million at the time in December the year-to DAT expenses were $98,000 um with an encumbrance of 1 $1 million of uh funding to be spent throughout the rest of the fiscal year um and that leaves a total of a remaining budget currently of $1 million which is inclusive of the um contingency that our mevy committee requested um two cycles ago now um so that uh contingency was $223,000 which is built into that but um one thing I thought was really interesting just looking back through the financial report was that the material costs and this the money spent as part of that there was a allowance of $470,000 um set aside but the year-to date expenditures at the time was roughly $100,000 um which granted there will be um spending in the spring semester here but then that leaves a total remaining budget of $370,000 what I think is super exciting about that is that I believe what we've heard so far through our different reports um where that the students are receiving all the materials they need um the the courses are not struggling or anything so to speak um and we're achieving that with um quite a remaining budget so that'll be super helpful um for our community to consider moving into the uh fiscal 20 fiscal year 26 um budget discussions and then also to discuss about the Safety and Security um where do I want to go with this yeah I think large I'll just give the The Big Numbers here real fast uh there was a fiscal year 25 adopted budget of $7.2 million the year-to date expenses are $2.4 million with an encumbrance of $4.2 million one thing to note here um when I was looking back this as well I thought gosh that should really be 50% thinking of school year uh but then reminding myself that it's based on the fiscal year so that's why the incumbrances are a little bit higher at this point and then one last budget thing I wanted to discuss tonight is we did discuss briefly um the preliminary assess valuation for this upcoming uh FY 26 um and so in fy2 we had a assess valuation that essentially gave us our um funding of $19.3 million um and now for FY 26 that will be uh preliminarily not confirmed uh $20.5 million which essentially equates to 1.19 million in new MLL funds um one thing I want to comment on this is there wasn't a big jump um as it was in fy2 of new funding uh reason being that the um reassessment of all properties in the community that happened in fy2 or for fy2 um this new assess valuation only considers new construction um over this last year so not a big big jump still in the positive direction um but expect it to be different in a year from now any questions about that all right and the last thing I want to discuss um so it's a relatively short meeting for us in December I think the next two are going to be a little more packed um um in February we're actually going to have our Charter Partners um come and present with to us again about what they've been using the mil ly money for um one thing I want to know about this is that the charters have absolutely no obligation to share their financial uh financials or even their how they plan to spend this money that is set aside as part of the mill uh levies um but a year ago we um just asked a question like hey would it be possible for everyone to come and just like give us a little update which was met with great positive response um every all the charters were very interested and willing um to share which is fantastic for us on the committee um and then we heard that they asked if they can come and speak with us again so we didn't reach out this time um and they want to come share so uh very excited to hear um I know just kind of a recap from the our past our previous meeting with the charter schools um like I said there no expectation they even follow the mil Levy language um turns out after we had that discussion the majority of schools did choose to use the money in alignment with the district's um Mill as a whole so super exciting to hear I'm curious to see if that is still the same or if that changed um for this upcoming planning but that'll be happening in February and then also in April we'll be hearing about the preliminary FY 26 budget um for the mill as a whole um so the district will be sharing uh the proposed budget and then I what I'm looking forward to the most is our committee getting to comment um and give feedback and suggestions of what to do moving forward so I believe that is all I have for tonight can you remind us how they determine how much money the charter schools get in terms of the mail Levy it is a percentage um I don't remember off the top of my head at the moment um but it is a straight percentage that is taken off as part of the mil Levy language um and so the schools just get the I can tell you right here actually so the $20 million that comes to The District 5 million of that goes off to the so 25% goes off to the um Charter Schools per people I motion to accept the report from the 2015 2021 Bond oversight committee as presented I motion to accept the report from the 20202 mil ly override oversight committee as presented sorry second awesome so we have a motion by director carbajal and second by director Alvarado um can I get a roll call director Alvarado I director carbajal I director Khan hi director Thomas I director tro hi I motion carries thank you thank you Michael did he leave did he already oh there is thank you Michael next we have members of the student advisory Council will present information regarding their next recommendation to the board right hi everyone um I just want to speak on like all of us but we're so excited to meet you director Alvarado we're so excited to get you know you better and to work with you this year thank you so much it's so great to meet all of you thank you for participating next slide okay so this is all all of our members we'll probably do like a quick introduction of all of us so that you get to know us um I'm Marley little I am our secretary and I am a senior at Eagle Academy my name is Rachel Woodard and I'm a junior at Brighton High School my name is Tyler blunt I'm the co-president and I'm the senior instead sorry been a long day sorry it wasn't working okay my name is Jasmine and I'm from prayview and I'm a junior my name is also Jasmine and I am also a a junior at prayview high school so our last meeting on Monday we kind of discussed the usage of like AI in the classroom and how like um currently 27j does not have a policy on AI so maybe you could reference this going forward if you decide to make a policy or if you want recommendations in the future um so kind of like the problem that we've been seeing as students is that there's like an unhealthy dependence on AI and that currently there's no system or method to educate students of the like healthy use of AI and what we could see is like potential for this is you know the opportunity to educate our students on how to like how to use AI in a health in a healthy way since it's an Ever evolving tool and the technology is already here and to deny that not really embrace it is pretty illogical yeah oh I get to talk now yay um so we discussed some pros and I guess you could call them good uses of AI um some of the ones that we came up with were as a study tool um I can personally attest to this I use it as a study tool all the time um but it can help students understand something complex um or simplify amounts of information into just like I don't want to say a picture book but kind of like a picture book um it is a great resource to use to find where citations exist or where articles exist um when conducting research and I think it will be valuable to in the future for many of us that go into the field where research is required um it can dissect dense tests like I said before and just really make them easier to understand that's its its biggest strong suit um it's really good helping to brainstorm ideas just because it kind of has the entirety of human knowledge at its back um it's it's really fun to pry and ask questions if you haven't played with it before um it's also very good at checking grammar and spelling and it acts as like a preader of sorts if you provide it with a rubric and give it the assignment that you worked on um based on the rubric it will grade your assignment for you which is helpful to some students if they want to get a four though we also had a lot of concerns about the use of AI so um first and foremost it can definitely be used to like plagiarize so AI can't develop its own thoughts so it pulls from random places in the internet combines it into one thing and so you don't know where this text is coming from and if you're just asking it to write your paper that's not yours and so like in that respect AI use is usually treated as plagiarism but we kind of had a discussion on where we draw that line and we found that it's different for every student but I think it's important to note that um most of the time AI use ends up looking like plagiarism if it's helping you on the majority of your assignment students also become as um severely reliant on AI and so you end up like not actually thinking or doing the assignment yourself and you're you end up cheating yourself out of the learning from the assignments and a lot of students just treat it as like a search engine but it's not just a search engine there are extreme environmental concerns to using AI for everything because um like Google does use energy but these AI um like servers they're all housed in these large locations and the generators for them they have to use water coolers or they'll overheat and explode and so basically every time you're asking AI appr prompt you're essentially pouring out a bottle of water especially on the most advanced models and so I think it's dangerous to say that AI is just a search engine or just like a fun tool when there's such a big environmental concern with it and I think that can also apply to the classroom especially when you're just cheating yourself out of learning and thinking for it when you could just go to Google find the source yourself and it also eliminates like human connections if you're just asking AI is this paper good or um what could I do to make this better instead you could go to teachers or Tutors or other resources that we have in our schools and you don't always have to go to Ai and I know from personal experience I sometimes use AI to like help explain things to me or to simplify uh assignments for me but I feel like when I use it for extended periods of time I can actually like feel myself getting dumber and I become I become so reliant on it that I'm not able to do basic assignments that in the past would have taken me 10 minutes so I just think that um I personally just really do not like the use of AI in our classrooms and we um disagreed with that obviously which is why we have two slides but um that's that's my big thing all right so in our schools we some of us like to do research so um primarily we do it at priew high school collects a lot of the data so this is from what I've done with talking to my teachers and um most are against the use of AI just in classes and the reasoning for a lot of them is different from what I've done when I've interviewed teachers so some ask you de cite it as a source like you would site a um article or a book which I thought was interesting they say that AI usage in classroom isn't necessarily bad but it does need to be used as a source solely because that is not your own knowledge that is something you're Gathering from another site so you must use it as a source some teachers um want you to ask before using it maybe to use it more as inspo or use it as um more of inspiration rather as being codependent on the use of AI or some I've seen just are completely against Ai and feel that it suppresses um Forward Thinking and to be able to critically think about a topic um not all teachers deem it as horrible or this big um bad thing but it is something that's not fluid between in the schools knowing that AI is still a relatively young and new thing so of course the in schools it is still a debated and very heavily controversial topic so from my biggest research is that most teachers would not like it if of course if you're just turning in an AI paper they want to read real human writing but um most teachers are very different on the Spectrum when it comes to how much they like or how much they don't like and tolerate AI all righty so for our students we gathered from interviews and information um a lot of students said it actually helps them organize their notes and it helps them with a lot of like mechanical issues on their papers for example one of my college professors actually just doesn't like AI at all and that also means she banned grammarly so if she sees anything that's like a little bit like looks like Grand it's almost like a whole F on the paper kind of deal so a lot of students don't agree with that a lot of students actually really like grammarly and the use of AI especially and they can have like time to um revise their topic and work on their papers and actually can if they have a compare and contrast a lot of students say they like AI for that purpose also to see like oh this is something also I could do like what Jasmine is saying using it as inspo um although there are some students who do use it not how they're supposed to of course there's always going to be students that are just not going to use something the correct way and they just tell them to write their whole papers and sometimes teachers don't catch it um but usually majority of the students don't see it as like obviously they know it's cheating if they tell them to write the whole paper however a lot of students only use AI to a minimum for like a nourishing tool and help with like grammatical errors and fixing their papers do you have any questions for any of us about like AI in the classrooms have um do you know if any of your teachers are using like an app or software that checks to see if papers are written by AI uh yeah my um psychology teacher Miss bear she has a policy where if she runs it through like an AI detector and it comes out as 40% or higher as like something was used for aad to like write a paragraph or something it'll be marked as a zero and she runs it through about like two or three of them to kind of make sure that they kind of come up with the same answers every time but that varies between teachers and schools and stuff like that yes you think that's an effective way to like possibly I mean if we say we come up with a policy on AI I mean to effectively enforce that in the classroom I mean so that there are boundaries do you think that's effective I know that some of the websites can come up with like weird results where even if you don't use AI at all it can come up with like 50% AI usage so it kind of depends on like which one you're using and it just depends on like if it's more like if your writing style just happens to be similar to what like an AI chat bot or like AI bot would use it kind of just depends it's very like finicky but pass over to Tyler real quick I feel like with every teacher though it's going to be different so I mean some teachers choose to run it do an AI detector some of them just don't care so I feel like if you did put a policy in place it would also hold teachers accountable to check for AI especially because I know like one of my college professors did not care like I had a friend write his whole paper AI submitted it got an A so I don't know it really depends I think is there not now a system so my child who's an eth grader just informed me like you just informed me of a lot of things but my child also informed me that he could have ai write the paper then he could put it into a different program to make it so it doesn't look like a write it then they could turn that in and then it doesn't detect that they were written by AI at all okay this is a thing this is a thing and my little brother discussed it actually um where you ask his examples were chat GPT and then the grammarly Ai and you tell it to make it not AI cuz the way the grammarly works it just like analyzes your paper and makes it flow a little better so yes that's a problem but if you're really going to that extent to cheat it's it's it's it's a diff yeah like might as well just do the paper right so I mean I feel like I didn't answer the question though no no I found it fascinating he's like Mom we could just write the paper turn the paper into this thing it'll rewrite the paper then I can tell that I need it to write it in the voice of an eighth grader and then I'll submit it and no one would ever know the way I wrote the paper but I that's not that's fascinating and I and I don't know how we write a policy that like tackles all the things surrounding what's coming because we don't know what's coming so I'm grateful that you set up here and told me like um the environmental concern so I've used Ai and I had no idea um so like fascinating we all need to be taught so in the beginning you said it's an opportunity to educate the use of the tool and so when we're writing a policy it's more about thinking about how we're going to put into place education that helps our students benefit from this tool and we're talking about the thinking classroom a lot right now so I think this is important to bring to us are we some of the topics that you were talking about is it if you're utilizing it properly and it's at your fingertips and you're able to put it into work and you got Smarter with compare and contrast and then how do we get teachers all on the same page I'm I was excited Tyler came to me at the stock show and found me just to tell me that you guys were working on this so the fact that you guys are excited to bring us this information is really powerful for us as well um although to to that point I think it's important that I note that on our Monday meeting we really did discuss like that this is a tool and it even if it doesn't have a place in the classroom it it has a place in the lives that we're going to lead in the future because technology will become more efficient it'll use less water it'll have less environmental impacts because that's just the way that the world Works um I mean I already know that meta is really like they're taking into account these environmental impacts and they're really trying to work against it it's hard because of the heat requirements and because of all the mechanical issues that poses but it's not like they're just saying oh oh no cry about it um they're they're actively trying to work on it and so I think if like my dad is the my dad works at the fire department and the AI could replace his job and so he he feels very passionate about students and like me and my little brother learning how to use it and I think that we discussed that a lot on our in our meeting on Monday that any policy that we any policy suggestion that we come forward with is going to emphasize that it it it should we should at least touch on it just a little bit you know one question that I had if you guys were to look at like your friend group or Theo like the community that you have with students that you know do you feel like AI is being used more as a tool to cheat for kids to get by or hey this is really helping us like learn and grow and develop what would you say um I would say through my research especially because it's definitely different from friend group to friend group I mean at least for me a lot of my friends are honor students that know how to use it and utilize it more as a helping to or help me organize my notes or they help it get inspo but I have seen in other classes such as like um other teachers complaining about students um using AI so I think when it comes to students using AI in the classroom it's seen from what I've seen and through my research it's more of a student accountability and being like okay I'm going to do the right thing I'm going to use it as inspo but then I'm going to do my work and make sure that I'm doing my own work and it kind of almost reminds me of the 27j phone policy in the sense of kids can bring out their phone and teachers could enforce it but um it's really at the end of the day too it might be really on the student to want to use it as a tool and not take advantage of it because again even with Google we can easily Google things but some kids choose to open a book and do the work and research and highlight it it isn't more of a objective oh all students use it as inspo or all students use it as um plagiarism it really depends on the student and how they um morally feel about AI they kind of um go off with Jasmine was saying about I've noticed it a lot of like differences in how all the different grades use AI so I know that as a senior um I will occasionally use this website called like math GPT just to kind of like when I'm at home doing homework and I need to find like an answer for one of the problems that that isn't in the back of like the textbook it'll give me like an in-depth explanation of how to do it so that's how I personally choose to use AI but I know that I've heard from like freshman teachers that the Freshman will just use it on every single assignment and then it turns into they don't know how to write an essay so it kind of depends on the student the grade level and especially with this new generation coming into high school like this gen Alpha where kind of all they know is AI and they they've never really learned how to properly like use like their resources in the real world but it's kind of it's hard to do it when the technology is advancing so fast and every single grade level is so different especially with how they use this technology but um I would only thing I would say is just watching these kids debate and and they're they're acting really cordial here like it it was not always that it was a very spirited debate and a couple of these ladies even don't work off on the side because they weren't even there but um they they they argue great points and then they also bring um intensity but it's it's it's what we should see in all of our classrooms because they they argue hard but they also respect each other incredibly well uh and even though a couple eye roles even in the meeting here you could tell um but but but clearly they do and and think about this this generation just like what a what an incredible Tipping Point it is and I love I love that Marley's already sounding old going oh kids today like like she's like she's 50 and she's talking about kids today she's four three years older than these kids today but but but it but it's it is incredible to think what they're they're enduring in school where where where AI is the rapid course of inter AI is changing schools literally while they sit in it right and I think that that's a f fasinating thing for the be so I'm excited to see what you guys come back with they're going to wrestle through and come back with recommendation recommendations next next time for our policies and just a good group of kids so as always I'd be interested to dive into some studies on like what AI does to a developing brain and um what it does to the conceptual nature of children right like in order to invent and in order to write papers I mean you need to be conceptual right like is that just eliminating that completely from the from the it like I I'd like to know like psychologically what that is doing it's going to be an aggressive debate so I mean I'm excited that we're doing a deeper dive into this we T we had this conversation at our casby conference um I one of the sessions I attended there was the AI session and they did a they presented some study um Tracy about that that they haven't found cheating is any worse now like if they were cheating they cheated before and they're still cheating but it hasn't made any new cheaters so that was this that was what they released or what they covered at that um the one thing you guys brought up tonight that I don't know why I didn't think about this but the extra work it makes on teachers I didn't realize they were having to double triple check through all these filters to make sure like I didn't realize how much extra work it was putting on teachers for that at least at stead um we use we use the Google Suite of services like Google classroom and such um and for assignments that you have to write something and I believe it even works on slideshows the teacher can flip a little switch on their end called An Origin originality report and then it's on the students to run it so we can run the originality report before we turn it in and it'll be like hey this is AI bad idea don't turn it in or like you're good go ahead and turn it in and then it'll do the same thing for the teacher on that end so then it's not it's not as much work but it's still like like they have to wait for that originality report to complete and so I think I think that's important to note well I know we could talk about this topic all night because it's fascinating um we'd love to attend if you can share when your next meeting is we would um get us that information and we will plan to attend but if there's no other questions we'll let you guys get back to your study your AI cheating whatever you guys have going on tonight all right thank you guys for being here good job all right superintendent will Pier will report on activities throughout the district this report will include information proclaiming January a Schoolboard recognition month thank you um good evening everybody well I I'll just rip through as these some of these slides as fast as I can just just some of the really cool things I never can get all of the cool things going on in 27j we're just we're just growing and too big um but uh prior to the the holiday break um food for Hope provided 137 families with food boxes which is incredibly cool kuana 629 hot meals um to 109 families like in in partner with in collaboration with we as a community um 27j Resource Center uh supported 166 families and over 427 students with gifts uh there's the groups right precious child Orchard Church Bridge uh Bridge students at Ino Girl Scout Troop 65804 ba Teachers Association First Bank and over 170 individuals donors from 27j employees I think it's just incredible we have we have so many people supporting kids in in crisis and in need and families that at that I think those are always good stories to know it's not part of our core Mission but it's a good story we we we show up and partner with people and do good things for families who need need good things uh this is a cool story uh Derry Max and their Partners the Denver Broncos have named Tony Jad uh our our director of nutrition services healthy schools MVP uh that's their nomination that they wrote they cited 200% increases in in participation in breakfast meals 37% increase in lunch um meals and as you guys know as you worked with Tony uh that nutrition services department does incredible work and I just think it's fun when one of our own gets healthy schools MVP that doesn't happen very often so that that's exciting stuff uh it'll be a public this is not to take Carla or Mike's thund away when they give their monitoring report but we we have a press release today about graduation rates um you can see 27 J's graduation rate did go down uh 0.9 points from a a year's time that's a fouryear graduation rate uh BHS um uh that I got those numbers backwards BHS actually went up all of those numbers are backwards BHS went from 92.2 to 93.4 Prairie View went from 89.8 to 87 now I'm back on track cuz Riverdale did go up 93.6 to 96.2 ER went from 94.3 to 97.2 so almost everybody up where prayview went slightly down Innovations went up 27j online uh slow went up slightly uh Connections Academy which is is a large Charter partner of ours they did go down and and and that's part of the reason for our graduation rate slight dip I would also say in this data we have a 1.2 uh dropout rate so I'm I'm I'm not discouraged I'm not saddened by kids not meeting four-year goal um I also sure shared this data with you guys at the beginning of the year our matriculation rates which which really matters kids taking advantage of their preparedness is it at all-time high um moving our diploma to mean something for for our kids and to to be living into the mission that they're prepared is more important than ontime graduation rate for us um while disappointed we had a onee one year that we're not we're not growing and incre increasing our fouryear 1.2 graduation or dropout rate they're still with us we're g to keep keep cheering them on to graduate on time but I wanted you to have that information ahead of the the the public um as it's press release will be here and State graduation rate remained at about 84.2 um so that's that information you'll hear more when Carla and Mike do their graduation monitoring report coming soon on that same vein we had a 27j internship Fair um to watch this grow over the course of just two short years at one time there was like 15 people trying to get internships and we only had about 10 kids taking internships at Riverdale Ridge uh just last Monday uh 27j internship Fair 95 kids were over 95 kids were there buzzing 45 Partners it was amazing to see our municipalities looking to take on internships if you're out there and you own a business or you'd like to participate our kids benefit so much you and your company benefit so much and this year for the first time our 27j uh Department's really stepped up we had over 12 departments actually taking on internships and that was really cool for our our our people to be involved directly with kids and the mission and you our our our Z Javier and and Jeff are from our our transportation department we're talking about buses and man you don't need you don't need to go to that college come with us we'll get you industry trained on every mechanical thing you need and they were just fired up talking or construction people like they had five people interview with them and they were you know Caleb and Rob were like if they all want us we'll take all five and I'm like how you going to do that he goes we'll figure it out I mean just like this this this passion amongst our own people for our kids was just really cool so that was a cool thing to do uh you you uh I think you would have imagined that the president uh uh Trump his new executive orders have come out and that represent presents a slight shift in educational communities across across the world um immigration has been a come kind of a Hot Topic in 27j where people are asking how are we going to be safe uh in school uh is school still a safe place you and I have talked about it in study session before uh I want to remind everybody in their community and in our audience we we have prop policies long-standing policies that we will lean on to protect us protect our kids in times like this um the KFA is about public conduct on school property and visits to visitors to school um we have protocols that you know we buzz in at the office the front door and what is your purpose here and if their purposes uh we're here to to get some kids uh we will be contacting people from Intervention services and going to sit with those people and trying to figure out what those Natures would be we have policies that no ensure that no unauthorized persons in our building um uh we have uh that you can see there we also have interrogations and ches and privacy things there's also federal laws um furpa um has policies that that prohibit some of those things and until today there were strict access you can read in that last one that that that talked about Federal immigration authorities did not conduct immigration activities in schools or public spaces that of course with the doj this morning that ban was lifted if they had search warrants and seizures um we're we're we're it's a fluid situation um in 27j we're we're unfortunately not in charge of it um we we we we don't have authority over federal government to decide we are a public school district um but we follow public laws and uh we do have a duty to protect our kids and by the greatest extent that we can within our policies uh we will try to keep school as safe as we can for all of our kids and families but but that it is it is it is a uh a tumultuous time for for many in our community and and that that's hard for us to I know I think ashle your comment is like can't can't we make sure and say that we can never do that but you have to remember uh we are also Public School District and and we follow federal law and federal orders along the same line with this one and and we we continue to get media requests for our responses to these things most of our responses we already have policies that would protect them to the greatest extent that we could and that's what I'm articulating today it's it's not a new plan it doesn't need to be a new plan it's continue to do the best thing we can for kids in our School District um we also have the the executive order that had to do with our uh lgbtq plus practices and and that one's a little harder to read because it doesn't have uh easy RS um and uh we're still unpacking and learning about what that one means for kids in our school and you could imagine kids in our school that are impacted by either of these are feeling a little Whiplash from one government to the other but that's that's how politics works and in 27j we care about kids and care about kids learning and we show up every day just heck B on trying to make that happen so I wanted you to be aware that those two things are happening um on a better much better note um our 27j CTE Department uh did get the Brighton EDC economic partner of the Year award for their great work with uh internships and CTE uh businesses so that that was really cool that's our CTE team there that was some of our CTE team some of our CTE leads that was fun to be a part of and it is Schoolboard recommend ation month so I do have on behalf of our staff and Community I do have a a whereas proclamation to read so I will do this not as eloquently as you guys do when you do the the these proclamations but whereas Schoolboard members are elected to sit and Trust for their diverse communities and in the capacity are charged with meeting the community's expectations and aspirations for the public education of their students and whereas Schoolboard members are entrusted with the Guardianship and wise expenditure of scarce tax dollars and they're responsible for maintaining and preserving the buildings grounds and all and other areas of the school district that the community is put in their trust and where School members are responsible providing leadership that ensures a clear shared vision of public education for their school that sets high standards for the education of all students and requires the effective and efficient operation of their districts and whereas school board members adopt policies to give voice to that leadership and employee superintendent of to board administer board policy and are also responsible to the regular monitoring of the district's performance and compliance with policies and whereas the school board members elected to school board positions deserve recognition and thanks for their countless hours of volunteer services to public education and the students of our community now therefore I will pierce do hereby declare my appreci to the appreciation to the board members of 27j Board of Education and proclaim the month of January 20 2025 as Schoolboard recognition month and I urge all staff students families and Community Partners to in of 27 J to join me in recognizing the dedication and hard work of our 27 J school board members and in working with them to mold an educational system that meets the needs of both today's and tomorrow's students thank you very much for your dedication to be here and that concludes my superintendent Report with unless there's questions which I know there probably could be all right we will now move to matters of public comment the board will now hear public comment 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 pref references and concerns of our community therefore tonight we will listen we are prohibited by state law to take any action on these items because law requires formal public notice prior to any action on an agenda item during our next meeting if appropriate we will consider your comments in our discussion and we will ask that the superintendent attempt to find an answer for any of your questions by that time um so next so first up we have um Janine rala um in District to talk about literacy [Applause] thank you and jine I have all your information hi I'm a parent within the district um I'm here tonight to talk with you all about the read act and literacy levels within the middle and high schools in The District in September of 2024 the director of student achievement shared the school board with the school board the 24 Global goals for the district one of which is by the fall of 2025 80% of District man schools will have an accomplishment rating on the 27j school dashboard in reviewing the data for this dashboard back to the school year of 2019 2020 except for Riverdale Ridge High School in 2020 21 school year none of the district Run Middle or high schools have been above developing level on the dashboards let alone the accomplishing rating if we look at the middle schools and remove the fourth quarter value which includes Cass three of the five are in entering or the lowest rating one skill literacy can help students succeed academically and develop lifelong learning skills literally literacy skills also help students Express themselves communicate effectively and become engaged Learners it also boasts self-esteem and can reduce behavioral related issues in December I was communicating with my daughter's school which included some District staff about the lack of progress monitoring and information on my daughter's read plan and current reading level a District staff member an email last year was the first year of guidance from CDE specific to Fourth through 12th grade on read Plus plans last year was not the first year of guidance from CDE on read plans for fourth to 12th grade it's the first year the district was called out by a parent for not following those read act for the Middle School level The District staff member also stated a challenge we face is that we have limited staff at the district level to support Schools teachers with these systems processes and tools the reality is that the mandates and the law are unfund funded mandates for fourth to 12th grade there's no additional funding provided to the district to support systems that can help meet the demands of these laws for fourth through 12th grade students I was actually speechless when I read that so if a student doesn't learn to read by third grade are we just going to say screw it we're not going to teach them how to read after that because that seems like what we're doing the whole purpose of a school district is to teach kids how to read write and do math from reviewing the district's literacy policies on the district website I was unable to find a single policy to support middle or high school students in literacy if they are below grade level Colorado revised statutes 227 1206 2A and 6 mandate that the local education provider Implement a students read plan or appropriate interventions through multi-tiered systems of support or a comparable intervention system regardless of the grade level if the school board and District want to improve middle and high school academics it starts with literacy and adding reading classes that are tailored to a student's need based on their Universal testing that is done three times a year to use an analogy to grow a garden can I finish this part to if you want to grow a garden you first plant the seed in the ground you water it and you give it sun as you as a plant grows if it isn't doing well we change the environment by placing it in a sunnier area or giving it more water or a bigger pot if the plant doesn't change to its environment we change the environment so the plant can grow and produce flowers or fruit for us why are we willing to change the environment for a plant but not our students thank you okay next we have Patrick Riley um in District concerns at Riverdale board evening everyone I'm back now for I believe this is the fourth time since September sorry for my voice um and obviously Tracy we haven't met or spoke before so as I speak to the board please know that I'm not directly uh speaking with you and I'm also going to denote that I'm very disappointed that Tom's not here because most of my ey tonight is pretty much directed uh pered him uh so when I came to you guys in September and told you about the abuse that my son uh had suffered while engaged in the basketball program at Riverdale Ridge I felt like you guys understood the situation where we were and I asked for help from the board and I was met with silence I did however get a meeting with star over that and then I came back and said hey I really feel like we need to have the board lean in from a policy perspective because kids are getting hurt and I told you in September kids were getting hurt that night the retaliation was still happening that night it's now January all the same situation has still happened I've been here multiple times I've emailed every single one of you and what I got back was an email from Tom saying we investigated this in June three months before I came to you 4 months before I actually filed my complaint you guys had investigated it and decided everything was fine and there was no need for the board's action right but that was four months before I actually filed a complaint in the time that has happened the school investigated found that things occurred Michael CLA sitting behind me investigated found things had occurred there's been five total incidences again more kids have been exposed to the same thing that led my son just so we're all clear on the situation here my son returned to school today today for the first time since Halloween he's been hospitalized since Halloween for things that stemmed from events that happened in your schools on your buses that were covered up by your personnel these aren't my people like I I see the looks I'm getting I don't want your looks I want your action literally any action I gave Tom a list of things How about if schools have sports programs that have hazing that is found to have occurred there's voluntary postseason bands how simple is that like the most bare minimum of things that could occur to try to dissuade coaches from allowing it to happen and dissuade kids from having it happen how about some form of consequence for the people involved be the kids be the coaches literally anything I'm not trying to tell you what to do I'm saying literally anything and if we're not ready to do that as a board as the adults in the room resign specifically to Tom's wonderfully empty chair for the third time in my four visits Tom if you watch this later resign our kids deserve better thank you um next we'll move on the agenda to consent agenda all matters listed under consent agenda are operational matters about which the board has governing policies implementation of which is delegated to the super intendent 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 vote on the motion unless members of the board staff or public request specific items to be discussed separately and or removed from this section any member of the public who wishes to discuss consent agenda items should notify the vice president of the board at the time requested and be recognized by invitation of the vice president to address the board do I have a motion approval of Board of Education minutes dated December 11th 2024 study session and regular meeting December 21st 2024 planning session and January 8th 2025 director district 6 candidate inter that am I reading the right one where is that on the screen um recommended motion to approve the conent agenda oh it's recommend a motion move to approve the consent agenda has presented I'll second that okay so I have a motion by director tro and a second by director carbajal director Alvarado I director carbajal yes director Khan I director Thomas I director tro I motion carries thank you okay um next moving on to governance process that supports our global Global goals um ownership linkage director carbajal and director KH so at the study session right before this we just discussed um having graduating seniors come to our next meeting in February and we all agreed that's what we're going to move forward with so we're going to ask them what they like don't like what they're seeing what they recommend their experience in 27j okay board education director KH and director myself director Thomas do you have anything director con I would like to dive into studies on AI beyond what they're doing if we're seriously looking at policy change regarding that yeah I think that'd be a wonderful topic um our last Education topic was around the thinking classroom and we had um a presentation on thinking classroom and then um a deep brief um earlier this evening okay moving on to board committees um the facility planning advisory committee director green is not present so I don't know that we have an update on on that for this evening um the the capital facility fee Foundation director con or director triio we haven't met we're meeting in February 6th Rocky Mountain RIS director carbahal yeah we'll have two meetings in February and we haven't met since December all right the 27j Believers we um have our our next award is scheduled in March and so we will get the schedule to youan to get that out probably first part of February okay um Commerce City School District 27j usth tax those committee members are not present this evening so we will not have an update there 2015 2021 Bond oversight committee um we had a report this evening so nothing else to report there the 2022 mil Levy override commit oversight committee um we also had a a report earlier this evening so nothing else to add there the bright youth commission um director tro yeah so my first meeting um after the assignment we were all up at casby so I had my first meeting this month and the Brighton youth commission is currently working on what they're going to present for speak speak week and it was so fun watching all the students get together be in groups and really like tailor and how they're going to so speak week is based around like suicide prevention all these different things I wasn't aware of it so it was really cool to watch it um and tailoring it from elementary middle school high school and they have a budget they're working with their budget on videos and pamphlets and giveaways all the things so yeah it was really great yeah speak I've I've gone to speak week a few times it's a really really cool event the kid the our young adults don't amazing job um any other matters of information for the board um so board member committee assignments with the appointment of director Alvarado the board will consider their committee assignments with the resignation of Annie Jensen reassignment occurred at the October 9th 2024 meeting director green assumed her position at the bond oversight committee director tro assumed her position at the Brighton youth commission U board lead leadership recommends director Alva serve on the capital facility fee foundation and the 2015 2021 Bond oversight committee um so you'll just be taking those um those roles that were previously open so we and we'll get you lenan will get do I need to sign something or do something oh Lana is always on top of it so here's when they meet can you pass that down thank you so there's information on when they meet I also serve on the bond overs committee so I'll be there with you um yeah so there's information when they meet and then she'll get added will you make sure she gets added to the email distributions I'll notify them tomorrow that you've accepted that and then they'll reach out to you with more information than what I gave you but at least you kind of know to put those on your calendar okay and then you'll get the agendas and meeting updates okay all right next on the agenda we'll move to expectations of the board the board asks to to accept reject the following reports due submitted since the last meeting and there are none at this time um next chief human resource officer Michael Cloud will present the expectation of the board report through 3C treatment of Faculty staff volunteers am on it is I think so there screen can you hear me awesome uh thank you board members um first I want to thank my colleagues Andy Pippen Carla Ryder Julie small Beth York and Sam Ortega for their work supporting this report uh I want to thank all the staff who participated in our culture survey and the other surveys to help inform this report it truly takes a village to gather the information uh to present to you tonight uh I I'd like to uh walk through this report a little bit for a minute with you um so on page two the report speaks um to its history um it speaks to the foundations of the report this was um we implemented this survey that is the foundation of the report some years ago based on uh an article and research about high performing organizations uh to capture an understanding about our 27j culture for you our ultimate decision makers and for youp our leaders and staff because we want to be a high performing organization that drives our mission forward this is not a happiness survey um we are chasing a professional culture um and this survey includes key elements to support moving the mission um thanks to our partnership with Carla and her team we have maintained the general framework and specific questions uh of the survey with the idea of being able to monitor the data over time data is more powerful when you could see it in a broader context over um an extended period And so that was the intent of of this work and that's been our intent all along with the survey also on this page you will find the overall results uh the results I believe suggest an overall organization culture uh of stability and over time since the first years of the survey you will see an improvement in the results uh a note about stability it is hard to move anything organizationally in an atmosphere of turbulence and I see an opportunity here to thank you for the leadership and stability we had we have had from the board and that we continue to have uh I do think it matters and I think our Educators and our staff see that and appreciate that starting on page three you will find multiple years of a question by question breakdown by employee group Part B on page nine you find a breakdown by department and and school by category this allows leaders to engage in the data sharing it with their teams asking questions and potentially problem solving I know just as an example that Brad engages directly with principles on these results and the results help inform our school dashboards again this you can see the running history as well uh on page 14 you'll find information from our volunteers and substitutes you'll also see part C with information about our turnover rates from CDE the turnover rate from the 2223 school year into the 2324 school year which was when the mid Levy was passed in the fall of 2022 and took effect in Fall of 23 helped us recover from a very turbulent labor market our community provided a stabilizing Force for our work with the passage of the mil Levy I believe when the turnover rate comes out for the LA for this past school year we will see similar numbers on page 15 you will see our efforts to predict the future and here staff are telling us uh what they believe at the time their future plans for certified staff this was the highest highest percentage yet who indic ated a plan to return to their position again I don't think it's a coincidence related to our Mill Levy Part D speaks to the reasons for leaving a district the district resignations remain low among classified and certified employee groups part e provides another source of information for you related to the tlcc survey from CDE the report then moves into policies and a safety report from our safety and security team of note you will see some strong data from the safety survey which indicate an impact from our mlo again 98.1% strongly agree or agree that they know what to do to keep themselves and their students safe 94% strongly agree agree that the SRO and SSG at their school keep students in staff safe also an increase for the previous year and 91% agree that the passage of the middle Levy override had a positive impact on the Safety and Security of their school overall this report is evidence that 27j maintains a strong professional culture overall which speaks to the limitations outlined in this report I'd like to report compliance to you tonight yeah um so I will tell you whenever we did our um the test that we do to determine our personalities or whatever that you guys wear on your Backes yes um mine was a four in data it just means that I have to try harder to do and analytical BL and there's like so many numbers on this report um but I thought what was important was that there for the most part they were all mid threes and higher so so scoring well across all of them um the one that stood out to me that I want to share just for for our friends that are watching online um salary and benefits so the reason for leaving in our exit survey salary and benefits in 2023 was almost 14% responded that that was the reason for leaving was salary and benefits and in 2024 it was 7.8 so it that the the M Levy you know significantly allowed us to to retain teachers they're not leaving because of the are not leaving as much for the um the salary and benefits um also we saw similar reductions in seeking new or organizational values and stress and so I think it that M Levy shows that we place value on our teachers and and all of all of our staff and that um when you're getting paid better and your your stress level can go down some so so I thought I thought that was impressive and then just also the data around the um 94% agreed that the SRO or SSG at their school um keeps students saved compared to 84.6 last year so it it's really good to see the results of the mil Levy coming through in the data so do anyone else have no I agree and I can't wait to dig more into these numbers it's kind of fun all move to accept the expectations of the board report through 3C treatment of Faculty staff volunteers as conveying reasonable interpretation of the executive limitations second okay so motion by director carbajal and second by director Khan roll call please director Alvarado I director carbajal yes director Khan I director Thomas I director TR hi motion carries thank you right next we have accounting manager Britney barter will present the internal expectations of the board report through 3D Financial conditions and activities good evening all right right so I will be presenting the policy 3D Financial conditions and activities report this report covers 10 areas of financial condition and activities monit monitored for policy compliance the period for this report is July 1 through December 31st so the first six months of this fiscal year um the overall conclusion is that we report compliance so the superintendent has complied with all Financial conditions and activities during the period monitored going into the specifics of those 10 areas the first one is expenditure limitations and reserve requirements the superintendant will not exceed funds received unless the the liquidity and reserve requirements are met those reserve requirements are 3% for Taber and 3% for the Board of Education Reserve we're reporting that the adopted budget is expected to end fiscal year 25 with a general fund balance of 40.7 million including fully funded reserves of 6.5 million for Taber and 6. million for the Board of Education Reserve so as so pre- audited um ending fund balances as of December 31st um our general fund is sitting at 56.4 million so that kind of gives you what the adopted is projecting and then here's what actual is looking like so you'll hear some more about that later on um when Myra talks about the amended budget borrowing practices super tenant will not borrow funds without board approval except credit cards used for normal businesses um we're reporting that we did Issue 1 point 128.57 million in refunding bonds this was approved by the Board of Education in August as of December 31st um The District's total outstanding balance for principal and interest is at $1 billion I did count those decimal points because that's the first time it's been that high so you can see that the two that we did Issue are down there at the bottom um and you can see that the latest maturity date for these now is 2048 cash flow and safety reserve the superintendent will not allow cash to fall below 6% of general fund expenditures we report that the reserves are maintained at 12.5 million and never fell below the required 6% which is 6. 1 million so here's a graph that you can see where our cash um general fund cash balances are for 2025 compared to 2024 so you can see that we never did dip below that 6.1 million fund usage and transfers superintendent will not use reserves or conduct interf fund shifts not in compliance with policies um the district has spent all funds to date consistent with the fiscal year 25 adopted budget including the 19.9 million in improved inner fund transfers um seeing here that through December you can see that we have um transferred 11.9 of that 19 million payroll and payables compliance superintendent will not fail to settle payroll obligations and payables on time for the first six months we um paid an average of 2,540 employees per month with a gross payroll to date of 76.7 million 99% of payables were settled within 90 days and we issued 3,740 checks during the monitoring period kind of looking at it in more detail you can see what the employee employee paid deductions were what the employer paid deductions were for the payroll for the first six months of the year you can also see that 88% of our pay payables were actually paid within 30 days or less tax payments and filings superintendent will not allow tax payments or filings to be overdue or inaccurately filed all mandatory deductions and tax payments were accurately filed and made on time um here's the list just so you guys have some detail of what those mandatory deductions are state taxes garnishments most commonly all the stuff normal businesses have that are required to pay purchases exceeding $25,000 the superintendent will not execute p uh execute purchasing commitments over $25,000 unless disclosed or approved by the board during this reporting period 197 checks 16 purchasing card transactions and 73 wires were paid that were greater than 25,000 totaling $ 73.7 million um there is a detailed list in the actual full report that I do believe Lynn lyan provided it starts on page seven if you want to see those detailed of all of the checks and such if you have a desire real property transactions superintendent will not acquire lease or dispose of real property without board approval during this reporting period we did finalize the purchase of the land for Middle School number six and that happened in October the board approved that purchase back in October of 20 uh April of 26 2023 is when that started external revenues superintendent will not accept revenues inconsistent with the district's Mission and values all donations received during the monitoring period align and support the district's mission and goals from July 1st to December 31st you can see that we have received $434,400 or grants receivables superintendent will not fail to pursue material material receivables after a reasonable grace period District fee collection is up 34% compared to Prior year at this time and we had no nutrition services meals that were written off um you can this is a detailed list that kind of shows you what the different um groups of fees that we have and then we collect um you can see the number of invoices we issued the amounts that were build you can see the collection rates between 30 60 and 90 and outstanding um you can also see the breakdown here of our nutrition meals internal controls over receipts and dispersements superintendent will operate with adequate internal controls to prevent unauthorized payments or material dissipation of assets the district does undergo an external audit by independent CPAs every year um the 2024 audit was reported to the board on December 11th and that audit um report showed no findings conclusion superintendent has complied with all Financial policies and guidelines for the monitoring period of July 1st through December 31st all Financial practices were aligned with the board's goals and fiscal policies ensuring the district's Financial Health and operational Integrity any questions I hate um this was fantastic I really like this presentation I think it's the first time of we've seen it like this very well yeah like laid out on the screen like that so thank you for doing that um if there are no other questions or comments then um I will entertain them a motion it is located I'm taking it it's at the top of page five okay um I'll try this move to accept the expectation of the board report through 3D financials and condition and activities as conveying reasonable interpretation of the executive limitations I'll second thought so motion by director Alvarado and second by director carbajal I get a roll call director alado yes director carbajal yes director Khan hi director Thomas I director Trill I motion carries thank you all right so next on the agenda we have our policy review schedule so you can um next in February we have graduation rate postsecondary Readiness and treatment of parents and Guardians um item 15 on the agenda adoption of the revised fiscal year 2024 2025 budget bu and Appropriations the Board of Education will consider approval of resolution number 5 2024 2025 regarding the adoption of the revised fiscal year 2024 2025 budget and Appropriations budget manager Myra Ramirez will present information concerning the revised fiscal year budget and Appropriations good evening everybody uh thank you for having me this evening um before I start I want to first of all I want to thank all of those who contribute to the creation of this amended budget because it takes a village so shout out to Lavar Cyprus the budget committee that consists of the um the Chiefs and will um our editors who are Diane Holly and thank you Diane for printing out these lovely books um Ashley truo and Kim bega and last but not least our CFO Stacy okay sometimes it's a little funky you have to kind of hold it to come on thank you so I um my summary today is going to be based off of page one on our budget book so our school Finance act our per pupil funding increase we had a per pupil funding increase of 750 um which brought our PPR to 11,250 six per student for the district um there was also an elimination of the budget stabilization factor which was resulted in a 3.8 million um increase in state funding in comparison to the prior year as far as growth enrollment um or enrollment we had growth um for our district managed schools for our district managed schools we saw an increase of 51 students on the next slide you will see how that 51 students came about our October um count for our district was 16,917 and that was a decrease of 139 students Colorado connections actually had the biggest increase um they had an October count of 2042 and an increase of 390 so our overall um increase for all school um all schools in our district was 302 so our general fund beginning balance um we had previously projected a fund balance of 49.8 million um our actual um fund balance came in at 80.5 million million which is a 29.7 million um increase the biggest portion um of that 29.7 million is made up of the 24.2 million that we receive ahead of time so last year for this year for our M Levy and that is something that's going to continue it is a little weird and it is definitely hard to understand but that's always going to continue so we get the money ahead of time so what happens is that our fund balance is is going to grow by that amount for sure um so the difference in the 29.7 and the 24.2 is 5.5 million and the increases um associated with that was a M Levy match of 76,000 um which was an increase based on a um onetime anticipated uh money that we're going to be receiving due to the increase in the school act uh School Finance act from CDE um we also received 681 th000 which was um so far anticipated as one-time monies that was given to us by CDE for new to Country students This was um money that was given to some school districts that had new to Country students we also had an increase of 1.6 million for a state categorical for ecea funding or sped students we also had an increase of 2.3 million in interest in interest income so in Revenue updates our M Levy override property taxes or the amount that we get ahead of time is 25.6 million which will be collected in this fiscal year but will be spent in the next fiscal year year and again I did mention that this will continue happening um in your budget book you are going to have a line that says 28.6 million um which is at the bottom under your reserves designated and are assigned for subsequent years 25.6 of that is made up of future money and the difference is contingency which was presented by Michael in um his previous presentation for the M Lev site committee so we just pretty much say that that money is called for and it has a purpose and the purpose is for mevy in future spends other projected increases again um is a state categorical of 1.07 million for um ecea money or sped dollars that come to the district and this is due to an increase in sped students um we also anticipate um another um million doll increase for interest income um and we also anticipate property taxes going up 6.5 million and this is based off of the new assess valuation which Terry presented to the board in December so we make the changes in our um amended budget every year for expenditures and transer updates um we had some salary and benefits set aside for compensation increases and cost of living increases to ensure that the district has sustainability and flexibility um we also increased our transfer for Colorado connections so in your budget you're going to see that increase under transfers in charter schools so the reason why we are increasing their transfer is that they increase by 390 students so we also had an increase to the transportation fund of 1.4 million and that increase happened due to some position adjustments that were emitted during the fy2 um adopted budget there are a couple of items that I want to call out in our budget and some of that is some um spend down that this budget in um or some fund balance spend down that we worked through in budget committee and these are items that we that were added in our budget that are in the expenditure portion of our budget and this includes anything that was added to help spend down our fund balance so some of the items that were added were some clld positions at 31.5 positions we in increase some positions for preschool growth and we also added positions we added a board um secretary we added a finance executive secretary a Communications executive secretary a grant writer we added some um positions for second semester for the North Terminal or North Transportation terminal we added a utility manager we added an data architect um our school district is working on some web accessibility implementation so that um includes a web accessibility support specialist we also added two level two District level registar some bus drivers and some substitute bus drivers we also added some it equipment and this included some teacher laptop Replacements some school infrastructure Replacements which included some projectors some Apple TV Replacements and some document camera Replacements and we also included some um purchases for servers wiring and storage Replacements as well as um we added some software for board docks and that's all I have this evening any questions I was trying not to but I feel like I have a few questions um the first one is about the preschool growth and adding those positions did we is it preschool where we didn't receive the funding that we thought we were going to get from the state um that we're having to overcompensate or is that in the school Mills and lunches so the money for preschool is money that we get from the state um it no longer comes directly from PPR the money is separate and it's a different funding source but the general fund does supplement um preschool when preschool is also heavy um sped population of kids right a lot of kids threeyear olds come in with I APS speech speech needs three and four-year-old kids St and so that that's also not fully covered right under yeah the newcomer funds that you talked about since you presented in your superintendent report about um all the changes happening with the federal government those newcomer funds does that make us an identified district for money that we were allotted from the state and now they know that we were allotted that funding because we were taking in students that were potentially undocumented what does that look like in crossover uh yes um it would make it identifiable but we don't have access to all of we don't have access to all that information we definitely don't share any of that information with anybody but the idea that you'd get money would let you know that there there's probably some newcomers in the neighborhood do you know how many districts in the state of Colorado received that funding every every District received funding based on the the the the number of kids they had it's onetime money and then we try to program to support those kids during as they entered the school district but yeah every almost every school district received some version of newcomer based on the number of kids that they came with us only receiving 51 new students when did they pull that data so that data was based on not this fiscal or this October count it was from prior information okay tonight there's a lot of of information and again that money was given to um two districts from CDE to help um with some of those costs because what happens is that that money as students came in it tended or the student growth happened after the October count so those students weren't counted at that time so that's why CDE um provided some of this funding to a lot of districts because a lot of the Denver metro area districts were having the same issues as us that we were having increased expenses without increased Revenue was it based on pure pupil it was based on that so they can identify like depending on the quantity of money what they would see based on numbers of students um okay the second or the final question that I have for you is when it came to it equipment and teacher how does the district keep that Equitable in terms of like teachers having the resources they need Equitable across all the schools in the district chairman I'm not going to ask you to yell from all the way back there um or or Michael but it we we made in in Co dur when we had when we had um car's money the the money that that came in from covid we made the choice at that time because teachers were working remotely to purchase everybody laptops so that they could do their work in that time we we used Michael got all that numbers of teachers and made sure that we did it centrally not not individually by school by school so a long time ago and maybe maybe this you remembering schools each School bought their own computers so some schools bought laptops some schools bought Chromebook some we all do that centrally now so there is equitably equity across all of all of our teacher groups yeah all of our certified groups thank you the question I had was on so I think it was at casby maybe we were talking about um the state may not fully fund the um lunch breakfast and lunch for all is that is that I don't know what the status of that is are we fully funded next year or are they taking money back from that that is a great question Mandy I have not had the conversation with Tony yet but that is on our radar because there have been some conversations so there will have to be a conversation about if they have enough money to support their programming would that increase in the fund balance then like talk to me however you want but we had an increase in the fund balance right it's like 40 million I know some of it's that Mill Levy would we be able to cover that successfully as a district so right now the state like a there's a lot of unknowns around that process because the state is going through their budget and they have a new funding formula so we'll get information that the new fund for funding formul that generates us x per kid well that's if the state can balance their budget and give us that x per kid right there's there is there's averaging happening and and it's a they're using averaging which is the contentious argument now for many of our school districts because they're Staffing school districts based on the average number of kids because many the state of Colorado is actually declining enrollment so the the they some they they have some school districts I think up to seven years of averaging that they can do so if your district is declining enrollment you could be using enrollment from seven years ago when you had a thousand more kids and you would be funded on that right if if the governor's plan was to remove the averaging they they could be saving as 1,000 kids times 1100 for kid for 27j in the metro area the average is 1,400 per kid so that's that's considerable cuts to other districts now we're not in that but still they have to balance the books so there is talk that if they can't balance the books they may Institute another budget stabilization factor which we won't know till May or April right so there's a lot of questions and in that bill is is a couple outstanding promises and one of them is in that funding of formula is the nutrition services funding that you're asking for we have we have a fund balance you saw that we have a fund balance but you also saw things that we invested in in salaries we invested as a spend down of some of that funding so year over year how long till you hit zero um and that's not you generally don't build budgets on spending down on recurring budgets because you eventually will get caught in a certain amount of years and that's kind of what we're studying now and trying to figure out when would that be that time that more resources needed I think my final ask would be with that newcomer that newcomer money is just going to be on the top of my mind can we get a report of what it looked like across Colorado is it possible for us to get that data I can ask CDE for it I would like that if that's possible are there any other questions or comments okay do we have a motion number 15 move to approve the resolution number 5 2024 2025 regarding the adoption of the revised fiscal year 2024 205 budget and Appropriations as presented second okay um so we have a motion by director TR tro and a second by by director Alvarado in a roll call hi director carbahal yes director Khan hi director Thomas hi director Trio I motion carried thank you all right thanks Myra um okay next up we have the schedule of meetings her next meeting is February 12th um it'll be a linkage meeting with our um graduating seniors so we look forward to that um we also have a quarterly meeting at the mar or I'm sorry quarterly evaluation at the March meeting with director willhelm so we'll let her know about that and then um are there any closing comments before we adjourn I just want to say we got these adorable bags from Northeast Elementary filled with goodies for um Schoolboard appreciation so thank you very much for um putting that together it's filled with um letters from from kiddos so it was very very thoughtful so thank you for that and if there's nothing else we will adjourn done do I do the gavel done