Test one. Check. Check. Check. Testing the mic. One, two, three. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome. Welcome to the August 14th, 2025 board of education regular meeting. The time is 6:36 and I am calling this meeting to
order. Can I get a roll call? >> Dvala >> here. >> Hyle >> here. >> Levier Wright >> here. >> Schmidt >> here. Thompson >> here. Please join us for the pledge of allegiance.
to the flag of the United States of America. >> Can I get a motion to approve the agenda? >> I move to approve the agenda. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Can I get a vote?
>> Dvala >> I >> Hyle >> I >> Levivia Wright >> I >> Schmidt >> I Thompson >> I and that passes and we do not have anyone signed up for
public forum tonight. Does anyone have an item uh they want pulled from the consent agenda? >> Can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda items as presented?
>> I move to approve the consent agenda as presented. >> Second. Any discussion? Can I get a vote? >> Dvala I >> Hyel I >> Leva Wright >> I >> Schmidt >> I Thompson
>> I All right we are on to superintendent update. So good evening board. You have a visual for >> I am uh good evening board. Um I often
present from uh my seat over there with you all. Um but I've got a little bit more extended um presentation tonight. So I'm just going to ask your indulgence. I I'll be respectful and sensitive. Um but I might need a couple more minutes uh than normal. Um just as an introduction, as you know, we've
we've started a new school year. We have really had a fantastic smooth start to the school year. Lots and lots of knocking on whatever wood is close. But boy, it's been strong. We have had our best first day vacancies. We could count the
vacancies and teachers positions on one hand as we started the school year. Huge accomplishment. We've just got great leadership as you all met some of our new leaders. I hope you were struck as I was that the vast majority of leaders in new positions in
the district are D49. they they either spent all or or some of their career here with us. Um I love the boomerang story when someone that was with us and has had some experience somewhere else comes on back because they know what's great about district 49. And so um I am
I'm really excited about the way the school year has started. I will give you more detail as we go uh at our our work session. you'll get our report from the zones and the departments and me and so there'll be there'll be some more beginning of the year detail but I want to I want to reference one of our two
big hairy audacious goals. We take this language from Jerry Porus and Jim Collins in a business book called um built to last and then and then later good to great and staying great and and they talk about the importance to an organization of setting lofty goals and then pursuing them with vigor. So, I
want to I want to just refresh the board's understanding and and the community's understanding of why we chose this one. The RMO on screen stands for role model organization. And so, we think that a role model organization is one that other organizations could look
to and say, "Hey, we should do it like they do. They're doing it really well. We we should have the customer service of a of a Chick-fil-A or the quality of Lexus or um sort of the customer fierce loyalty um that we see in in many
service industries. That's what a role model organization is. An organization that other organizations look to to see how to do something really best of class. And it's not on us to decide whether we're a role model organization. That should come from an external
partner. And so out of many partners that we could choose, the American Society for Quality, we chose this one called Baldridge. And I want to I want to tell you the backstory of the word Baldridge. Um, back when I was a a student in college in 1988, a president
named Ronald Reagan observed that we were getting badly beaten on the quality front, particularly by Japan. Companies like Toyota and Sony were known for their quality and and durability and customer service. And we were just getting getting waxed. So Ronald Reagan
said to his friend Mack, who happened to be the Secretary of Commerce, "Mack, can we do something about this? How can we incentivize American corporations and institutions and organizations to higher performance and higher quality?" So Mack looked around the Department of Commerce
and he found an institute, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, NIST. And NIST is the place where they they do measurements and precision. So if you buy a tape measure at Home Depot or Lowe's or a garage sale, they should
all measure the same way because NIST has standards for tape measures and scales and nuclear power plants and the internet. They're where we get most of our cyber security standards. for example. So, so Mack looked at NIST and he said, "NIST, I don't want you just to
measure inches and and weights and radi radiation. I want you to measure excellence. How can you do that?" And they came up with something that they called the National Performance Excellence Award or the National Performance Excellence Organization. And
they said, "We are going to emphasize and incentivize performance excellence across our corporations, our municipalities, our school districts, our hospitals." And that national performance excellence department became
known as the Malcolm Baldridge because that's who Mack was. He was Malcolm Baldridge, Secretary of Commerce. And the Malcolm Baldridge program begins there in 1988 under President Reagan and has continued since then to recognize excellent organizations across multiple
industries. Each year, judges and examiners and and officials from the United States government through the Department of Commerce, NIST, and the Baldridge program look for organizations that are meeting a very high standard. They
evaluate them based on their results. They then choose a very small number and they make site visits to those and those site visits are granted to organizations that are deemed national finalists which means that they have had results that
put them in the best of class in their industry or across multiple industries. And so if it sounds like I am building up to something big, I am. Because we learned yesterday that El Paso County, Colorado School District 49 is a
national finalist in the Baldridge Performance Excellence Program. As you know, this is an incredible achievement. Um, it is reflective of commitment and perseverance, but in in more meaningful ways, it's reflective of
the outer ring of our cultural compass. If you look up there, we started learning in 2015 when we got absolutely hammered in our first encounter with Baldridge. We had so much to get better, so much to improve, and we started learning. We're still learning. We've
kept learning but we worked as a team and many teams and we innovated and we tried things and failed and gave up and failed fast untried those things and tried new things and got better and got better and most of all we worked with a
common purpose. We really believed that we could be the school district that our community wanted and that our students deserve. We believed that was possible in district 49 and so we made it so. So we've got months, we've got a site visit
coming in September. We're going to learn a lot. We're going to get an incredible feedback report. We do not know what happens from there, but we know we're a nationally recognized finalist. uh we will know more about why we were recognized, what our strengths were, but there are some folks that I
know I can thank already because this award and recognition rises on the strength of the people of District 49. Um on this day, we see our vision the best choice in in clearer focus, clearer than ever before. And it's because our
people have never failed to fulfill our mission to learn, work, and lead. So, I want to start tonight by thanking the families and the students who chose D49. As you know, more students choose into D49 than any other district in the
state of Colorado. We are grateful for every resident and every choice student who joins our community. So, thank you to them. They have made us better. They have made us stronger. I want to thank a decade of leaders, dozens of board members and even more administrators and
other positions of leadership who have kept us focused on our vision and our mission to learn, work, and lead to continuously improve. But finally, and most emphatically, I want to thank the finest workforce of any school district in the United States of America. In
every department, in every office, in every school, across every setting, our workforce shows up every day with energy, with humor, intelligence, and heart. And so I say to our workforce, we are blessed to work with you. And our
students are blessed to learn from you. And the government of the United States of America says that you are an example for others to follow. You are. So, thank you. It is an honor to celebrate your achievement as a national finalist in
the performance excellence program of the United States of America. Thank you all. Okay, now we are on to student board updates and we're gonna start with Vivacious Viv. My name
my name is Vivian Bar. Um and I am on this student board. I'm a returning student board member. I've been doing it for did last year. I'm doing it again this year. Um most recently at our first meeting that we had on the 6th of this month. Uh we got to meet the new student
board members elected by each high school. Uh that was quite exciting and very fun. Um we just got all introduced to each other. We talked about our schools. We talked about um why we're on the student board. We did some very fun ice breakers. Um and yeah, that's the
really groundbreaking news that's happening with the the student board this week. Uh it was our first meeting, so we're kind of getting into the flow of things, but it's a very energetic crowd and I'm sure Nikos can attest to that. Uh we're all very very excited to be there. Um and Nikos as also a
returning board member from last year. Um, I think that he can also attest that it's a pretty good group this year. Uh, very big, very, very excited, lots of plans, uh, lots of energy. Um, and we're really excited to represent the district, uh, and our schools. And yeah,
and I'd like to say to Superintendent Hilts, as a student who did choice in to district 49 for its excellence and for its program, um I think it's very very cool that we are now on this big platform at a national scale refer representing how uh wonderful district
49 is because I know as a student when I was looking at different districts um and what would work best for me, I remember thinking, "Wow, district 49 really fits uh what would work best for me." So, um, yeah, I think that's very cool that we get to have it on a national level now. Um, and everybody gets to see the most amazing parts of
District 49. And I'll toss it off on over to Nikos. And yeah, >> yes, we have to say Nifty Nikos, correct? Okay, >> it is good to be back. Now, now some of you may remember me from meetings last year as the guy who was excited to see
tractors. I never got my chance to see the tractors, I will note, uh, which saddens me greatly. But I'm still glad to be back here on the board. Uh nothing brings me much more joy than speaking into a microphone. Uh as Viv also mentioned, I am a
returning a returning yes, I can speak very well as well. Uh board member. I'm I'm very excited as well about the new group of students that we have. We've grown in size, our student board. We had to move over a couple more tables in the room where we get set up in. So that's
always exciting moving furniture, but we we should be able to do a lot of good things this year. I think that there's a lot of drive within all of the students who are on the board. So I'm excited to see that drive go into some fun stuff. I think we're talking about a leadership meeting day thing with the
student board. We're going to do some teamwork activities, come up with more fun nicknames. That's why she's speaking about these adjectives. We stood in a big circle and went in order and we're like, "Okay, vivaceious v of nifty Nikos, humorous hilts." Maybe some of you guys agree, maybe you don't. No, I'm
sorry. I'm sorry. So, we're we're hoping to to get some more teamwork within the board. Uh, we are both here representing the campus that is Pikes Peak Early College and Spring Studio for Academic Excellence. Some of you guys may have heard of us, some of you may have not. We're a
smaller school, but we are a fun school and things are already getting into gear on the campus. We got our first fall dance planned. Our student council is gearing up and ready to go. So, I am excited to go through the rest of this year and to continue speaking into
microphones. Director Schmidt. Um, like Superintendent Hilt, I'm going to need just a little extra time. In the August 2025 edition of the New Falcon Herald, Deborah Rzdon printed an article about the federal first
amendment case Schmidt and Kohl's versus D49. Because the paper did not ask for the plaintiff's view, I will share that view with you right now. The case wasn't about how to better support the board president or preserving constituents rights to
express themselves. Instead, the outcome was about the deprivation of the plaintiff's first amendment rights and that based upon the viewpoints that the plaintiffs expressed on their signs that this deprivation stemmed from a board policy or practice. Learning how to
support a board president and deprivation of rights due to policy are two different things. As one of the plaintiffs, I was very happy to have the attorney that we had. Our attorney believed in the merits of the case and pursued it meticulously for two and a half years. Because of his
hard work, we were in vindicated unanimously by a jury of eight. The jury, which D49 requested, was made up of four of six men and two women. They deliberated for under three hours. One juror was
just old enough to serve on the jury. Two jurors were present or former government employees, one being a retired FBI agent and the other employed by the city. A person would think that these two would be sympathetic to the government in cases involving government
and government officials. Yet, they agreed violations of the First Amendment occurred. Then there was the jury foreman, a 2020 graduate from district 49. Even though I am happy with the verdict, at the same time as a board member and
resident of D49, I was very unhappy and shocked at the lead attorney that the district had chosen to represent it. My understanding is that he had very little federal court experience and no first amendment experience. His use of bullying tactics and an appalling
closing statement all but de dismissed the First Amendment. Instead of offering factual rebuttal in his closing statements, he exhibited disdain and minimized our right to stand for our civil civil liberties.
And I think the jury saw that the district was ills served by this gentleman. It's now time to stop dragging our feet and revise policy beedh, not ad hoc murmurings of a non-existent policy that no one in the
public even knows about or understands. We need to respect our fine security team by giving them a policy so that they know what to do should this happen again. We also need to show courtesy to the people in the gallery and make sure that they can follow the meeting without
distracting activities going on sometimes right in front of them. We need a policy that complies with the first and 14th amendments of our constitution so we can give the public an opportunity to speak in a civil manner about whatever concerns them in
the district. I for one want to hear from them without the jazz hands without the shouting standing and sitting clapping loudly and yes without the signs. Okay. Director Hy. Welcome to school year 2526 everybody.
Um it's good to be back. Not a lot to say because quite frankly we've been enjoying our vacation as much as your families and and staff members have been enjoying yours. Uh I am looking forward to tomorrow attending a ribbon cutting ceremony for the brand new automotive uh
shop that uh is open for Falcon High School. I'm sure students are already in there. Um but uh there are ribbons and they must be cut. Um, and finally, I just want to um, you know, suggest to my fellow board members that, uh, in future
meetings, we might change things up a little bit and let the student board go after the board just because that is an act that is tough to follow. I'm sorry to disappoint you all after what you heard earlier. >> Director Levier Wright. Yes, I too was
on vacation for the entire month of July because we come from four different regions of the country for my family to get together. And when you do that, you find that July is the only month that someone's kids are not in school. Um, so I just got back a week ago, but I wanted
to actually comment on um the Baldridge information because I was here when it started and we've had lots of conversations back and forth on pieces of it, but I would argue that everything that's up there has been improved and
refined um through that process. And one of the reasons way back in the day when we began that process that we chose Baldridge to help us learn about continuous improvement and give us external feedback that wasn't biased was because it wasn't only education
centric. It brought in other parts of commerce. So we've had people from hospitals and banks and all different kinds of businesses come in and and look at our district and give us feedback. And we've learned things on all sides of the house. policy education side of the
house has learned and adopted some practices from some of those organizations. But it also guaranteed that we didn't give operations and business short shrift because so often when we're focused on improving our district, we focus on the education side
of the house and we forget these other two components who we need to operate efficiently and effectively and innovatively um to grow as a district. And yet they were often the ones left out on some of that most important feedback. And Baldridge was
the only thing we could find that was also somewhat affordable compared to some of the other options that allowed all parts of our our our workforce and all parts of our district, no matter what role there is in supporting student learning, to get feedback on how to
improve. And it wasn't just needed, it was desperately, desperately wanted. If you talk to people like CJ Gillette and um to Heather Diaz and to folks who they were left behind in some of those conversations, being able to actually
get some of that feedback helped them and helped us do a better job recognizing what support they needed and and elevated some of those things. And so it's gratifying to see us actually move to that level. um having been part of the first team interviewed when we
got hammered, it'll be really nice to be here when we're not being hammered, too. Um but I want to congratulate everyone who's been a part of the journey. Um because I hope that we've that that's an indicator that we've gained a lot. I hope we can also continue to give to
other organizations um as people who then also provide feedback to others because we learn from one another. It's you know, learn, teach. We also like to lead and and giving our our leaders an opportunity to lead in another way in other organizations and provide feedback helps
them become better leaders but also is is that pay it forward that I think is cool. >> Thank you Director Davilla. >> All right. Good evening. Um I also I too enjoyed my summer vacation. uh the month of July, I did
spend two weeks doing summer school with uh some students and had a lot of fun with that. I also tutored the full month of July or June, sorry, the full month of June um to help those struggling kiddos to fill in gaps over the summer.
Uh not to say that I didn't enjoy my summer in other ways. I spent a lot of time with my daughter and we went camping. We went hiking. Uh we got to go to Water World for the first time because she was finally tall enough to do everything and she's fearless so she
did all of it. Um there was not a single thing that scared her. Um definitely not scared of heights, uh unlike her mother. And then um it was just so much fun to be able to spend time with family and with my in-laws who came into town. I
wanted to say welcome back to the 2025 2026 school year. Students and teachers have been in the full swing of teaching uh gathering data and already starting the beginning of the year uh testing so they can see where their kids are at and do placement uh based on those test
results. Uh this is an advantage of starting August 1st. we are actually leaps and bounds ahead of the surrounding districts who are just now starting school and just now teaching um uh procedures and expectations and D49 has been in that groove for a while now
which is really helpful for us uh as a district and so welcome back everybody. I know everyone is excited to start this school year and to start it very strong. And as Miss uh Superintendent Hilts mentioned, we've started it very strong with making sure we have um the
vacancies down so that we we have the that number of staff members that are needed to teach our kids. >> Thank you. Um so we've started off with a bang. I attended the first SPO meeting of the year. I should I say that I'm
loquacious Lori. But it was a really great icebreaker that the kids uh started off with. I was thrilled to meet the new members and to greet the returning members. I think we have do we have five or six? Six returning members.
And one thing that I noticed last year is we closed out the year with really extraordinary attendance. And sometimes in the past it's tapered off towards the end of the year. It didn't happen last year. and I don't think it's going to happen this year. And so you guys have
just been amazing leaders. I also attended the Power Zone kickoff which included cheerleaders, the band, Bob Feliz gave an inspirational talk. It was a whole lot of fun and it included breakfast burritos. Um I I was invited
to attend the third annual teachers freedom summit. I was able to meet teachers from across North America and attended many wonderful classes. They had everything about kids who were disregulated. Uh so many different
topics and if you didn't if you didn't get to an education session on time frequently there were no more chairs and so there's some classes you actually couldn't get into. I brought home I brought back some of the materials from some of the organizations that were
there. Um there was one from the 917socciety.org which is a nonpartisan organization that teaches um a lot about our constitution. There was let me take a look here. This is the hero cards and this is a project
that gives students the name and background information about different people who have died in the founding of this country or in service of this country. So that was a really interesting project. Uh Prageru was there and they introduced their road to
liberty project as well as they have books for kids. So Otto's tale. Here's one on the pledge of allegiance. Um there was another uh seminar about a brief history of parental rights. And
then something I might try with the board later on. There was a a teacher from New Mexico who talked about different personality types and that you circle different choices that align with your personality and how you can communicate with different people. The
guest speaker I was so pleased to know that both of our student board members knew about her and that was Yomi Park who escaped from North Korea. And if you want to talk about somebody who will take your breath away, when she talks
about what she did to escape North Korea, she was 14, 15 years old and she was given the choice to stay in China and be sex trafficked or to go back to North Korea and how missionaries helped
her get to South Korea, how she ended up in the United States of America. and we got a copy of her latest book, While Time Remains: The North Korean Defectors Search for Freedom in America. So, if you get a chance, look her up on YouTube. She's excellent. And now on to
administrative updates. As Director Schmidt brought up the recent case which was against the district, the previous board president and members of our security team, I do have some good news regarding that case. Our security team
was completely exonerated. The plaintiff's attorney dropped many parts of the case. It was not a large monetary award and some of that money is coming back to the district. Director Schmid Schmidt had told me that she is
not interested in monetary damages that she intends to purchase materials educating our students about the Constitution. So, thank you for that. As to be BEDH, we do have a consensus for the board
that we were going to work on the Raptor check-in system first before we tackled that policy. So, that policy was on the radar as we work through glitches with the Raptor system for check-in and we are in that process. So, that will be
coming up. In the meantime, we have returned to our old practice that was the board practice many for many years that we do not allow signs in the meeting. So, look for further changes to beh.
And then, um I didn't know if Superintendent Hilts wanted to talk just a bit about lunchtime. Um I I did want to mention that as we started the new school year, um we spoke here a couple of times last spring about
uh an audit that we went through with CDE and that there were some either evolving or changing interpretations of student instructional time and student contact time. They're not the same and there's two different standards and even CDE doesn't fully clarify which rules
apply to which calculations. But we are we are endeavoring to be um very scrupulous about making sure that we are meeting both standards for both contact time and instructional time. And that is why we came to you with some revisions
to our calendar. Um they are consistent with our calendar policy, but they are different from how we've done things the last few years because if if you find out that uh the way you've been doing things does not pass scrutiny, uh you'd be foolish. and we're not foolish uh to not adjust. So, we've made some
adjustments. Um there are um there are minimal impacts to some of the non-instructional but countable student contact time. Lunch passing periods, the time at the start of the day, those are all
potentially countable as contact time. And so each school has worked very closely with our student information system and our data reporting team uh to make sure that we're in a very good place. And so I'm really proud of our principles in particular for building bell schedules. And I'm proud of our
learning services team for building a a calendar because it's the combination of those two things, the bell schedules and the calendar that make sure we're fully compliant and and even going beyond that. Um and you approved that as a board. We are implementing that. Uh, and
with every implementation you find little tune tuning tweaks that might be needed and so we're working through those. But I got to tell you, considering there seems to be construction on half of the major arterials in district 49, the fact that our transportation department is getting
students to school on time, that our parents and students are getting themselves to our bus stops on time so we can run these somewhat convoluted routes. I don't know who thought it was a good idea to close half of Dublin in the middle of the start of the school year, but we know we don't want that
road bubbling up through the icy winter. So, this is probably the right time to do it. It's just really inconvenient. And yet, and yet we have incredibly high 90% arrival on time even with all of those constraints. And so that also
helps us make sure that we're getting enough student contact time and instructional time, not to be just compliant, but to even go above and beyond. So I I appreciate our students will get more instructional minutes this year than they have in a decade. And
that is a significant improvement. It's one of those times when oversight from a state agency is helping us be better. Um we're not resisting it. We're not denying it. We're embracing it. and it's making us a better district, which means better learning for students. So, thank you for the invitation to comment on
that. >> Thank you. All right. Can I get a motion for action item 7.1? >> I move to approve the job description coordinator of charter school relations as presented. >> Second.
>> Okay. Is there any further discussion on this one? >> Actually, I have a question. I think we needed a longer motion, right? I'd like to amend that motion because we wanted also the retroactive component in there. Correct.
What I'm seeing on the cover sheet is different than what we have here. So, I want to make sure we're covered because on the cover sheet, it was motion requested with the adjustment retroactive to July 1, 2025. And that was not in the motion I just made. Correct. So, do we need that technically
in the motion so you can make it retroactive or not? >> Well, I I don't I don't think that this language was intended to be the language of the motion. Um, you know, in the military, they have this sense, this thing called commander's intent. And so,
if the board approves this, I would understand that it's retroactive to July one. >> Okay. I just wanted to make sure you guys were covered because request. >> Can I get a vote? Dvala >> I >> Hyle >> I >> Lev Wright
>> I >> Schmidt >> Thompson >> I and that passes. >> Can I get a motion for action item 7.2? >> I move to approve the resolution to authorize execution of the intergovernmental agreement for the November 4th, 2025 elections.
>> Second. Any discussion? Director Hy. >> Yeah, I just wanted to point out real quick because this does contain a $80,000 um budget impact that this is actually in our budget every single year and yet we only use it every two years.
But we do keep it in the budget every year just in case because we might have to fill an open seat. We may have a recall election that we might have to fund. So, um but yeah, this is this is accounted for in our budget every year. Director Dvola
>> and actually our student board of representatives were asking questions about election and uh this corresponds with that. So this is an agreement that we as the district make with the El Paso County um clerk and recorder in order
for us to run the election in November. Uh and we do have to pay for the election. And so that's what this agreement is. And I think it's actually a little bit less than 80,000. It's about 76,000. But by coordinating with El Paso County
during their election time frame, it's cheaper for us to do that. So we're authorizing our dedicated election official to do this intergovern, how do you say it again? Intergovernmental authorization or relation. Yeah. Yeah,
those words. But anyway, um, so it's actually it saves us money. I know. It seems like so much money for an unpaid elected position, doesn't it? So, I mean, 76,000. Vivian, do you have questions? >> No, I just wanted to say thank you for
telling us about that. It's always very fun to learn more about how the system works. So, thank you for taking the time to teach us. >> Nikos, do you have any questions about that? No, I I just think it's funny that as we're discussing it, we we as the student board were able to review the
agenda just like all you guys prior to these meetings, but I had forgotten that this was even in there and we're sitting here in the meeting that was hosted just before this where we were introduced to all the new district leaders within our schools, which was very cool getting to meet some of those new principles and things. We were asking at the end, we
were like, I wonder how this election works. And I was informed that you only have to be 18, so next year maybe I'm just going to scoot to the left. We'll see. >> Well, by that time you'll be pretty wellversed in speaking into microphones, although I think you do an outstanding
job. Is there any further discussion? Can I get a vote, please? >> Dvala >> I >> Hyle >> I >> Levia Wright >> I >> Schmidt >> I >> Thompson >> I And that passes. All right. Now we are
on to an introduction to class. the Colorado Leaders for Academic Success. And we have a returning member of the District 49 family. And just so you know, at the meet and greet, we found out that you can leave, but never
completely leave. It's like the mafia. So, here is our former Power Zone Superintendent, Dan Snowberger. >> Thank you very much. It's such an honor to be here. Uh, I'd be remiss not to start and congratulate Mr. Heltz. Um, as
a former employee, I know how hard he's worked on the culture in this district and the climate. Um, and and I think it would be wrong as a citizen of this community and a citizen of this school district not to recognize you, Peter. So, thank you for your leadership. So, I
am Dan Snowberger. I am uh the executive director of Colorado Leaders for Academic Success. This is my third month in that role. I also serve as superintendent of schools in Elizabeth School District. So have a few hats. Um as I shared earlier, my wife works here in the district and I do live in the
district boundaries. So it is quite an honor to be here tonight. Um we uh wanted to take a moment to share a little about class. Class is an organization that started a little over a year ago. Um we are in our um first or
second full year as an organization. And one of the things that class has recognized is we as public education systems have drifted further and further away from why we started. Um we have taken on more and more responsibility. We've taken more and more away from
parents and we've many many systems have forgotten why we're here. We're here to educate our kids to ensure that they are prepared for success. And I think D49 does an outstanding job with that. Um, but I would say there's a lot of systems in our state that that need that
support, need that help refocusing on our mission. And so our mission as classes to advance that student achievement by helping public school board members hone their leadership skills in governance, professional development, communications, uh, legislative outreach, networking, and
policy. Um, you play such an important role as representatives of your community. Yes, you go through an election. It is an unpaid position um and you get a lot of grief. However, you are here because of the passion that you
have for learning of children. We also believe that again public school system should be governed by leaders focused on academic achievement and I think this board has demonstrated that uh quite well. We think systems should be student focused, should be committed to academic excellence, should insist upon
protecting parental rights. Again, we've we believe as class that we we've continued to take more and more away from parents and and I have a saying that I say in our district and I think class believes in this too. Children come to school with the values instilled in them at home and they should go home
with those values. It's not our job to change those values. It's our job to prepare students uh for success as future leaders in the district. We do have uh three board members right now. They are active board members in their districts. Mike Lynch is our president.
He is the secretary of the Monizuma Cortez Board of Education. Mary Powell is our treasurer. She is a secretary of the Elizabeth School District uh board of education. And Beth Sups is the secret is our secretary and she is currently a director in Delta uh school
district. So we currently have board members from across the state who are leading our organization. Um, again, the roots of public education is, I believe, what we've drifted away from, and I think districts like D49 have really taken a leadership role in that. We're
trying to help continue to support school boards and school districts and recognizing that we have to shift back. When we look at 40% of students in Colorado can read at grade level, I think we can all agree that that's not what we want as board members, as
educators in the state. So, we really want to make sure that we as an organization support school boards um and trying to refocus on that. Again, uh you are elected by your uh constituents, but you also deserve support and I think
that's really what class is focused on. We are not a replacement for CASBY. I think that's really important to mention. Our organization is not prepared to provide everything that CASBY provides, but we are an organization focused on something that we sometimes feel like CASBY doesn't
provide enough time on, and that's about student learning and how to really focus our districts back on that key mission. We continue to see mandates come down from the state that are unfunded and that add more to our educators plates. To be a teacher today is so
overwhelming. you're you're not only trying to teach your subject, but you're trying to raise your children in your classroom. And we really believe we need to get back to really allowing our teachers to do what they're experts at. We see so many teachers leaving the profession because of being overwhelmed.
And we believe as class we've got to refocus teachers on why they went to school to become a teacher and make sure that we uh limit that focus. Uh we currently have a lot of school districts uh in our first year. Uh Brush School District, Delta School District, Education Reinvision Envision, Boseies,
which you're a member of. Elizabeth School District, Monizuma Cortez School District, PBLO District 70, and Woodland Park School District are our founding members. Um we actually have members in 16 different districts. We offer both uh full board memberships as well as
associate members. Sometimes there's a member of a board who may not who who may believe in our mission, but their board doesn't. And so we want to support board members and and seeing how they can become even more effective leaders in their district. So board membership, we actually just modified our fee
structure. Again, uh prior to to our current board and myself really looking at what what do we provide? We recognize that the pricing structure for membership was really out of reach and it led many districts to say we'd love to love to be a part, but we really
can't afford that. So, we've really tried to focus our efforts. We do a monthly newsletter where we're capturing not only local local efforts and local issues that are on on the forefront, but we're also uh trying to capture guidance and support, policy support, reminders
about things that the legislature has passed and things we have to update. Um, so that's an important part of our our work. We're starting in September a monthly networking opportunity using virtual technology because obviously we have board members in 178 school districts that can't all come together
every month. So we will use a virtual platform for board members who want to come together. We will ask for topics in advance so we can group board members who have similar topics that they want to talk about and brainstorm and we'll certainly work to have experts in the room on that topic. Um, we do a lot of
events. Um, and I'm excited to share in a moment about one that's coming up that you have been so gracious to let us utilize space here in D49. So, discounts to class events. Uh, members uh do receive a discount uh for attending events that are in person. Uh, we do
monthly communications uh with the state uh organiza or the national organization schoolboards for academic excellence. This is a national organization that's united uh state organizations like ours across the country. So class is not unique to Colorado. There are many
class-like organizations across the country really working with school boards. Um by by joining us all of our members automatically are added to the school boards for academic excellence database so that they receive their newsletters and updates. Ton of resources available through their
organization. They also offer a monthly networking opportunity uh for board members across the country. So for board members who want to know what's going on outside of Colorado, we have in-person trainings and online trainings for boards that might be interested. Um and
certainly ongoing support for uh policies that are related. We do three three conferences a year. One on policy, one on key issues, and one on student learning. Again, our monthly board networking call. um uh SBAE membership as well and then monthly newsletters and
trainings as requested and we're really excited to partner with organizations like Leadership Institute. Leadership Institute is offering a conference on September 27th called Lead Right or Learn Wright Leadright um and it is in Parker, Colorado and all of our members
are admitted to that at no cost. So it's a great conference that again is a national focus conference but it's being offered here uh in partnership with class. Um last thing I want to say is policy summit is next Saturday a week from this Saturday. Um and again you've
been gracious enough um as a district to allow us to utilize this beautiful facility. We have legislators coming, state board of education members coming. We have a legal panel and we have our partner organizations. SBAE will be here. A leadership institute will be here. Advanced Colorado will be here.
And so we're really excited to be able to have that gathering of of schoolboard members here in the Colorado Springs area where we can really focus on policy. How that's really what you do. You drive policy in the district. So love to invite you to join us. We would
welcome the opportunity to have district 49 as a member in class. um you've been so active in supporting the the vision of class already and the work that you do each and every day and we feel like it's a natural uh addition to our membership um to have you join us. So
happy to answer any questions you might have. >> And can you refresh me on what the membership would be? The introductory membership for district 49 to join class. >> Correct. Board full board memberships is $1,000. uh that is extended to all board
members as well as to executive leaders that uh you may choose to also have become a member. They would get all of those same benefits extended to them. >> Are there any questions? Director Hy. >> Yeah. So um in reaching out to to learn
a little bit about this um uh organization um I noticed that a number of the school boards who have um elected to join it, they have publicly cited that their um motivation for doing so
was because it has a strong uh political alignment, right? They they call it the conservative alternative to Casby. Uh would you agree with that assessment? >> I would not. Um I think that's where we've tried to refocus our mission.
Again, our mission is on student learning, protecting parental rights. >> Okay. When you talk about parental rights, what does that mean to you? >> Parental rights means that that we want to make sure that we're we're leaving the raising of children to parents and that we're a partner in that, not taking
control of that. And so many things in our in our our state legislature have taken away, you know, parents don't have to know about some things that that that that maybe they should know about. We want to partner with parents. Um and and we have a lot of school boards across the state who are like, you know, we
don't want our parents to see us as a as an opponent. We want to see have our parents see us as a partner. And so really looking at how do we do that? How do we build that partnership with our families and not create that we're not telling you you don't have a right. We believe parents have a right to raise
their children. >> Um can you give me an example director? There might be other directors that have questions. We could even circle back around but I want to make sure that everybody gets a chance. And I see Vivian has her hand up. >> This may be a relatively simple question
for you to answer but um what is the end goal? Like obviously you have your your >> sure >> sorry your mission statement and whatnot. What is the end goal? Is it >> the end goal is to is to have more districts focus on academic achievement and see a change in the outcome in
Colorado. Okay. 40% reading on grade level is just not acceptable. Okay. And so really preparing and equipping school boards to to to look at their policies that focus on how do we improve instruction? How do we support teachers in the classroom? How do we lighten their load? That's our focus. Okay,
>> that's the end goal. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, you're welcome. >> Nikos, >> yeah, you noted that between uh class and CASBY that there were a couple of gaps that you thought existed within CASBY. What would be an example of a gap that would be filled through class?
>> I would say CA Casby focuses a lot on on um on policies that that cover the full range of Gambit. When you look at our policy manuals, they're they're pages. If we printed every policy in district 49 as if we printed every policy in
Elizabeth school district, it's like this. Our focus is on academic learning and parental rights. How do we how do we emphasize that within our policy manual? How do we refocus our attention on that? So, that's the main thing. And so, that's the the difference is they're a
broad organization that looks at the full gambit of running a school district. We're an organization really focused around the academic achievement of students. Um and again parental rights >> if you don't mind me asking um if you could elaborate what do you mean by
parental rights? >> Parental rights again is is parents parents raise their children. They instill whatever values they might have as a family. Um we want to make sure that's their job. It's not our job to change their values. It's our job to
support support the family in actually ensuring that children are learning the skills necessary to be successful when they leave leave our K12 system. Um so parental rights is it's their job to instill values and in religion and politics and whatever it is that's not
our job. We shouldn't be politics don't belong in school. Religion doesn't belong in school. That belongs in the home. Our job is not to interfere with that. Our job is to support parents in making sure their children are academically achieving necessary to be successful when they leave.
Okay. >> Okay. Any other questions? Director Hy, you had another question. >> Yeah, I was just trying to get it uh a little bit more of the the the parental rights thing because that seems to be a core reason for you guys existing and
for us joining. So, you were talking about um things being held back from the parents, like them not being told. I was just could you give us an example of what you're talking about? >> Yeah. In Colorado, children at at 12 years old can can be counseledled um in
schools without parental knowledge. Um and that's something that that's in the law that says it can happen. We believe that when we can partner with parents, there are certainly times where where where a child might share something in confidence that should be should be kept in confidence, but we really want to
encourage parents and schools and children to be partners. Um, and sometimes when when we when we look at no, we're going to exclude parents, a 12-year-old can ask for counseling and receive it and the parent never know it, we feel very strongly that when we can
involve that parent, we should. And and so we want to look at policies that don't create that barrier that say, "Well, you're 12, so I don't have to tell a parent." If it's appropriate to tell a parent, we should we should involve that parent because they're raising their child. So that that's that's the best example I can think of
right now. >> Director Li, you're right. >> So two questions. One, you keep saying an introductory rate for $1,000 or an introductory rate. Is there an introductory rate and then a renewing rate? And if so, what is the difference? >> We we are we are a fledgling
organization. So our our rate prior to this change was $3,500. Um and honestly, that was that was not in relationship to what we were able to provide. Um we worked with outside donors who have said, "No, we're going to fund uh the
the workings of your district. You need to charge what you need to make sure you can provide the services that are listed there." Um, so $1,000 is the introductory rate. We could see that going up to $1,500, but that will depend on the members. So, we'll be we'll be
working with our members. They were a part of the decision to change the rate structure um after working with our donors. And so, we see it as a $1,000 introductory rate. It could be 1,500, but it will depend really on the members as we proceed through our second year.
>> Okay. And I have another question. So, I can't tell from the slide what's included in the $1,000 and what costs extra to do. >> Everything there is included in the slide. The conferences, there's usually a fee because we're providing lunch and
and and and breakfast. Um, that's discounted for members, but everything on that list is included at no charge. >> Okay. So, any of the webinar style trainings or online trainings, that's all included in the thousands. >> Yes, ma'am.
Y >> and then I had a a question which it's okay if we don't have the answer to it but like I said to me I think you hit the nail on the head when you said this is supplemental to what's provided by CASBY. Um Superintendent Hilts, do you
know approximately what we spend with our CASBY membership every year? Because I'm just wanting to compare not as a as a replacement but as an auxiliary and to compare the cost. I don't want to misspe, but it is thousands of dollars
and it is scaled based on the size of the district. Um, but I can get a precise answer from you because the smart people that um write that check are sitting in this room. >> I know for Elizabeth, our our CASBY membership is is $12,700.
>> And what's And then I think ours would be probably more than double that. >> Yeah, we're we're definitely much smaller district. And so I just look at some of the great educational opportunities that are here if the board members choose to participate if this is moved forward tonight for a vote next
meeting. Director Schmidt. >> Yeah, I just had one little comment. I'm I'm really glad to see somebody trying to dial back some of the vast overreach that this state has thrust upon us. Um there's things that we want to work with that
they've given us and there's things that is overreach. So I would like to learn a little bit more about that. >> Sure. >> Yeah. That you know I think our goal is to work with you. I think school boards need to reflect the values of their community and and your your constituents
really drive should drive your decision-m at least in our opinion. You're elected by your constituents and therefore the values of your community, the values of the people who elected you should be reflected in the practices that you implement. Sometimes I think
people perceive that state law dictates values versus allowing you as board members to represent your community and determine what's right for your community. And I think that's really critical as as class. We want to show you some options and policies with with
CASBY. you get a policy. We have a we have policies that are unique, not all policies, but we have policies that are unique that give you some options that still meet the law, but at least allow you to say, does this reflect more of our community or not? And so, I think
that's critical is is again providing you some support and options to say, is this for us or is it not? Every policy you adopt is not going to be good for D20 and not going to be good for Elizabeth, but your policies need to reflect your community. And that's why you're elected. You're elected here to
to debate that, to discuss that, and to make those important decisions. Our goal is to make sure we provide you some options of, hey, here's some that other districts have done that might be a good starting point for you. >> Director Dola,
>> I just wanted to say thank you for coming and presenting to us. This is this is really important information and I learned a lot about what I didn't know. So, this is pretty pretty awesome. So yeah, I think this is going to be a good option for us if we choose to move this forward. >> Fantastic. Thank you.
>> Okay. Are there any other questions? >> Okay. Can I get a consensus to move this forward? >> Yes. >> Yes. Yes. >> No. >> I'm kind of in the middle um because I see value on some of the training end
possibly being online webinar. I'm assuming also accessible asynchronous. Yes. >> Um, which is difficult to find. Um, but there are some things about it that make me nervous. There are also we are also asking everyone in the district to
tighten their belt and we're asking to spend another thousand and and I'm not sure that that's the example that we want to set. Um, I think I would be okay with moving it forward if we also agree that we're going to review it in six months to make a decision about whether we do it
another year or not. That's where I would be. Director Dvola. >> Yes. For spending comparison, it costs a lot of money just to send me to the CASBY conference. So even though we have dues, right?
Uh I had to ask Lynette to get my hotel and to have my PE card and all that stuff. And that costs more for just one thing instead of 1,000 for all of us to
be able to access these resources. I think this is a good use of our our time, our money, especially since that's actually a small amount compared to what we spend on other things. >> Director Ohio. >> Yes, since I'm the only naysayer, I'll
go ahead and explain. Um, so yes, part of it is definitely that it is additional funds. You know, we can talk about how much we're spending on CASBY, but ultimately we're going to continue spending that on CASBY because we're going to continue that relationship. That's very important. When I look at like the the trainings that are
available here and I see some really good stuff, but I also understand that CASBY offers all of those things. um what gives me great pause and this is why I was so interested in pursuing it, you know, because parental rights is a
is a term that gets used in a lot of different ways and and means something very different to different people. When I hear the conversation is about like, you know, we're not going to step on values for the family, we got to understand that when our students come
to us, they need to be able to fit in cooperatively in an environment. And the fact of the matter is some of our families have some values that are going to be counterproductive in schools. We can't have racism in our schools. Like
we have laws and policies and we need to protect all our students. And so if a if that is the value that a student has come to our school with, it is appropriate for us to educate them um in
uh at least being able to get along with their peers even if they don't like them. Right? So those are the kinds of things that I hear and it's I I also hear too it it it just seems so many of the different partners that are involved in here are very hyperartisan
and so you know they are the conservative and I you do use air quotes there because I grew up in a Reagan Republican family. first presidential ballot I ever cast was for HW Bush. And I don't recognize
the things that are going on in school boards around this state that are very conservative. I don't recognize those things as as as being part of that tradition. And so, um, I think that we don't need to be bringing partisanship
into the school board. um that's why we run as nonpartisan and we don't get support from the political parties and uh I just I don't think that that kind of leadership is the kind of leadership we should be bringing in. Now I understand that there's an ecosystem of
a lot of different organizations uh independence institute etc where board members go out and get uh training there there was this thing out there that's also quite partisan and I just if you want to attend those things on your own for for your own money that's
perfectly fine I don't think we should be spending taxpayer resources to bring that into our district >> Vivian Nico's raised his in first and I so >> go first Nikos you want to go first
>> yeah I I definitely can agree with direct with what director how is saying I understand the importance of the familial teaching of those kinds of things whether that be through values religion all that kind of things I don't think that that should be involved
within the school district I don't believe that the school district should be imposing new values or even taking away some but obviously like director Dr. Hy noted there are some values which are obstructive to a positive learning environment not just for that particular
student but for others and I can say that as a student myself I see students around me and through values taught to them at home they create an unproductive environment for like I said themselves as well as me because that causes conflict on multiple levels. So it's
important that the district would continue to have the reach and policy in order to mitigate values such as that which create those unproductive environments. However, I think that there also is value in teaching that there are also some values which should
not be affected by the school district. >> Vivian, >> I think Nikos kind of took the words right out of my mouth. Um I think the perspective on wanting to maintain uh parental rights is very important. But I
think uh as as a student who also attends the same school as Nikos, there are definitely students who uh learn values at home that do become very destructive and very uh quite frankly detrimental to the whole learning environment. Um and so do you have in
suggest these suggested policies is there any I don't know any language about such such values or or is it a broad overreach of all parental values? >> Yeah, I think it's important to note some of the examples that would be
negative family values are also illegal and so nothing in class would ever recommend something that's illegal. Racism is illegal. Um there's policies that demand that that you know children come to school without harassment,
without racial discrimination. That's all the law. So please hear when we talk about family values, you're talking about a you're talking about a some exceptions that are sad and that need to be dealt with and discipline is appropriate. That's not something class
opposes. U but we also feel like there are values that we shouldn't touch. to your point, I think it's it's critical that we recognize you values that impede others learning, values that impede the learning environment, those aren't okay. Um, but but typically the values we're
talking about are things that parents instill in their children while raising them that we want them to go home and and have those values. So, >> well, and that's that's a very important point that I was going to get to because we have families here that are Muslim. >> They have a certain set of values. They
have certain uh remembrances or days that they honor. There are Christians, there are Jews, there are atheists. Each family can be a little bit different. But we do have federal and state law that has to be we have to abide by that. We have a student handbook that covers
that. We were the first district to pass a parents bill of rights and responsibilities. And so, in my opinion, it does align with our district. And I did hear a quorum tonight that we have three yays to move this forward to an action item. So I wanted to thank you
for presenting and thank you for a very educational and informative topic. >> Thank you very much. Appreciate it. >> Next we have revisions to policy KA stakeholder grievance and I think do we have we have a presentation on this?
Good evening. Uh I'm Paul Anderson, the executive director for people and culture uh custodian of uh this policy and I've worked with um this policy now well since its inception. I think in 2014 um we we haven't done a really significant revision to this in some
time and um about two and a half years ago I hired Sonia Marake Smith who uh joined us as HR manager specifically working with culture and compliance matters as we did some reorganization. And one of the things that she bravely took on is the stakeholder grievance
process and policy. Um so most of what you see tonight is Sonia's work. Um after having worked with us very closely over the the past couple of years. I'm going to let her walk through um what what she's outlined here. Uh and then we'll be available for questions.
>> Good evening board members. Sonia Marin Smith, human resources manager. Um as you had before you, you have the revised policy uh before you stakeholder grievance process. In summary, the proposed revisions enhance the clarity
of the policy. Um it's basically not altering the policy's intent whatsoever. It just better defines the why, the who, the what, the how, and the when of the policy's application. In addition, in
the revision, we clarified that the policy applies only to district operated schools and not charter schools as charters are maintained by their own local governance. And this was included because we happened to have
a number of charter school grievances that were coming through to us to handle. And most of those grievances were dealing with dress code, with application of discipline, uh, curriculum and instruction,
classroom management, um, personality conflicts. So, you know, it's it's hard to try to take an angry parent and redirect them to back to their charter school and their processes
to handle any type of issues or concerns. So, we just felt that including this language into the policy would help clarify that it really is intended for district operated schools.
Um, we've had in total in the five years about 114 grievances. Of those that we've had approximately 18 coming from charter schools. So, not a great number, but if you look at
percentage-wise, you're looking at approximately 16% coming from charter schools and the remainder from district operated um uh schools, which is parents, community members, or students as well as employees.
And that's basically a summary of the policy, and I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have. Do we have any questions? >> Okay, Director Schmidt. >> Yeah, I have a few comments actually.
Um, there are many revisions in this and it's in blue, so it's really difficult to read. >> The board really did not give any input and some of us would have liked to have given some input in this.
um actually adoption of new policies or the revision or repeal of existing policies is solely the responsibility of the board of education. So to have had someone ask us to work with them on this would have been a major bonus. Um I have
some initial suggestions. I have five bullet points. I'll give you two and then we'll go down the line and then we can come back to my other ones. The 2019 policy says that stakeholders are to be treated with fairness and respect in one area and respect and courtesy in another area. The current proposed revisions
change that to engaging with them respectfully and equitably. Last time I checked, we still have an executive order against DEI language. DEI language is not permitted for at least three more years. We should probably stick with fairness, respect,
and courtesy in my opinion. Um, regarding applicability, non-residents are not mentioned at all. The district just lost a case that included a non-resident as one of the plaintiffs. Why would we leave out how to address non-residents? Non-residents
can be part of the civics groups that you've mentioned in this. Um, I'm sorry, I lost my spot. Oh, if civic groups can propose policy, they should be able to file a grievance as well, in my opinion. In addition, non-residents
pay federal taxes, about 10% of our district revenues, from federal sources. Because non-residents contribute funding, they technically are stakeholders and should be allowed to file a grievance in attempt to avoid lawsuits. And again, I do have a few more, but
I'll kick it on down the line. >> Mr. >> Director Hy, >> Mr. speaking legal counsel uh there's not a place for external uh folks who are external to the district to use an internal polic uh process that would
they they would be relegated as your friend was to an external process through courts and other means. So that would not be an appropriate addition. >> Okay. So if civic groups can be part of policy,
should we be removing them from that area as well because many of those are non-residents. >> Just to kind of jump in here for a minute, typically policies are brought to us by administration. And what makes
our district really unique and I think kind of wonderful, then the board has input on that, which is what we're doing tonight. And because of that input, if there is a quorum, we have agreed in the past to change it. There are other districts where the policies are put in
place with absolutely no input from the board, but the board of education does not write the administrative policies. They are presented to us and we have input into those policies. And so just
to just another one, um equitable means to be treated fairly. If if that one should not be any part of the executive order, there are other words for equitable such as unbiased, unpre prejudice, fair-minded, even-handed. And
so I have no objection to changing it, but I just want to make clear that has nothing to do with the executive order. And I in it's my understanding that's used in a court of law frequently, Mr. Miller. >> Yeah, it looks that you're addressing
that to me. So, first Deb, I looked at you uh because I wasn't clear on what your question was. I wasn't I wasn't uh I I would say that stakeholders can participate in in development of policies and protocols and things like
that. I'm not adverse to that. What I was trying to say was that I don't think folks who are not stakeholders to this district should have access to our internal grievance processes. They're not subject to our policies.
the grievance processes are applied to our policies and and the way that they're um you know applied to individuals and so there's just no basis to include them as petition potential participants in our in our process in terms of developing policy that's a
different question and then to your question directed to me um the term equitably doesn't fall under the the guise of DEI in my estimation but then I do agree with you there could be other words. >> Director Hy
>> and just a quick comment on that the executive order. So the president issues a executive order that gives instructions to his employees. Um we are not employees of the federal government. We have local control. We write our own policies. Um I want to um I want to
commend you on this. This was a major overhaul. Um I I do agree that that made it difficult to tease out what the differences are. So my interpretation of it and I just want to get this uh you know confirmed or denied is um that it
was essentially a tightening up of language but um it was largely unchanged in far as intent. Is that correct? >> That is correct. >> Okay. And I do want to thank you for including the bit about uh the charter grievance process because the school
board receives emails directly um from folks who don't who aren't plugged into the grievance process and yeah we have to tell them you know your your charter schools have their own school boards and their own policies and uh we we can't help you. So thank you for that.
>> Thank you Director Liby. You're right. Oh, and just real quick too, I wanted to tell you that the the the changes as far as the style and uh clarity, huge upgrade. Thank you, >> Director Livier. Right. So, this was my baby in 2014. Um, it was originally my
idea to have a stakeholder agreements process. And so, the history and the purpose behind it was that, okay, prior to this policy, >> what happened at board meetings was our open forum signup were filled every single time. And they were filled every
single time with people coming about things they were upset about. Similar to some of the emails we used to get. The number of emails we get now is way way less with this policy in place um about things happening to schools. Sometimes they were from employees. Sometimes they were from parents. Um and some of which
were things that legitimately needed to be addressed, but we can't address it, investigate it, solve it from an open forum statement. We can't really do it from an email. um people felt they had no way to reach out to the board and say, "Hey, something's going on here that isn't okay." This gives folks
within our system a way to do that through a process. So, the process allows you to eventually communicate with the board, but it takes you through all the right people first so that if you have, you know, a problem in your building and you've gone to the
principal and it's not being solved and you don't understand what to do, well, you trigger this process. Now the principal has to formally address it. If that isn't sufficient, it goes to that principal supervisor all the way up the chain. And the vast 114 you've had in five years. Um how many of those have
actually reached the board level? >> It's been minimal. I can say that it's been maybe a handful. >> Correct. Maybe. >> So in the past 114 of those things would have been directly communicated to all of us. >> Right. >> Um the vast majority of those things were solved. solved in a way that
allowed people to move forward in relationship and kept us in our proper role. Um, and so policy is serving its purpose and as someone who was behind the original one, I think the rewrite is a beautiful job um that reflects both
reflects the intent, tightens the language um and ensures people really understand what's grievable and what's not. Um because that's always a challenge. Um, but um, I've been on both sides of the grievance process as well and I've seen it work in in in many
ways. So, I am I'm really happy with the job you did on that rewrite. Thank you so much. >> Thank you, >> Director Dvola. >> Yeah. Um, I I have a question for you. So on page two on the very very bottom
it talks about um like protections for staff members. So it says district administrators in the board will not consider complaints about staff members that have not been formally addressed using the appropriate grievance forms and appeals procedure. Um oh wait that's
not the right one is it? Nope. I'm on the wrong page. Ah, sorry. Page four, I apologize. So, page four did not mean to scare you, Lori. Um, is the first the second paragraph there where it says district
49 will make every effort. It says district 49 will make every effort to ensure that those named in a complaint or who are closely are who are too closely associated with these involved in the complaint will not be part of the investigative team or efforts. Um so I
saw that taken out. I did not see where that was put back in to give protections for um for um staff members. And so I just wanted to make sure that that those protections were put back
into the policy to make sure that those who are too closely associated with those involves in the complaint are not a part of the investigative team. If that it's not included, it should have been. >> And this is how the board has input. And I agree that that
>> I think it's kind of tacitly included at the bottom of the process and procedures where it talks about you may appoint a neutral process facilitator perhaps. It's some something in there. >> Oh, there it is. >> It's under process and procedures. >> There's a whole paragraph. It actually says individuals directly named in a
grievance or those with a close association to the matter shall not. So the language actually got stricter. Participate in the review or decision-making process. Where appropriate, the district may engage an external investigator to ensure objectivity. So it actually became stronger language. >> Okay. Where where is that
>> that's located >> procedure? If you look at the cleaned up one instead of the blue one, it's on page two at the bottom. >> Oh, okay. I I think it's hard when it's all blue. >> I realize I'm sorry. Page one at the
bottom. Okay. So, it was put back in. I just wanted to make sure it was there. I was looking above and below and I was like, it's not there. >> And honestly, I'm glad you mentioned that. And that's why we work to clean up the policy to this way to organize it in
a fashion that you can find things under purpose, applicability, grievable matters, process and procedures, timeline, and such. So, it's a lot easier to read. And one thing that I wanted to talk about when they clarified what is a stakeholder. A stakeholder is
someone whose children attend our schools. That means if they live here or they don't live here. A stakeholder is someone who lives here who may or may not have kids in our school district. But I don't want somebody from Boulder, Colorado coming down and utilizing our
grievance process when they have no skin in the game. And so I like the way you define stakeholder and how you clarify that this isn't intended for me for complaints against the board of education and that's why we have public comment where you can come and speak to
the board about things you're happy with or not. And so I think overall it is very good. Um are there additional questions here director Schmidt? Yeah, a couple of them have already been taken care of so I just have one left.
Um the revisions say that the district may modify the timelines at the discretion of the official reviewing the grievance and will be communicated to the agrieved in a timely manner. Is reasonable modifying the timeline also
an available option for the agrieved? We do work with the grievant regarding timelines and the reason we do that is because of the fact that we do have uh the regulation which is ka-r which specifically outlines timelines as far
as the number of days that we are to contact each individual and the steps therefore and what we come into is let's say that the district is closed for district holiday or holiday break or we
have all of those built into the calendar. So, we try to make sure or let's say that individual is going to be out of the country for a reason or on vacation or a family matter comes up. So, we work together with both the grievant and the the district or whoever the hearing party is to go ahead and
make arrangements for that. We've done that throughout the time that I've overseen it. >> But should that should that be shown in the policy >> or just the regulation? the regulation because we refer that in the regula to
that in the regulation. Director Hy. >> Yeah, I know. I wanted to thank you for bringing up the regulation too because I came across a random comment on social media where somebody got the was looking at our agenda and this item and got the impression that the school board was
taking itself out of the grievance process. And so the regulation is unchanged that outlines how the process works and it clearly establishes the roles and the steps and uh it it it delineates that the board of education is very much a part of that.
>> Yes, >> director Dvola. Uh my only suggestion um for just clarity purposes and so that there's no interpreted misconstrued ideas. I think it might be
better to say respectfully and with fairness or fairly and respectfully just so we we don't like it's I mean it's even here at the board meeting it's been misconstrued. So I think it's important for us to just
make it really clear. There's just fairness and respect. >> We'll make a note of that. >> And then so if we look at right here, Vivian and Nikos, your choice in I don't know if you live in the district, Nikos. And what we try to do is always solve it
at the lowest possible level. So if there's a complaint with the teacher first, you deal with the teacher. If that doesn't work out, then we escalate it to the principal and there are steps to take to handle it at the lowest possible level. One of the reasons director lever Wright helped work on
this is we used to have people come to public forum who wanted to excoriate a teacher publicly and that's what we do not allow because sometimes it's a matter of opinion like there are people who think I'm less than awesome I mean seriously so you know it's just a case
of of handling it at the lowest possible level and to have a process where you can be heard where parents can be heard and stakeholders could be heard. Do you guys have any questions about these revisions? Nikos, your hand went up first. >> Not questions, but I guess I would just
continue to expand the gratitude that's already been provided towards the revision of this policy. As someone who's held several leadership positions personally, maybe not as high as that of being on a school board, but I understand the importance of a grievance process cuz I I think it's pretty
logical that the very first step to solving issues is being aware of them. you can't really solve that which you don't know. So continuing to upkeep such policies that way those who are stakeholders who have as it was mentioned skin in the game in the district are able to provide those to
the levels required in order for those issues to be solved. >> Um >> Vivian yeah >> yeah I think I I quite personally very much enjoy the policy and the the revisions to it. I I especially like the stronger wording about um ensuring that
it's neutral and when investigations happen, it is neutral because I know that uh that can go bad very quickly. So, uh as somebody who has also been in a lot of leadership positions, I think having a formal process for grievances is really important. Um and I think that way the way that you have the the
original policy was structured was very um nicely done and the way that you've revised it is very nicely done. Um, but it the revisions seem to be incredibly important for clarification, but in no way, at least from what I've read, do they seem to change the actual
motto or importance or like intent, thank you, purpose behind them. Um, so yeah, very well done from a student perspective at least. And so I think we have at least one suggested word change just to have one that has more um if if it it's the same
meaning that's what's most important. And I noticed where you took some phrases and you rephrased them and they were streamlined. But if it takes the 16% for charter schools and they see right when they start the process we are in the wrong spot then I think that is a
very good move. And uh also I understand that we are going to be losing you. >> No, not me. >> Not you. Okay. I saw Paul tip over. Someone had told me that you were going to another No, no, no. I heard someone
was going to another district. So, okay. I didn't mean to terrify anyone. It's one of your colleagues. >> Okay. So, I got the wrong name. Good. Because uh I'm making arrangements right now for that colleague. We're going to arrange for kneecapping to occur up in
the Monument School District. So, we were starting to make plans tonight of who we could and we have a couple of names in mind of who to go after. I'm glad it's not you. >> Okay. So, thank you for presenting tonight. So, you're welcome, >> Mr. Anderson. Now that I've caused
terror, bewilderment, and a little everybody's awake now. That's good. >> Okay. Thank you for I'm glad we got to the truth about this. I'm I'm very glad Sonia's staying. Uh thank you for your time tonight. Okay, then it looks like do I have uh
we're looking at changing that word and then do I have a consensus to move this forward for action? >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. Yes. All righty. So, now we are on to a new
job description, information technology specialist. And I also wanted to thank Director Schmidt for pointing out that we didn't have the first read on this job description, so it was moved from action to discussion. And Rebecca, none of your team is
leaving. >> No, I sure hope not. I'd be in quite a pickle. We just got fully staffed. Um I I would like to just thank the board. Um Mr. Buena is not available this evening and um the oversight in
getting that to action instead of discussion was mine. Uh so thank you for the correction on that and um the uh patience with with my lack of understanding how the job descriptions go. So, um, this very, very high level,
we were able to repurpose a couple positions that, um, had retirements, um, and they were very high paid ProTek 4 positions, and we were able to take a step back and look at what the district really needed and repurpose those
positions. Um, and so we are looking to um, best meet the the needs of the district with this new job description. Do you guys have any questions for me? >> Director Schmidt. Okay. So, we're coming down in
expertise. Is that what you're saying there? I would say instead of it being a specific management role, which they were unfortunately management roles without managing staff, >> um we are more appropriately placing
this based on the needs of what we need. It still will be a highle not support role, but it is more appropriately placed than a manager title. >> Okay. Um, according to the job
description, this position only needs a high school diploma with other credentials that are only listed as preferred. So, is it entry level? It is not necessarily entry level, but I think,
and this is probably um and maybe I'm I I'll just speak to my own philosophy that you don't necessarily have to have a very strict level of education to be
able to do these jobs well. So, I think the right mix of experience with the minimum level of education for the right person if they're the right fit works. >> Nikos, >> I I'll note to that as well. Underneath
experience, three years with end user support and infrastructure support are required. >> Yeah, >> I thought they were. >> No. So underneath the education and training there's the preferred for the CCNA JAMF200 and then the Google admin
certification. But underneath experience it says three years required with end user support required and three years with infrastructure support required. >> Thank you for that clarification. Director Hy
>> and as somebody who has um who does not have a college degree who would feel very comfortable doing this job I say that um you're perfectly fine not specifying a degree for this but I get a little concerned about only three years of infrastructure support. I think that
um this is somebody who's going to be doing a lot of um of um you know figuring out the right technology mix and understanding contracts and um things like that. And I feel like three
years experience is pretty light. Um I would I would want to see somebody who has been in the industry for a while. I would want to see somebody who has supported a number of different platforms just so that they can understand what they're what they're
learning about. Um, and I would I would kind of lean closer to 10 years than three. >> So, I just want to point out that this would be in close conjunction with our technology coordinator who also has more experience and we do also rely on advice
and uh consulting from Sentinel as well. So this is very much combined where they would not be the only one making this decision. So that is why we have set the experience at that level. >> Okay. Thank you for that clarification. >> You bet.
>> Director Schmidt. So with the you had mentioned it well it's mentioned in the job description talking about um security internet security. um is this person going to work with all
those other people because we did have CRA or we did have a breach and I'm very concerned about that as well. So cyber security is very primarily handled through Sentinel. However, this will be a partner and helps with the plan of the
district and the direction that we go along with our technology coordinator as well and Peter and myself are also still very involved in that as well. >> Yeah. And just for for clarity for the record, we did not have a breach. A provider had a breach and they breached
our data, but it was had nothing to do with anything that Sentinel did wrong that our that our people did wrong. And they've taken responsibility for that. They've funded uh data oversight or data data um tracking for all the affected users. Uh and so this this position
while critical is not positioned to the level where their either inexperience or decision-m would put us at risk. >> Thank you for that clarification. >> And I just wanted to make a comment when you talk about three years with enduser
support required. I have encountered different professionals in my field where I have met people with less experience and people with more experience and it really was aptitude more so than years. I mean I would love
to say years always equate to the best performance but hopefully that's why we have supervisors. We have people who support it and train it. And so when you have a good working team and since we're doing such a great job at staffing right
now, um to know that aptitude really is important. So >> absolutely. All as well as attitude. >> What? >> Oh, Nikos, >> I did have one question which I guess
may be attributed to the fact that I'm extremely illiterate in terms of district budgets. Uh I don't I just see a lot of numbers on the screen when we talk about that. But something that did stand out was underneath uh near the bottom where it says budget responsibility that the position does
not have any direct budget responsibility. Now I could be reading that wrong, but it just sounds like they don't get paid, which obviously isn't the case, but if I could have clarification on that. >> That's us, Nikos. We're the ones who don't get paid.
>> Oh, okay. Just just making sure. So just to to clarify that just means they do not hold responsibility over a district budget. They do not have that level of responsibility. They do not require purchasing in this position. That would be part of a a budget
responsibility that would fall under their supervisor, Mr. Buena. >> Thank you for that clarification. >> You bet. >> And also, didn't you combine take away two positions for the one position? So, we took two positions and turned it into
two other positions. The other one did not require a job description to come to the board because it was already very similar to an existing one. It had very minor changes. Um, this one, however, was deemed very heavily changed and it needed to come to the board to make sure
that you guys approved of the change to this job description. But both are considerably less. one went to an hourly position um and then this one jumped from what was a four down to a a protek three. So both are more efficient uses
uh of our financial stewardship monies. Um and so it it nets in a budget savings. Yes. >> Okay. Do I have a consensus to move this forward for action? >> Yes. >> Yes.
>> Yes. >> Yes. Yes. >> Thank you so much for pitch hitting on the presentation. You did awesome. >> Thank you. >> Next up, we have a department update for
nutrition services. Good evening board and good evening community. I am Monica Dyn Henderson, your director of nutrition services. It is my pleasure to be here for the nutrition department's annual update.
There we go. Um, I like to always start with this first slide. The nutrition department is actually reauthorized annually by the entire United States Department of Congress. I think it's very important for our community to understand how child nutrition is
funded, founded, and regulated in the United States. So everything that we do in the child nutrition department is controlled by Congress and the United States Department of Agriculture. We um
are a special revenue fund which means we operate as an enterprise. In short, we are a business operating inside the school district and we do not take any local school district funding.
We are totally taxed by the United States Congress to make every penny we need to operate from the sale and service of meals to our kids.
We are established under USDA to operate as a not for profit. It that does not mean we cannot make money. It just means we cannot make an absorbinate amount of money as say
McDonald's would. We do need to make enough money to cover all of our expenses and to have funds in reserve to pay for things like equipment repair, replacement, and just general upkeep of
kitchen operations. Under Congress, we are allowed to have a three months fund balance for operating costs. Under the current regulations, we can retain up to six months without having
to give justification to our authorizing state agency in the state of Colorado. That's the Colorado Department of Education. If we were in Texas, it would be to the Department of Agriculture. Um, again, we are self-funded. We do not
utilize any general fund support in any normal operating times. I like to put that caveat in there because when COVID and everything shut down, the school district was kind enough to help make
sure the child nutrition staff got paid and we didn't have to lay people off. Extra um we do have an extra layer of accounting rules because we have to report to Congress and we have to
justify to USDA all of our purchases. We have a more stricter level of purchasing requirements and bid requirements. So, anytime we go out to like even want to
buy a new microwave for a kitchen because the microwave went down, we have to get three cost quotes. It doesn't matter what purchasing threshold that is, I still have to prove that we did our due diligence when it comes to
auditing time that we got the best price for that industrial microwave. Now, I will say on a caveat, we cannot buy our microwave from Walmart. It has to be a commercial industrial microwave, which triples the cost.
All right, on to the fun stuff. The department when fully staffed has about 103 staff members. At the time when I was putting this forward, we had six open positions. So, that's really good.
We serve at 24 sites districtwide because we do provide meals to charter schools, too. We prepare at 22 of those sites. We transport food to two of our charter schools. Last year, we serve 342,000
plus breakfastes. That's an average of over 2,000 children every morning choosing to eat breakfast with us. And we almost did 1.5 million lunches last year. So on that
average, you're talking, you know, almost 10,000 lunches a day. So if you add those two together, we are touching over 12,000 students every day with a meal in this district. End of the year revenue, we made almost
8 million. We spent 7.5 mil and I always put in the caveat that was what the exact expenses were to the department before we um contributed to indirect cost recovery to the school district. So
we did have a net profit of $241,000. We did go through the required administrative review that is under uh federal law. Every three years, state of Colorado has a waiver for every five years. You have to have administrative
review that analyzes every aspect of the child nutrition program right down into the weeds. So, anything you can think about, it has to be looked at. um all the financial spending, all the free and
reduced applications, all certification, meal pattern requirements, everything has to be done. We had zero critical findings. A critical finding is something where the federal government can take funding back from us. We had
zero critical findings. We had two technical assistance findings and I find these fun so I have to share these. There were best practices that they came up with. One was a very colorful
um take this much salad or this many tomatoes or these many carrots to equal your half cup requirement to put that on our garden bar lines. Now, half of our schools had them. The one school they were at, unfortunately, a child had
removed it that day. So, I thought that was fun. Um, you'll be surprised what children like to remove. And the other technical assistant was we had a educational poster that had a bottle of
water and you like a soda bottle, you know, choose your calorie content educational poster. and they had placed it in the milk cooler cubby in an elementary school because it fits
perfectly and it was beautiful. It's a beautiful colorful poster trying to tell kids what are the your better beverage choices. Well, there is a federal law that says you cannot have competing beverage signage
in a child nutrition serving line. And because it was over the milk cooler, we had to move it. So it literally pulled that down, walked it over to the beginning of the serving line and put it up on the other wall and we were in compliance.
Um, so I just find those funny. I I have to share those. Um over the years, this is just a summation of how this department has been able to contribute through indirect
cost funding back to the district. Now, with indirect costs, I think it's really important to understand the child nutrition program must have over three months retained earnings before this could ever happen.
And then it's a very structured formula of how it can be figured out. And needless to say, with free meals for all the past year, we've been able to save up and be conservative with our
money because that's just the way we run. We run conservative on a half a penny every time. We were able to contribute something that I know several of you have heard me say before. It's like our annual PBS contribution to the district.
This is our fundraising drive. The child nutrition program was able to contribute $411,000 to the general fund. And um I am going to skip past questions for a sec because I I really feel this is
truly truly important for everybody in the district to understand that right now in our district we have a 28% almost 29% free and reduced population. That means that almost a third of our
students, so over 1/4 of our students, almost one-third of our students in our district live in a household with food insecurity. And I think that is extremely important for everybody who touches these children every day to
understand that we don't know where that child is coming from before they step in front of us. And we don't know what is making them act up. they could just be really, really hungry and we need to always keep that in mind. So, with that,
I will go to questions. Vivian, you had your hand up first. >> Yay. Nikos didn't beat me to it this time. Okay. Um, I have a question. So, I uh from what I understand, this is this year's report or last year's report on everything.
>> Yeah, the 2425 school year. >> Okay. Um, this is just kind of a question more so because it relates to our school and we don't really get to talk about nutrition because we don't have a cafeteria. So, um, we on slide three of eight it says transport
meals to two sites and you said charters. I believe if I'm correct, we are now getting meals at our school. >> Your spring studio, right? >> Yes, we are studio. >> That will be starting next week. >> Okay, wonderful. That was just a question. Miss kind of Thank you for that. Um, and then,
oh, I had another question. Give me one second. Oh, no. I wanted to say, uh, what a good job you did considering that the, um, the administrative review, the technical assistance, this, how silly they kind of were. Um, and that you guys only had two of them. That's pretty
cool. If that such specific guidelines with it, that you only had two. Very impressive. Um, >> I have great staff. >> Yeah, I mean, I believe it. It's pretty cool. Uh, but yeah, that was all. Thank you. Nikos. >> Yeah. I just wanted to go back to that number that you mentioned where it was
the almost 1.5 million meals uh served over the year. Earlier I didn't know anything about budgets, so I wrote down numbers so way I could redeem myself. So according to the state of Colorado within District 49, there are 26,649
students. If there were 1,499,424 meals served over the 2425 school year, that would equate to 8,717 over uh the day, which is a third of the entire students in the district being served meals, which I think is so
important because I don't know, I'm I feel like I could say everyone here needs to eat to survive. Yes, that's good. And that includes the students. So being able to provide meals for so many and a large portion of those students not being able to receive that
sustenance otherwise I think is just great. >> I appreciate that. And something to keep in mind with that statistic is that is all the students in district 49. Not all the students in district 49 are in what I always say a
brickandmortar school with a traditional meal program like our goal students. They're counted in our population, but they do not come to our schools. So, you're really looking at for population about 18,000
students that we have the opportunity to touch every day. >> Director Hy, >> I wanted to give you an opportunity to plug an event since you you're here uh with us. So the taste of D49 event is
did I get the the name correct? Um so that happens every year. It is fun for the whole family. Um you come to uh Vistar Ridge High School and they have vendors out there with all kinds of um uh goodies that they want to offer to
our students and they're really looking for feedback. So you come in and you take samples and you talk to the vendors and then you you you taste it and then you um rate them on what you like, what you don't like so that um uh you our
staff can make good decisions and uh it's really a fun event. So do you have that on the calendar? Can you give us an idea when that's going to happen? >> We used to always do it right around spring break, but we've had so many snows storms right around spring break. had been cancelled a lot of times that
we're now doing it in April. So, look for the advertisement to come out around Aprilish and we really love to have everybody's feedback because what we get from that are the items that were the most popular with the students and will
land on the menu for the following school year. Director Schmidt. Yeah, thanks Monica for the presentation and we really appreciate you keeping their billies bellies full because you
can't learn on an empty stomach. Um, we did receive an email. Now, this isn't a question or anything. It's just kind of information for everybody. We did receive an email and a mom was upset. She thought her student had only gotten
10 minutes to eat their lunch. Now, we know that's probably exaggerated. Um, as a past kitchen manager myself who is in many of the schools at all ages, I know that every school is a bit different in how much time administration gives them
for lunch. The minimum when I was around was about 20 minutes for lunch. Now, that starts when the students line up in the classroom or come in for recess. If the students are goofing off, they can cut their time into getting into the
cafeteria pretty severely. Um, also at the beginning of the year, calming down for one thing, but they're trying to remember their pin numbers and they're trying to choose what meals. Some of them are new. Like you said, we get some new items from these things.
Um, I've heard though that the average time it takes for a student to get through the lunch line at D49 from the moment they get to the front of the serving line past the point of sale, the cash register, is 11 seconds. That's pretty fast. Uh, those amazing lunch
ladies are doing such a great job. Still back in my day, I also felt that the time given for eating was very rushed and many students truly even on 20 minutes are having a difficult time eating that food that fast. So I'm
thinking food for thought for everybody involved. Maybe when setting these lunch times, we should remember that most adults in the workplace are allotted a minimum of 30 minutes for lunch, not 20.
So that's that's my thing. Thanks again. You did a good job. >> Thank you, Director Davilla. >> Yes, I had a question and you may have answered this question while I went to relief myself. Um but for um the revenue
portion, I do know that we have uh that the students last year received free lunches for all. So, is that revenue provided with the um funding that came with the free lunches for all? Is that that? Okay. And then um
uh do we know if that's going away in December or if we're going to be able to roll it over cuz we we heard that it's done in December and we start charging for lunches and that it's actually going to be more expensive than it had
previously. It is going to be very entertaining is the word I like to use. Um Mr. Hilts and I have already visited about this. The state of Colorado's voters passed
the initiative for free lunches for all. So right now free lunches for all is totally not totally there all the non-qualified free or reduced students lunches are being and breakfastes are being compensated by the state of
Colorado's taxpayers for funding at the federal free reimbursement rate. And so yes, that's where all that funding has come from. But the JBC
was not expecting the um program to be as well received as it has been by families who do not have the same economic needs as those families in a free or reduced
household. So the families who have economic needs are really taking good advantage of this, which is good because it's leveling the playing field for all kids. They don't have to worry about did mom or dad put lunch money on my account. Everybody's eating. They're
well educated. They're ready or well nourished, so they're ready to go be educated. Um there was a $54 million shortfall in the state of Colorado in that funding this past year. So what our
legislators decided to do was to put it back to the taxpayers. So, there will be two ballot measures in November, and both ballot measures are going to be asking for the taxpayers to reook at how
they want to fund free meals for all. And I will leave it at that because that goes into a whole political world that I think everybody needs to research on their own and they don't need my direction. But just know if one
of the measures does not pass then the program will become modified. If both measures do not pass, then the program ends December 31st and our families will go back to having to pay. Well, the
non-f free or reduced qualified families will have to go back to having to pay for their meals starting when they come back from Christmas break, >> which brings up an important point that director Liier Wright has brought up before as well, how important it is to do the applications for the free and
reduced lunch because it not only impacts the lunch programs, but it also impacts other fees that the students pay that can be waved. So there are a lot of other benefits for qualifying families and it's important to um fill out those
applications. And then I think director Levier Wright wanted to say something or >> Yeah. May may I may just make very quick point. Um because we have a deadline for families to apply for free and reduced and because it's uncertain whether the
state program will be funded, we are absolutely encouraging everybody who's even on the bubble, even considering it, please apply. If state funding comes through, you haven't lost anything. If you don't apply and state funding doesn't come through, that could create
a hardship. And I am not taking a position, but I am a futurist. I predicted that the federal title funding would show up. It did. I predict that both of these measures will fail and that families will be will need to have their FRL applications in um by January
1st. That's a prediction. That's not advocacy in either way. But my sense of the temperature politically around this referendum is that it it was it was already so much higher than projected. It's difficult to imagine the electorate
will kind of sign on to another potentially open-ended increase. >> And our student board has been very patient waiting to ask questions. So, let's go with ladies first with Vivian. >> Oh, okay.
Um, I was just going to say uh before I have to leave because I have to get up early tomorrow for volunteering. Um, I just wanted to say as a kid who was on free and reduced uh all throughout elementary school and most of middle school um as a personal student
testimony, free and reduced is a wonderful program. Um, and it's really important to acknowledge how much it affects students and how well specifically our district has done with it. um and on honoring free and reduced and and ensuring that there's no shame when it comes to saying like yeah, it's
okay to need free or reduced lunches or anything like that. Um so yeah, that's just something I it's a little I like to toot the trumpets the yeah whatever you know what I meant. Um and the district does very well. Um so yeah, thank you for that for
>> Thank you for participating tonight. >> Good night guys. It was so nice to be here. Thank you for having me. Okay, Nikos, I think you had your hand up and then we're going to go to director Olivia Wright. >> Yeah, I guess first preliminarily, if we're trying to get a move on, I could give opinions on literally everything.
So, if we're trying to get moving, I will not take offense if you're like, "Put your hand down, Nikos." But for this particular item, since my hand was not told to be put down, uh, I just kind of wanted to expand on that 11-second number which was mentioned. If that
statistic is accurate, that's great. As it was mentioned at the campus, which is Pikes early College and Spring Studio for Academic Excellence, we don't have a cafeteria. So, I haven't had to deal with lunch lines in a few years. But I can think back to when I did have to deal with those lunch lines. And anytime
I think about it, I feel like I'm recalling a war zone. Uh it it's going out from recess, you're playing, you hear the whistle blow, everyone rushes towards the lines because they want to have enough time to be able to eat their lunch without shoveling it into their mouths. So if there has indeed been that
significant of an improvement to the pace where that's going, that is awesome. I will say that um we have been fortunate enough to have a lot of dietetic interns uh shadow us and one of the things we've
done is we've had the interns do time studies and that 11 seconds is from when that student gets to the front of the line and through the line gets their tray makes their decisions through the garden bar and hits that point of sale.
That only takes 11 seconds. Now, if you have 30 kids in your class, that line's going to go a lot faster for you. Now, if you have 70 kids in your class and you're not the first kid in the, as you said, the war zone getting in line, it's
going to feel a lot longer. And this is a national um concern. >> Yeah, I see. Even given that though, even the 11 seconds through the line is improvement from what I can remember cuz
congestion obviously happens. I'm sitting through. I already got my milk. I got my tray. But Carl's in front of me and he can't decide if he wants carrots or cucumbers. So 11 seconds is still a major improvement. >> Crazy. Carl, Director Levier, right?
I just wanted to thank you again for the great job you did, but I also wanted to point out something else about your program. Um, another way in which you impact students is that you allow our 18 to 21 year olds in transitions to come and work in two of your kitchens um to
learn some of their um work-based learning skills and um so they can figure out a whether they enjoy that type of work and b gain some skills. And um my one child who completed the 18 to 21 program
does not want to work in a kitchen with that level of stress um but did get much more confident in preparing her own meals which is an important independent skill as well. And so I want to thank you for being open to partnering and helping students to grow and to develop
those independent living and workplace learning skills. Um, lots of times people aren't willing to give them the chance and seeing them being given the chance in our district. And we do actually have quite a few community partner businesses that give our students a chance as well. You'll see them at Safeway and Walmart and
Guadalajara and Crumble and um I'm not even remembering all of them. I think there's a fitness place that just came on as well. Um, but thank you for giving them that opportunity and for welcoming them into those kitchens. >> It is our pleasure.
I would just like to add I heard you use the phrase getting into the weeds. Is this how we're supplementing our vitamin C? Um I did want to thank you and I wanted to touch real quick on what a board does and what
administration does. In a perfect world, we would say okay let's make sure that every child has XYZ. We have competing factors in there and that includes teacher lunchtime, student lunchtime,
etc. Then we have the CDC with instructional minutes that are required for school funding. And so what we try not to do as a board is step into the administrative world because that is our principles, our zone leaders, our
superintendants and it can be really tough to figure out those perfect solutions. Also sometimes people aren't quite clear like well the district operated schools are closed. Why are the charter schools closed? Well, they don't have any food because
if the district is closed, the kitchen is not preparing lunches to deliver to charter schools. We also look at road closures and with 132 square miles, we can have different road conditions in different parts of the district. So, that's always another tough call. And so
the board can definitely provide input to that, but we don't we try not to cross over into the administrative world knowing that it's not a perfect world. And we have to be cognizant of employee hours, overtime, bus routes, and a whole
bunch of factors that our administrators get to handle. Personally, I'm grateful we don't have to try to figure out how to juggle all those. That being said, you do an excellent job and I think you also have a program during the summer which you may have cost covered when I went to the restroom um to provide
lunches. >> Yeah, we do partner with our summer school programs. So where whatever schools when they can qualify because there are again federal qualification regulations for where we can offer
summer meals. So if the program is being held in a school that we can get qualified, we will partner and provide meals in those schools during the summer. >> Thank you for doing such a great job. Are there any other last comments? If
not, thank you for a great presentation. >> Thank you and have a good evening. >> Next up, we have policy and procedure review. Um, so in our partnership with CASBY, we review policies on a regular basis. Sometimes changes are made for
legislative reasons. Sometimes it's to improve the language. Um, so right now we are looking at JBGI, updated staff leave and absences to add clarification on time taken during jury duty. JCDA
code of conduct uh was updated to reflect the addition of a violation of the board's cell phone policy. KFE2 community use of district rental rate sheet. That's an updated format and fees. And then KF-E-3
community use of district real property individual high school track use. that has been redacted due to no longer allowing the use of the high school track field. Does anyone have any questions? Okay, I saw Director Schmidt
first. Yeah, I move to pull discussion item 9.4, revisions to policy JICD, out of the policy and procedure review grouping and allow the board to work on it. >> Okay. I'm a little confused because 9.4
was uh the department update. I'm sorry. Which one were you referring to? >> Well, policy JICDA. I have the wrong number. >> 9.5. >> 9.5. >> Okay. And so,
as far as the code of conduct, you want to have more discussion on that or because it wasn't amended. That's why I was just asking the question. >> I think it would be nice if we could work on it a little bit. do a little red line and have some comments on it.
>> There's some I can go into the whole thing if you want me to. >> No, I'm just saying so that's one you would like to bring up because typically what happens and and just because we do an update now doesn't mean we can't mean to do further updates and it can be submitted for agenda setting. So you're
requesting that we do a further review of this at a future meeting. only because >> from what I had heard her say heard her say is that it wouldn't just be a discussion for a further meeting but a tasking to one or two board members to
redline the policy or to have further input. Is that correct? >> Yes. Thank you. >> Okay. So, all righty. No. Do you have are you interested in working with this with director Schmidt to work on a redline version to bring forward at a future meeting for review?
>> Well, first she needs a second. So second and yes. >> So we're in the discussion portion of the meeting. So we don't need a motion in a second. >> That was >> well in order for it to be taken. You actually you're right. You're right.
>> We can just come to a consensus that we want. >> So let's do consensus then. >> Okay. Can I get a consensus for those two board members to work on Director Schmidt and Director Dvola to work on a proposed red line addition to bring back to the board? >> Yes. >> Yes. >> No.
>> No. >> Yes. Okay. And we will see what suggestions they have for changes on that. Any other discussions on the policy updates? >> Mike has one. >> Oh, Mike, sorry about that.
>> Yeah. Um, so I'm looking at the updated KFE2, the facility rental rates. If I page down to the bottom, uh, field rentals for all schools, that table there, I see an entry for infield track at $75 per hour. And so if I'm a
stakeholder and I'm looking to rent a facility, I see that and I say, "Oh, I can rent a track." But we just said in the other item that we are redacting KFE3 because we are no longer allowing the use of high school tracks. So there
seems to be a inconsistency there. >> Yeah. But isn't that redacted one? I think that had something completely different. So, I think there was a time when we were allowing individuals who just wanted to individually train themselves and run on a track rather
than the sidewalk to apply to get a pass that would allow them to get through the gate at a track to be able to use it. And I think that's what's being redacted. Am I right? Which is different than Land Sharks renting Sand Creek's track to run Land
Sharks on, which is what the rental fee thing is. because this is an individual personal use of high school track. Yeah, KFE33 was about an individual one person saying >> that is correct. If you want to run here, if you open the attachment for KF3, you'll see that there's there was a
procedure and um it may not surprise you that this is related to insurance and liability. >> So essentially we are still renting out the tracks but just not on an in individual basis. Yeah, the individual the individual access wasn't wasn't even
technically a rental. It was just access. >> Okay. No further concerns, >> Nikos. >> Yeah, >> that's where history >> there. Oh, there we go. I thought I was going to have to move over. I actually
did also have a question concerning that uh CF3 obviously was already redacted, but I did just still have a question. Is that applicable to students of the district as well? Because I'm someone that has personally used uh district track facilities along with friends just
for personal training outside of school hours. So, does that apply? >> Technically, no one's supposed to be on school property, including playgrounds at elementary schools, without permission. Um so, well, yeah. So, there
are signs that say that. Um, now whether people choose to violate that sign is something different in terms of who's responsible for your action then because if you're technically trespassing and you got hurt in the track, we have a different level of responsibility legally. >> Security, are you listening to this?
>> I swear I'm not a criminal. >> So technically you weren't supposed to be on there. Nikos, before the board meeting, you talked about how you're not supposed to state anything that criminalizes you in public. >> Can I strike my comments from the
record? >> I'll go ahead and volunteer my criminal behavior because I have visited the uh Remington Elementary uh park uh playground after hours. I did not encounter any signage. >> So many confessions tonight. This is
like Jerry Springer. Okay. Is there any other discussions on the revisions? Okay. Next, we're on to proposed CASBY resolutions and direction to the board delegate. And I think everyone filled
out the Google spreadsheet that Lynette allowed permissions to. Did everyone? >> Everyone. Okay. So, what we're looking for here is a consensus to have our delegate vote on the ones that we support where we have at least a threeperson support. Can I get a
consensus? >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. Are we going to talk about any of them at all? >> Okay. And yes. And then which ones did you want to discuss? I see Director
Dvola and Director Livier. Write. So, we'll start with Director Dvola. Uh yes. Uh because I'm the delegate, I need to know exactly why we stand for what we stand for. Um and so if we could actually go one at a time, um that would
be great. So for example, um opposition to unfounded unfound unfunded mandates on school districts. We were five of five. I'm pretty confident I can I can state why we're that way. Uh but for the
ones that um I had questions on for sure. Let's see. Let's go to resolution two. Um ensuring full public school funding in the event of voucher implementation. It looks like we had one of
five supporting it. And so I would like to know why or why not so I can fully represent you guys on that particular one. So let's start with that one. Well, if we have one of five, that's not one you would carry forward. >> Correct. But I would like to be able to
voice what the majority of us feel about this resolution. >> Any comments on that? My problem is the devil's in the details. So, I I want to see the details of exactly how we're defining each of
those pieces. Um, I have no idea what we really mean by fully funded. I have no So, when they they throw all kinds of phrases in there that everybody likes to throw around in education that I don't necessarily think
help form the debate adequately. And so that's why I had a problem with it is I don't think it really um who defines fully impermanently what does that look like? What are we talking about above current levels? Are we talking about above current levels based on a per pupil amount? Are we talking
about above levels based on total amount we're dividing by per pupil? All of those details matter in terms of whether you're having a fair discussion about those options and none of those options are defined in what CASBY is saying. And
I would I have equal problem with the legislature proposing something and not adequately defining by what they mean for do we mean fully funded per pupil? are we talking about? You know, it's when they say, well, we're funding education at 2 point whatever percent more than okay, are you talking at the per pupil level or are you talking about
that the your budget line level that didn't depend on number of students? Those two things really matter because if our enrollment skyrockets in the state of Colorado, our peer pupil funding goes down even though they're quote spending more on public education, right? um if our enrollment declines,
you know, so if it's tied to per pupil, that is far more tangible in terms of how it has direct impact on the classroom than any other mechanism of referring to student funding or school funding. But that's next to never how legislators talk about it. They talk it
about as an individual budget line item. And that isn't how we experience it as districts or how kids experience it in terms of of how their education is funded. And what's important to notice when we look at these resolutions that are passed or not passed through CASBY
frequently those are cover carried to the state legislature and they say CASBY supports this position or CASBY is opposed to this position. It's up to the legislaturators whether or not they agree with what CASBY brings forward. So
this is just again an opportunity for our board to carry what we would like to vote on which may or may not even succeed at CASBY. So this one is uh if we're looking at number two, is that the voucher one? >> Yes. >> Where they're saying it would impact
public school funding. The same argument's been made with charter schools. And yet charter schools have been a saving grace for district 49 and also increase the offerings we have to the general public. But I remember when the first charter school was brought to
District 49 and uh there was opposition at that time. Oh, it'll take money out of our traditional schools. Personally, I think charter schools have enhanced it. And as to the future of any voucher programs, Director Levier Wright is correct. The devil is in the details.
How does it impact us? And do we foresee that happening in the state of Colorado at this time? I don't. Director Hy. >> Yeah. So, I think this is really addressing a concern that um people saw in Arizona where they've passed a voucher system and immediately um there
was uh huge overruns in the uh education system. Um they they actually blew up they blew up their budget. Um and what we have to understand is that we have private schools here in Colorado and so they have students. they are not currently considered to be public school
students and therefore they don't factor into the the student count. Right? So the day that the legislature passes a bill or the voters pass it one directly which you know they there's an attempt to get something on the ballot right
now. They're collecting signatures. Um so this isn't entirely abstract. So let's say that that goes into law. Let's say that there's, you know, 30,000 students statewide that are currently in private schools that do not count under
the state funding formula. How does the state uh arrive at their um funding? They they they set uh based on their budget a total value. This is how much we're going to allocate. Then they divide that by the number of students and then that sets your per pupil rate.
So if you immediately add another 30,000 students, then that drops the per pupil rate. And so we might go into the next year with the same student count, but we've seen a decline, a significant decline possibly in our per pupil rate,
and that that would put us under severe budget stress. So I think that's the problem that they're trying to address here. And so they're they're saying, you know, we we want to at least not make sure that we're we're dipping below the the the PPR that we're currently h
having. Um I don't know how they expect the state to fund that if they suddenly make all those private school students public school students, but uh but yeah, that's that's what they're they're looking to protect against. >> All right, on to number three.
Um, we were O for O on that one. >> Well, and I think the argument here is there's been extensive work done on the funding formula. >> Um, and we need to allow that new
funding formula to work. And if every there are winners and losers and every time we redo it, there were some things in there that maybe were a little bit overly disproportionate to rural districts. I would agree that they do have some, you know, that there are some things with size that matter. I don't
believe that that factor has completely gone away in adjustment, but ultimately there has been an entire task force that's worked on that and we need to allow what the task force developed to run for a bit before we start trying to dismantle it or we'll never get any changes in terms of how we we um
allocate funds. So, that's why I was opposed to it. And I think I saw something once where I was looking primarily at Horfano school district and they were actually there was an adjustment factor in there for rural um districts and they were getting
more per per pupil revenue I think or they were getting other funds um that are because they were rural or because they have other socioeconomical factors and I see the superintendent nodding his head so I was reading that correctly before. Yeah, there are multiple
factors. Small, rural, concentration are all significant and they they remain significant, but the way they interact and even the sequence in which they're calculated has changed. I I agree with Director Le, right? We need to see how this plays out. Um, when they'll take a
model, they'll apply it to all the districts. They call those runs where they run the data against the formula against our current enrollment. So there will be a series of runs that will come out this winter after they true up the October count and then those will determine the next phase of this phased
in model where either they'll jump from 15 to 30% or they won't depending on um essentially depending on whether the state budget can afford to move up to 30%. And actually, if I'm reading this correctly, what applies to resolution
three also applies to resolution 4, which talks about rural school funding. So, I am very proud of this board's work with resolution number five. Um, we had and Oh, we did. No, I just said what
applies to three applies to four because that was another zero five. Oh, yeah. That that's true. >> True. What the one thing the one issue I had with that is uh I believe that free market system competition is good and
that seemed to be very much anti-charter school for competition. Anyway, okay, moving on. So, number five, we do not need to discuss because I know where everybody stands on that. >> No, I'm going to say something just because I can. >> Okay. I was trying to save time. It's
9:00. >> I am very proud of the work that this board did when we went through a uh CASBY resolution training. And so this one comes from district 49. So that's why I am very proud of this standing up
for alternate education campuses. Okay. Director Dvola. >> All right. Um number six was the mental health residential facilities. So, like I'm the the one that was like a neutral like what the heck because
we're equating people who need residential mental health treatment with sex offenders essentially in this statement. Um, and they're com two different populations. Um, now there may be, you know, some
overlap as there is in literally everything in population, but someone who's a sex offender isn't by definition someone who goes to residential mental health treatment. What I can say about the state of residential mental health treatment in the state of Colorado, at least for youth, is that it is now
already almost non-existent. And so if we're going to start putting barriers, even more barriers into opening facilities when we're literally as a state sending kids to Virginia and Texas and Georgia and Utah and Nevada on
a regular basis, students in D49 are sent to those places to receive, you know, because if you can't stay in health and insurance doesn't pay and you can't stay in acute facilities for more than 21 days maximum, um, and often it's 7 to 14 is all that you can get for
treatment before you have to be referred to a residential treatment center. Um there's already quite a barrier to families accessing the treatment um for children who need it specifically, but I'm sure um adults is a little bit
better. Um but not much better in the state of Colorado. Um literally even Colorado Medicaid at this point is sending Medicaid kids to Texas and Utah and Nevada. So, I'm a little concerned that we've conflated the two populations
in this resolution. And I'm kind of curious why we're we're saying that mental health resol any anything that's treating someone who has a mental health condition must also meet sex offender rules. >> Well, the reason for the facility is is
it talks about CRS section 16-22-101. So, I think what this is is it's to comply with local regulations regarding distance restrictions if they are a sex offender. I'm not seeing this as conflating the two groups. Director Hy,
did >> Yeah, the way I read this was that um this only applies to mental health residential facilities who have a resident who is a registered sex offender. So if they don't have one then
this does not apply. But also what this does is just say that if the municipality because Colorado state does not have a a regulation on this. Uh I looked for Colorado Springs as well and we do not. So, um but this particular um
community, they passed a a local regulation that says that um registered state registered sex offenders cannot live within a thousand um yards or whatever it was of a um school. So, that
was that was their local regulation. Now, this state is bringing in this hospital that does not comply. And so that's the conflict that they are looking to resolve. >> Well, because it doesn't it just says determining location for the facility. It doesn't talk about only if you've now
afterwards accepted a res. You know what I mean? So there's two different pieces. Um, so are we restricting when determining the appropriate location for the for a facility, it shall comply with local regulations regarding any distance restrictions for temporary or permanent
residents of individuals required to register their residents under Colorado. There is no exception for saying if you ex only if you accept sex offenders. Um, do you know what I mean? So like there are plenty I can there are plenty of youth facilities across the country for
example that if you are on the sex offender registry you you're not allowed to go to that mental health facility. Um you you can't receive residential treatment there. The way I'm reading it is that you're not even going to be allowed to build unless your facility
automatically meets that requirement. That's what it sounds like to me. And if we're on a oneoff we have a situation where we're having a problem, addressing that through a statute doesn't seem to me to be the most appropriate way to that that then applies to anyone who ever wants to
think about actually serving Colorado residents within Colorado. Again, um so that's where I am on it, but that was why I'm the something seems off on this for me. >> And that's a good point. I've I read it as um the facility could be within uh
that um distance requirement so long as they're not um a uh housing sex offenders. And so the solution would be that they could build it within that location, but they would not be able to accept any patients who are registered
sex offenders. They would have to be referred to another location. But um yeah, it depends on your reading of the law and you may you may be be on the in the right on that one. >> So what I can do is ask those specific questions >> because we have discussion at CASBY. So
I can be like, "Hey, what do you what do you mean by this?" So I can break I can bring that to CASBY for you guys. >> Okay. So I think we're on to number seven. And that one had one vote. So, let's see.
Oh, yeah. That one's just uh the charter. Wait. Oh, this one goes back to the local control >> and I was neutral on it because I didn't quite understand exactly what this purp the purpose of this necessarily is. I
need some more clarification on that. I wasn't for or against it on this particular one. Um, reading through it again though, it looks like it would be um the board is representative of their district. And so if the um residents
have a concern about them not allowing a charter school application, then then they would be able to either recall their board members or in the next election vote for board members who would allow the charter school, etc. Um,
so I think I would be for I don't know if there was another person who had opposed it, but I was neutral. >> This one, as I read it, um, if you don't mind, appears to reduce the authority of the state board of education and so it
would create a higher uh cost approach for charter appeals because folks would be forced to um take them to um to the court. So they would have to lawyer up in a sense in a in a more expensive
manner to contest a denial of their charter school. So it's it's it's making an effect of really strengthening the authority of a a local school district to deny a charter school and have the charter school applicants have virtually no real
effective recourse. >> May May I simplify what Brad said? This would empower districts that are hostile to charters and there really wouldn't be anything you could do about it. >> Then I am glad we are against that one.
Director, wait, director Hy had a comment. >> Yeah. So, I was in support and that's because, you know, we are a district that is friendly to charters, but I think that we should be able to, you know, exercise local control as we like
to um practice in in Colorado. And if we determine that a that an applicant is is not a good fit for us for a variety of reasons, um we should be able to represent the voice of our um constituents and say no. And it all the
conversations that I've been hearing so far is basically like we're we're basically powerless because if we don't approve them, they'll just go over our head and get approval from the state. And you know what what actual control do we have?
>> I think that's a helpful comment. I would say that the track record of the state board of education in the last five years is roughly 6040 in favor of school districts in terms of their determinations of these. But there are certain school districts for whom the
count is 100% one way or another because either like us, we have a great track record of doing this objectively and fairly or like some districts um not to be named, they've been capriccious and very arbitrary about denying charter schools as a sort of protection um
effort. And so this would empower those districts. For example, Cherry Creek has two charter schools in a district of 60,000 students. Littleton has not approved a charter school in 20 years. So, there's places like that where
this would just fully empower them. And so, it's a give and take. I understand that, Mike. It doesn't really affect us, but it has a broad effect. >> And that's a good point. that there the resolution actually contains a counterpoint and that is that it
authorizes the state board of education to rule on um uh the um capriccious and arbitrary decisionmaking. So in the in those cases that you described they would be empowered to overrule the local
school district. Capriccious and arbitrary in this case is a technical term, a term of art that really sets a standard that is very difficult to attain. I appreciate, you know, the give or take here, but there you go. >> I lost an appeal on that standard,
Capriccious, and it it is virtually impossible for the charter school to meet that standard because you have to show it's kind of like the standard of actual malice and defamation for public figures. it it really it effectively means that if a district chooses to be to be hostile, there isn't really a
higher authority than the district. Um and and this is part of the this would actually be a a contraction of charter school authority. Um charter school autonomy maybe is a better way to say it. Th this would
reduce charter school and and looking at the wall behind me, this would reduce choice in Colorado. Okay. Well, in that case, I'm going to go for a pose on that one. So, if you want to change my vote in there, I'mma pose that neutral.
Okay. All right. Uh, next one. So, eight. Okay. This one is tricky and I was really confused with this one in particular because if you are a district that has director districts
like we do, that's going to be a very much of a challenge logisticwise. So, anyone have some opinions on that? I would like to because when we split into director districts that was a ballot
initiative that I think 78% of our voters approved where you have to live in if there's an open seat you have to live in a specific area to run for that seat and only the people who live in that director district which is comp comprised of contiguous intact voter
precincts where we balance out the population. um this would completely override what our voters voted for in district 49. And so that's why I was opposed. >> I think I'm reading it slightly different because I don't think this is
about director districts, >> right? This is about letting so because we have students choicing in allowing someone who does not live is not a taxpayer in D49. so does not live within
the boundaries of D49, is not a taxpayer of D49 to run for and be elected to the board either by creating an additional seat so or or taking, you know, having to revamp something within your board um
because they have a child enrolled in your district. That's a really weird requirement for a seat. Anyway, um, currently I am the only person with a student enrolled in D49. Um, but the way I was reading it is
they're saying and that that's about students who are choicing in correct. Am I reading that differently than what it's meant because I don't I can't imagine a CASBY thing being about direct. >> This is to address some specific issue in some rural district that might be
striving to find enough um folks who want to run for board. And so they're trying to create some sort of artifice and I think it's a little bit complex. I mean if you think about it if you ran and your child was >> enrolled would you be disqualified next year Marie if you child you know. So
this doesn't seem to have great clarity either. >> Doesn't even have to be a child. If Nikos had a sibling in district 11 he could run next year >> and we'd need at least two because if we had a six member board we would have trouble reaching a quorum sometimes. Director Hy.
>> Yeah. So the way I read this, it is allowing school districts to implement this but it is not requiring. Um so in the same light um school districts are allowed to implement director districts and we have done so and I don't think
any of our neighboring school districts have done so. So, what I'm interpreting is that in order to implement this, it would require um a ballot measure or you know, whatever the process is to alter the way that you do your local elections
for your school board. So, that then becomes an option for the school boards who want to seek that and it does not in impact in any way the school boards who do not. Nikos. >> Yeah. You noted kind of the oddity of
the requirement in order to qualify for this out of district candidacy for the school board be the fact that you need to have an immediate family member. I mean, you specifically noted child because I feel like that's what would be the most common application of this. And
I I just kind of wanted to note that it does make sense because I feel like someone who has a family member, particularly a child within a district, is someone who has some of the highest stakes within the district because that district is educating that child. So, I
feel it makes sense if you have chosen to put your child or immediate family member into a district that it would make sense for you to want to have the drive in some cases to move to go onto the school board because then you are
able to make decisions and assist in making decisions that affect that family member. >> Director Davilla. >> Yeah. My my whole issue with it with it was that it was unclear on how that would pan out or how that would play
out. So I will be asking director Hy's question at CASBY about like does this impact school boards that ne don't necessarily want it? How is that going to play out? What does that mean uh legislative wise etc. Um because as uh
this would obviously apply to non-charter schools. Um this is d or I believe this is just for district boards. Um because charter school boards they they way they they elect their
boards. They get to decide how they elect their boards. Um, and so this would only apply for those that are not um, charter boards is how I'm rating it.
>> Right. All right. Number nine. Um, what did I put for that one? >> I think it was removing the flexibility in teacher assessment with >> Ashley. May I speak to this one? Yes, please. >> As as somebody who lived through uh
SB191, which um created a fairly rigid structure and and required us to calculate evaluations 50% based on measures of student learning, MSLs or or student learning outcomes, this is I I think this is the kind of state
overreach this board has routinely resisted or objected to. Um and especially given that the federal system seems to be less uh directive perhap well I would say
that the federal system department of education in particular seems to be less interested in managing the implementation of of standards and expectations and so this would kind of coincide with that national movement. I
support this. I I understand it's not super clear, but I support this because it it returns to this district the ability to decide how we evaluate our own teachers. And we actually have some waiverss in place already. But the fact that we have to have waivers in order to
have an alternate evaluation system would go away. We wouldn't be required to to apply for waivers or innovation status or plans. We could just develop our own evaluation systems. Director Dvola. >> Um, I could be wrong, but I voted yes on
this one. So, I'm trying to figure out why there's a zero, >> unless I marked it incorrectly. >> You likely viewed it as as upholding, you know, high academic standards. And that would be sort of your immediate response on this. >> No, this this says that they're opposed
to the evaluation system. They're opposed to that evaluation system that is predicated on a 50% of the evaluation is based on your your classrooms outcomes and so forth. We want more flexibility in D49,
>> right? >> I I can look each one of you in the eye based on many many previous comments. You are philosophically aligned with this resolution. >> Yeah, that's why I'm saying this should say yes. That's why I was confused because it has a zero and I've said yes.
I thought I put yes and it says that we have zero yeses. >> Yeah. Either I was in support of this or I misread what support means because I'm absolutely against um a uniform um uh evaluation system. uh apart from the the
the concerns that you raised, it would also essentially be an implementation cost and therefore an unfunded mandate a >> and it has been since 2010. We we've been we've been carrying this
weight for a long time. I think it should be five yeses or at least three yeses. I think you really want to be in support of it, not against it. I think you I think the point is that we should have been that we may have read it wrong or just
skipped over pieces of it, but that it should be it should be in support, not against ultimately for us as a board. >> I agree with that one. >> Cool. All right, let's move on to the last one. 10. Um, looks like we had one for
rest of us. And I will just say that the reality is that you can call it nonpartisan and it will still be partisan because at the state board level people are going to put money in it and the money they're going to put in is going to be based on
their political affiliations or what they can deem from it. So, I would rather they declare them and then at least, you know, um if you call it nonpartisan, people are still going to find a way to bring it in anyway. And so, leave it as it is where people at
least have to run honestly around what they believe. That's where I am on it and why I was >> opposed to the resolution. Um, director Dvola. >> Yeah. My my whole thing is as a as a voter when I go to research people, I
want to know where their values lie, who they are, what they stand for in the nonpartisan races for judges, for example, drives me crazy because I'm like, okay, you stated all your credentials, but I don't know what you
believe, what you stand on, those types of things. and then you have to try to just go digging for those things. And it's it's a challenge as to become a a um informed voter when you're making those decisions. So like uh to director
Lar Wright's point, state what you are and then the constituents can choose who they who they who they align with. You know, I remember when I was reading this one, I was thinking that what I've seen happen since I've been on the board is
if you disagree with someone, you call it a partisan issue. But when I talk to the public, I find out that there are certain issues that people of both, let's just keep it to a two-party system for now, of different political
affiliations can actually agree on. I do not agree with every Republican. I do not disagree with every Democrat. Um, I won't even talk about my opinions about the state of Colorado because that one is pretty much opposed to most of what they do. But, however, I would like to
say that just because someone disagrees with you doesn't make it a partisan issue. And so, that's why I was saying to put labels that if you are this, you must believe that. That was what I was opposed to with making it, you know, to
making it more nonpartisan. Director Hy. >> Yes. So, I was in support, but I also agree with everything that Marie said. The only thing that making it partisan or nonpartisan really does is it changes what the political parties are allowed
to do, whether they are allowed to openly support a candidate or not. So, my take on it was just I feel like there's already way too much money that's going into um politics and if we can limit it in some way um by keeping that those races nonpartisan, I think
that that would be productive. Um but I mean, we've we also our seats here we run as nonpartisan and I recall seeing signs out in Falcon that just said candidates name conservative. So, I mean, we have as as candidates, we can
easily communicate what our values are and where we align. >> Do you believe there's no conservative Democrats? >> Just curious, Nikos, I've seen your hand up in Director Schmidt, I'll get to you in just a second here. >> Yeah, it was noted that whether or not it's officially labeled as being a
nonpartisan election, there will still be impact based off of political affiliation because that's just how we do it. I guess is the simplest way to say it. However, I believe that there is still benefit to that label of nonpartisan because even if there still
is impact, people might still see, okay, it's nonpartisan and I should be looking more at the policy of people that I'm looking to elect. And just that that label will push voters, I believe, to
look at that closer because a lot of people, I understand, will make those voting decisions based off of that political affiliation, which will still happen definitely, but perhaps less, which I believe would be beneficial.
Well, and honestly, the money is going to be spent there either way. >> And I think Director Schmidt had her hand up. I'm just kind of thinking that all of this stuff is political. Just saying.
>> Okay. Anything else you wanted to cover, director of Wool? >> Miscellaneous. Yes. >> Okay. And we are on to miscellaneous. Director Dvola. All right. So the I meant to put this in
discussion previously, but it didn't get on the agenda. Um uh which is my oversight. I apologize for that. Um so we had our la our last
um what is it called? Social studies task force uh meeting happened. Woohoo. And it would happened on July 31st. And we
had some really good discussion um about um what it means and how we want to structure it. So, let me pull up my notes right here. Well, it was somewhere. I thought
we scan. My notes are somewhere. Oh, here we go. Okay. So, we had um a couple questions come down from the teachers and administration. Uh the the one area that
we discussed and talked about was aligning um which which subjects or which um courses will be taken in which sequence. And what had seemed to be like the consensus was that yes, we would
have in the junior level the requirement of US history. And then in the senior level um it would be recommended but not necessarily required at the senior level to take the um civics and government
course. Um there was kind of some banter back and forth on whether >> Yes. Did I say something? >> Yeah, just because it's really late, it's it would still be require the course would be required. >> I'm talking about at the senior level.
>> Yeah, but whether it was junior or senior year wasn't >> that's what I was trying to explain. Thank you for clarifying. Um yeah, so we would want to have that clarified for for them. And we brought
up a good point of why don't we standardize it? So we could have um it required at the junior level for US history, required at the senior level
for civics and government. Um and then if there is those one or two cases of students coming in who need to have it flexed to junior year, they would be able to make those decisions by on a case-byase basis. but we didn't want to
have confusion going up and down and back and forth. Um so that's something that we need to discuss as a board of whether we want that. The next piece was there was some flex between us or um world history being a freshman course
versus a sophomore course. It looks like most of them have it as that sophomore course. Uh the one exception is uh Vista, I believe, um who had world history tied with geography as a one
course um year-long course instead of a semester course at their freshman level. So we would need to have discussion of whether or not we want to keep it at that freshman level of being um geography and then world history which
would require um some shifting in curriculum etc for Vista. Um so that opens the floor to some discussion. I believe it would be really good for us to align districtwide. It just makes it
so much easier uh for students shifting from one school to the uh to the other school within district without having those conflicting um schedules etc. Uh director. >> Yeah. So, um I'm definitely in favor of
standardizing, but I also want to make sure that we are not making it a graduation requirement in order to make sure that we're accommodating those students who are, you know, coming to us from out of state or, you know, whatever the circumstances might be, right? So, I think we want we want to make it more of
a guidance and not like a a requirement. So, we're we're understanding that um you know, our incoming junior students will be enrolled in US history um uh by our counselors uh unless there is
some reason why they shouldn't, right? Um that that should be our practice. Um but it should, like I said, I I would be concerned about making it a graduation requirement just because >> Are you are you talking specifically about a certain course? Are you talking
about? >> So, US history, right? We're is one of the ones we were talking about. So, you they want to standardize it as at 11th grade. That was the standard I was under. I that's the standard that Sand Creek is under. Makes perfect sense to
me. Um I'm a little confused about world history being only a semester. Uh, I mean, there's a lot of world history and if we're taking a separate course that's geography, I got to be honest, you're going to learn a lot of
geography in any history class anyway. And I've never understood the concentration for geography. So, I would be in favor of and let the students take it ninth or tth grade. I I I wouldn't see necessarily a requirement
there, but I think world history should be a full year. >> So So I do know currently as it stands in three of the four uh district public schools. Um it's a semester course. It is not a
>> world history >> world history. Um the year course is world history and geography combined. Am I correct on that? No, >> you are correct that that world history is being taught as primarily as a
semester course and that the world history geography combo class is being taught as a fullear course. Um, and director how your your understanding about this is is different than what we've communicated to the task force. I understood coming out of the annual planning summit that the board
was very interested in this being a requirement. And so my understanding is that both the US history and the American government civics course would be graduation requirements. We would of course have some sensitivity and opportunity for waiverss for students who are very late transfers. I mean we had people talking about students
transferring in after spring break of their senior year. We got a good good kid who's coming in and they you know we're not going to hold off their diploma because because life changed. those are almost always out of the students control, often
military moves. So, we're considerate of that. But my understanding of the direction from the board and what we've um expected from the task force is that those two courses in particular, US history and American government and civics would be required. They would take up three semesters,
which is half of their social studies requirement. And that's why we didn't reach consensus on creating a world history or geography or combo requirement, but that it where that
course is naturally scheduled would land and and I think the the sense of the task force matched what I think you just said, Mr. How that that it could float freshman or sophomore year, that it could be in combination or separated out. Um, what we didn't want to do is
end up so rigidly aligning all the social studies so that that students wouldn't be able to take any electives or so that students would have a freshman year with no social studies content whatsoever. Those were the two things we were trying to avoid is total
rigidity and no social studies in the freshman year. >> Yeah. And I think we're philosophically aligned. And my concern would be if we made it a graduation requirement, that late arriving student hasn't met the requirement that might prevent them from
graduating. So if we just put in language that says, you know, unless a waiver is granted or something like that, that would satisfy. Well, it seems to me that from the board piece, we should stop with the US, like the two courses, the US history and the
civics, and then let the school communities sort out the other pieces. I don't think we need full alignment across all schools on who's taking world history when, or what other courses they're offering their freshmen. Um, so
my kids school must be the one that has the full year his world history because Falcon High for the all three of my kids who went through did civics and geography each semester long courses freshman year and then did a whole year of world history junior or sophomore and then junior
um, US history was their sequence. Um, but I I think that flexibility of letting each of those schools reflect what's working in their school um for those pieces. The more things we start dictating as required to be um the less
choice we're offering our students and our families within our schools. And I think that matters too. >> May I correct something? I misspoke. We do offer world history as a as a year course. I'm I'm going back and looking at the chart. Um, Vista Ridge is the
outlier where they offer it as a combined year-long course, semester semester. Um, >> all right. That makes >> we we offer geography as an elective at other schools. Um, the biggest biggest shift here is at Falcon High
School where they currently offer American government to freshmen. They have to shift their whole sequence. Vista has to shift their sequence by one year. But but they were okay with that. they they understood that some of that alignment um made sense
>> um for scheduling purposes and also for helping transfer students from here to there. I think we should standardize world history is that sophomore course. Um US history is junior year and then
the government and civics is the senior year. The difference is is that the world history piece is not is not um hard and fast required. Does that make sense? So it's
so the exceptions to the rule that were happening to the US history course can continue to happen with the world history course. The um the difference is we are saying no let's go ahead and require US history and civics and
government except in extreme cases where they come in late etc. Um those types of things. Uh director Schmidt Director Hy. >> Yeah. So um the concern I had that world history is too big of a course to only
do one semester that's been answered right. We we're doing it for a full year. So that's good. Um, I want to endorse a point that Marie made where um, when we originally established this, the concern was our students knowing
enough about their own country, right? And so I think we want to remain focused on that and avoid scope creep. So I think once we start regulating the other um, classes like world history when they take that and stuff like I think we're getting out of scope. I think we really
do want to focus on US history and US government. >> We are already requiring them to shift their schedules. So having just one extra of, hey, let's go ahead and move this to the sophomore level is
in my opinion not that big of an ask because we're already shifting schedules for that. >> It's not just about the ask, it's also about the president and It's also about the president. So, are we going to go in to the school and reorganize every single department and
do it across all three high schools in office? >> I didn't hear that come up in the task force among the different schools. >> No. Well, because you're only talking to social studies right now, but you're setting a precedent for the level of board involvement in school administration. And I think there's a
difference between saying, "Look, we we as a board want this to be a requirement. The consensus of anybody who's got any sense is going to be US history you're not ready for till junior year because you need a level of critical thought that's not quite there yet until then."
Um, and we should teach you civics and government right before you get the right to vote rather than four years before you get it. So those that piece makes sense. But the further we get into trying to to to say things, the more we're taking away those schools ability
to address their own building needs, their own building community. Um, and and I'm really uncomfortable with that. I'm really uncomfortable with stepping continuing to step further and further into making those decisions that
um we've purposefully handed over at the zone level in part to allow our coordinated public schools to function a little bit more like a charter school. Um, so to give them some of the same things that Banning Lewis Prep and
Liberty Tree uh both have that they can offer their families to adjust what they're offering to what their specific parent and student community is asking. And so the further we step into this, the more we're we're we're taking away
what we were trying to do, which um was supposed to be giving them some of those same freedoms and some of the same ways to meet the needs, recognizing that the student body that attends Sand Creek looks and lives and requests very
different things than the student body that attends Falcon High School. Um, and Vista Ridge is another kind of unique community of its own. And so I'm really worried about going down that path of now let's see how we're going to regulate all of the other
grades. Saying, okay, we as a board value that US history and civics should be required as graduation requirements. Okay, we've got a consensus on when that makes sense to be taught. I think that's where we should be ending. And that's honestly what we had the consensus to do
at that that board meeting. It wasn't to overhaul the entire social studies system. It was to look into an American government and US history graduation requirement. >> We did talk about se sequencing though. Uh yes, Director Schmidt. listening to the conversation, I'm
leaning more towards world history, American history, and then the government and the civics's piece sequenced sophomore, junior, senior. But I'm wondering, is there anything
else in the history realm that they can take instead of world history? I mean, how many don't aren't there more histories? I know my granddaughter has human geography this year. I mean there's different there's different histories. So does it have to be a
certain one? I think it is good for the kids to have exposure to the world history and the American and the civics. So I don't have an issue really with teaching them all all of them in a sequence.
they have electives at each so each campus has their own electives. So that freshman year would be where they could have more electives for example. Um and then even if they take a year of history they can elect to take another history
course in the same year or a social studies course in the same year and there's quite a variety of what they can choose. I I was just saying sequencing I think is very important because part of what we had discussed was the fact that this course was taught
here and this course was taught here and this course was taught and it was very varied in in that sequence of going from world history to US history and having that comparison between uh sophomore
year and junior year uh makes more sense than having world history freshman year having a gap and then going into US history. They've had a whole year of not having that comparison.
Um, so that's just where I was thinking and it's only it's just that one school. There's it's one school that's not on the same pattern when it comes to that sophomore class. Um, and again, transferring students, it's it's
important. So anyway, that's just just my own personal opinion, but if I don't have I don't if I don't have consensus for it, I won't bring it up to the task force um to make it that way. So, can I ask for
consensus on having that world history uh 10th grade, US history, uh 11th grade, and then civics and government on 12th grade. >> I like that. Yes.
>> Yes. I'm with you on the 11th and 12th grade. I don't see the need to be rigid on the world history. In fact, we could we could make it so that you can take that in ninth or 10th grade. And then uh again, there's room for electives uh social studies classes in the in the the
remaining year. So, I'm for flexibility on that one. But, US history 11th, absolutely. Uh government civics 12th grade, absolutely. >> Yes, it looks like I have consensus. Okay. Um, the next piece,
um, is really important because I want to go back to what we had discussed at the annual planning summit about a course that's specific to District 49. Um and so that when they're leaving our
campuses, they understand the value of uh their citizenship, what it means to be a contributing memory member of society. um how our country was formed, uh our
founding father founding fathers documents um and what patriotism meant to them uh as key components to this to this course. Um and so we've kind of strayed
a little bit like actually quite a bit strayed a little bit away from that initial um t or um discussion that we had and now it just it just seems like as a school board we have just
decided where these courses are going to go but we haven't really added to the um content area of each of these of the of the courses. is. And so I was wondering if we could have more of a discussion on
what documents could we include um or some ideas like having our our our students have the American citizenship exam or uh reading certain articles from like Dtoqueville or Robert Bella or
having like a set of questions um that were actually required in our founding uh our founding era that schools um asked their students or would teach their students about the
foundation of our country that was required for them to understand where we came from. So discussion on that. >> You know, one thing I'm going to make a suggestion on that. Um because that was the original discussion, not just scope and sequence, but a unique district 49
offering because there will be a lot of opinions on this. I wonder if we shouldn't start with maybe a Google document where we can share different ideas of what would be important to incorporate in that which will give other board members the time to ponder it and say, "Hey, what was important to
me?" We could even get some community input from naturalized American citizens and what they learned along the way. But uh if we started with a Google sheet that gives people time to think about what they think would be good to include if we develop a unique course for
district 49. >> It's let me be clear. It's not that we're creating a course. This is just elements that we would want to include in the US history, civics, and government course. So, it would be supplemental. It would not be replacing.
Does that make sense? So, we wouldn't be mandating you have to use this curriculum. Um, it would be let's pull in these supplemental materials to help with these ideas. Yes, Director Schmidt.
So if a student wanted to go more in depth into the Declaration of Independence or maybe even the Federalist Papers, I mean there's kids that are very interested in all that. Then they would be available, it would be available for them to be able to pull
those in as part of one of those courses. Is that what you're saying? >> I would honestly like to see first what they're already doing. Um, are we reinventing a wheel when I mean I know my kids were doing DBQs on all kinds of
things in US history at Falcon High. So I'm assuming that's probably true at our other two schools. So before we start trying to reinvent the wheel of things that we want to throw in the pot, maybe we should ask our social studies what teachers what they're already using and
doing. Um, >> so we have we have that has been part of the work of the task force already. So we do know for example that we're looking at federalists 51 and federalists number 10 and we're looking at uh Washington's farewell. Um
I am asking and you remember my enthusiasm at the annual planning summit to go beyond that. Uh, I use it in in our conversation with Jamie Lynn, I use the illustration, I think it's powerful to witness the oath of military service,
the oath of a naturalized citizen, the oath of office, the o the oath taken by a first responder, the oath taken by a member of a jury. Those are meaningful things. Almost all of our students will graduate from high school have having never witnessed any of that. just that
one little experience that the board or maybe the superintendent might suggest that might be an additional piece and and as a teacher you you build around that. You don't just say go watch the go watch the Air Force Academy students enlist this
weekend. Um you have curriculum and and lessons built around that. So I I don't object at all to to knowing what's already going on, but I I I do remind us all part of our purpose was to go beyond what is already going on. So if we need
to set that, if we need to say here's what we already do in terms of documents and standards, we can do that. Um but I'll I'll return. This is an opportunity to revitalize something that that has sort of unintentionally faded out of how we
teach this part of social studies and to reinvigorate it with with appreciation. I use this phrase there. I'll use it here. You can't require students to love their country, but you can present reasons why they might reasonably choose to. And that that's kind of more what I'm advocating.
>> But Ken, so you two are very aware of what is being used. the rest of us aren't. >> Nikos, >> yeah, I can note personally as a student that I I've fulfilled pretty much all of my credits for history and everything. I'm
taking one more uh American government class at Pikes Day College to finish off those credits. So I I've had experience taking those classes and in those there is a level of that taught of the things mentioned talking about federalist papers obviously pretty basic
constitutional knowledge but in my experience and knowing that others share my opinions on this there's definitely still some to be desired like I learned things in class and those kind of push me to do my own personal research but it would definitely be extremely beneficial if there were supplemental materials
immediately available. So rather than the students who have the drive and the the want to go to gain further knowledge on these things having to go on some wild journey to try to kind of piece together the bits that they want to know just having that available I think would
be really cool to have >> director. So, this is going to be a exercise in some really weird role reversal because on one hand we've got our superintendent encouraging us to get more directly involved and I'm going to say that I think that that actually
represents a little bit of board overreach. I think that it's us in getting ourselves involved in the classroom at a level that we probably shouldn't. So, we approve courses, we approve curriculum, um, and I we trust
our educators to make those decisions about supplemental materials and and um and and stuff like that. And I I I really feel like we should absolutely be empowering them to um to add those things. I think that um if they're um if
their principles, if their superintendent wants to encourage them to um go with uh certain other things, but I just I feel like we are getting into the weeds of what's going on into the classroom at a level that exceeds what we should be.
>> And I personally think that it is constitutional. Article 9, section 15 of Colorado State Constitution gives local school boards control over curriculum. So if we have suggestions and guidance to me it's no different than when we review curriculum. So if we are putting
forth a set of standards in our curriculum I think that is the responsibility of the school board under the state constitution. It's also part of our responsibility for the state standards and we we do have local control on what standards we use
and so part of that is we can uh improve what the standards outline because the out the standards are pretty basic in the areas of like patriotism etc. and we can um uh enhance it and have an a level
up of what we're of what we're teaching our kiddos. Um and so I believe this is part of our our role um with the making sure we're guiding the direction of um the US history and social studies
courses. Sounds to me like we may or may not have a consensus to have that Google document. Can I get a consensus on that? >> Yes. >> Yes. >> No.
>> And remember this is just for individual board member input for consideration. This is not a binding document. So I didn't know did I get to three yeses or not? I didn't. Okay. >> Yes, you did. Um, Superintendent Heltz, we did have a request on
what they are using. Uh, can we share that document with the board so that they can research the curriculum that's currently being used? >> That document won't answer the question. It it says things like we're using the SAS curriculum that we so we'd have to
get we we'd have to get one layer deeper into the course descriptions and we we have some early work on that. Remember we're we're already asking teachers to synthesize statements of intent for the courses and so we can go the next the next layer and look at
my guess is that what the board would be interested in would be list of documents, unit names, potentially standards addressed in those units. >> I agree. So, yes. Um, so do we want to communicate that with the task force?
>> Yes, we can we can I can I can route that through Mr. Smith who's our who's our co-f facilitator for that. >> Awesome. Thank you. And maybe if there's supplementals that they use, >> including supplementals. Okay, cool. And I have one more miscellaneous item I'd
like to address. And I'd like to apologize to Vice President Davilla because she doesn't know I'm going to do this, but I had a community member send me some screenshots. And it appeared to be a coordinated effort to encourage people to file complaints with the Colorado Department of Education against
Director Dvola's teachers license because of an opinion she shared here at the board. We've had some discussion of the First Amendment, but I just want to make my comments known and I was glad to know that uh Superintendent Hilts had a similar reaction that when you try to
target someone's livelihood, that is a bridge too far, especially when it includes teachers who do not live in our district. Now, just for perspective, during my time on the board, I had someone who threatened to go after my business. This is an unpaid elected
position and I want to go on the record and being clear that if I saw anyone targeting any of your places of employment because of your opinions, I would stand up for you. And so this is something too that I wanted to discuss
later with Director Dola. I would like to write a letter to the Colorado Department of Education to know if they all of a sudden start getting these comments in that this was a coordinated event to target her livelihood and that is wrong on so many levels. So that's
all I had to say. >> I would sign that. >> And so anyway and with that we are adjourned at 9:57.