Good evening everyone. It is now 6:30 so we are going to begin our meeting. Please stand and join us in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance 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. >> Okay. May I now get a motion to approve the agenda? >> I believe we have to do roll call. >> Oh, you're right. Sorry. I'm a line ahead. Can I get a roll call, please? Hy. >> Thanks.
>> Levier Wright >> here. >> Thompson >> here. Withers >> here. >> Now to approve the agenda. I'm missing the button. >> I move to approve the agenda as presented. >> Second.
>> It's been moved and seconded. Any discussion? >> Hearing none. A vote, please. >> Hy. >> Hi. >> Levier Wright. >> I. >> Thompson. >> I. Withers. I >> motion carries. We're now on to our
first public comment. We welcome comments from stakeholders during District 49's open forum. Please stay seated until your name is called by the board of education chair. Then approach the podium to introduce yourself. Speak clearly into the microphone and keep your remarks respectful and orderly. Personal complaints against individuals
connected with the district except for board members or the superintendent are prohibited. Each speaker is limited to two minutes. The board will not respond during the open forum, but may assign follow-up action to the superintendent. We also encourage you to use the stakeholder grievance process for
resolving concerns, which may culminate in the formal in a formal appeal to the board. Also, as a reminder, the first public comment session is for things that are on our agenda tonight. The second is for all other issues. With
that, our first speaker is Donald Kent. need one or the other. The folder >> got underneath. >> Okay. >> Yep. Go ahead. >> Oh, hold on a second, sir. >> Thank you. That's why I wanted to check the first time.
Uh, I wanted to talk about action item 72, specifically the policy about electric communications and AI. I think the section added for AI is way too vague and that AI should not be used in anything involving the teaching,
grading, or anything directly involving teachers teaching students. AI is not at a point where it can be trusted to give reliable information and ask accurate questions. nor can it be trusted to do anything with grading. So, I think it should be heavily limited to only things
that won't negatively impact the children if it's being used. So, I'm sure there's plenty of administrative tasks where AI could be useful or if you're putting together slideshows and you want to make them pretty or come up with designs. I'm sure there are use cases for AI, but it should be severely
limited from anything involving teaching. That That's all I have to say on that. Nice, sweet, to the point. >> Thank you. >> Oh, our next speaker is Javier Rosario. Good afternoon. My name is Javier
Rosario and I am a community member here in D49. I am also here to talk about J GBE and I do believe that GBE is off to a good start in especially with our AI um and figuring out how to utilize it in
appropriate ways. I recommend that we also try to either utilize this um this policy to also figure out how we can appropriately appropriately use it for our adolescence and our students in the schools. Whether figuring out ways to
have them learn how to use it appropriately or have ways to help educate them on the misuses of them. if not that then to at least use GBE as a backboard for a different policy of those kinds. And that's that's my time.
Thank you. >> Thank you, sir. >> So, we're now on to the consent agenda. Does anyone have anything they'd like pulled from the consent agenda? Okay, hearing none, then may I have a motion please? I move to approve the consent agenda
items. >> Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none a vote. >> Hy. >> Hi. >> Livia Right. >> I. >> Thompson. >> I. >> Withers. >> I.
>> Motion carries. We're on to our first action item, which is declaring April the month of the military child. Oops, I skipped the updates. I'm sorry. You can tell the light's getting me. I can't even read the papers tonight. So, our next thing is actually our superintendent update. Sorry.
>> Thank you. Great things going on. Um, I'm going to start with uh with a little shout out. Uh, the Rockies up in Denver are having a a pretty good start to the year. I think they're the I think they lead the Major League Baseball right now. Four wins in a row. Uh but they do not hold a candle to the Falcon Falcons
who uh helped coach Stegman earn his 100th career win which is a really big deal and uh they I believe started the season 10 and two might be 11 and two by now. Um but off to a really good program and representing Empower FZ and and District 49 really well. Uh something
else that happened that was great in uh the Falcon zone and many of you saw this already is that uh the schools that had not already been designated as Purple Star schools and those were Falcon Middle and Bennett Ranch last year. All of the other schools uh including
Patriot in the Falcon zone were designated as Purple Star schools. And along with them in the district, we also had Springs Ranch Elementary and Grand Peak Academy. District 49 had more schools designated as Purple Star this year than any other district and over a
two-year period more than any other district in Colorado, which fantastic. Thank you all for leading the way uh and and showing how much we care for military connected children and families and colleagues, staff members. Um that is a that that is a source of great
pride and we should continue to encourage it and may their tribe increase. We have more schools that ought to be pursuing that that purple star and I anticipate having more celebrations about one year from now. Um we also have another statewide uh
opportunity to congratulate some of our high performing schools. Uh Pikes Peak Early College will be receiving the John Irwin Award for excellence which is uh demonstrates both their continued academic academic achievement compared to other schools um and the high
participation rate that they have from their students. So congratulations to Peek and we also should congratulate Ridgeview Elementary School which was named one of the governor's distinguish improvement award schools. So Ridge View uh was already a high performing school
and had such phenomenal growth that they earned that recognition. So congratulations to the Huskys at Ridge View. Starting with some student activity and uh and some academic performance. I also want to call out that as an as an enterprise, one of our big hairy
audacious goals has been to be a role model organization to participate in the national quality program called the Baldridge program. And we were a national finalist this year, which meant that we were invited to go and present primarily about our workforce and the
way that we use voice of the workforce and 49 voices. So, uh, members of our team, we took a small small team out to Baltimore for that, um, that conference. Members of our team presented two sessions, one on the voice of the workforce and one on 49 voices. And boy,
were people intrigued by the way we amplify student voice and how much student voice we bring into policy and conversation and culture in District 49. So, that was a great opportunity. Uh and and it was exciting to see other organizations inspired by what our
students and what our workforce have done in district 49. Um really really cool. We started off last night right across and down the hall with a 3.75 dinner here at San Creek. We've got a couple more coming up. What a wonderful season to see all of our our students
honoring people that they you know that have that have made them launch and and to launch successful students is super exciting. Um, I had the privilege of seeing one of my students when I was a high school principal be recognized by one of his students. So, I had a little
little grandfatherly uh pride in that. And it just speaks to the generational legacy that we're all really working hard to leave. Um, speaking of another legacy, uh, many of you were able to join us for the the kickoff of the Pikes
Peak Library District location, also kind of just across the street, uh, just south over here of, um, next to kind of next to Maverick and south of of the Starbucks that's across the street. And it will be great to have PPL here as a partner. Uh, we hope that they will
really serve this east side, east central side. Uh we hope that as people come to the library, they'll stay and attend our schools. Um that is going to be a a really it's going to be a great addition uh to our neighborhood. And so it was it was great to have been there. And we had we had great support from the
Sand Creek Performing Arts and the the cheer athletes were there uh to represent. And so it was a just a um really really strong evidence of community partnership. And I'm going to finish on that theme of uh community partnership with the board's support.
Um, I am very cautious about being too overcommitted in the community, but I used to serve on the board of Habitat for Humanity and came off after two terms and joined the board of cause I love you, uh, Colorado Springs um, interfaith inter agency public private
partnership and cause I love you has an initiative called school connect that is really picking up momentum. Uh, district 2 has really led the way. District 11 has gone through three kind of formation evenings they call world cafes and school connect is coming to district 49
over this summer and into the fall. And so you are going to see hundreds and hundreds of people, dozens of uh community businesses, churches, agencies gathering together to wrap around our our students. And so you'll see a a logo
and a sticker and some people out here already have them that say it takes a village. Um, it takes a village to support a school and so school connect is coming in district 49. It's going to be a great addition to the way we build into our community, give our students
and our community the schools that they deserve. And so, both as a a board member of Cous and superintendent of District 49, uh, I'm reporting with great enthusiasm uh, that there are stronger partnerships ahead. And that is my report.
So, next we'll go on to the board of education update as we don't have our student board reps here right now. Holly, would you like to lead us off? >> Sure. Um, I've had a jam-packed month. Um, I also attended the groundbreaking
of the new Pikes Peak Library, and that was quite the uh the spectacle as a big like turnout. Um, I really enjoyed the marching band because they did that history has its eyes on you from Hamilton and it was chills, full body
chills. Um, I got to attend my first student board of representatives meeting. Uh, they were revisiting the cell phone policy and everybody should have got an email. Parents have a separate one and students have a separate one, I believe. Um, and so that
was really a unique experience. I don't know what I was expecting, but I was impressed nonetheless. It was just a bunch of really well-informed uh young adults, and it was nice to see them collaborating and being respectful. Um, Vista Ridge is putting on the musical
The Adams Family. That starts tonight, and it ends Saturday night. So, tickets are $8 for students, 10 for adults, and you can purchase them uh at wolfpacktheater.com. Also, I want to bring attention there's another really fun thing happening at
the end of the month called Empty Bowls Night. Um, that is April 23rd, 6:00 to 8 right here at San Creek. So, I guess what happens is if you donate enough money, you get to keep the bowl. >> Everybody gets >> Everybody gets a bowl. Yeah, it just
sounds like a really fun event. I'm looking forward to that. Um, and then I also have to give a shout out to Dustin. He's my new favorite zone leader because he gave me some prizes and he made me feel, you know, special. I'm just
kidding, but I had to say that. Sorry, Teresa and Brian. Anyway, and also congratulations to all the recipients of the GPA awards. And then our candidate forum uh for the board vacancy will be
on the 16th. And so I encourage everybody to go to that. And I just kind of want to do a blanketed statement and say that one voice can change a room and that is it practicing somewhere here. Lori,
>> I also was able to attend the uh groundbreaking for the Pikes Peak Library District. And I kind of wanted to give a shout out to our neighbors uh both Starbucks and Mavericks. They donated uh drinks and they donated snacks for the event and it was a lot of
fun to see and I'm really excited. I was looking over the lot and I as of now cannot envision the library branch plus parking there, but I'm sure it'll all come together in a much better way than I can currently visualize. So, I'm very excited. I hope everybody had a
wonderful Easter for 2.6 billion people around the globe. It is the holiest of the events that Christians celebrate. It also was towards the end of Passover. And the good news about Easter is even secular people can do an Easter egg
hunt. So I hope you had a wonderful time. Um, also at the student board, they also were collaborating on their two questions for the forum and it was really neat to watch how they broke things down and decide what they're
going to ask, which questions they like the best, how they wanted to modify it. And as usual, Lauren Stewart was really helpful during that whole process. Superintendent Hilts intentionally slid his chair back and stayed out of that one. So, he he got a little bit of a
break there. And speaking of student board, I had a real treat where a a young lady who graduated last year um connected with me and she was on the student board of representatives and she actually had lunch her and her father
had lunch with me and she wanted her mother to meet me as well but her mother was working that day but I'm going to get a opportunity to meet with her mother. So, it was a lot of fun to not only reconnect with a graduate from the student board from our schools here from
S Creek High School, but also the fact that she wanted me to meet her parents. That was just a wonderful experience. Last night, I was at the S Creek High School 3.75 and it just blows my mind. These are kids who have had an average of 3.75
over their high school career. And what really blew me away was how many of our students with concurrent enrollment are getting their associates degree before they get their high school diploma. And we're waiting to confirm some of the numbers that are happening both in
district 49. But I've got to tell you the truth, San Creek High School did an amazing job. And I was just impressed as student after student went up to receive their Greek letters and it was just it was wonderful. Uh they also fed us a lot
of sugar there and I would have resisted except they had key lime pie. Um let me see what else we have. Oh, and I have shared this with my fellow board members. I'm actually going to be sending out a podcast because once a week Constituting America does a a
really neat event and if I could finish up for just a second, they did one on Abigail Adams and it really was the precursor to the beginning of the women's suffrage movement. Her letters were fascinating. So that's all I've
got. Mike, >> good evening. Um, I want to give another shout out to U. Brian Smith and all of the principles who worked so hard uh getting that purple star designation. I
congratulated him and I told him, "You're going to have to change your color scheme over there Falcon High. You're going to have to get some purple in there somewhere." Um, but I also don't want to forget that we also added Banning Lewis Ranch Academy, Inspiration
View Elementary, and Springs Ranch Elementary to the Purple Star roster. So, we added another uh charter, another Power Zone School, and another Sand Creek School. So, everybody's working so hard on this, and uh it's an important designation, and thank you for everything you guys are doing.
Um, I also attended the Pikes Peak Library District uh ribbon cutting and I had an opportunity to talk to the board president and the CEO and talk about what uh what comes next and uh uh
actually had they had a little bit of a dialogue about the parking situation given that the um businesses of um Starbucks and uh Maverick stand to benefit benefit from the um the library being there. They're
going to reach out to them, see if they can't uh do something to share some parking there. So, um and as far as next steps, we're a long way away because they own the property, but they're going to have to do some fundraising in order to uh figure out in order to pay for the
building. So, um, if you're really interested in it, I encourage everybody to help out with that fundraising effort because that's going to help determine what kind of building we can have. Uh, last night I pulled double duty. Um,
I went over to the uh taste of D49 event um where you get to try all of the foods that are coming in um to be served to our students and uh they're looking for feedback. Um it's a wonderful event. I
had a great time. I got two full and then immediately after that I came over to here for the 3.75 dinner. Uh it was just dessert though, so uh I I was okay. Um, and so we have officially kicked off the graduation season. It's just the
best season uh to be uh involved in D49. And um I'm looking forward to more. It's all I got. Well, so just quickly I'm going to say that it amazes me that the teeny tiny part of our district called Falcon Zone
actually had a library building before this part on the Powers corridor. I think it's the only thing we got first. Um and and it and I still remember the um the bus coming out instead. We used to have the the trailer come out with books
when my kids were little. We still had to check the books out from the trailer even out there. So, I'm glad that the powers the the powers corridor is now getting one, but maybe you guys got neglected on that one thing because you could at least cross powers and hit a library instead of being 35 or 40
minutes from one like we have been. Uh, so, uh, one major event that I've been involved in the last couple of weeks is our culminating Falcon Ed Foundation fundraiser is tomorrow night. And so as the board liaison and part of their board, I've been running around like a
mad woman helping get everything together for tomorrow night's event. And that event helps sponsor the 3.75 rewards dinners or or dessert bars depending on what the schools choose. Um Falcon N Foundation contributes some money. The board budget contributes some
money and then the schools can also augment if they would like. We also provide teacher miniig grants and we will be announcing our senior scholarship winners in the next week or so as well. Uh so it does give back quite a bit to our district. I believe
over the 25 years they've now given threequarters of a million dollars in funds to our district and this is our primary fundraiser tomorrow night. It is at um the antlers and so I look forward to seeing everyone there dressed. Um many of us will be in promire but not
everyone. Um, you can come as you are or come as you wish. Um, I think it'll be a fun night though. Also, just a reminder, our students are hitting that testing window this week and next. So, please have some grace with our staff and our kids because these two weeks are hard on
everyone. I don't think anyone enjoys state testing window. Um, so please kind of help them all get through it. We all have to get through it together. And I think that's all I have for my individual update. Um for administrative
update, I just wanted to quickly talk with everyone about the candidate forum that we have upcoming on the 16th. So we needed two things clarified and I um was unwilling to do that unilaterally. The first is do we want
each candidate to give a personal statement at the beginning before we do the question round? Yes. >> Yes. >> Okay. So, we're going to add that. And the second question I was asked was, do we want um the student board of
representatives to ask their questions? >> I think they should ask the questions that they came up with and be a participant in that. And then we need to determine who's going to ask the other questions. >> Well, yeah. Well, I think we each
submitted one, so it would be pretty easy for each of us to ask one. And then the only one left would be Peter's, but we're not having Peter ask. Um, so there'll only be one person who asked to ask a second and I'm okay with that. >> We can give it to the students, too.
>> So, um, but I'm okay with that. So, I think those were the two things we need to clarify. Correct, >> Lynette? Okay. >> Want to give the candidates a time on their personal statement. >> So, how much do we want to give them timewise on that personal statement?
I think we should do three minutes at a max because that's what we cut our board to to deliver updates. So to me, you should be able to hit the highlights within 3 minutes. Yeah. And that makes it a 21 minute time frame. So 3 minutes might sound short, but remember we're
doing seven people. So every time we have a time, it's multiplying the amount across the board. So that works. Can you communicate that to them and with the questions? some of the questions. So, for everyone to be aware as well, some questions they will have been provided
in advance. Others they will um they'll hear them for the first time that night. Um that was determined by the person who submitted the question and how they wanted to ask as well as which questions had time limits and what that time limit was also determined by the writer of the question. So, it should be an
interesting evening. All right, I think that's all we have for this right now. And so then we're ready to get on um to our action items. So we're ready for our first motion, item 7.1. May I get a motion, please?
I move to approve the proclamation recognizing April as the month of the military child. >> Second. It's been moved and seconded. Any discussion? Anyone?
I'm just going to comment. There will be um multiple events going on in this month to recognize military families and military children. Please pay attention at your um schools and zones as they're being largely announced through those community liaison. I I believe they're being announced to the whole community.
I know I've been getting notifications as a military connected um parent for the ones in my zone. With that, may we have a vote, please? >> Hy. >> Hi. >> Livia Wright >> I. >> Thompson >> I. >> Withers >> I.
>> Motion carries. We're on to item 7.2 policy and procedure review. May I have a motion, please? >> I move to approve the policy edits included in the policy and procedure review. >> Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Any
discussion? >> I I do have like >> Yep. >> Do you just want me to go one by one as >> Sure. Okay. >> Yeah. So on the BDFB, my question is is can you give like a
brief overview on how the appointment process goes? Those are four committees, >> Peter. Do you have a way to describe that? question. >> So, I can provide a a general answer and
then I'll I'll work to get it up. Um the when you have a career technical ed program, they're super highly regulated and one of the requirements is that a program like a robotics program or a culinary program that it needs to have a
career um a career technical advisory organization which would have some adult and community input. It also has to have a student organization, what are called CTSOs, career technical student organizations. And those organizations should advise the district, the school,
the teacher, uh, or sponsor or adviser on the needs of the industry as well as the needs of the community. And so those are typically pretty welcoming committees. If there were someone that, you know, operated a restaurant and they wanted to be on the CTSA or C or or
support or sponsored the CTSO, um we would almost always be arms open unless we had some reason to uh to think that that wasn't a good fit with students or or a good match with the district. Um, one interesting thing in Colorado Springs is that through the Pikes Peak Business and Education Association,
PPBEA, which is a an entity that tries to kind of play a matchmaker role between school districts and businesses. We actually were one of the founding members of that, paid the salary of the founding director of that organization
uh, for a full year. That organization has regional advisory groups and those regional advisory groups can qualify a district so that we don't have to have one. D20 has one, D2 has one. There's one in the region and we all sort of call that in
computer encoding speak. We call on that advisory role. So, uh that we do not manage the appointments to those agencies. But again, they are they are broadly welcoming of people that want to want to jump in.
>> Did you have other questions on them? >> Uh well, on the next one, so the JBE um just generally what I guess my question is what AI engine are they using on
their uh district laptops? So uh we are a we are a Google shop. We use Google domain and so integrated into that is Google Gemini product. Um that's the that's kind of the first the default. Um I I was sitting with middle
school students actually yesterday and I asked them I said well how often do you use an AI? Do you use it every day, multiple times a day, every week? And they all completely denied that they ever used an AI. So I had to let them know they weren't going to get in any trouble. Um, and then one student said,
"I've got uh 11 AI apps on my phone, and depending on what I need to do, Snapchat has a great AI or at least a a easily accessible AI. And I think we're we're a year down the road from everybody panicking about AI. We're now to a
little bit of of realization and maybe some appropriate application." Um, our students, as I just said, middle school students are using AI, many of them on all of their learning. Um, and so I
really think our job as educators is shifting from steering them away from AI to coaching them in how to interface with the strengths and the very obvious hallucinations and and deficits there.
Lori. >> Um, just just to um add additional clarification, we actually were discussing last year developing an AI policy, a policy specific to AI, but we were kind of watching how things began
to roll out. And I have to agree with any technology there can be benefits and there can be tremendous risks with anything that comes around. So I don't think we have pulled off the table developing an AI policy and I think it
would really be good to have working groups too where we can get community input on what that should look like. Um when I went to the CASBY conference I was I attended one class on AI that was really informative about how many new
career fields are now being opened up within the AI realm and also data centers. I've I learned a lot about the kind of cooling and power they can take and so this is something that's rapidly evolving and something worth paying
attention to. The question I had was on J GBE and this was blocking and filtering. And when I was reading the paragraph, it says to protect students from material and information that is obscene, pornographic or otherwise harmful to
minors as defined by the board. A system has been installed to block or filter such material and information for being a from being accessed. So I just want a clarification that that is the criteria
for our filtering system. Those criteria are active, but that that's not an exhaustive list. We block gambling sites. We block um uh different kinds of streaming services because they're bandwidth intensive. And
so, um, we certainly do block objectionable content, uh, inappropriate content, age inappropriate content, but we also block things that just don't belong in in a school setting and on which we don't need to spend our bandwidth. >> And then the exception, it talks about for bonafide research or other
educational projects. Um, so I didn't know, but this one also was specific. It just says conducted by staff members over the age of 18 because I know that even the CDE has different resources and materials that are available of course but that's was my
question. So if a teacher wanted to go to a website for the purpose of obtaining research or information that doesn't fall into the other categories that that would not be blocked. it would be initially blocked and then we have a process to request that a
website be unblocked. Um I actually have a a small website and I tried to access it yesterday and it said blocked because unknown. Um and so we we our default is what's called a whitelist model. We allow things through that we have vetted
or verified and we are skeptical or outright um adversarial against all other content. And does this coordinate too with the Bark system as well? >> Not exactly. The Bark system is more
tracking um student generated content over whether that's over email or or Google documents or other kinds of submitted um materials and looking for keywords, key phrases, u attitudes and sometimes links that might indicate some
kind of student threat or student risk. Well and teachers and even students have the ability to access things that the school might block by using on the at their own home their own devices. So, as an
educator, if I wanted to look up something that I needed for teaching health curriculum that would get blocked because it has words in it that get red flagged or as my son hilariously laughed when he did it in middle school because they were um researching the 10
amendment, first 10 amendments. And of course, your second amendment rights, man, if you you type anything in there about a firearm and you're going to get flagged for school shootings. So, um, tell tell the child with autism that that might happen and then watch him test it when he gets home on his school
device and then mom gets the phone call from the admin as he's doing his presentation on the second amendment. Um, you can use your own devices to get that information so that you can still do your lesson planning. I would say that I prefer the newer system of
whitelisting rather than trying to block by terminology because um under the old system a lot of things got through that we didn't catch. Um and so if we're setting we only allow and
then you have to request beyond that allow that actually gives you a lot more safety on your network. Um, and when we're dealing with minors, I think that safety component in the school environment is incredibly important, especially um, as a parent who had kids
who were at risk who were accessing they they could access under the old system. They could access things in our schools that I was able to block at home that the school was unable to block under the old system. So, whitelisting is, I think, a much safer um, mechanism. it it it is a better posture, but I do want to
say it's not foolproof. And our whitelisting isn't absolute because there are websites that use dynamic DNS uh domain name server addresses and dynamic DNS is really hard to either whitelist or block. And so there are it
is not a perfect system. Um but we live in a system of ordered liberty. And so the order is our attempt to to manage and provide safety. The liberty is the reality that information wants to be free and adolescence want to free it.
>> And the other aspect on and we had folks comment on some of the AI regulation. I think managing AI is still an emerging area. uh my college, my active duty child who is also attending college, her
her professors have basically told her to create more grammatical errors in her writing because she was taught to write so well at Falcon High that even though she's writing her papers in the skiff, which means she does not have internet access because of the security protocols
where she works, um they get flagged by some of the AI engines because she uses all of her punctuation correctly. And so she was told to stop punctuating grammatically correctly so that her work wouldn't get flagged as easily, which is
kind of a weird way. She said, "So apparently I'm supposed to write not as well, Mom, so that they can tell that I actually wrote it." Which was rather funny advice to me, but so our AI screeners aren't even all that great at necessarily determining AI because she's
literally writing it paper and pencil and then typing it. So there's no way she's using AI in the environment she's writing. Um, and I think as those tools develop, uh, we're going to continue to see those patterns and and you may end up with kids having to write not being on the internet sometimes to see what
their true writing ability is. Um, it's an emerging system and I think that's why this policy is a good start and will continue to emerge and develop as that tool develops. Mike. >> Yeah. And on the topic of AI, I wanted
to um just clarify a couple things. First, this is uh a policy that starts with G. So, it strictly applies to our staff. Um so, it doesn't have student scope. The of the provisions here just talk about how our staff members are
allowed to use um AI. But there's also the piece in here that says staff must follow the direction of the district regarding permissible AI tools. Basically what it's saying is that there can be additional guidance from the superintendent, from the principles, uh,
etc. um that further refine what um permissible use of AI is. Um, and as a district of innovation, uh, we really want to make make sure that we're not being, uh, overly broad, over overly
restrictive in our policy because different buildings are going to use it in different ways depending on the the types of students that they're serving. Um, you know, we got the early college over there. Um, our policies also apply to charters unless they choose to
override them. And we have PTA that their focus is on coding and they have deliberately chosen to make AI assisted coding part of their curriculum. And so when parents choose that school for their students, that's that choice that
we're making that they're making. So, we have to be careful that we're not being overly restrictive districtwide, but absolutely within the buildings um and uh as things keep changing, right? This is a
fastmoving um area. Um we it takes us a while as a school board to approve policy. So this is basically establishing a very basic framework, but we're going to give our administrators the power to make decisions within that
framework. And uh so as Marie said, I think it's a good start and I think there's going to be a lot more work to be done in this area uh as we go forward. >> Any more comments? It's way more comments than we normally have on just a
procedure review. All right, then we'll have a vote, please. Hi. >> Hi. >> Livia Wright. >> I >> Thompson. >> I >> Withers. >> I >> That motion carries. We are on to our discussion items now. And our first is
our facilities department update. Good evening. My name is CJ Gillette. I'm the uh director of grounds maintenance. And this is Daniel who's the director of facility maintenance. And this is our annual update. >> I think you might need to get closer to
the mic because I don't know that it's picking you up. >> Okay. >> Oh, that's a little bit better. >> All right. Let's see if it can improve my presentation skills as well. So, here's our facilities organiza organizational
chart. Um, just a quick reminder, we have two positions available or open. one in the grounds department and one in the maintenance department. And then also we would like to take this time to uh recognize two former employees that retired this year. So Bob Junkkins um he
served on the grounds department for 18 plus years. Tony Levichi served on the maintenance department for 16 plus years and we wish them both um a happy retirement. So we appreciate their service. All right. So, as everybody knows, we've
had a pretty light winter and normally the time we would have been spending um on the grounds department snowplowing, we've redirected that to prioritize work orders um to ease the burden of the current spring rush. So, um, just like many departments, we were impacted by
the reduction of force and we had to find some creative ways to meet the, um, expectations that the district had. So, one of the ways that we, um, addressed our immediate concern, which was weekly athletic field mowing, was we turned to science, and we adjusted the nitrogen
levels in our fertilizer applications to slow the growth down to a more manageable level. And then we also were able to add a large area field mower. Um the mower is 104 inches wide when it mows. And I was down here at Sand Creek
on Monday with a stopwatch timing them to see how long it took them to cut um fields. So we got the softball field. We can mow that in 9 minutes and 11 seconds. So it's a big improvement. And um pretty proud of the guys for rolling
up their sleeves and and jumping in and not complaining and getting it done. So, and then, um, our safety and compliance teams have just finished the interior inspection of all of the buildings districtwide. They've gone into every building, every room looking for, uh,
capital needs, u maintenance needs, and then, um, any type of fire or safety violations. Um, right now, they're currently working with the fire departments, um, and doing our yearly fire inspections, and those have been going really well. So,
Um, at this time I'll turn the presentation over to Daniel Payne. >> Hello everybody. Well, the next four slides will show some of our key performance indicators. Our Brightley work order system was upgraded from school dude to asset
essentials last year. So, some of the charts will look a little different than in the past. This hold on. Well, we stay at the last one. There we go. Thank you. Um, this slide shows that our grounds and maintenance
work orders and staff have completed over 13,000 work orders in the past past 12 months. As you can see by the calendar year trends, the work orders keep trending up. And then the next slide,
this performance indicator shows the number of work orders per technician. We are tracking above the top 20% in grounds and maintenance. And the high number of work orders per technician show the work order efficiency and the need to increase
manpower when appropriate. The next slide, this graph shows the percent of corrective maintenance work orders completed in 7 days or less. We are currently at 56% and have trended up 3% since the new year, but we are falling short of our
goal. The high amount of work orders per technician is a major factor in this number as well as multiple employees being out on long-term leave. The department has also been impacted as CJ said by recent workforce reduction, but we are confident that the number the
numbers will improve when we get everyone back from leave and recalibrate from the reduction. And then this graph shows the percent of planned maintenance work orders completed in 30 days or less. We are currently tracking at 86% which is 3%
since the new year. And with that, we'll try and answer any questions you have. >> Holly, >> what's an example of reactive maintenance? >> So, um, even here yesterday, we had a
water pipe break. So, we have to react on the spot. um any any general maintenance things and then a preventive maintenance is things that are planned. So those are the differences. >> Dr. Lou, may I brag on your team for a
moment? >> An example, and we don't we don't want this to happen, but we had a we had a configuration at Sky View Middle School, which is not a particularly old school, but we had a valve go down, and valves sometimes go down, and it required a particular uh reassembly with a seal.
and Theresa Ritz and I were texting at about 6:45 7 p.m. We were within about 20 minutes of cancing school the next day, but the team kept cranking on it. Dana jumped in as our procurement guy. We were able to locate the parts and we actually disassembled and reassembled it
twice. The second time it it held and it it it worked the way we needed it to. Um, that's a little heroic story and we would prefer not to tell those stories because that's reactive and we want to be in advance. >> In the past, we have discussed during
heavy snowplow days playing AC/DC. What music was played when you did the softball field in 9 minutes? >> For those about to rock, we salute you. Other questions or comments? Mike.
>> So looking at the total number of work orders and how that has trended over time. Um we see a pretty significant jump for 2025 and then also into this year. Um can can you give us a general overview of what's driving that? Um it could be some of it may be more
PMs that we're making and and creating right for different projects and then some are um we're we just tell everyone if there's any issue at all put a work order in you know so it could be small projects estimates um so as we continue that I mean we we want to know if
there's a a hole in a ceiling tile like put in every work order. >> Okay. So if I'm looking at the if I'm looking at these numbers, I shouldn't be concerned that, you know, our building buildings are degrading and that's what's behind that. >> No. And and a lot of them are through
our through our walks, inspection walk. So a lot of them when they do playground inspections or I mean we're our team is picky. I mean, if there's a screw missing, um, a broken plate, anything. Um, and so we'll we'll
see the the trends kind of go where they go. Um, and maybe maybe next year they'll come down a little bit. >> All right. Thank you. Great to hear. >> Yeah, just calculator math, quick math on my phone. Looks like from that year one slide 43% are planned or
preventative maintenance and that would make 57% reactive maintenance right now on those work orders. So but the higher we get on those planned maintenance the less we should have reactive. Um, and I just want to reiterate that it's
impressive given on your very first slide you mentioned you had you're un if you look at the industry standard for best standard for maintaining um grounds and and buildings, you would really need 14 more positions than what you have.
And so the fact that we're scoring where we are on those KPIs when you're looking at, you know, it it makes sense to me that when you make those comparisons for your work orders where we're scoring in the industry standard because we're not
staffed at that level yet, you're doing an incredible job of meeting the needs. And so that's a part that has always been an issue I think in school districts overall, certainly in district 49 is recognizing that it you're you're
it's a herculean effort to stay where you're staying and and you continue to do it and continue to just say, "Okay, just remember this is kind of where we're this is where the industry staffs this is where we're staffed and we're doing a pretty good job of maintaining
those things." And it matters to keep those grounds up. That impacts how our community sees our schools too. So if the grounds at our schools start looking not as wellmaintained, that's when people start commenting about the district as well. It it provides a negative connotation to
our community. When they see the school out outer areas of the schools not well-maintained, they make judgments about the school district as a whole as well and their support. And so the work that you're doing there improves that community relationship as well. But your team is doing an amazing job with what
they have and I continue to truly appreciate your leadership. So, thank you. >> And they do have great leadership. And for the record, um, we talk about AI. AI can't fix a broken pipe. AI can't paint a building. AI can't refurbish things. And AI certainly can't cut a field in 9
minutes and 11 seconds. Um, but I say that to kind of highlight that um, we talk about the contributions of the team. um when we get those schools of distinction and those kind those kind of honors, it's because of the work that they do as well because that if the classroom's not the right temperature,
if the light's not right, if rodents are coming in, if they tripping in the grass, all that kind of stuff, we can't be the best we are in District 49. So, I want to give them that part, too, to say that if our test scores go up, they're contributing part of that and they're key and essential to that.
>> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Anything else? Okay. Thank you gentlemen. We are now on to the family school community partnership presentation. It's one thing when you watch it on YouTube from your house. It's very
different right here. Uh so good evening everybody. Uh we are your family or community liaison and Karen. Um we're going to give you an overview of the work that we do as liaison um and a little bit of family engagement in each of the schools that are in our zones.
So you'll hear from each individual zone here um but you'll also hear about our engage 49 initiative. Um over the past few years we kind of operated in silos. Um and then we realized we're all doing very similar things in different areas of the district. So that is really kind
of how we came upon engage 49. Uh, and Karen's going to talk about that a little later, but what we wanted to do was instead of talking to parents, we really wanted to talk with them. And that's really, I mean, the goal of everything that we do. So, my name is Lauren Stewart. I've been
the San Creek Zone community liaison for the last 10 years. Um, before that, I was a teacher at San Creek High School. Um, every year my job is different. Every day it's different. I love it. It's very exciting. Um I'm just happy to provide resources um to our families and
support for our individual schools. So you're going to see something similar through um every single zone uh and engage 49. Uh on these title slides, they're colorcoded, but these are elements that CDE has determined are most important for family school community partnerships. So we thought it
best to just theme what we're going to talk about tonight uh in those areas. So, first for the San Creek zone for create an inclusive culture. Um, something we really pride ourselves on are the positive phone calls home or in this case you see a photo of Horizon Middle School. They do positive
postcards home. Um, this was a low item on one of our surveys and we thought what what a better way to counteract that to be very consistent uh and have a system in place that we're recognizing students not calling home just for the bad things but also the good. Um, we pride ourselves on being really welcoming. This is a sign at Evans
Elementary. If you pull up late, it's not like, "Hey, you're late. Get out of your car. Let's go." You know, we're so glad you're here. Please come in. No matter what the reason is. Um, something else that's unique to the San Creek Zone, we offer customer service training to all of our front office staff. A lot
of it are deescalation techniques sometimes when parents come in a little hot. Um, but we want everyone to have a really good experience when they come into our buildings, whether you're the UPS driver or the superintendent. So we are really intentional about protecting instructional time and making sure that
do you schedule an appointment? What do you need? How can we best resolve you know whatever issue you may have? Um anchored for life web and link very similar to things that my counterparts do in their school. We do this for incoming students especially for those transition years um for fifth to sixth
grade from 8th to 9th. But something unique that we started this year was doing this for parents as well. Um, it came out of voice of the parent that our sixth grade parents were lost when they went to middle school. They your student is now advocating maybe they're not getting as
much communication as they were in elementary school. It's a very big shift. So, Liz Dzelle has set time aside specifically for this to train parents on what it's like from fifth grade to sixth grade. Uh, and then any questions they may have. Justin's Renaissance is a huge cornerstone of the San Creek zone.
U, we believe in recognizing and rewarding the good things. Um so that really plays into creating an inclusive culture. Most of our schools have earned school of distinction awards and uh most of them have applied this year as well. So hopefully we all get it. Building
trusting relationships is the next element. Um we want to do this with our parents, with our students, but most importantly our community. We want them to know that we're producing great people for um the world. So a lot of our schools do social media highlights on things like instruction or fun reward
days. This is a screenshot from San Creek High School's Facebook page letting people know we have seniors, what they're doing, what they want to major in, what elementary school they went to, any scholarships they received, so everyone knows it's a K12 effort. Um, parent opportunities. Again, Liz Dzel
has done monthly popping in with the principal where she has popcorn or she had a soda bar at this one specifically, but really setting aside time for parents to come and just have that one-on-one time with the principal. San Creek implemented a student voice board elevating that student voice. Um
we have really good survey results with students feeling heard especially under Amy Sanchez Martinez. Um this is her group that she goes to for any questions or when we want to roll out survey results. It's a good cross-section of the demographic of San Creek as well.
All of our schools do newsletters. I know Victoria is going to kind of get into some data specifically in her zone. Um they do staff, they do parent community newsletters, student surveys or stutter surveys, excuse me. Uh stutter is what we work with student education group in the San Creek zone.
Always do trying to do continuous improvement. So we do those for staff, for students and for parents. Um voice of the parent is something new that uh Peter implemented this year and that we kind of executed for him. We got a lot of good feedback out of that. Like
I said, Liz Dzelle immediately hit the ground running. We need to do a parent night just specifically for that transition. Um, other things that came out of that were um, some of our elementary schools do renaissance and kids can qualify for academic levels, but parents really didn't understand what that meant. So, getting our
principles to communicate that back. Third element, design capacity building opportunities. Um, this first one, there's some new graduation requirements with the big three signature student experiences. This is it. This is a photo of a YouTuber that's from Colorado
Springs with millions of followers telling kids that it's not as easy as just recording a video on your phone and posting it. Um, he talked a lot about how much time goes into just filming like an 8-minute video. Kids could ask questions. They've done 15 of these prior to spring break and they also did
field trips for students. Connecting school curriculum to home is what I'm really proud of. At Evans Elementary, they weren't having good success with their math night. So instead, their math instructional coach, Jen Braman, sent home a deck of cards and a set of dice with every kid. And every month they do
a math game. They can take photos at home. They could submit them. They win prizes if they do. So they just want kids to talk math at home. It's not about coming for the night. It's not about the biggest attendance. It's really just what can I do as a parent to support my child at home. Um all of our
schools do the typical family engagement events, literacy night, steam night, eighth grade night, fifth grade night. Um, we also started San Creek Zone Partners a few years back. You have to have quarterly sack meetings. Why not do them all together? So, in the San Creek zone, we do have four a year. Some schools go above and beyond, but we
rotate it through the zones. Um, we highlight the school we're at and then Dustin and I present on maybe something zone specific for that night. Another thing that came out of our survey results, parents wanted to know more about consequences and discipline.
Really digging into attendance and what it means excused and unexcused absence. So, we developed some targeted newsletters at the zone level that we send out that just really gives good information to parents that they can kind of dig into if they want to. Um, that's just very clear about our expectations and what we expect from
parents and students. Peter brought it up before, but we are all in the process of starting these community cafes with because I love you. Um, with the school connect model, it's bringing anyone that supports your school or is maybe geographically located to you to really,
you know, come together at the table, think about a goal. Maybe it's to increase attendance and what can they do to support the school. So, we're excited about that. Uh, my last slide, dedicate necessary resources is the fourth element. Um, on
the left, this has been my job for the last two weeks. We try our best to reward students through Justin's Renaissance, but it's really hard, especially at the high school level. We had 800 students qualify uh with a 3.0 GPA or higher. So, how do you reward them? How do you pay for that? How do
you, you know, make it meaningful and exciting? So, these are just some companies that have given us a lot of free stuff. So, I just wanted to give them a shout out. Some are free gift cards. Um, Crumble is going to bring cookies next week for our students state testing. So, thank you to everybody on here. Um, I know you guys know about the
community resource center. In 2020, Karen Sher reached out to me and said, "Do you think you could get rid of 180 boxes of food and I'll never turn down anything for I said I'll try." So, they brought them to Remington Elementary and we got rid of them in 30 minutes. And that's when I realized that there was a need for food
security um within our district. So, there was some ESSER funding on the table. We opened the community resource center at um Horizon Middle School. We serve about 35 to 50 families a month with food and with clothing. Um, it's been very rewarding to do. It's been a
lot of work to maintain, but it's one of my favorite things. The care portal is a huge resource for us and for counselors and other liaison in the district. Um, I think we've worked with them for five years and they've given us about $56,000 in donations. Um, San Creek Zone alone,
we've had about 17,000, but it's a local network of churches in a certain mile radius. If you have a request, um, we had a family that got a foster student. They didn't have a bed. I can't buy a bed. I don't even know where to get a bed donated, but I know that I can
submit that through the care portal, and there's an organization in the city that makes beds for kids and made one for them. We do gas cards, we do um, you know, food gift cards, anything like that. We put it in the care portal. It doesn't always get picked up, but a lot of times it does. So, they've been a huge help to us, especially during the
government shutdown. People maybe found resources for food. They could find something for a utility bill, but all that stuff in between when you're not getting um paid kind of came to us to request and the care portal was supportive. Just a couple shout outs for our community support resources. Woodman
Valley gives us food bags every single week for families to take home with them. At Evans Elementary specifically, they get 35. So, love Woodman Valley. Um, Christmas Unlimited donates truckloads of school supplies um for staff and for students. I know a lot in my zone specifically, their fee pays for their school supplies, but not at the
high school. So, it's nice to just have a space kids can go and get what they need. Um, and then Karen Shar always um supplies food to carry my food pantry, but uh like this week they had extra snacks and she said, "I know you're testing next week. Can anybody use them?" And Karen Shar donated like 19
box of granola bars to me today. So very appreciative of our community partnerships. Uh last and dedicate necessary resources is us. Um thank you for having us. Uh we all love what we do. I love that we all
kind of like found our space and our specific zones. Um but I think the community leaison really do some good work and we hope that our schools feel the same and feel supported by us. >> Hi everybody. Um I am Carrie Merson. I am the Falcon Zone community liaison. Um
this is my third year in this role. Um and Falcon Zone really is home for me. I did my student teaching actually at Woodman Hills um more years ago than I care to think about. Um taught at Falcon Middle, um admin at Falcon Elementary School, and when this job opened um
three years ago to work for Brian, I was like, "This this is what I'm meant to do. This is my calling." and I I absolutely love the opportunity to get to do this job and take care of the Falcon community every single day. Um so we want to make sure in the Falcon zone
that we are prioritizing those studentled opportunities and voice to help create that inclusive culture. Um like Lauren said, we have many of the same programs. We have web, we have link link, anchored for life for our military students. Um all of our schools now are
purple star. Um, we have student councils and our student boards of representatives. Um, and it really gives the students a chance to shape what they want their experience to be, right? They're the ones going to school every day. So, they're the ones that get to shape that experience. Um, we work
really hard to engage our community. You know, there's your typical math nights, STEM nights, literacy nights, all those sorts of things. Falcon Middle School has worked very, very hard this year to open up their doors to have quarterly community events. They had a um ice
cream night, a family game night, and just want to encourage all of our schools feed into that middle school. And so just opening their doors and kind of demystifying what Falcon Middle School, who they are. Um and then something we've worked at really hard
the last few years is um over and over and over our community says they want that small hometown feeling. Um if you have driven out Woodman recently, it's just it's it's growing by leaps and bounds. And I think Falcon, the community is just clawing on trying to
stay tiny. Um, and we hear that all the time that they want that small hometown feel. And so having our homecoming parade, Falcon Fest is in two weeks. You should totally mark your calendars and come. It's going to be pretty awesome. Um, but really working on giving the community opportunities to engage with
our schools, our staff, our students. Um, and just feeling like that small town um, feel that they are wanting. Um there's those positive welcoming school traditions. Um the um our fifth graders visit Falcon Middle School. Our eighth
graders visit Falcon High School. Um some really uh cool things that we do is we have a clap out with our seniors. This year we're going to add our bisons in. They're going to walk through the halls of our elementary schools and our middle school. Um and so that you know it's really that K12 effort so our
littles can see where they're headed and where they're going. um supporting diverse needs. All of our schools have exceptional CLLDE, SPED, GT, um strong programs, um strong staff members that really um focus on meeting those
students needs um and so they feel like they are included in the environment. Um and then really looking at um celebrating growth um and not just achievement and our wings framework. We want to make sure that we are recognizing students beyond just that achievement. And we want to make sure
that our falcon falcons from falcon and our bisons are leaving with wisdom, integrity. I knew I was I kne this why I wrote this down. Wisdom, integrity, networking, grit, and self-confidence when they leave our zone. Um, as far as building trusting
relationships, um, you come to any of our schools, um, especially the elementary schools and our teachers, our admin teams, they are out greeting kids by names. Um, I think mo I I can I think all of our principles know every single
one of their students name by first name along with their families and their parents who are dropping them off. Um, and what a cool way to feel welcome every single morning when your principal is calling you by your name. I don't remember having that experience when I was in school. So, pretty cool. Um, we
have active, I'm sorry, proactive family communication. We have weekly school newsletters um both to families and staff. And then we have the Falcon Zone flyer that goes out every single week to our zone. um kind of that broader zone
information just so that families are feeling connected and can see what's going on. Right? If you're a Woodman Hills family, you don't get to see the stuff going on at Falcon Middle School necessarily. And so by tying some of that into our Falcon Zone flyer, um
we're able again that whole K12 system, um we work really hard on creating that positive social media presence. We want to make sure that we're highlighting all the great stuff going on in the Falcon zone. Our schools have gotten really
great about posting content. Um I post content um at least once a day, if not more. We all hashtag um with fall in love with Falcon because that's exactly what we want people to do. It started as a little bit of a retention campaign. We
wanted people to stay from elementary to middle to high school um because we were losing students in those kind of jumps and it's really just kind of become just our trademark. Um we just put it on everything and it's it's kind of just morphed into this who we are and what we
do. Um student feedback loops and parent um conferences and connections. Our students have data notebooks. Teachers are talking to families. Um we have great uh cross-campus relationships. We have lots of cool opportunities for our students to visit other campuses. Um,
our Falcon High School students bring over goats and rabbits and chickens and horses every year to Bennett Ranch and Falcon. It's my favorite day of the whole year and I get to go outside and I get to pet the fluffy cows. It is great. But like you should see these little kindergarteners like trying to hold the chickens. It's just the cutest thing.
Um, but but getting that connection with our high schoolers is just such a cool opportunity. We have Falcon High and Patriot students um doing some kind of student teaching internships at Falcon Elementary School. They want to go into teaching and so just what cool ways to
make connections across campuses. Um and then you know just that listening and learning. We always want to make sure we are responding um and that just helps build those relationships. Um designing capacity building opportunities. I'm going to let Karen talk a little bit about Engage 49, our events and
publications, but that's just a piece of that. Um, our career pathways at our schools really give kids the capacity, the experience, the skills they need to be ordered to move on postsecary. Um, I
love that it is not just college, college, college. College college is not for every single student. Um, and I I am so grateful that we have these opportunities for our kids. um that they can go on and be successful after school and have the capacity to be able to do that. Lauren um and Peter alluded a
little bit to our community cafes. We have our training this summer and we will have our community cafe. Um Colorado Springs, I love you, is going to be real tired. They're go doing Laurens's and my cafe the same week. So, that's going to be really, really cool to see how many community partners we
can get. And then, um we um Oh, I skipped one. I'm sorry. Targeted professional development. We want to make sure we're building capacity for our teachers and our staff. Um we have moved to the model um in the Falcon Zone of Ed Camp where our teachers design the
catalog, the teachers get to teach the content and pick what they want to learn about what's going to make them better at their job. Um and then we get to leverage those teachers that have those strengths in teaching their peers. Like so so powerful. Um and then we also um
transitioned to a zone sack model last school year. Um it runs very similar to the way San Creek zone does. I stole it from Lauren actually um just because she was seeing so much success with that. And we've um Brian and I have seen just a huge um boom in the numbers that are
coming to meetings um every single quarter. And then we started a new I don't know if you want to call it a meeting or series of meetings where we are connecting with our PTA presidents um on a quarterly basis and we are going to transition next year into meeting um
all the boards all the PTA boards from all our schools once a quarter as many as we can just to just get us all on the same page. So, that's going to be a cool way to connect. Um, dedicating necessary resources, again, that align K12 system.
Um, making sure we have those, um, the, um, we, oh my goodness, I'm stumbling over my words. Um, the curriculum adoptions that we did, um, science, social studies, and math, making sure that we have that aligned K12 system, so our students are hearing the same language, elementary, middle school,
high school. Um, I know myself, Brian, and Tim are very excited to see what our data looks like coming out of that as we get into testing. Um, and with our beginning, mid, and end of year scores. The community closet and pantry is very similar to Lauren. I serve anywhere
between, um, 20 to 40 families. It's 100% donationbased um, and has been a huge resource for our community. Um, if you're familiar with Falcon, there are no other resources for them except if you go east to Calhan or you come into town for Fresh Start Center. Um, and so
having something out there has been really powerful. Um, we've worked really hard to build meaningful community partnerships in the zone. Um, we have Falcon Exchange Club. They write checks. They give scholarships. They very much
take care of our zone. We have an internship with Fresh Start Center. Um, and so really looking at building on those and highlighting those. Our recognition is when you think about dedicating necessary resources, it's really our time and our appreciation as
a admin team in the Falcon zone recognizing those teachers and those staff members um with an empowered hoodie. They get on social media, they get in the newsletter, they get featured, and they get to sport that super cool hoodie. Um and um there's there's been some talk of some fist
fights over those hoodies when somebody gets one and like stealing it off of them. So we know that our teachers are loving those. Um we have our satisfaction survey twice a year much like um San Creek Zone and the power zone do. Um getting the feedback from all of our stakeholders and then acting
on on that feedback. And then finally um us again. Um it's we all go about our jobs a little differently. We all do a little bit of different things. Um, but at the end of the day, I think we make our zones better for our students, our families, our staff, and we are just
incredibly grateful to be able to be in this role. Thank you guys. >> Okay, so bear with me. I know I'm loud and so if I get too loud, y'all just tell me to take it down a notch. >> I can't hear you. You can't. Oh, it's a little louder. >> Little loud.
>> Not a problem. My name is Victoria Vesquez. I am the Power Zone community liaison. And like my peers, I love what I do. I could not be more happy to do this job. I often tell people my job is
peopleing. Like I get to be with people and celebrate teachers and enjoy the the things that kids say and do and celebrate them. And so this is a really great opportunity. I'm so glad we got to be here to meet all of you and to talk to you and see your faces. So, um, if
you look at this slide, mine's just a little different than my teammates because I put our p power priorities there. The word power is an acronym and it actually guides everything we do in the power zone. So, we use our rocks and we follow D49 as our big umbrella to
guide us forward, but power priorities guides us in the power zone. So you'll notice on each of my slides I will have one of the power priorities corresponding with that slide. So the first one I want to talk about is creating an inclusive culture.
And I went ahead and I asked around and I found out how the newsletters specifically work in the power zone. So if you look um the school newsletters for Odyssey and Allies goes out once a
week whereas our um Ridge View and Ives send them out once a month and then additional if necessary depending upon the events or what's going on and Sky View and Vista do them bi-weekly. So as
you can see our schools maintain communication with the parents on a very regular basis. We also use S'more as required for the schools because that has an auto translate feature. We really want our newsletters to be accessible to
everyone especially because Allies is a school for people with uh dyslexia. We need that newsletter to be read to the parents if they too have dyslexia. Now, as far as the teacher newsletters
go, it was a really great conversation to have with our principal team because some of them were like, "Well, that's a teacher choice. How often they send it out. It depends on the curriculum." Some of the schools required it um once a
week. Uh Vista Ridge, they require um newsletters to go out based upon what's going on. So mostly clubs, activities, the CTE programs, it has to be specific to the program. So the they're the parents are not getting bombarded with
newsletters from every teacher in every subject. So it's very particular to each student. And then Odyssey teachers are required to send them out once a week for the whole month. So, I think that is a really remarkable way to kind of show
you guys how well we communicate with our families. And then the Power Zone newsletter also goes out. Right now, we're doing it quarterly and next year we're moving to monthly. Um, our family events, that was really
exciting data for me to collect. I had all of the principles kind of tell me everything that they do with their families. And it turns out that we have over 60 different types of events throughout the year. But that's not how many events we have. That's the type of
event because a lot of these are repeated at every school. So if we really look at the numbers, we're talking oh goodness like 160 events or more and that in that's just in the time that we can allow. So we really have so
many events where we're bringing in parents, welcoming families, talking to them face to face, which is really part of the power zone. We create these relationships and we maintain them by talking, by visiting, by welcoming the
the passing by question, by answering emails, by just creating those relationships with our families. And we also make sure that we target and uh the inclusive culture with like multicultural nights and holiday expose
around the world. And we have a GT expo and an arts night. And we even put on a multicultural musical over at Ives. So those are a lot of fun. Oops, double skipped that page. Sorry. All right. So building trusting
relationships. Um, and by the way, we do a lot of the same things like all of the schools in D49. So, I'm giving you a gist of maybe what you haven't heard. I am not giving you like a complete list because I want to respect your time here
tonight. So, um, family partnerships is a huge push in the power zone. We prioritize people first, safety, and support for all students, staff, and families. This is a picture of a volunteer breakfast that we give annually. The volunteers that spend so
much time in our schools dedicating every extra time to our kids, we want to give a little bit back and say thank you and recognize them. And that's very similar to all the partnerships we create. Then um as far as you know as being a
parent, I have three kiddos myself. sharing that data and sharing their learning. It is so critical to do this with parents. That's why they're there. That's why the kids are there. So, parents really need to be informed at all times what's going on. And our
district systems are great. We have P school where parents can check in on the grades and all the comments and everything that they need. We also have other systems like Dibbles and our data collection and our studentled conferences. Those are all face-to-face
information. The parents have online access to star data, SAT data. And uh Vista Ridge is launching a new app which will give them access to even more data going on throughout Vista Ridge. High schools are massive. There's so much
information involved. We want to make it easy for parents to access that. And a little bit about our district systems, which I love. We've got the vow, the voice of the parent, which you've heard about before. We respond to surveys. We have leadership teams. We
expect administrators to be present at all those events. So, they are there in contact with the families. And we also have our websites and our emails. And the HRS parent feedback survey that we give really drives what we do in the
power zone. HRS is one of the main systems that we use to build the foundation for our zone. All right, we're almost there. Designing capacity and building opportunities. As you can see, I put a picture of the
three of us um at one of our meetings together and our family engagement team and the liaison are really one of the main resources that we as a district have to help connect families to
schools. And I have to tell you, working with these ladies has been one of the most fulfilling experiences. They are smart. They're innovative. All of them focus on the students and the families. And we listen, genuinely listen to the
feedback. And we make sure that while we are out there peopleing that those people know that we're listening. And so that is one of the main reasons why it is so critical that we um are sort of behind the scenes making sure all of this happens.
We also have engage 49 which Karen's about to tell you about. And we really focus on building trust with our parents. I'm sorry I keep taking my glasses on and off because I am at that age where I'm blind. Um where we work on building trust with families and trust
comes from Lori's like yes. um from relationships. Building those relationships equals trust equals student learning equals success. There is some great data that shows that kids who have fabulous teachers which includes that relationship that they
build can have three more years of added success no matter who their teacher is. So for us it is all about building trust in that relationship. Our professional developments that we give at the power zone are all aligned
to our zone initiatives. We have a laser focus on exactly what our objectives are. Talk read talk right seven steps capturing kids hearts and the HRS um capturing kids hearts and Johnston's. So that really drives those relationships
we have with kids and the rest is really the focus on academics. Um, we have pathways. Um, and I know Carrie briefly talked about this, so I will just move quickly along, but it's important for you to know that Vista
Ridge really listens to their students. They have a student council. They hear what pathways the kids are interested in and then they move forward. So, one of the pathways that is kind of behind the scenes that we're working towards is an arts pathway. So now that we have a
dance teacher over there, we're trying to make that complete pathway so that way kids who are interested in the arts can do the performing arts. So it's a matter of listening to parents, listening to students, and then trying to provide that education that will move
them forward in their own choices. All right, my last slide I love so much. dedicated necessary resources because in the power zone it's all about relationships. We make respectful environments that grow relationships and
have relationships thrive. And if you look here at a few of these things, um the first picture is the Harlem Wizards. We did a couple of events where they came out, but they were taking pictures with the kids. They got every family amped. I've never seen families so
excited to be at a school event. It was phenomenal. The second picture there is of our power forward day. Our families parents come out, they teach the kids about the jobs that they do and they create those relationships with the
kids. So, we're now having families as teachers for future careers. And it was it is one of the most amazing and fun days that we have in the zone. The next picture is of Dave Pratt, who I love. DP, give him a little shout out. I don't
know if he's still here. >> DP, I'm talking about you. I know. Um, but the security team, they create relationships with our students and our families, and they're so essential to how we function, especially within
schools. So, I love that our kids know our security guards by name, and I and I love how the security guards know the parents by name. Um, just on a side note, I pull up to Sky View and one of the security guards
this morning opens the door for my son and my daughter from the the car door and then he's like, "Come on out." And he opens the door for my daughter and he hollers at everyone, "Hey everybody, Carmen's here." And she went, "Oh no."
And I was like, "Oh yes." They said, "You have permission to do that every day. Um and then we have um people staff um who come back and help D49
become who it is. This is a picture of Bob Feliz. We love him so much. He came and talked to all the staff, but he was once here and he comes back and frequently supports us. Not only does he support us with his intellectual value and the things that he says, but he also
supported us with getting donations at one of our kickoffs. He is really remarkable. Uh the next photo is Watchdog Dads. And then I have three or four photos of people who offer and help us with professional development. Um and and
Lori, I put the board of education up there because we are all integral. We are all part of this relationship building. Um, and then I just really want to say that if you make those relationships, the donations come, the
support will show up when you need it. Those relationships is the foundation for who we are in the power zone and I believe who we are in D49. Just listening to Peter earlier talking about those community connections, it really
hit home because that's what we do. And now I'd like to present Karen who is another fabulous partner in this relationship. >> Thank you. >> All right. Uh yeah, most definitely a huge round of
applause to our community um our zone community liaison because they are absolutely phenomenal as you can tell. Um you may be wondering like okay now we know our community liaison who's this Karen person they keep talking about. Um
I am the family engagement TOSA for our title schools and I'm also the district's McKenna Vento liaison. And so um very early on I well I wanted to give you a little bit of background. I have been in education for 30 years. I've
been in the district for close to 15 years. I was in the classroom for 25 years and I have had the huge privilege of being um in this role with family engagement for the last five and a half years. And so I do absolutely welcome this opportunity to be able to speak to you about our family engagement
initiatives because it's very near and dear to my heart. Um when I first got hired after being 25 years in the classroom, I was a little nervous and uncertain about my ability to do to um be successful in this role. But I had
the fortune to connect with um CDE, their family school community partnership department, which led to the creation of an FCP collaborative. Um the first goal of this endeavor was to create a team and um patting myself on
the back, I had the wherewithal and the smarts to extend the first invitations to our community engagement liaison from the zones. Um this is the team that set the foundation for what would become the engage 49 um initiative
and I too will be following those um four pillars that we talked about. Um as already mentioned we work under four pillars. The first of which being creating an inclusive culture. The objective at the district level meant
first creating partnerships within the district. We already had um our original team which was me the liaison. We had invited the CLLDE family liaison. We had at that time had included members from community care. But we were able to
grow. We added on the wellness liaison. We added on our district military family liaison. Um and then we added on the DAC family engagement subcommittee of course um we had Karen Hopson as the PTA and community representative as well. I mean
later we would partner with different district departments um too and all the endeavors that we've come up with through engage 49. But this enabled us, as Lauren had mentioned earlier, it was really to take really great work that was going on really in silos and unaware
of what each person was doing and being able to combine our efforts and make us, I think, I believe, considerably more effective. Um, through our partnership with CDE, we were part of a combined effort to form this Pikes Peak Regional Collaborative. This is what enabled us
to partner with other school districts that are in our region. and we've learned a great deal from these other districts. We've also been able to um lend our strength and share I our ideas with them and um we continue to benefit
from this partnership. They continue to benefit from us. Um of course also mentioned earlier is that we have a wonderful wonderful vast amount of community partners that we connect with for a variety of purposes. They offer family support and resources. I can tell
you I rely very heavily on them um for my McKenna Bento families. Um they help us honor and recognize both our staff and our students. Um and they teach us and families about their organizations and the way that they impact the community and um the logos you see on
this particular screen are just a smidge of the amount of um connections that we have. We're pretty proud of the strong FAP foundation that we've created, but we recognize the need to continue to actively build and maintain these
initiatives and these relationships. Uh this leads us into building trusting relationships. Engage 49 does this by listening to community voices through a variety of platforms. First of all, every member on the Engage 49 team works
directly with students and families on a daily basis. This keeps us grounded in real needs, real concerns, the perceptions that families and students have of the district. It's a very authentic relationship. Um, one of the first goals we had was to establish a
way that we could provide families with information that they needed that they wanted um and to develop a means of expressing their voice. We began um this effort with a survey to all families in the district which
yielded a rate of about 3 116 responses. We thought that was pretty good. Uh not only did families share the topics that they were most interested in, but they also expressed their concerns. And I I don't want to get into all the nitty-gritty of all the feedback that we
got, but just as an example, um we saw that there were kind of multiple responses where parents wanted clearer communications with teachers, more of a connection, more of an understanding of what happens in the classroom, more understanding of the role they can play in supporting their child's education.
Engage 49. One of their initial responses was to provide a newsletter um that contained an article on how to advocate for your child. We also had created this extensive checklist um to take into a parent teacher conference so
that a parent would leave that conference um with the information that they needed. Um and as it turned out these were some of the most um downloaded handouts or documents that we had from our newsletter. Also in
response to that family survey uh we created the engage 49 insider. This is a monthly publication strictly for our families and it highlights information and topics that the families have expressed their interest in. These publications average every single month
between 12 and 14,000 views per newsletter. They also every single edition includes a poll or a survey so that that is an ongoing platform for our families to be able to provide feedback.
And of course, finally, Engage 49 works throughout the district in support of initi initiatives that are put on by our CLLD families, our military families, our title families, and for our homeless families. Of course, these relationships are core
to our purpose, but we want to build capacity and engagement through these relationships as well. This brings us to designing those capacity building opportunities. Uh through our interactions with our families, with the community, some selfassessment amongst
us, engage 49 saw a need to shift our um parent academyy's approach. We wanted to develop a forum where family voices were highlighted and emphasized. Uh we bought we brought in the author of a book called on the same team. And this person
provided us with a training. Um they set up on how to set up family and educator teams. And this is how we came up with the idea of the engage 49 live events. Um I feel like I'm preaching to the choir now because I know many of you have attended
these events. Thank you so much for doing so. Um but these are in-person open format events where families drive the discussion. They ask the questions. Um and it's panel members made up of district experts, community experts that
provide the answers. And then there's intentional time built in so that the families and the experts experts can um mingle and talk and network and have that more personable approach. Um in addition, uh we attend monthly coffee
chats with CDE's FSCP department. In these coffee chats, we interact with school districts from all over the state of Colorado. Um, and not only do we get to learn so much from our counterparts in other districts, but we've also been
featured a few times um in the coffee chats, sharing our expertise from our expertise from our team and even our own D49 staff members, including most recently um Miss Amy Sanchez Martinez. She did a phenomenal job. Um a big next
step uh that we have in our capacity building efforts is coming up starting in June. It's a partnership with CDE and the regional collaborative where engage 49 will be implementing an FSP cohort for school level leaders and teachers.
Um and that is going that cohort is going to carry through the 2627 school year. Okay. So clearly there is a lot of great work happening across happening across the district and as with anything else we need those dedicated resources to
continue with this work. Um we believe wholeheartedly from our hearts that our most precious and important resource is obviously our people, the team, the school, the district, our community organizations and most importantly our
families. um families that include uh special populations such as our CLLDE families, our military families, our McKenna Vento families, uh families on free and reduce, our faith-based families, our marginalized families, which historically uh statistics show
have been your hardest to reach families. Um that is why our connection to them and our partnership with them is absolutely the most crucial one that we have. Um, we also have access to a statewide digital library of family
engagement practices via the CDE promising practices partnerships website and um to which D49 itself has had no less than at least 10 contributions over the last couple of years. As all
endeavors, we need funding. Um, and we're I'm not here to ask for money, so don't worry. Um, but we need funding. Um we are fortunate to receive some funding from both the district and through our title department. Um and finally there
is a myriad of professional development opportunities for anyone wanting to initiate andor enhance their family engagement efforts. There are multiple digital trainings that are offered through CDE. Um I had created a course for teachers and for school staff. Um,
it's a self-paced online course in Schooly that's worth PD credit. And, um, I also offer part of my job is offering in-person training for schools and departments. I'm really hoping that people take advantage of that. One of the things
that of course you could see it's obvious, but why the why of family engagement, why it is so important. And there are studies after studies after studies in research that will confirm that family engagement is one of your biggest factors in contributing to student
achievement in um improving student attendance and um having less types of behavior issues and referrals across the board. Um, so if you look at the zone efforts along with the district-wide practices through
engage 49, um, I think it highlights how intentional and comprehensive our approach to family engagement really is. I think it demonstrates our heart as well. Um, our heart for this type of work. This is a slide of one of our
family engagement events and um again many of you have attended and we're super grateful for that. But just the last thing I want to um you know briefly summarize is the timeline that's gone on with our work since we
started. Um in 23 that's when we established that district-wide team. Um we assessed our existing practices. um took a good look at those and then we set key goals. In 24, our focus kind of
shifted to providing family learning resources, building staff capacity for engagement and using data and survey. Well, always we always use the data and surveys to drive our practices. Um in 2025, the district expanded engagement
resources um continued with that staff capacity and incorporated family feedback to improve practices again. And this year, our efforts have emphasized um again uh building that educator capacity through these professional development opportunities that we've
created. Um plans have been made to support leadership again through the cohort that's coming up starting in June. And of course, as you've heard multiple times this evening, um next year we will be hosting community cafes
in each zone. And um because it takes a village to raise a school. Good. Thank you. I know this was long and um I just really appreciate you giving us this opportunity and your attention. Thank you. And we're open to
questions, I suppose. >> So questions or comments, Mike? >> So first of all, I want to thank you all for coming here and giving us such a comprehensive update on what it is you're up to. You're like,
>> so um yeah, as a board member, I attended CASBY and there were some really great speakers there and a huge part of two of their presentations was the importance of family engagement and how it can drive student success. And so
I got excited about that, came to our annual planning summit and it's like, you know, let's make that a um a strategic objective. And I can tell clearly I can stand down on that. You guys have got it in hand and it is uh
developing um over time and you guys are making excellent progress and I want to thank you. Uh just some uh quick comments on the San Creek Zone um presentation, the the bit about the care portal. So I was really moved to hear
about that story about supporting that uh foster kid. And I don't think a lot of people understand that. Number one, when a kid enters the foster system on day one is probably the worst day of their life ever. Like that is a traumatic experience. And for so many of
those fosters, they're reaching out first to a family member that they already have a connection to, that they already have a a bond with, and that that foster parent has has just been blindsided, completely unprepared. But I can also tell you as somebody who was
fostering and we went through the process and we set up uh you know our our space for the kids and we got certified for two kids and the first time we got that call they said but can you take three and we were scrambling
for a bed and we were two weeks away from Christmas and it was the support of community partners that allowed us to make sure that those kids had a had one of for Christmas. So, those are emergency
situations. That is a big deal for for that student who is in our schools. And I really want to thank you for being able to f to make that connection and support that family. That that is a huge deal. And I'm sure you guys have multiple stories of that throughout the year.
Um, and uh just uh as the only board member up here who does not have a pair of glasses on them, I just want to say that's just because of pigheadedness and the ability to change font size. Thank you. >> I think Holly and then Lori.
>> I guess I just wanted to I kind of want to touch on every single one. So >> Cherry answers all the questions. >> Yeah. Well, well, I wanted to give everybody like their own separate praises. Um, but like the postcard
initiative that you do in the San Creek zone, um, I'm going to be honest, my son has had I think he's received four or five this year already. And I had no idea until when arrived in the mail that my child was actually an angel. Like, it was
I was floored. I'm not I'm not even kidding. Um, I also want to say thank you uh for all the community engagement and involvement, much like what Mike said, so I won't harp on that too much, but that's amazing that you provide so
many community-based resources. Um, I will say for the Falcon Zone, I watched a video on your Facebook page the other day of that little girl going to Woodman Hills and I was just balling. Um, my
daughter started there also and she too is special needs and so it just brought back like a whole rush. It was happy tears. Um, but I I cried. I watched it like five times. Um, and then in the power zone, I love that Allies has
newsletters that are audible just just in case. I think that's great use of inclusion. Um, I loved the multicultural fairs. I can't wait to go attend more. Um, I just really appreciate that you guys embrace all the diverse
populations. I have a really unique situation because of like where my house sits, but we've started or we've been in every single zone or my my daughter has. And so I've experienced everybody's uh different types of leadership and community involvement. And it's been
it's been a blessing all across the board. And I really I want to applaud you. I want to say thank you like as a parent. I truly thank you. First I have to share that when my kids were in the district in actively in the
schools none of these resources were available. Allies did not exist. And so dealing with a dyslexic child at an IEP, it was a fascinating journey and I can't tell you how much I love that school. Um
I um just to get an idea and I later on if we could let the entire community that would see this know how to participate with Engage 49 because you do not have to have a student or a grandchild in the district. If you live
in the district, come to those events. Um what have I learned at Engage 49? I've learned if there's a crisis at a school, don't go there. the traffic will back up and emergency first responders will be hindered. Um, I learned how to administer Narcan.
Um, I learned about internet security. I mean, these are really valuable resources for our community. And one of the presenters said, "Come by my office. I will give you Narcan to have on hand." I mean, just some of the things that you learn are really important. safety and
security just they're they're great programs and and as long as we can afford to they also feed you. Um so if you get a chance to attend engage 49 definitely do so and when it talks to the community partnership cuz I love
you. Um local schools are adopted by churches who voluntarily participate and they coordinate with those churches. They have painted our teachers lounges. They have brought meals for teacher appreciation week. Uh one time a family needed a bed and because I love you
provided the bed and Lauren, you know, I'm blown away with everything you do. You're just amazing. But I've got to tell you with the new community resource center, a lot of the work you did now is being, you know, R&D does not stand for research and development. It's ripoff and duplicate.
But the collaboration with Catholic Charities because I love you different care and share those those public private partnerships are really really valuable. Um and I am so grateful for everything that you do because you are
touching hearts and minds and you are correct about the empirical data that when you involve the community the kids do better. Um we had a young girl who presented once from the Falcon Zone. um she was a disabled child from the Perez
family and she became her class president and so the way we reach and touch people where they are. I have to say that Dr. Fletcher and Carrie Mike Row approves of your comments tonight about the importance of different jobs
and also the importance of uh CTE courses because not everyone is collegebound but everyone has a role to play in making this a better place to live. So, um, let me think what Oh gosh,
there was just so much good stuff just because I love what you do. And I think that's it. But if you could speak to, um, and I'm teasing Carrie because she joked about not liking public speaking. Um, tell the community how they can get involved and sign up to be notified of
the Engage 49 events. >> Um, anybody can go to d49.orggage49. Um, every monthly newsletter is embedded right on the web page. There's also, um, engage with B49 where you can find a list of all the committees that you can serve on, things like that. Um, but we do send those out in email. So, check
your email and then read it and what >> and text. >> No. >> Well, and I believe at least in the Falcon area, I've seen them on all of the Facebook pages, too. So Carrie's really good at putting um the Falcon Zone flyer and things about Engage 49
show up um in the page feeds. So if you go to Verdian Ranch community um and I have not been on Facebook for about 6 weeks. I'm staying off of it for about another month. Um but so I haven't been seeing them lately, but um routinely
that information is posted and and and I can't speak to the other zones because I only join pages in the neighborhoods I live. Um so I can't speak to what S Creek Zone or Power Zones doing. I'm sure you all are doing a pretty great job on social media as well. I just only
stay on groups that I live in. So um but I can say at least in the Falcon zone, it's out there. Um, and certainly, um, Facebook tends to be engaged by us older people. So, I know there like threequarters of the people who comment on it probably don't even have kids
attending schools anymore. Um, because Facebook is is is the the oldest generation of of social media. Um, so I know the information is is out there, but probably just also pegging saying everyone's welcome um helps. But I know
that it's seen um because I see it also I see people giving it thumbs up and sharing to try and get it emphasized as well. I know um the weekly newsletters are always kind of interesting from the high schools if I put my PTA hat on. Um
although all our PTA stuff is included in the high school newsletter, we find that we don't get engagement on our signups very much from when it's in the the whole school newsletter. But if Sean sends it then out a day later as a PTA
only, hey, we need help with all of a sudden my metrics shoot up and my signup genius is getting full. Um, same thing with my givebacks donations, which those of you if you don't have a PTA, one of the great things about PTA is because we're a 501c3, people can make donations
to us and then we can spend those donations on you. So that's how Falcon High is getting all of their snacks is some people are donating food and some people go in and hit our donate to snacks button and donate right to PTA and because we have that as a directed donation, it all gets spent on their
high school their testing snacks. Um, and we've had $300, I believe, donated towards those snacks so far, um, as of three o'clock today because I'm in charge of spending that money for our PTA on the snacks. Um, but, um, we're noticing that when it's something
specific that we need them engaged in, we need it sent as a separate email in addition to the newsletter. People kind of just glance through those. So, when it's something you really want them to attend, you may have to send it. As much as people say they don't want the second reminder, they engage in the
second reminder, the specific reminder more than they engage in in all of the topics that are there in the the general newsletter, which is weird to me, but you know, they'll complain, we're getting too many emails, but the only time you engage is when we send you a separate one. So, go figure. Um, but I I
do see those promotions. And I also want to say that I've also seen the tenor of engagement and the tenor of discussion about our district change over time on um Facebook specifically because like I said that's the one I've tended to follow. Um and anybody who lives out in
Falcon knows man it got obnoxious quick all the time and Carrie's done a great job of shifting those conversations and proactively engaging. And so I've seen that negativity shift um to far more positive things in the last year. And so
thank you for that as well. Lori, >> just one last comment. I was really inspired to see that you collaborate with other districts. We had the special education resource fair that we used to do with two other districts and um it's really important to engage with other
districts. Now, don't get me wrong. If you want to choice your student from another district into district 49, we have open arms, but it is important to collaborate with our neighbors and engage with them because it it just reaches a broader community. So, I
forgot to mention before, I was really glad to see that you collaborate with other districts as well. Any further comments? >> Okay. Thank you very much for all you do. Our
last item is the policy and procedure review and these are um recommendations administratively on policies. Looks like the majority of them one is just a review because we have to review every three years and several are just updates to the custodian
and the repeal is because they moved the paragraphs that were in the dash hour into the actual policy. So, any questions on any of those? Are we good to move those forward for action at our next meeting? >> Yes. >> Yes.
>> All right. So, we'll move those forward. And we have one person for our second public comment, and that is Zach Spiller. >> Hi. Um, yeah. So, my name is Zach Spiller and I'm the donor relations coordinator at CPCD, giving children a
head start. Um, I joined I'm joined tonight by my uh, president and CEO, Dr. Stacy Die, and our communication coordinator as well, Ben Jones. Um, CPCD serves as El Paso County's local Head Start provider. And we're proud to have
three classrooms right here in District 49. And as a district 49 graduate myself, I actually graduated from San Creek 08. Um, I was happy to hear that. Uh, CPCD stands for community partnership for child development. And while every word in our name matters,
partnership is the heart of everything that we do. Our program uh, success is rooted in our relationships with communities we serve. Relationships that are strengthened by incredible partners like District 49. For more than 10 years, your support has allowed CPCD to
reach children and families during one of the most important stages of their lives. CPCD provides excellent child early child early childhood uh services at no cost to the most at risk children in our community. Through our
partnership, District 49 provides classroom spaces for CPCD programs, helping create welcoming spaces where young learners can grow, explore, and begin their educational journey. This year here in District 49, CPCD is
serving nearly 40 students each day. Um, this simple figure represents child children discovering the joy of learning for the first time, families connecting new to critical resources and stronger future for our entire community. Um, through our partnership with District
49, CPCD helps inspire a lifelong love of learning in the children we serve. Additionally, CPCD empowers children and caregivers to embrace their role as their children's first and most important teacher. These programs strengthen families and make our
community stronger. So today we really just want to just recognize District 49 for that commitment and that partnership. Um we do have a certificate. I'm just going to leave it up here. Uh but really just to just as a small token of our appreciation. Uh we just thank you for partnering with us.
Yeah. Thank you. >> Thank you, sir. And I believe um you've been partners for at least 17 years with D49. Um, I only know that because I used to have the foster parent hat way back then. And I, my niche was toddlers, was
high behavior toddlers. And so I had several foster children who during their time in my home were in the CPCD classrooms within D49. And um, it it's a longer program than traditional preschool and provides additional resources as well. And so I
really appreciate all the support you give to our families in D49 as well. Thank you. All right. And with that, we are on to miscellaneous. Does anybody have anything for miscellaneous?
Okay, then we are adjourned at 8:29.