This is a demonstration of Wirecast. This is a demonstration of wirecast. This is a demonstration of wirecast. This is a demonstration of wirecast. This is a demonstration of wirecast. This is a demonstration of wirecast. This is a demonstration of wirecast.
This is a demonstration of wirecast. This is a demonstration of wirecast. This is a demonstration of wirecast. This is a demonstration of wirecast. This is a demonstration of wirecast. This is a demonstration of wirecast. This is a demonstration of wirecast.
This is a demonstration of wirecast. This is a demonstration of Wirecast. This is a demonstration of wirecast. This is a demonstration of wirecast. This is a demonstration of wirecast. This is a demonstration of wirecast. This is a demonstration. ation of wire
cast. This is a demonstration of wirecast. This is a demonstration of wirecast. This is a demonstration of wirecast. This is a demonstration of wirecast. Good evening everyone. It is now 6:32 and we are going to begin our meeting.
May I have a roll call please? >> Hyle >> here. >> Levier Wright here. Ryan >> here. >> Thompson >> here with us. >> This is a demonstration of wirecast. >> Welcome everyone. Please stand and join us in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> We are now on item 3.1, approval of agenda. May I have a motion, please?
>> This is a demonstration of wire. Agenda is presented. >> Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Any discussion >> hearing? None. A vote, please. >> Kyle. >> I. >> Levier. Wright. >> I. >> Ryan. >> I.
>> Thompson. >> I. >> Withers. >> Hi. >> That motion carries. We are on to item four, public comment. We welcome comments from stakeholders during district 49's open forum. Please stay seated until your name is called and then approach the podium to introduce
yourself. Speak clearly into the microphone and keep your remarks respectful and orderly. Personal complaints against individuals connected with the district except for board members of the superintendent are prohibited. Each speaker is limited to two minutes. During the first open forum, you may only speak to items that
are on the agenda. If you veer off of that, we will ask you one time to stay on topic. After that, your time will be ended. You may claim the remainder of that time during second open forum. The board will not respond during the forum, but may assign follow-up action to the
superintendent if needed. We also encourage you to use our stakeholder grievance process if appropriate for resolving concerns involving policy violations which may culminate in a formal appeal to the board of education. Thank you for participating. And our
first speaker signed up is Mr. Graham. got first. >> You are signed up first, sir. >> Okay. Wow. Look at that. >> John Graham. I'm a former District 49 uh board of education director and
president. >> Wirecast, >> a former erosce director for seven or eight, maybe even nine years. >> I'm a little surprised that there's going to be a presentation for erosis and No one asked me any questions when
I've represented district 49 for not quite a decade ending in February of this last year. I think that presentation that I reviewed has a lot of information wrong and I will tell you that
>> this is a demonstration of wirecast >> concerned that we're rolling back into the tactics of what this board did to Marie, what this board did to me and Lori and and even Mike Kyle at one point. Different
players on the board were doing that. But now you're using the same tactics of of of smearing and and bismerching you know a certain employee of erosis erosce provides
>> almost 10,000 students of wirecast >> choice in education this board has resolutions and even policies that basically state that parents have the right and responsibility to direct the upbringing
and education of their students. They have those choices. This board has always been a proponent of those choices. And it really is disturbing to me that we're looking to disassociate with erosce. I'm no longer on the board
of Boseies uh as a >> demonstration of wirecast. >> The choice that that organization gives to many many people is phenomenal. You're talking about people that are are being able to graduate, not quite at the
capacity of Gold Academy, which is phenomenal as well, but throughout the state and now they're being attacked by politicians who have agendas supporting basically groups in my opinion that are not for parent rights or public
education. Thank you. >> This is a demonstration of Wirecast. Kim Beckworth is our next speaker. Good evening. Um, my name is Kim Beckworth. I'm a D49 taxpayer, community member, SAC, and DACA representative.
I'm concerned with recent news reports and public information regarding a demonstration priorities are aligned with the needs of district 49 students and families. My understanding is that Bosey's organizations traditionally support districts through shared
services, specialized programs, professional development and exped excuse me expanded student opportunities. However, erosce appears to have devoted significant attention and resources to litigation related efforts. As a taxpayer, I question
whether these activities provide meaningful value to district 49 students and whetheries. >> At the same time, our district continues to face challenges in areas such as special education, gifted education, and elsewhere. While I recognize the
financial constraints the district has faced, I would appreciate a clear understanding of the benefits district 49 receives through the participation in erosce. Specifically, what services and programs does erosce
currently provide to district 49? How do those services directly benefit students? >> Is a demonstration of wirecast. What value does Arabosis provide in providing excuse me in approving programs that could otherwise be approved by our elected school board? What measurable
return does district 49 receive for its financial contributions to erosce? And how does the district ensure that erosce's priorities remain aligned with district 49's mission to learn, work, and lead? I thank you for helping the community better understand the purpose,
value, and accountability of this partnership. Thank you. >> This is a demonstration. Our next speaker is um Deborah Baggley. >> Hi, I'm Deborah Bagley. Um dear esteemed D49 board members, thank you for caring
for our children. D49 is providing amazing enrichment of programs to the D49 homeschool community. D49 is a pillar for other districts around the state and country. My children have been in a few different programs through the years. Rocky Mountain Classical Academy
homechool, Falcon Arrow Lab. >> This is a demonstration of wire. >> Quite different programs providing exceptional academic opportunities. RMCA provides a more traditional classroom, including animal dissections twice a year. My 14-year-old learned to operate
and fly a glider through Falcon Aerol Lab. He hopes to learn airline mechanics and get his private pilot's license through Air Lab in the coming years and become a commercial pilot. Both my boys have taken computer AED design classes, blacksmithing and welding from Kilroyy's
workshop. These are real life skills that enhance what we are learning at home. The incredible thing is children in these programs are earning certificates and licenses through these one day a week programs. The people creating and teaching in these programs are highly educated and
trained individuals interested in academics and character development. I am a former elementary and middle school teacher and I'm current D49 resident. I'm working hard to prepare my children for college or technical trades as we see fit. I have volunteered as a
substitute teacher in the RMCA homeschool program and have met the children and the families. The kids are eager to learn, respectful and kind, and the parents are highly invested in the academic success of their children. You should be proud of the decision you have
made to fund these exceptional programs. I encourage you to take this opportunity to promote this kind of learning in the state and the nation. These are amazing. So, thank you for supporting these. You are shaping the future. And let's do this together with outstanding public
schools and enrichment programs. Thank you. >> Thank you. Our next speaker is John Blakeenship. Uh good afternoon or good evening. Um I uh just learned about uh quite a bit of this stuff in the last two weeks about
how we're going to re-evalu or the board's going to re-evaluate. I truly feel that um the erosce system is a great system not only for Colorado but across the nation and what they provide. I'm looking forward to next year
enrolling my son in the Falcon Air Lab as well as some other home homeschool enrichment programs because I don't feel that my son is um and he has not looked at he will actually go to actual college. So he obviously wants to do
high school um he wants to do high uh trade skills and I think that he can um better use those um abilities that he'll learn from having the possibility of the eros and I think a lot of the questions
that can possibly uh be learned about can be the gentleman that first spoke u because he worked for the program for so many years so a lot of the questions could be answered there I'm sure everyone on the board has already done some research on that. So, um all I can
say is I hope that the decision will be made on point uh 9 9.8 and that you guys will continue to uh support. Thank you. >> Thank you. Our next person is Sarah
Park. Good evening. I'm Sarah Park. I'm a former teacher and principal and I've was called to finance and funding. So, I've been consulting for many years. I sent an email to a few of you and I wanted to come and introduce myself personally. First, I want to
congratulate you on the budget that's on the agenda for tonight. You all have designed and supported an excellent budget in a very challenging context for D49 and in the state. Um,
I own a local branch of Schoolie Mitchell, which is the largest cost reduction consulting firm in North America. And we specialize in the only budget lever that remains for school district 49, which is recurring vendor costs across more than 20 categories,
including telecom, IT, supplies, waste, utilities, copers, and management. A whole list of things that vendors provide. We average 28% savings to school districts. And these are savings that are typically discovered, actualized, and accounted for after the
budget is approved. So, after analyzing your budget, I wanted to make sure to connect you all with it. There are three reasons why we find savings that even excellent financial teams can't. The first is that we have a very particular set of skills. There are over 180 um
analysts in our head office that do only this. The second is that we have access to information that no one else does. Schoolie Mitchell has been doing this for more than 25 years and 33,000 clients. So, we have a private database of over 30,000 deals that the vendors
don't publish and no one else would know about. We also bring bandwidth to your financial team that they simply can't have. You run a a lean central administrative team as you should. Um, we just saved another Colorado district
over a million dollars in their first category. So, that's why I'm paying attention to other districts that I think can use our services and I wanted to come and introduce myself. >> Thank you so much. >> Our next speaker is Caim Goldman.
Just checking quickly because that person may not have had a chance to check in. I don't have him checked off. Um, Caim Goldman. Then it looks like we are done with open forum. We are now on to our consent agenda.
Does anyone have anything they'd like pulled from the consent agenda? Hearing none, may I have a motion to approve the consent agenda items? I move to approve all consent agenda items as presented. >> Second.
>> May I have a vote, please? >> Highland. >> I live right. >> I >> Ryan >> I. >> Thompson >> I. >> Withers. >> Hi. >> And that motion carries. We are now on to our updates. And first is Mr. Hilts.
>> Good evening. It is always really a both a relief and a kind of a joy to get to to June. Um, and I appreciate all of you for attending a variety of different graduations. Um, they were all spectacular in their way. Uh, reflected the the personalities of their different
schools. Um, and some of us got a chance to be there at goal. Uh, I always report on the parents that bring their children across stage. I think this year we had seven moms and four dads that carried a baby across that stage. I think that is
uh just one of the profoundly best things that we can see supporting these young parents and giving them an option. Um that really sets them and their child up for success. Um last year one of those one of those young moms had a thing a thing that said um I'm doing
this so that you can never say you couldn't do this. U as she was bringing her baby across. So, the graduation season was was heartwarming and inspirational and it it went super well. Um, this is a kind of a little bit inside baseball in the weeds uh
observation, but I am really excited that the entire cabinet is returning next year and that all of our principles saved one retirement um are also returning for next year. And when you when you think about how stressful both
of those positions are and how many opportunities our excellent leaders have, it's a great testament to um not only the the camaraderie that we develop because you stay for your team, but it also speaks to the supervision that our cabinet members provide to principles
and that our our executive directors provide to the people that they lead. We had incredibly high retention across the leadership core this year. That speaks to you, that speaks to me, that really speaks to the leadership of the cabinet in creating an environment where people want to be and more importantly where
people want to stay. And given how hard this year was, uh I think that's a tremendous kudo to the enterprise uh that that things are going really really well. We are moving along on a couple of major projects that you're already aware of. We're here because we're we're
moving on the Creek Side project. Uh Dr. Dr. Nancy Lamont has been our point person for all things construction at Creekide. Uh this is a huge lo logistical challenge because several of the functions that operate out of the Creekide building are entering their
most busy season of the year. So whether that's central enrollment, our registration function, um whether that is a lot of the um uh the early childhood education and the and the the prechool child find identification that
happens through special education. That's a busy place over the summer. Um so that they are that they are sustaining and maintaining excellent service is really remarkable. We are also um deep deep down the road of the
transition to colllocate Falcon Elementary with Bennett Ranch or at Bennett Ranch Elementary. So, those two school communities will co-operate and colllocate um at the Firebird Nation campus. And I am I am incredibly proud
of the way that those two schools and their staff have made a determination that they are going to make the best out of a a challenging set of circumstances. It allows us to then backfill what has been the the ancestral home of Falcon Elementary with our peak program with
our transitions program with early childhood programming. Um that is itself a huge logistical challenge because you've not only got the the relocation but then you've got the backfill work that is happening. There's little bit of remodeling associated with that. So both
those projects are on time and on schedule and Dr. Lamond assures me that the construction leaders have assured her that our August regular meeting will be in the new Peak View Peak View Hall. Um so we will plan on that. We will hold
>> I'm sorry that that the August work session will be in Peak View Hall. That is of course what Dr. Lamont assured me was the August work session. I am I am over my headlights in hoping the regular meeting will be there. Um but we are looking had a late July uh
initial occupancy for for most of that project. So, good things going on on both of those fronts. Um, as I as I have mentioned to you, I am in the middle of of learning and exploring the possibility of uh a ballot measure. Um, we got some key information on that last
late last week and so Miss Brooks and I are analyzing what that possibly might look like uh so that we can do some preliminary polling and bring you an informed uh consideration and you'll you'll give us some leadership from there. So very good things going on,
great people here and staying here, the right kinds of programs in the right kinds of places. And we are, despite a very tough year, we are set up to recharge over the summer. I will be on a plane in about six hours to Anchorage with my sister and our parents to take
them back to their home for a for a visit. Um, and so I'll be a little bit out of pocket uh for the next four or five days, but then I'll be back on and available to you as we get to the uh the work session later in June, but thank you for supporting that and making that happen and I yield back any time that I
have left. >> So now board members, Holly, do you have anything you'd like to share? >> Sure. Um, so I guess the only thing really um different is that last week of school I was able to visit every single
uh school in the power zone. I did I made a whole day of it um with zone leader Ritz and I met all the principles. I met several teachers who told me about you know programs especially at Vista Ridge uh just things that they were really looking forward to
offering. Um, I got to see a little bit about what they were doing with the littles, like the elementary schoolers, because I know they had fun in the sun planned, but it was raining for like the first two weeks of, you know, summer vacation because of all of that. Um, so
I just kind of got to see how they pivot and still make the best of a dreary situation. Um, and how well behaved and awesome all the kids were being. They didn't even have the like pre-summer jitters like you thought they would. I attended the graduations at Liberty Tree
Academy. Uh the one for Sand Creek and Falcon and Mr. Ridge. And then I also um my bonus son graduated from Rampart. And so I attended way too many graduations. I was socially depleted. And if you know
me, you know that's super weird. But other than that, um, and I just want to acknowledge the large quantity of emails that we have received today and I've gotten through a lot of them and I just wanted you guys to know like I hear you.
I'm reading them. I feel you. Um, yes. Thank you, >> Lori. Graduation season is always interesting because it always corresponds with one of the busier times for my day job and
so it has uh been a bit like juggling wet cats. Um, I attended the graduations for spring studio Patriot High School, Banning Lewis Preparatory, then Vistar Ridge, Sang Creek, Falcon, and I went to the gold graduation and I got to witness
Marie giving her son the most awesome fist bump routine that I have seen in a while. So, I want to commend our illustrious president on her fist bumping skills. Also, I wanted to thank um Holly Withers because I had signed up
to also do the LTA because I really like it as much as possible for a board member to attend every one of our regular graduations as well as our charter schools. Mr. Ryan also took over a graduation when one was at three and one was at 4. So, we did a little arm
wrestling and picked one. But uh the day I was supposed to go to Liberty Tree, they were holding a celebration of life for my one of my high school boyfriends and uh I reached out to Holly and she stepped up and covered it and I really
appreciated that so I could hang out at a bar eating chicken wings and swapping stories because that's where he would have wanted his celebration of life. So, it was really great that when something came up, somebody on this board would
step in. So, I really appreciated that. And I also have been reading emails today and we have gotten a lot of them. So, I want to thank everyone who reached out and I will speak more on those a little bit later. Right now, they are
running 44 in favor of erosce and I think five against. And the people who are in favor are either parents or they run the program or a teacher. But the overwhelming majority are parents uh with kids in er bosis. So I also
speaking of which attended their meeting on Tuesday night because I am the D49 liaison for erosis and that is a program that I fully support. Thank you >> Jeff.
I appreciate y'all coming out tonight. >> Excuse me. >> Grab some more water. >> So, we started off the the summer since it's been been my first couple months with this organization with the school board. Did some graduations, got to meet the team here a little bit more,
converse with everybody. But the most the best part that I found in the community, I've been out and about in the streets and people would come up to me and start asking me about being on the school board and congratulating me. So, I appreciate that. But one of the fondest moments I had this past couple
months is I I I'm a coach on High Plains Little League and one of my uh baseball players came up to me and says, "I seen your picture." I said, "Well, where'd you see my picture at?" He said, "It was on on the TV in school." He said, "So, what do you do?" And I said, so we got
into this whole discussion. Um, but that was exciting because I I'm not only am I talking to teachers, I'm talking to parents, but I'm also talking to kids. And that's what the enjoyment's about, right? Uh, coaching, training, and mentoring those kids on the baseball
field, being there for them. And I I was really super excited that they even recognized who I was with my baseball cap on. Um, other than that, thank you all very much for your support and yes, all the emails have come out and I've been watching them, reading them coming. Uh,
so I'm excited about tonight. Thank you. >> Mike, >> so um the last since the last time uh we all met um I attended the final uh DAC meeting of the year. Um saddest moment
was when our beloved Lauren Stewart notified us that she will not be serving us at the DACK anymore. Um, she's been great and we will miss her tremendously. Um, she's not going anywhere. She's still going to be with the district. She's just not going to help us out at DACK anymore. Um, and I'd like to put
out a plug. Um, we can certainly use more parent representatives on the DAC. So if you are you know interested in what we do as a district um that is an opportunity to come in and you get to speak directly to top level
administrators. You get to speak directly to me. That committee exists to give advice to this board. Um so you really get to learn a lot about the inner functions and then again give your feedback. So, please um we'd love to see
um more people um volunteer. Um June's incredibly or May is incredibly busy and so so many times I just had everything packed into one day. So I took a double booking um the night of the employee of the year celebration
um which is always a wonderful event um and they are getting better at putting that thing on every year. Um but uh it was alo also the same night that they were holding the gifted fair here at um San Creek High School. And uh you haven't lived until you've walked around
to those booths and you've talked to those students. Uh the little ones, the big ones, they're all fantastic and uh let them talk to you about their projects. Um so I was not going to pass up that opportunity. Um and then I
attended all six of the operated high school graduations. So, that was two very long but very enjoyable uh days and I want to thank um Peek and San Creek High School for uh allowing me to, you know, accept the graduating classes and
be a part of their celebrations. Uh two things that uh uh came up um with regard to the the homeschool enrichment feedback that we've been getting. Um, a lot of it has been, you know, parents talking about, hey, my kids are in these programs and they are a real benefit.
And I absolutely do not question that. Um, and one thing to know about me is my daughter was homeschooled for an entire year. And so I would have loved to have these programs available and I would have loved to um to take advantage of them at
the time. Um the real question is just about whether these are appropriate expenses in a time when um resources are scarce for schools all around the the state and we'll have that conversation later but I just want to let you know
even if we did decide tonight let's say which it's not going to happen but if we decided tonight that's not the end for these homeschool uh enrichment programs they can reach out to their local school districts and since they're already in operation
The process for getting a charter should be pretty smooth. >> What? Oh, so DAC stands for the district advisory accountability committee, sir. But in the future, please don't yell out. Um, not a problem. But yes, using those abbreviations is hard for our
community because unless you work in education, education speak has it's as bad as the military. two educators can have a conversation using a bunch of acronyms and be the only two in the room that understand it. And those of us who have military connections know we can sit and do the exact same thing. When I
go through DEFAS and the entire pay system with another spouse, um, absolutely no one else even knows we're talking about pay based on all the different designations we're using as we speak about it. So, thank you for that reminder. Um, I went to quite a few
graduations as well and my baby did graduate from goal on the 28th and we did learn a fancy handshake and the photographer did drop his jaw and tell me it was fire which was probably the best thing that Yeah. So, um, only our
friends on Facebook are allowed to see it, though I don't allow my kids to have their videos everywhere, so it won't go viral. But um I was very proud of him and very relieved. That's all I have to say on that. But um I'm proud of all of our students who graduated. This year
was particularly fun for me because having had my kids have um all been in D49 since preschool. And so many of the kids and they've gone in multiple zones. I'm a parent who chose different places at different
times for different kids. And so at every graduation almost in the district that I attended, there were kids walking across that stage that I remember attending school with mine. Um, so that was um there were all kinds of times when I wanted to I was like, "No, I'm
not going to do that. I'm not going to. I'm not going to." And just kind of sat. But at Peepic, at Spring Studio, um there were a couple of at at Sand Creek. There were quite a few at Vista because my son did elementary school at Vista and plenty in the Falcon zone from his
time at Bennett Ranch. Um so it was fun for me to kind of see where they were all going and see them finally getting there as well. It's always a wonderful celebration for our whole community to remember. Um one interesting fact I heard from goal was that state there
were about 440 at the Colorado Springs graduation. um they are graduating just about 2,000 across the state this year. So two things with that statistic. One, remember that's 2,000 seniors at goal
only. As a district, we run a little over a thousand. So when you look at our graduation data and post-workforce readiness data, remember twothirds of that data, if you look at the district as a whole, is
based on students in an AEC. Um so it's not reflective of what our coordinated schools are achieving. And sometimes that gets lost in some of those data discussions from people who don't understand um what we do in D49.
Um but 2000 is a pretty amazing achievement. um given where goal grew from and when they talked about it first just being about 100 kids to now 2,000 graduating and seeing moms and dads and
that seeing dads bring their children across the stage also to me was very special um because of the importance of dads standing in their kids' lives and often that doesn't happen in this age age range and so seeing those
connections being celebrated was really a cool thing as well. Um I have one board business piece to bring up as an administrative update and that is that the past several years there has not
been um there's been a July regular meeting scheduled and then um the board has then not held a July meeting depending on what we needed to complete as a board. Administratively, there is nothing that admin administration sees
at this point in time that given we will have the um June work session will be a special meeting. So anything that needs action from this meeting will be able to be voted on at that point. And most of our education staff, this is their time to refresh. The folks who have the busy
season are our budget folks who somehow got their budget done. I think it'll be the first time I've ever voted on a budget at the regular June meeting instead. So, Rebecca, I am bowing to your entire team. It's the very first time I haven't had to do it at a special
meeting. Um, which is amazing given the time they have with the legislature, but they start their audit July 1st for because that begins our new year. So, they're preparing for the audit immediately. So this is our super busy season for finance, super busy for
facility folks and our educators are the ones who are recharging and refreshing and just starting to come back in July. And so there with nothing pressing there, um my inclination is to say that we will not have a July regular meeting
unless there is a board member who has an objection for something. So consider the July regular meeting canceled. Yes, I there's no reason to make everyone else show up when we don't have something of import. Personally, also, I
don't like to do if there's business that isn't doesn't have to be done in July. I think it's better for our community if we wait until August when everybody's back from their vacations as well. Um, so at this point, we're now on to our action items. As a reminder,
action items have been discussed at length at prior meetings, either at a prior regular or work session. So, in general, we don't hold significant discussion on them. We move through them fairly quickly because all of our questions have already been answered and board members have already formed where
they stand on those issues. Um, so with that, we'll call first action item 7.1. May I have a motion, please? I move to approve the new course proposal, freshman human geography. >> Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Any
comment hearing? None. A vote >> I >> right >> I >> Ryan >> I >> Thompson >> I >> Withers >> hi. >> That motion passes. We're on to item 7.2 new job description advis applied and
advanced learning advisor. May I get a motion, please? >> I move to approve the new job description applied and advanced learning advisor. >> Second. >> Any comment? I have >> so um I just wanted to um address uh a
concern that was emailed to the group that um this position is essentially um covering 95% of the existing um uh role of a position that was just um uh ended as part of the um reductions we had to
go through for the exigency. I checked that out um and it turns out that it that that that's not true. The previous role was more of a um central office type manager of um of the counselors
whereas this position here is much more to use corporate speak customerf facing. This is direct support of students. So um there's very little overlap. Holly, >> I was just going to kind of piggyback off of that because I had asked uh Mr.
Norman a bunch of different questions in that regard. So, I just wanted to give him a shout out and thank you for, you know, dealing with the five emails that I sent to him. Um, and that's let's go forward.
>> Any further comment? Then we'll have the vote, please. >> Hi, >> Olivia. I >> Ryan >> I >> Thompson >> I >> Withers >> I >> motion carries. We're on to 7.3 the performance contact contract. May I get
a motion? >> I move to approve the performance contract with Schneider Electric. >> Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Any comment hearing? None. A vote please. >> Hyle >> I. >> Levia Wright >> I. >> Ryan
>> I. >> Thompson >> I. >> Withers. I. >> That motion carries. We're adding to item 7.4, the 2526 supplemental budget. >> I move to approve. I've got 2526
supplemental budget presentation. >> Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Any comment hearing? None. A vote, please. >> Hi. >> Livier Wright. >> I. >> Ryan, >> I. >> Thompson. >> I. >> Withers.
>> Hi. That motion carries. We're on to item 7.5, the 2627 adopted budget. May I get a motion, please? I move to approve the 2026 27 adopted budget. >> Second.
>> It's been moved and seconded. Any comment hearing? None of Oh, Peter. >> Yeah, if I may comment from the administrative side. But um all of us understand this is a really tough year and the years ahead look like they will continue to be pretty constrained and um
sometimes a little bit unpredictable. And so I want to add my compliments not just for the budget office team but really to set us up for sustainability took leadership at every level. Um it took leadership a hundred people deep into the district. So that means cabinet
members, executive directors, principles, directors, coordinators, um consolidation of positions, reduction in programming in some cases some painful elimination of programming and personnel. This was a enterprisewide effort to get us to the point where we
could present to you a budget that we have high confidence in uh and and to do it in this time frame is remarkable. So thank you for your advocacy. Um I it does not I don't think a day goes by literally uh that I don't see another
district that is that is starting to have discussions about budget cuts that they're going to need to make for next year. 2 and a half million here 800,000 there. But this is a statewide phenomenon because enrollment is down statewide and enrollment is what drives revenue. And so thank you for being
receptive back when we started this discussion in December. It's because we started in December that we're able to bring you a stable, sustainable budget going forward. And I I think this is a tremendous example of of the team that
is D49. I always say in calm weather, every crew is a great crew. If you want to know if you've got a great crew, you've got to be in a storm. And we've been in a storm and we've got a great crew. So there's my endorsement of this. I hope that you will approve it and get
us set up for next year. Any further comment? Then a vote, please. >> Kyle, >> I Livia Wright >> I. >> Ryan >> I. >> Thompson >> I. >> Withers. >> And that motion carries. Information items are just information for the board
to review. So we're now on to our discussion items. And our first one is a new job description um from Dr. Nancy Lamont. Good evening board. Dr. Nancy Lamont, deputy superintendent and executive director for individualized education here with um Stacy Pal, the director of
early childhood education. This is a little bit of a not quite accurate. It's not a new job description. We have a job description for child find coordinator. That's an obligation we have under the IDA for our child find obligations. What
we are asking is to um enhance this job description to provide some administrative and support and relief for um Stacy Pal. I believe I outlined it in the cover page. So if there are any questions either myself or Stacy can answer, let me know.
Questions from anyone. I think a very very long time ago there was someone with an administrative role in ECEA and then it shifted and so this is kind of shifting back from when I served on the preschool council when my
kids were in preschool which you know my youngest is just graduated high school so that's a very long time ago. Um, but I think it's also gotten way more complex when we've added in UPK as well and much bigger. And so I appreciate you taking this opportunity with the
retirement to reook at the structure and say, okay, take advantage of take advantage of that opportunity to redefine what will serve the organization moving forward. And so, thank you for doing that because it would have been really easy to just say, "Oh, shoot. This person's leaving. let's
post the job because this is a needed position. Um, and you have a very short timeline to fill it rather than also looking at what those needs are. So, thank you for doing that. Lori, I was just going to say too, reading the job description and early
identification, I saw the time frame of 3 to 5 years old. And I think the earlier those types of issues um are identified, the more resources hopefully can help them to get off on a good path before they enter into elementary
school. And so I just wanted to say that uh I appreciate this position and what it does for our kids. >> Just as a bit of uh info, um Child Fine actually starts at six weeks and goes all the way through the age of 21.
Just curious the kind of testing at six weeks. So >> and that's why we have an outside agency do that for us. >> Yeah. Well, that it's when it's Yeah. Well, you Yeah, exactly. Some of us who have children with special needs who who could be identified very early can tell you some of those things are identified
at birth. Um but Mike, did you have a comment as well? Yeah, I just wanted to um mention uh in part of the rationale here, you talk about um the director of early childhood education uh evaluates 28 staff, which is beyond the accepted
span of control for a supervisor, which is absolutely correct. I mean, you could spend like half of the year just doing eval, right? Um, the reason I bring that up is because frequently when people talk to me about um problems with um the
way that the the school um budget is run, um a frequent complaint is the zone superintendent model. And that is that falls exactly into this. If we didn't have zone superintendents, if all of our principles fell under the
superintendent, he would also exceed 28 direct reports because we have about 30 um operated schoolsish um plus all of the cabinet members and that would just be excessive and one person cannot manage all those directly. Therefore,
assistant superintendent have always been a a a feature of every district and we use them wisely. So, I just wanted to thank you for giving me a platform to opine on that. >> Okay. So, are we good with moving this forward?
>> Yes. Yeah. Everybody has to speak it so it doesn't look like I'm the only one saying it. Thank you. So, we'll move this forward for action which means you'll also be able to post it tomorrow morning. Thank you. >> And so, we are now on to item 9.2 2 and
that will be moved forward to the special meeting at the end of June. Carrie um the Falcon High School athletic training curriculum with um Brian and Sean. >> Good evening members of the board. Uh Brian Smith, Falcon Zone superintendent,
and I am here with Sean Oconor, principal at Falcon High School, uh to propose to you an update to curriculum. We have been working in the zone to update curriculum over the past few years and Mr. Oconor and his team have identified another course that has been in need of some updates and so he's
going to share a little bit about that with you so that we can get that one done as well. >> Good evening board. Uh quick overview. this course uh returned to our curriculum uh offerings just this past school year. And in doing so, we discovered that the current curriculum
available was was outdated and didn't align with with some of the things that we were working on some of our programs including HOSA and uh NHS NCHS uh standards. That's just a quick overview. I can answer more questions
about the curriculum. Um it's just more update and aligns And I was at the PTA meeting where he let us know the sack had also looked at it and all of those pieces in the building. So the the parents had also already agreed that it was the
appropriate direction to go. Are we all good with moving this forward? >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> All right. Thank you very much and enjoy your little bit of summer break. >> Thank you. And so that will also be moved forward
to the um jo the June special meeting. We are on to 9.3 the director district um with Dr. Lou Fletcher and as he's coming up, this is necessary for us to do at this time because the county redid
their precincts and when the county red does their precincts, it messes up our maps. And so we're looking at it now in preparation for recognizing that we will have to run uh a board of directors election in 2027.
And by doing it now, we're addressing it in an appropriate and timely manner um given when the when the county changed their maps. And so with that, I'll turn it over to you, Dr. L. >> Miss, may I may I speak in preamble as well before Dr. Fletcher and and Miss Glenn Phillips? Um this is an incredibly
complex, complicated, and technical analysis. And we have spent at least four hours in in direct analysis. Uh, I'm talking about changing formulas and spreadsheet cells and looking at precinct maps. Um, this is why we we
have subject matter experts. And so I just wanted to preface that when we talk about running a lean district, we we do try to run a lean district. Um, but this is the kind of thing for which there is no no substitute for expertise and connections with the county. So what
you're about to see is a highly um not not oversimplified appropriately simplified presentation of an incredibly complex background. So thank you Dr. Lou take us away. >> Dr. Lou Fletcher uh executive director of joint operations at Evelyn Gian
Phillips. She's our community and facility planning manager and I might direct some of you who remember have a long memory of the last time we did director districts. Um it was very exciting. uh it came out of uh COVID and I remember we had two of three uh chief
officers leave and then all a sudden this here's what you got to do. So we got a little bit behind on that one. So one of my goals for um director districts this time was to make it boring. Now how do you make something boring? You get somebody who's very exciting and dynamic and very smart to boil it down
for you so that Peter and I can go back and forth and look at things that are going on. But Evelyn did the uh heavy lifting on this. She showed us models. She looks at precincts. So any um gratitude you have, any grace, any things. She did the heavy lifting right here. So without further ado, I'll bring
Evelyn up and I'll help her out as I can. >> Thank you very much. So as indicated in 2015, the district 49 moved from a atlarge district to director district
um portfolio. So we have had three elections I believe since that time back in from 2015. >> That's what I'm here for. This is a what the executive director does.
>> Glad to be of service. >> So basically everything I do is is grounded in law. Uh the Colorado Revised Statutes indicates the timelines, what the specifications required for the district directors and
when the changes occur and how they how they go. So in 2015 there was a nearly equal population of 3.2%. 2017 jumped to 2120,
2023 down to 5.07 and today if we left it the way it is today uh we would be at 11.4%. While 10% is our standard kind of expectation
of when we need to be looking at things or given other different qualifications such as the um precinct splits, this is what kind of moves us forward in the direction.
So today, this is how the districts was split in 2023. The precincts and then it moves it forward to the 2025 which brings us from the 5% to 11% roughly. After running many many plans um we
decided to post our top seven plans. All of the the remaining ones are in the appendex. Yeah, you some of you may remember that we uh ran these things and people were making all kinds of accusations like gerrymander and all that kind of thing. So we said we had a we had a con a game show so to speak.
Can you make a better map? So what we did is we kind of preempted it in our strategy for boring is that we made all 15 maps. And um as you can see that our first seven maps are almost as good as our one that we adopted. So if you look
at one through six, they're all under 5%. So, a lot of work went into it. And if you don't believe that we have all the rest of those maps, they're in the backup slides if you want to get on to uh Diligent. >> So, this is what the 1.93% map would look like.
And I would say one of the things right there just as a point of um arc and also in interest of it's it's summertime. Uh 1.3 1.93% is what we would recommend. It's the tightest. It has the least deviation and that kind of thing. Um, but we re we welcome you to look at any
of the rest of them because I think our standard is under 10% the tightest. That way we don't have the controversy because our job here is simply to present maps and allow the board to uh look at it. So if we wanted to stop here, this would be sufficient. But we can go on and show you all of the maps. >> May I May I interject as well? As you
look at this map, you'll notice that there are a couple of um just little protrances that look strange. And somebody might say, "Well, that's not compact." But that's where the precincts were drawn. So that little rhinoceros horn or the little bump up or the
peninsula down, those are all artifacts from the way they drew the precincts. We have to follow those boundaries. We have no choice. So the only way those aren't visible is if those neighboring precincts happen to be in the same
director district. And so they would look more compact, but then they would be less compliant. And so that's why you see those little kind of kind of visual visual glitches, if you will. It's just the way the way the voters where the
voters live in the district. So, um, that would be the first question. Personally, I'm okay with just showing this one because we've all had it for five days in our packet and looked through them and we can discuss it as a board. Um, as one board member,
my preference is to go with the one that has the smallest percentage devian because we know they're continuing to build, continuing to grow. So, two things trigger us having to redo this. The county redrawing their precincts,
which is what happened this time, right? And so, then it was no longer compliant because we had precincts that were split and we're not allowed to have split precincts. So, we had to do it um or when we do the next population study,
right? So when the next census comes out in 2030, if we've picked one that is as tight as possible, then the changes that may have to be done in 2030 may not be very large. The larger current variance
we pick, the more likely that variance is going to get too big for us to stay consistent. And the longer we can keep our director districts the same, the better it is for our district. like longer term when we're no longer the center of growth for El Paso County, it
will stabilize. Um we're not quite there yet. Eventually that is happening further east of us now. I I I can see it from my house. Um but um that to me as one board member picking the one that has the tightest
compliance percentage-wise for deviance and population seems to be the one that would make the longer term strategy smarter because it may give us one that we can keep for a few cycles or won't have to be adjusted very much in the near future. Maybe even not much at the next census. Um but what
are other folks opinions? Lori, >> this will be the second time I've been through this. And last time it was really interesting because of some of the odd shapes shapes and it has to be complete precincts. They have to be contiguous. They have to touch. The only
thing we can never do in district 49 is compact the third se because as you can see if you adjust by populations you have areas that are more densely populated and some that are further apart. So, the last time we had to weigh
with this issue, which it's when John Graham was at the helm, um it was really tough because the most compliant plan meant that two board members would be ineligible to run again. And one of them was a really good board member, Rick Van Weir, and I'd like to give a shout out
to him. Um, so there were accusations of gerrymandering and all kinds of false information on social media. There's a lot of false information on social media, by the way. Um, but I the second
most compliant plan would have allowed us to keep Rick and everything in my being wanted to go for the second one, but that would have been for selfish reasons, not for compliant reasons. It still would have been compliant, but I
knew what my motives were. So, I ended up then moving forward and the one we chose was the most compliant. Then Peter and his team even put together an interactive map where we could work it as individual board members to see if we could come up with any other
configuration. >> Too much fun. >> Yeah. And uh I think uh Jamie, director Jamie Lindo tried it and it turned out she had one piece that was off. Um so I appreciate the fact that they gave us that opportunity. You don't have to do
it this time because you've done the hard work. But we either have to balance after a population study or with this precinct change. So I just want to say thank you for doing this. This has no impact on anyone who's currently serving. It will impact the next
election. And so I appreciate what um President Levier Wright said, the most compliant one will last the longest because District 49, we have land. We are where a lot of the new housing is going in. we will have a population
shift and so thank you for all of your hard work. >> Yeah, I want to say you folks are very productive or you're inviting people to live in the district. We grew so much since the last time and on the predictions from our demographer that we're going to grow so much going into uh 2030 and beyond. So get ready for new
neighbors. >> Let's move forward. So ultimately what we're asking here if the board um has finished we don't want to rush you anything like that but this is the action that we would like to ask our superintendent to do for us. >> Yeah I came into this with the full expectation that I would support the
most um compliant one the the one with the smallest amount of variance getting that under 2% that is a real accomplishment. Well done. And again in six of the models you did better this time around than you did last time. So,
you've absolutely skilled up and that speaks well to the expertise point that um Peter made earlier. >> That has to do with the county realigning theirs first because that changed the way in which populations were. I think they did an amazing job both times. They did the best they could
with the precincts they had. >> So, I would I would absolutely not even consider um growth in trying to figure out which one to adopt because it's so unpredictable, right? So, projects get delayed, projects get halted. um projects go online but um you know
houses don't sell um new projects come online uh in other places you weren't anticipating. So it really just makes most sense to number one comply with the law which says that that's the one we're supposed to choose and then also that's the one that's going to be the most
resilient to change as um we grow forward. So, I >> I gotta say though, you are making this boring because there was a very real chance that I was going to um end up in um Lor's district. Our our precincts are
not that far apart. And I was looking forward to this moment where I would be able to, you know, play the martyr and say, "No, I'm going to do the right thing even though it hurts me because this is how grown-ups do it." and and you've you've absolutely you've
absolutely cost me that opportunity to grandstand and um I'm I'm disappointed in you. >> I know I know you understand service from your service in the Navy and you you know about stop loss too, right? So when a person tries to get out but uh we need them for some more time. Consider
yourself stop lost. >> I'm not commenting on that part. I'm giving you a dirty look on that line. Um, for my own reasons. All right. So, it sounds to me like we have a consensus to go with the most compliant one at 1.93%.
Um, Peter, is it reasonable for that to be on the June meeting or would you rather do it at the August regular? So, we're adopting it at a regular meeting. >> For the reasons that you mentioned earlier of transparency, I'd recommend that we adopt uh at the August regular meeting. And so I would encourage you to
direct me to have the team draft a resolution adopting the first proposal um for adoption and that would take effect for the 2027. These are hot tonight for the 2027 uh school board election should we have one.
>> Consider yourself so directed. >> And just for uh going out the rest of the boring part is that this is in line with statute that requires us to give it to the county clerk and recorder by December 31st of 2026. So we August is perfectly acceptable. Thank you for doing that.
>> Like being compliant. Thank you. >> And I love that we have the people who do the real work, right? That that's not our role. Our role is to let the experts do their job and respect that expertise. So now we are on to item 9.4, the right
of way for 24 at Patriot Applied Learning. And I'm just going to preface this by saying thank you God. At some point I'll eventually be able to drive out of Falcon in less than 35 minutes. >> Yes, you will. We're the same people as
last time, but that's Dr. Lou and Evelyn. So, the show goes on. What I want to preface this with is that 9.4 and 9.5 are parallel. So, if we kind of talk about them together, it helps us to uh not give you a redundant conversation. On the next item, um this
is right of way. uh C do wants us to use right of way because they said we they don't want to say imminent domain anymore because it's like we don't have a choice in imminent domain. Then I said what do we have a choice in right of way? They said no you don't have a choice. So this is this is more politically correct. We're talking about right of way. So, Evelyn is going to
talk about the first one. And what we're going to do through these two is we're asking you to review them and vote them tonight because the ultimate goal for this is that once we have your signature on a resolution, we can go to escrow and then the district can collect over
almost $450,000 from the state. You have the right to to spread it out, but I'm just let you know if you vote on both tonight, we were able to get the $450,000 so we can start doing the work associated with this. But with that, I'll let Evelyn explain it. Yeah, that requires an entire amendment. Like we
needed that when we were setting the agenda because this is a discussion item and not listed as an action item. So, um but why don't we present the items and make sure we get through the material you need to get us through and then we'll discuss it.
Approximately a year ago, uh, Cedot had reached out regarding imminent or rightway acquisition, land acquisition for the on the Patriot High School site for the US 24 Whitney project. And we
have been back and forth with appraisals. Um, both SE dot with C dot did appraisal. Um, District 49 conducted an appraisal. um when we compared and contrasted all of the differences and and reconciled both of those together.
So throughout this um the information provided there's going to be a permanent easement. So they would be able to so do would be able to uh work on the drainage section on
within the property. But there is a a portion um the district had voted or we had gotten confirmation of building a sound wall. So C dot will build a sound wall for extra security protection for the kids because the US 24 will be coming up so
so far upwards um onto the property. Um so there will be a sound wall there that will help with noise reduction and you know we we consider it a safety factor. >> Yeah. And one of the things on this is
that it facilitates a few things. is going to lose about half the parking lot on the back side of um Patriot. And right in that easement, it just so happens we have a pod there and the easement went straight through the middle of the uh pod. So, one of the things we have to do as a function of
this is we have to relocate that student capacity uh from that easement to somewhere on uh Patriots campus. So, that's another one of the major things that we need. That's why we want to get the money sooner so we could start doing that in advance of them doing their work.
And if you if if you're permitted, we can start talking about the other one and then we can clean it up at the end. So go ahead and talk about the uh >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, the Eastville is on the back side of Falcon High School and
that one is El Paso County Public Works and they will be doing a roundabout at that corner of I want to say it's >> Yeah. >> Yes. So, they've had been holding public meetings. I think the last one was held
at Patriot High School. that that one is very little. Um it's just the the look back corner. It's not going to be a huge impact for the district. Uh but it is part of the process >> and it's a secondary story. If um Brian Smith can get a Kickstarter started up
there, he like to put a falcon in the middle of the circle. So that's a separate process. C dot won't pay for it, but if you see a falcon in the circle, Brian has been successful. So with that, what we what we see it as for both of these things and like said I
apologize for the irregularity, but we're trying to go for a public good. The sooner that we can get the funds and go because we do it just like a house closing. We have your resolution with which they require, we will go to a closing, the money for the district is currently in escrow. Once we finish with that closing, they will release all
those funds to the district and then we'll use that to uh to fund the projects to be able to uh do work uh under uh actually they're going to pay for the underground work for us. C dot. She's done an amazing job of uh negotiating because a lot of stuff that we would have to pay for, we negotiate it with C dot and we got the underground
stuff because there's usually a million dollars underground you can't see. But they're moving that all for us and the money that we get from here will be to start to discontinue the use of the pod and hopefully get a new pod to to be able to facilitate those students being in school. So, we want to make it as seamless as possible and that's the
reason why we're asking for a variance. >> Are there any questions? Mike, you have a question? >> Yeah, I have a couple of questions for you, mostly uh around the work at Patriot. So, um one is that the the the new easement would essentially take away
some um parking space and you're talking about taking away the pod but then replacing it with a new pod. So, how constrained are we at uh for parking right now at that facility and uh what what plans do we have to address that if
any? So until which time we close phase one and release the funding, I cannot hire an architect or an engineer to do that studies. But quick overview, parking, depending on where the pod goes, we have one of two spaces in which
C dot's committed to placing it. Um, and that would depend on the infrastructure underground and what we need to do. So after we get this part closed and finalized, we'll enter into phase two negotiations and and discussions. Um part of the phase one funding is for
like the relocation of the sign um because it will be part of the easement. So we'll need to move it back and then it'll just be handinhand coordination with them throughout the process. >> Right. So the more work that we can actually do before C dot stars their work will make less disruption to the students and and like I said she she
gave the perfect answer. It will be unqualified for us to tell you exactly how many parking spaces, but we can tell you uh as an estimate is that those spaces, half of the spaces that are on the other where the entrance of the school is currently will be gone and a retaining wall will be there. >> However, we can reconfigure the parking,
but that's going to take the engineer work. We do we will meet the capacity um per land development codes there are requirements. So we will ensure that the requirements are are met >> whether it be in the front or the back.
>> Sorry. >> Okay. And that essentially answers the second question I had too is um I was uh curious about whether the we thought that the money we were going to be able to get would um cover the the work that has to be done. But it sounds like
that's way too preliminary and we have no idea. >> Correct. >> Yeah. We could say hypothetically rough order of magnitude we should be somewhere in the ballpark but with escalating prices and that kind of thing for us to tell you anything definite would be lying. >> Lori, did you have another question? was more of a comment which I think will tie
in with those plans because once you do the retaining wall when you're looking at parking lot surfaces which is more impervious to rainwater and flow and drainage and I think we ran into some of those issues if I remember correctly
with the transportation center. So we may have to work out a shared agreement with the transportation center for parkings. >> Correct. We do have opportunities which is great. Okay, Peter, did you want to talk to the that component in terms of because I
know when we talked about this previously, we were going to do it as a approval at the special given that this is a land sale and so obviously very public facing to our community as well. If we're talking about a there isn't a net dollar difference, but can we still
begin the project knowing if the board says yes, we're moving this forward, can they begin the project with existing general fund funds that then get reimbursed from it so that it doesn't impact their timeline? So yes, we can begin the project, but if
it involves purchasing a pod, that's a big ticket, enough item that we'll need to have the reimbursement either in hand or or guaranteed, and that won't happen until we've done the the transfer. Rebecca will walk down and give us some
additional. We we are it would have been helpful if we had gotten this requirement two months before. Um but we didn't. And so we have to do things the right way and we have to do them in public and we have to do them on our regular sequence. So that's why we're not asking for an emergency
action. Um it it may make us really tight for a semester uh at the at the campus. Um we know how to deal with tight. We'll deal with it. Again on the financial side it will it will be less about tight and more about timing. And
Rebecca can explain that. >> Go on ahead. >> Thank you. So as far as um us being able to proceed with certain things like surveys and and things of that nature, we can move forward with those without the this being approved necessarily this
evening. It just makes it a little cleaner because then we can receive monies in this fiscal year uh where it might be a little tighter for turnaround in the if if it's postponed. It's not necessarily a deal breaker if you push
it to the next meeting from a financial perspective. Um, but it is just a little cleaner in the differences between the years. And the just for clarification, the pod, it will be phase two. So, we wouldn't be pre- purchasing that either way. So, that's not a a necessarily a
factor at this point. >> Okay. So, essentially, it's just impacts a little bit on the accounting. Um because my is from Rebecca's perspective. >> From my perspective, I don't know how much more that would affect on Evelyn's side, but from financial, it's really
accounting wise. >> And may I jump back in on this? We we did talk about this because we we didn't want it to be an action item tonight. That's why it's in the discussion part of the agenda. Um we had to reschedule the closing because we need the board to
have voted to approve it before we can conclude. It's a contract, right? And so you have to have the entity that governs the district has to approve that. And so we're doing the right thing sequentially. It isn't optimal in terms of being able to have the funds to purchase a pod.
We'll deal with the nonoptimal so that we do it the right way. >> So your recommendation as well is that we proceed it as we have it currently on the agenda. Discussion tonight, approval at um the June special meeting. And so, um, and that, and as Rebecca said,
they're not ordering the pod now anyway because that's phase two. So, yes, that's longer down the road. >> And if you all go on record and say, "Yes, you want to move this forward." Typically, we infer that that means you want to move this forward to approve it. Correct. And so, we move forward in good
faith. >> If we misread you and we were wrong or or if you or if new information comes to light and you change your mind, we adjust. But we're we're doing this the right way. >> Okay? And this is still very helpful because what we'll be able to do with the meeting um that's coming up, we'll be able to talk to C do DOT and say, are
you comfortable at least scheduling understanding that we went through a process that it should be approved on that date and then maybe we can get a a closing date sometime in uh July. >> Yeah, they could even say, look, we'll have the paperwork for you. You can close it on the 25th because they're
going to vote the 24th. You'll have the signed resolution before Lori and I leave that meeting. Um but okay. So, are we comfortable moving this forward for approval? >> Yes. >> I'm a yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> So, we'll move that to the um June
special meeting. And that's both of these items. Um and I'm looking forward to that Eastnville intersection being safer as well. um you take your life into your hands driving through some of those spots and if they do any road improvement there at all then it's going
to get worse not better at that corner. Um so thank you very much. So now we're on to uh where am I? That's the policy. It's still that resolution. Are we on to
96 now? We no mic and procedure review. There was just one policy in there and I think the only change on that and again when we have a policy and procedure review that are those are policies where
administration is bringing forward forward recommended administrative changes that are either related to something um that has changed in district structure. So in this case, who the reporting person is um because the
job title changed or a um change that is required because of a change in statute. In this case, I believe it's just the only change that's coming forward is one that was the the title of the custodian. Um does anyone have any questions on that? Lori,
>> I was just going to say that Lynette does a good job of bringing these up for review and going through them. And speaking of which, I don't know if you spotted that she popped in earlier and she gave us two thumbs up. So, she has been caught up in a court case and two
thumbs up. >> She'll come back and speak to it. >> Okay, great. But I'll go ahead and stop speaking about that. But anyway, just does a great job of doing the policy and procedure review. Okay. So, are we all good with moving that forward? >> Yes.
>> I'm a yes. >> Yes. All right. So then we are on to 9.7 appointment of the board representative for the CASBY delegate assembly. And so um every year the um CASBY has a
delegate assembly where they determine a part of what the legislative priorities will be um for CASBY as an entity. And each district appoints a delegate that can participate in that process. and we need to appoint them now because that information needs to be turned in
in August and as we're not having a July meeting um we'd make the recommendation we'll have an actual resolution then at the special meeting. Um we discussed this already at our annual planning session and I believe Mike you were the person who had said you'd be willing to
do it correct? >> Yeah. So, um, Deb Schmidt was uh the the backup um for the previous board and so she expressed an interest in doing it and so um she got the primary role. Um I expressed an interest as well and um so
I was assigned the uh backup and so with Deb's resignation it the position would have devolved onto me. Um it's something that I'm still interested in. And in fact, um, after CAS, well, at CASBY, I was encouraged to apply for an open area
rep position. Um, and I apparently made the selection, uh, difficult, but I was not selected and I was encouraged to stay active with them. So, I it's something I'm interested in. But I also want to add that I am, you know, an empty neester and so I have a lot of
time to give to the the board where I know most of you have um significant family obligations, but I also don't want to be the guy that guy who's just like boguarding everything. So I'm on the DAC and that is really appropriate for my role as board treasurer. I also
have SEAK and I have um uh now um the uh CASBY delegate assembly. And so um if somebody has interest in one of those two positions um I'm I'm definitely open to talking
about it. >> So but you right now we're focused on this the delegate assembly is September 11th and 12th. Um and so you're willing to serve on that. So what we'll do then is have this move forward as an action item at the 24th special where we name
Mike as the delegate assembly unless there's someone who has opposition to that. I don't see a reason. Lori, I have attended a couple of the U meetings Glennwood Springs uh PBL. I've been to other CASBY um areas and I've also
watched when they have their discussions. So, I think I've hit four or five of those, including the ones at the Broadmore. So, if we need a backup, I'm willing to go into a backup position on that. >> I'll go to backup as well.
>> Okay. So, we can Yeah, we can talk through the backup. >> Okay. >> No, it's something we could definitely discuss because also there's some travel involved, too. So, it just depends on your family scenario and whether or not you like to go camping. So, but you can
also take them with you and have the kids go with your wife to the pool during the time that's happening. So, so at this point, only thing we have to have is the person appointing that can actually attend that weekend. And at that point, this point that's Mike and we have to have that resolution to
Casby. So, we'll do that now and then um we'll do that at that next meeting. Then if we want to look at um other components of it or who else would like to attend, we can have other people attend who aren't the designated delegates so they can see how the process works. And I'll have Lynette
look into um what attendance for that conference is. Um it is another fee, but um I was the delegate for a very long time, which is why I'm not raising my hand because I did I love it. I am very good at that type of debate. Some of the
things that are permanent standing resolutions are there because of years of work on my part on during my prior board service. Um, but I am perfectly happy to let other people have that experience now. Um, so but I'll have Lynette look into that because we won't
have who else is attending doesn't have to be Casby right away. Only who our um delegate is. Lori, >> just to note too that the board makes a vote on which ones we support and which ones we don't. So it's not a case of
somebody shows up and advocates for a position that's different than what the board approved. And so that was just a point I wanted to make, >> Mike. And just as far as um sending um as far as the the backup um previous
boards have sent both the primary and the backup just so that the backup can be there learning about the process and um so that if you ever have to um step up uh for whatever reason that you've had that training and that exposure I
kind of skipped past that and it would have been nice if I'd have been able to attend once as a backup but um you That's what it is. >> Like I said, I think you can actually have more than just one per I think you can have more than two attend because they do other aspects. So, um, but I'll
have Lynette verify that and then that part we don't have to worry about till August. Um, so at this point, I think we have that item taken care of and we can u move on to the last item on our agenda which Mike is presenting.
And if it's okay, I'd like to um stay where I'm at and if I can get somebody to um help me out with um the slides. >> All right, great. All right, so
um this has been a fast evolving topic. Um so just two nights ago, the very nature of this conversation changed. Um, next slide, please. Um, so, um,
when this was first put on the calendar, um, it was essentially just a discussion about whether D49 will continue to participate in this organization. But two nights ago, Elizabeth school district had a vote on this same topic. They elected to leave. That leaves
erosce with one institution of higher learning, Pikes Peak State, and us. and aboseis cannot exist without two members one of which must be a school district. So this conversation um is existential for the Boseies unless
they find a another partner district before um we uh bring this to a vote. So with that said um let's start from the beginning because I know we have new members and um a lot of community members who have never heard this topic
before. So what is a BOSIES? It's a acronym that stands for Board of Cooperative Education Services. You see here the um the law that establishes it and the purpose statement that was encoded into the law. I don't find that
definition to be too helpful. So next slide please. So I pulled this off of the Colorado Boseies Association site and this one is very much more um explanatory. Boseies exist to supply educational services to two or more
districts that alone cannot afford the service or find it advantageous and cost-effective to cooperate with other districts. So essentially it gives school districts the opportunity to um do business uh um taking advantage of
economies of scale especially for our rural districts or for a place like El Paso County where we are so fragmented there can be some significant benefits. Uh next slide please. So also from their um the Boseies association site these are some examples
of programs and services that they include. I say here that D49 is currently a member of two but just slight clarification. We are an associate of Pikes Peak Boseies and that makes sense um because they have nine
full members which means they have nine voting board members. it's pretty cluttered. And then another 10 associates. So, we get to take advantage of their services um as we need them. Um but, uh we don't have to send a board
member to wrangle one out of nine votes. Um and then of course we are member of education reinvision Boseies or ERBOSIES. And next slide please. So what is er Boseies? So they were founded in 2013 as Colorado digital Boseies and
then renamed in 2018 because their original focus was on online schools and they have they have changed over the years. Um this is how they describe themselves on their on their uh on their homepage and I want to bring special attention to the first and
the third bullet points. They say they authorize and oversee brickandmortar schools, online schools, and homeschool enrichment programs, and ensure accountability by monitoring compliance, data, and performance standards for students and schools. If that sounds
familiar, that's because that describes our relationship with our charter schools. And the charter school act vests chartering authority in only two types of organizations, local school boards and the statewide authorizer,
charter school institute. And so they are acting very much like a charter school authorizer except they call them contract schools. What do we do when we enter into a chartering relationship with a school? The very next step is we start
negotiating the contract. So as an individual I don't see any functional difference between the two and it's questionable that they even have this authority. Next slide please. So their relationship to D49
I keep encountering this over and over and over again and so I need to emphasize it. We they are not a charter school. um it looks a lot like one because of some of the services that we provide for them. They show up in our
budget just like our charter schools do. But we are a member of the Boseies. We do not have any direct supervisory um role. We only put one member out of five on their board and that is as much supervision as we have. They they are
their own entity. They have their own district code and so their students are not considered by CDE to be D49 students. So what we do though that's different from an ordinary member is that we are also their fiscal sponsor. So as a
Boseies they do not have a conduit to report data to um CDE and receive funds. So we basically provide that conduit. So we collect from erosce their student count data, their performance data and
we pass that on to CDE and in exchange CDE sends funds which we then pass right through to um to erosce. Now the second sentence on the second bullet point is correct but incomplete. So we are not
directly compensated for this relationship. We do receive some schooly seat licenses valued at about 90,000 a year. But since publishing this, I did learn that there is an indirect financial benefit to the district. And
that is that their students count as D49 students to the Department of Education for Title One eligibility purposes. And that that relationship uh increases our title one fund funding by about 2 to2.4
million dollars a year. Uh in speaking with Rebecca, she estimates that um even with the state law changes um erosis will retain about 80% of those students. So we're looking at a potential $1.6ish
million benefit to our budget next year. So that additional information knowing where we are with our budget situation makes this a more difficult conversation, but that's the job. Uh, next slide please.
All right. So, um, in recent years, um, Erbosis has been, uh, involving itself in several controversies. And so, I've kind of classified them here. So, one of them is overtly challenging the law. And
so when I talked about before about who has charter school authorization authority and that they're using, you know, the contract schools sort of language um and they've been allowed to um to um
get away with that for for a little while, but they were also planting programs in different school districts that were not members. And so our neighbors at D11 took Yerbosis to court and this Supreme uh court decision in uh
2024. Um they won that over Orton Academy. Orton Academy has now been rolled into um D11. They've entered into a direct charter relationship with them. Um but D11 that lawsuit and ERVOS's going forward was required to get
permission to plant a program in a non-member district. And then of course we talked about it at the beginning and it happened in our boardroom uh back in October. Um uh Kenwit came before us to announce publicly that they were opening
the first Christian public Christian school. Um and that was done on purpose to bring a court before the Supreme Court. Um so next slide please. So, in order to open up Riverstone, they
needed to have the permission of the D70 board um because that that was where it was going to be um planted. So, um, on June 4th, Brad Miller acting as the, uh, council for both D70s board and ERBOS at
the time, sent the board president an email that detailed that the, this is the purpose why we want to um, uh, open this uh, academy for the purposes of um, getting before the Supreme Court. That email is in the public domain. Um, and
uh, the president agreed within like five minutes. 5 days later she accepted an employment offer from Eerosis. So now she's representing D70 and hired by Erosis. The very next night they had their first
discussion item. No disclosure about the the conflict of interest. Um June 24th again they took the vote. No conflict of interest. So that I mean at the very least that's sketchy behavior on the part of Eerosis. the very least they
could if they really wanted her they could have waited until after this had been done. Uh next slide. So there's also since people have been paying attention to Riverstone noticing that they haven't been acting as a
responsible authorizer. So the the biggest one of course that was ex uh reported at length Riverstone Academy was closed immediately or shortly after opening because they didn't follow zoning. They didn't follow building codes. They didn't follow health codes.
They essentially pllopped it into office space in the middle of an industrial hightra area for a K through five. Um and um so the the local officials uh objected and um ordered them to close until things could be writed. So they
went in front of their board in June and opened in August. For comparison's sake, right about the same time that um Riverstone was in front of the D70 board, this board was talking to Marzano Academy. They won't even open until um
the year after next. Now, they have to do building. If they didn't have to construct a new building, they might have been able to open this year, but it's been a full year. And that's typical because there are important steps that you have to follow. Um so
another example then of irresponsibility um erosce filed an application on behalf of Colorado Virtual Tech Academy with the state board of education because this is a multid-dist online school and the
state board rejected it 90 and if anybody knows anything about our state board you know that there there are some partisan divides there and there's people pretty far on either And so for it to be a 9 vote is very significant.
Uh and in part because parts of the um parts of the application were speaking to an audience that was not Colorado. One example that was called out by a by a state board member is it their application was talking about childf find. We had a childfind topic on our uh
agenda tonight and we learned that it's a program for ages 3 to 5. This was a 6 through 12 online school. Why are they talking about childf find? So that's erosce files the the application erosce has a responsibility to review the
application and it doesn't seem like they did their due diligence. So this is just one example of you know we we see very little of how the sausage is being made but now that we're seeing it there are some significant problems
coming forward. Next slide please. So now because so much attention has been brought on Riverstone, people have been doing a deep dive into everything Eerosis is doing. So um
they're they're limited to what's available publicly. So there have been cor requests and then um you know people are checking the check register say okay what are the and checking their audits and say what are the programs now what is that program let me find what is
available publicly for information on that specific program. So because there is so much limited information on so much limitation on what's available publicly um we have to say that this is a emerging picture is incomplete and a
full CDE audit would be required to validate it. There is growing support at the legislature to make that happen and I would be surprised if it doesn't start within the next few months. Uh next slide please. So see these are some of the allegations
that are coming forward and by the way this isn't this this I'm not manufacturing this this you see links in these and this is coming from publicly available reporting. Um so one of the the patterns of use of public money that
is problem problematic is subsidizing private schools in partnership with homeschool families. So, the evidence suggests that what they're doing, actually, it says it even says they they can do this on one of their application forms that I saw. Um, they will reach out for homeschool families and they'll
say you can form this um this program and we can reach out to private schools and house it there. And once it's housed there, the public or the private school students can access it, which very much looks like a direct subsidy or indirect
subsidy for the private school, which is not allowed by Colorado law. Um, another pattern that has emerged is providing recreational activities that all other families expect to pay for out of pocket. So, examples given were ski lessons, horseback lessons, jiu-jitsu,
um club sports, um private um music lessons. These are things that all of our other uh families just expect that if they're going to have them for their child, they're going to have to pay for them out of pocket. And this is public money that is going to those. And then
the third pattern that's been emerging is that some of this money is just untraceable. you find a program name, go out there looking for it, and and there's nothing. Or you find a program name, and then you find out that it's a
company that um that is subcontracting, and at that point there's no way to tell where CDE dollars have gone. So, next slide, please. And then another significant finding, we addressed this in our annual planning
summit when we appointed Lori, um is uh that they have they have almost never had, as far as we can look back in the records, um in their audits, they've never had a fully compliant board structure. Um the
eligibility for serving on the board is established in this um in this law and it's very clear if you have um just the configuration we have right now you can have um the the an elected board member
of PPSC or their CEO and that's it. And then for D49 we could have elected board member in the current configuration we should have two um or the superintendent can um occupy one of those seats. That's
it. So patterns of of problems that have happened was members um that were elected board members but continued serving past their um elected board service. The statute is very clear that your eligibility ends when your elected
term ends. Um administrators below the superintendent or CEO level. Um administrators serving when no longer employed by their member districts. And then we've had atlarge appointees residing outside their member districts. So CDE
in their response to the original um lawsuit for Riverstone, one of their arguments was that because only one out of four uh out of five board members were even eligible to serve when the Riverstone contract was
executed, they had an invalid um contract. And next slide. So the state legislature and the state board of education have been hearing this information and they have
responded. So late in the session there were two um amendments that were added to the school finance act that directly address erosis behavior and these are the these are some of the changes. It's worth saying that this is just high
level because there's a lot of rule making that needs to to happen yet. Um and there are some exceptions. Um but just as a quick summary, a Boseies can only operate a school within its member district boundaries. So no longer even
just open one with with permission. It limits homeschool enrichment offerings to those generally available to public schools. So trade schools D49 and offers CTE programs in our operated schools. We also have a charter that is very trade
oriented. So those kinds of homeschool enrichment programs would absolutely be um permitted, but ski lessons, jiu-jitsu, no. Um and then finally, it ends programs that are operated entirely by a third party
private entity via contract. This makes the er the the Boseies more responsible for direct oversight. Um ba based on both the first and the third bullet point, Riverstone is no longer allowed to operate and so it has already announced its closure and that lawsuit
has been uh dis uh revoked whatever. Uh next slide please. So based on that, the questions that I think D49 should be asking ourselves
because ERBOC's can now only authorize programs within its member districts and we are the only district. Do we as a board want to give up our local control um to a board where we only have at most
two members. Um, and then other than that with these questions of misuse of public funds, what is the reputational impact of continuing our relationship? I mean, when I talk to voters about we
need to um support our schools better. Um, sometimes the answer comes back to me that, you know, we're already spent, we're already taxed enough and you guys need to find the waste. Well, now this is coming before us as a place that we
need to be paying attention to. And so I think it behooves us. It is our legal, moral, and ethical responsibility to respond. So uh next slide, please.
I've given you a topic. Talk amongst yourselves. Lori, as the rep for er Boseies, I'm going to give you the first opportunity to go through and speak and respond. Bear with me. I will try to be succinct.
Um, uh, first of all, yes, I am the current erosce rep and and it's not just a matter of appointment. You also have to be voted on. And uh director Hy did not reach out to me, did not email me, did
not call me to discuss any of these. So I reached out to erosce and I asked them if he had contacted them to ask any of these questions and the answer was no, which to me is part of why we're seeing
an incomplete and somewhat misleading picture. Um, in addition to the title one, we also have the school the schooly seat, which I think is between 100 and $160,000. I'm not sure. Uh, excuse me. >> So, I mentioned that and it was 90.
>> Oh, 90. Okay. Yeah. Um, also there was a reference to an email that was released, just so you know, that was actually a criminal act under CRS24-18-104. We sign affidavits on executive sessions
and then we also have board member codes of conduct 22-32-108. Um so when someone releases either a privileged email or violates executive session, those are actually criminal criminal problems. um recreational activities. Yes, some of the Boseies
programs do include PE and other activities and a lot of our schools offer these same activities and there are no private music lessons. There are certain erosis approved programs that are music oriented. There's also STEM
programs and steam programs. So to highlight jiujitsu and skiing and ignore all of the other things they offer is incomplete. Originally, I had asked the president to put this under executive content because some of this could be
potentially latigious and some of the phrases used were problematic like untraceable black hole. Um, that was kind of a hyperbole because they have to face the same reporting to the state that we do. By the way, they use the
same auditing firm that district 49 uses. So if they are hiding all this public money uh then we have hired the wrong auditing uh firm but so I would like to see evidence of this untraceable black hole
once uh also John did stay longer as the erosce rep and this board include or the previous board including director hy agreed to him staying on several Boseies throughout the states do not have the proper configuration and Now everyone is
starting to do the proper configuration and if he had reached out to me I could have told him that we have already replaced we were planning to replace a member who lived in PBLO and now we'll have one other coming up to replace because of the situation with Elizabeth.
There's a comment in here about credible allegations and that's kind of that phrase is kind of an oxymoron because first credible means that there's some merit to it and an allegation is something done without evidence. Um so
that's another problematic term. Then there were statements that were made to the press and just as a note teachers are their pay is set by the district. So it's not because er Boseies gets money that our teachers have to and this is a
quote from KKTV. So it would be beneficial if director hy shared whatever he did give to KKTV. Uh teachers are working two or even three jobs to make ends meet. They're spending their own money on basic classwork supplies. And then it talks
about money going to erosce with credible allegations of supplementing private schools. you are allowed to contract for space and services. Um the other thing is if as also quoted by the
press, we have a legal and ethical obligation to look into it. I think we have a legal and ethical obligation to do it correctly by contacting the people who are involved. Um, violations of the Colorado Constitution, I'm sure means the Blaine
Amendment, and that was passed, can't remember if that was the 1800s. Um, it was a Republican who was very anti-atholic and also did not like Native American teaching. And now the Blaine amendment is coming into question
because of two different Supreme Court rulings which can impact this. And I'll be happy to share the citations with the board, but some of the Blaine amendments that are in different states across the nation are now in flux because of two
recent Supreme Court rulings. So, I'm almost done here. More than Orton, they've also turned over another charter school to someone else. Some of these programs will never be charter programs because they have 10 students. Now, the
emails we got today, the majority in favor of this were from parents who use these services. They can be small and they can be large. Kilroyce, we're we heard a lot from Kilroyce. Did you know that right here in District 49, the Sabers that the cadets use at the United
States Air Force Academy, they are produced by Kilroyce? There are so many different people who wrote to us about children who were autistic. And by the way, we also fund special education through erosce. That's something else that needs to be known and I'd be happy
to share with the board how the grant funds are allocated between gifted and talented special education. But when it comes to reporting, they are held to the same standard that we are. So to just throw a bunch of things out bothered me
and I thought it could have done a little bit more research to include reaching out to the Boseis rep on our board that was chosen at the annual planning summit and reaching out to erosce. So I do have just a couple more notes. Um
by the way their very first chief financial officer was Rhett Rid Brett Rididgeway. Their second one was Annette Rididgeway. and I sent you the qualification of their current chief financial officer Amanda who has a background an extensive background in
school finance to include Canyon City PBLO um another Boseies and now er Boseies their audit was very clean I also shared that with the board of education there are public schools with programs that include one-day ski
instruction uh welding blacksmithing etc the programs are not unique They are located in public school facilities, private school facilities, and churches. Leasing spaces is not subsidizing. Um, so that's most of what I had. Um,
but there are no credible allegations of misuse of public funds and if we're going to make a statement like that, we need to back it up. Thank you. Does anyone else want to comment next? I'm gonna wait until Yep. Go on ahead,
Holly. >> Sure, I will go. Um, how much time do I get? Enough. Enough. Okay. Um, I So, overall, what gives me a significant pause in general is the thought of students and their
families suffering the consequences of poor mistakes made by the adults. And that is the the leadership of the errosis, that's the leadership of this board. Um, as far as credible allegations, I hear what you're saying,
but if the CDE didn't find some credibility in there, they wouldn't be auditing them, I guess, is what I'm saying. And like >> everybody has to be audited, >> right? But that what's coming out or what's coming to light through news uh
articles and even like just your regular local news channels are saying that there has been misappropriation of funds. Now, I one of these emails too, um, a mother said, you
know, just because a handful of them did did do something wrong, please don't punish the rest of us. And that's what I mean. I like I understand that and she's absolutely correct because at the end of the day, innovation is super important
for homeschoolers, for kids who learn differently. Um, and school choice is important. Um, but the actions of just what's been happening by with their leadership. Um, and I will say too that the quote in the KKTV
um from Mr. Whit, I had no idea when he he said um that these things happen or or school districts withdrawal due to uh political or leadership turnover. And to me, it it didn't even dawn on me that
this was political at all. Um because like I said, these are these are kids at the mercy of the decisions made by adults and that's not fair to them. Um but I didn't look at this as political. I looked at this as
them deflecting from any kind of accountability or not apologizing to those those families and those students that they may have potentially disrupted. Um and and even right now they've put us in a situation where we
have to be the bad guy even though it's CDE and erosis like that's kind of between them. Um so I guess that's where I'm at right now. But like just we have to acknowledge that we can't
even get unbiased like legal counsel regarding this even because it's the same legal counsel. And so you know there's he's got a dog in two fights and and so
I don't know maybe Mr. Hilts can answer to this uh and maybe just kind of use my mind. Sorry to put you on the spot, but um like what are the educational benefits for the district in terms of
the erosce? Um just hold on, I have it written. Uh like I guess is what are the pros, what are the cons, is there a legitimate need overall? I was I was gonna say I can I have um a
whole history on some of these pieces and some aspects of this that so um because I was around when we first formed it and so there's a couple of different parts um that are moving parts to this. The first piece when you look
at the the statements about Bosey's board configurations the reality is that was true for many many Boseis boards across the state had been very lax for a very long time. I think it's a good thing that all of them come into compliance and so I think it's a good
thing that that is a focus. Um but when we first began the Boseies, a part of the focus was looking at multid-dist online schools. We were going to we were about to get flooded with many applying to be charters here. The reality is
supervising that plethora of programs would not have been healthy for us. We see um goal is an amazing program and we all see how hard we have to fight in the community to continue to get people to understand why goal is important.
K12 and CPA and some of the other multi-dist online programs that are authorized for the erosce also serve people in our community. Um, one of the examples for the CPA specifically from early on in my service was um, Stride is
nationwide. So, some of the families that we saw accessing it here from the very beginning were high mobility military families. So, um, specifically folks I knew at NORAD Northcom for when my husband was serving there because many
of the people who are there rotate through on ninemonth to one-year assignments because are on the high promotion track and they rotate through commands here, Washington DC, Alabama, um Europe, over they're going all over
the place and their children are education is impacted because they're moving sometimes multiple times a year. So that we've experienced as a district when we have kids coming in and out that those kids are experiencing education gaps because they're moving from one educational system to another. being
able to access an online program that they could still access when they left the state. They'd no longer technically be a student at CPA, but they could find a K12 stride school in the state they were going to to then enroll in and not end up with that educational gap because
they were really using the same the same platform and a school designed the same way that was using the exact same curriculum. So, it served a subset of families who were looking and saying, "Look, I don't want to homeschool, but I feel like my only option in providing my kid a quality education is homeschooling
because my spouse's career trajectory is this one that's moving us so frequently." So, that was the first subset of families we saw. Authorizing those programs as a direct authorizer would have been really difficult for us. Um, and at the same time, it was a
needed a needed service in our area. And so being able to then look at them and say instead of applying to be a charter with us why don't you consider applying to the erosce as a and see if they'll work with you as a contract school was a wonderful solution for us
um initially. So that was a piece of where we initially began. Uh then expanding and looking at okay um we were operating allies. That was our very next step was district 49 had the allies program which then grew into its own
school which serves a very specific population which most districts don't want to replicate because although we've gotten it into performance which is incredible is a very difficult thing to consistently do serving a population that has that that learning challenge.
And so although it's a very needed thing statewide, almost no one's willing to do it. Dr. Pickering came and said, "I'd love to try and run this as a program separate because we're getting all these people trying to come into our school. We can't absorb every dyslexic kid in in
Colorado Springs as a district. How can we operate this in some way?" And he approached the erosce and at the time there was And it was us there was a northern district and um Pikes speak
state has always been one of the partners. So at the time the the regulation had not been clarified on when you said member who while if you have an institute of higher learning does your member does your boundaries of your Boseies incorporate the boundaries
of the institute of higher learning as well. So the IE was Pikes Peak State. Pikes Peak State has an explicit boundary of El Paso County. So the question posited was because Pikes Peak State or at the time Pikes Peak Community College is one of our members,
does that mean our boundaries are Pikes Peaks boundaries? And we submitted the application for Orton Academy to the state with the address within the um boundaries of Pikes Peak. and the state granted us a
code to open that school based on that application. We actually won in court at district court. So the initial interpretation by the original judge in the court was that the erosce's interpretation of it was correct and we
could operate Orton. Okay. It went then through iterations of appeal in Supreme Court which then found against erosce. At that point, the state legislature had already said, "Wow, you're right. That's vague. We're going to clarify that." And
they clarified it to say that Boseies could only operate schools within the K12 members district. So, the system worked. First of all, it wasn't clear because if it had been clear, er Boseies wouldn't have won the first time. They wouldn't have won in front of the district judge. they'd have lost the
initial court case. Then the legislature then said, "Whoa, you're right. That's vague. Let us clarify it." So the system worked in that someone said, "I read the statute this way. We're going to operate it this way." Then the legislature said, "You know what? We don't like that. We're going to change the statute to fit
what we want it to believe." That's the way our legislative our whole process is built is you there's a law. people follow the law as they believe it should be interpreted. If there's a disagreement on how that law is interpreted, either it's clarified in
court or the legislature comes back and says, "You know what? Right. You're right. We were pretty vague. We're going to clarify." And that's really what you're seeing happen with the homeschool component. Now, homeschool enrichment law was incredibly broad and incredibly
vague. And that broadness and vaguess meant that if you were offering something as enrichment, it was valid. And in fact, initially um CDE was issuing program codes for
homeschool enrichment programs. The very first one that they did that for Falcon Aerolab, which used to be a D49 program. It was more beneficial to D49 for that program to continue to exist but for it to be administered by the erosce because
of levels of supervisory pieces that are just difficult for our staff to provide. Um we run a very lean organization. The more disparit small programs we're running the more difficult and complex it is for our staff to do that. Being able to have the erosce do that with
Kilroy and Falcon Aerol Lab and some of these other programs lets those programs exist for our students without us having to do the direct supervision which has been helpful. Um but the process of saying okay here's homeschool enrichment this is what the statute says this still
should be able to qualify then this still should be able to qualify then well when they went and applied for a code I believe it was for Haven which was um a school that's uh homeschool enrichment that runs a lot like school in the woods. It's really kind of cool. It's out in Black Forest. But they um
when we applied when the arose applied for homeschool enrichment code for that, they were told, "Oh, we were in error. We shouldn't be reviewing homeschool enrichment programs at that level and we shouldn't be offering program codes." Homeschool enrichment programs run as an
attached program to an existing school. So you need to create your umbrella school and then all of them just render under that program code. We're not going to be reviewing individual homeschool enrichment programs in that way because we can't according to statute. That's
the answer they got from CDE. So then they said okay then I guess this is so they set it up according to the direct instructions according to CDE and have been operating under that umbrella ever since. Now the legislature has looked and said, "Whoa, homeschool enrichment
has become way broader than we wanted it to be. So we need to clarify that." And that's what you're seeing happen at the state level. At the state level, they're saying, "We don't want it to be this broad. Here are the problems that we see with it being that broad. We didn't
imagine it would grow to this broadness. We need to regulate and legislate this better." And so the system is working in that it's then adjusting and the arbosis will then also have to adjust to saying okay now here's the new picture now that
we know what that picture is we have clarifying rules how do we adapt to those clarifying rules and still serve families. All that they did continuously was ask families what do you need and what would be helpful to you and what supports you and what are you what what choices are you looking for as
homeschool parents and then acting on those. It's the legislaturator's job to then come back and clarify and which is what they're now doing. I don't think when they made the original homeschool enrichment law that they expected it to grow to the extent it did. Um and it may not have grown to the extent it did had
co not happened because quite frankly everything in education changed when CO did. But that's the system working whether we like it or not in terms of how law is made and how the sausage is made and how things get clarified legally in terms of what is allowable or
not allowable. That's how our legal system works legislatively and governmentally. And so what we're seeing is those adjustments in in terms of it working. Um and so and I think that clarity is good and right and so what you've seen them do now was come back
with a clarity and when they came back with a clarity they not only they didn't say then everything ceases and desists now either they also recognized that it's everyone's responsibility that we have nine or 10 thousand families this impacts although quite a few of those
numbers when you look at that very large number there's a significant number of those students who are in the mdos that impact um the multi multi district online programs that they authorize and that's s where a significant portion of the money that we benefit from comes
from is by those being able to operate separate from our district offer services and I know there are D49 families that use it because um on you know in the Falcon area Facebook pages when people say hey I need to put my kid into an online
program what do you recommend I see several of families chiming in and recommending some of the ER OC's MDOS. So I know there are families who live specifically in my neighborhood who are accessing those programs. I in fact enrolled one of my kids for a short
period in one of them myself. Um when I knew that it was something he needed. So um I know there you know do we have the exact data on where all of those students reside? No. But I know there are at least some families who would be impacted if those schools completely went away. I also know that bringing in
programs that are very different clouds the way in which people see our district data um in ways that isn't helpful for us being able to really present what we do in our coordinated schools. So from my perspective, having that ability to
offer the programs that families need to be able to access without it directly impacting our district date performance data is also a benefit. Um that that we have learned through through the continued work with goal and and how painful how amazing that program is, how
needed it is, and how I will always support it for all kinds of reasons. Even before I ever knew that I'd have a kid who would need it, I supported it wholeheartedly. Um but um it comes at a cost and doing the right thing for kids. If we have a way to do the right thing
for kids and families and also insulate the district from some of that that um that risk that's part of what erosis can do for us. Um, so I think a part of it is letting is seeing how that system adjusts and even the legislature which
is overwhelmingly democratic with an democratic governor. And so we have a you know overwhelmingly democratic state government gave Boseies a year to run everything as is before any changes go into effect. And that's
because they recognize that they haven't been doing what they needed to do regulatory wise and that they need to develop what those pieces are and they don't want those families and kids to suffer or to lose what they need while they allow these programs to work out what they need to work out. Whether that
is some of the programs transferring to being district operated programs where they exist, whether that is existing where we are. Um, some some of that is harder because like I said, if you have 15 small homeschool programs, each of which is doing something very unique
that serves families, it's much much harder for the district. Um, given how strapped districts are with their staff for supervisory purposes, it's much harder for a district to do those pieces and do them well. It's why most districts only run one general homeschool program. And it, you know,
just like no one sizefitsall family, when we look, you know, we we've embraced the portfolio of school models and recognized that no one school fits all families, no one educational model fits all families. And if we can offer um choices to all that will allow
different families and different kids to find where what serves them best, that's a better model. The same is true in the homeschool enrichment space and for homeschool kids. But offering those programs because they may be very small in scale depending on who needs what
becomes really difficult for a monolith of a district to do um in the way that the Boseies has. And so I think a huge piece of this is the educational system realizing oh I guess we should have decided that we should review and regulate homeschool. They were not. The
state was purposefully not doing that. And in fact, CDE said, "We legally can't." When they were trying to submit the programs initially, they said, "We made a mistake when we issued the Aerrol Lab code. We weren't supposed to do that. It has to attach itself to a
school." And um and we shouldn't be approving individual homeschool programs. Um when I hear the that people will pull always pull out the extremes when they they pick apart a program, and I think that's some of what you've heard
in those discussions. I'm personally not going to dig into those pieces. I think CD is going to come up with the CD and the legislature are going to come up with what those rules are going to be and then they're going to have to apply them to the programs. Um, but I can say that we approved as a district a rock
climbing um PE class and we approved a lifeguard class. I voted on both of those and so did Director Hy. Um, and there was a boxing class being taught at Patriot. I'm only aware of that one
because when we cut our budget, when they had to cut their budgets this fall, um, I sit on the Falcon Education Foundation board and they applied to the Falcon Education Foundation board saying they wanted to continue to offer this class, but because of budget cuts, they were going to be unable to and were
hoping that we could help partially fund it. So, that tells me district funds were funding. Um, boxing, which, you know, could be included in something, you know, is not exactly the same as jiu-jitsu, but it it's a um a discipline
that is a physical piece. There are also things that might not be offered as a full class, but that kids have done in rotation in PE classes. So, they'll do a unit on archery and they do a unit on different pieces. And what those units
may be may be very different depending on what part of the state you live in. I know my kids even were able to for free I believe free or very um reduced cost take um hunter safety as a part of um Falcon Middle School's miniourse program
where we did a whole a lot of very different interesting things. Some of which were partially funded by the district and partially funded by parent fee. some of which were covered fully by the district um depending on what those specific pieces were but they were there
was a pretty um diverse offering of those pieces precoid um so I think it's easy to pick apart small parts but ultimately if we're looking at you know now it's a much bigger deal because
you'd be saying well if we leave because their funding throws flows through us too that creates a structural problem for them and you have a whole set of families that are depending on this who would immediately lose something. And if
the state legislator is willing to give them at least a year at a minimum, it seems to me we owe them the same. >> Yep. Just a clarification and also to minimize any thing that could come out of it. Um, District 70 voted to enter
into to a memorandum of understanding and the vote was 50-0. So if Annie had not been involved because it it appears to be like and intentional or not a quit proquo it was not authorizing. It was a memorandum of understanding and their
health issues were identified before the school opened. They were already working on them and if you read the chalk bead article that's linked in there they say specifically they were working on those issues. So just to be clear, especially since an individual was named, that was
not an approval. That was a memorandum of understanding. >> Oh yeah, that was great. Uh Marie, appreciate it, ma'am. >> Yeah, thanks for the background because when I started doing this, uh research since I am new, right? Um I've been uh researching it for about a week and the
first thing I did was I reached out to uh parents, teachers. I actually talked to two teachers from two different districts to get their opinion about erosis and I felt that that was important to me to understand where it's where how important this program is.
Um I also took the time to listen to all the news articles, watch the news programs. I I was excited to be here tonight because I wanted to hear Mike's perspective. I wanted to hear Lor's perspective and the board members perspective as a whole. But one piece I
was missing from this whole thing was the historical piece of it. I know District 49 has been part of this for 13 to 15 years. I understand Bosi might have done some things or might have crossed the left and right limits and
now they're being pulled back a little bit. That's okay because we want them to go out there and char after because what's most important for us is our kids and they're they're providing a service to our kids that we don't provide in
district 49. There's also parent choice. I was in the military for many years, 24 years, and we chose this state not just because my wife was from this state, but parent choice. We get to pick where our kids go to in a district. My concern is if this does if we do
leave erosce, what does that look like for the legislate to do to the parent choice aspect of it? When I look at a larger scope of this whole problem that we're at, the other thing I look at is how is it if we say we're done with Erbosi after
13 years and they've supported us, what then? what policies and procedures do we have in place to cover our families, our kids, and their futures? So, I think that's important when we continue to look at this. And I do like that thought uh that you said if the
legislation gave them a year to to kind of figure this out, we should give them a year to figure it out. Not only will they figure it out, but I also challenge district 49 to go ahead step back and figure out what does life look like without erosce before we just pull it. I
hear the funding is a big thing. We just went through a big funding with our teachers, right? The other thing I found out was that little bit of money we did receive, why can't we why why doesn't ERBosi give us more money in that aspect? I don't
have the answer to that because I'm still new at this and trying to dig into this. But if there's some partnerships there that we can work with because that my mind goes to if we could receive more funds that will support our teachers and that could support the teachers in some
aspects depending on the color of the money that we are given and that's way outside my scope at this point but that was a thought that's all I have. >> Yep. >> All right. So, I need to address some of
the things that have come come out. Um, first to to some points that Lori um mentioned. Uh, she talked about the um the financial audit performed by the same company that we do. It came back clean, the qualifications of the the CFO. I want to make it clear that nobody
is alleging that the programs don't exist and that the money isn't going to the programs and that the the money isn't being accounted for according to generally accepted accounting practices. The the concern is that those recipient
programs may be using those funds in purposes that are contrary to law, the intent of of of various regulations, etc., etc. So, um, so when I say that there needs to be a CDE audit, it it's
we're talking about audit the programs. what are those programs doing with educational dollars and how does that align with um statute and regulations um regarding the appointment of John Graham in 2024 quite frankly um I was a
brand new board member um I didn't know anything about uh you know the Bosey's um eligibility it's not something I' I'd read about um and so we got um advice from our lawyer that said uh John Graham is interested in continuing to serve and
he and he is eligible to do so. So, we accepted that advice and and we went ahead and appointed him. In the interim, uh my attention was brought to the um the legislation. I read it. Uh I found that that advice was incorrect. And so,
at our next annual planning summit, I brought that up and that's when we appointed um Lori. Uh the definition of credible allegations was stretched pretty far. So an allegation is very similar to an accusation. If it's credible, then that
means that there is some information there. You can't prove it, but there is at least some in information that gives you reason to believe that it may be correct. So when I talk about credible allegations, I'm talking about we find a
program and then we go out there and we look and we identify the pro the program out in the wild and then we start reading about who they are and what they do and we find that there there are issues with what they are doing with public money. So that is the credibility
portion of it but we are not CDE and so CDE would have to be able to um validate it in further as far as a black hole. What I'm talking about there is the money has disappeared from a public perspective. We don't know where it went
and quite frankly that is our public money and we should know um we shouldn't have to guess. um regarding the the concerns about the the programs being um you know the the statement that I
made in the media about you know teachers are working two jobs etc etc and here's money that's going to ski lessons and jiu-jitsu statewide funding is statewide and so if anybody anywhere is using money in
inappropriate purposes that means that there's less to go around for appropriate purpose purposes, but more importantly to me is that message gets out into the public and they start, see, we we told you we can't trust them, they're going to misuse our money,
right? And so the next time we ask for an MLO, the next time we ask for a bond, the next time we ask for support for a statewide initiative, we we've lost our moral standing. And so that's why I'm saying we need to
identify that this is an issue and and take some action. Um so uh as far as some of the points that Marie made, you made some very good points. Um one of them was that you know the the the number of programs would be
difficult for D49 staff to manage and that's absolutely correct. My understanding though is that erosis is proliferating these things fast. They just recently approved eight more um and they they have a small staff. So, how
are they being um held accountable? How are they being uh managed? Um that seems like a problem. But also the this this notion of the the the process is working the way it's supposed to.
I look at some of these behaviors and I say Erbosis is very deliberately um uh challenging the law in so many areas some of which I covered earlier but also I covered with uh but also like
transparency I challenge anybody to go to their website and figure out what they're doing. You will find an agenda and votes and that's it. There's no audio. There's no packets. you actually have to core a packet if you want a a board packet. So there are many areas
where they are just being really really aggressive in testing the waters. So giving them a year may be something that we should discuss. But the problem that I have with that is that I have no trust
in current leadership. >> So then I would say I took two notes, right? So, how do we support and help them and put them on the right track with transparency? This board's done a wonderful job on doing transparency. Do we need to teach them something and lead
them into some way? Right? It's a discussion. Um, how do we put policies in place so we can see certain things you're talking about and support them in that way. >> Marie can address this as well. Each program has their own requirements for
transparency and reporting. And if you read especially the email we got from Kilroy um from Ronald that lays it out. So each program is required to submit their finances and they must be in
compliance with state regulations and I would like to personally invite anyone who would like to attend the erosce meeting. you are welcome to attend. Every single meeting is recorded. Um so there is nothing that would prohibit
anyone in this room from attending the next erosce meeting and I will also send an invitation to the entire board to attend the next meeting because to make it sound like we're doing something under the cover of darkness is not true.
So anyone can come. The last meeting we had a parent there. We have reporters who come there. They are not held in the middle of the night. They are held at 4:30 in Monument. I'll be happy to share the address. You can also find it on their website and their meeting schedule. So, anyone is welcome to
attend an erosce meeting. the other component. Um, so there are legal requirements for transparency and then there are the things that we as a district have chosen to do that go far
beyond what those legal requirements are because of the importance of the transparent of of the living relationship we have with our community. So legal requirements are you have an audio recording available for 90 days. That's the legal
requirement for um for any meeting at which there is a vote taken. You have to have an audio recording um that is held for 90 days. In fact, most legal people in districts will tell you after the 90 days, expunge them. That is generally the recommendation from anyone in
education law because you're not required to keep it after 90 days. Why would you save something that could be evidence that could be used for liability at some point? In district 49, we not only audio record our meetings, we video record them and we post them on YouTube and they live forever. Um, it's
why the last time I left the board, they were able to pull shots up from me from the very beginning and and tease me with them. Right. So, but that is a commitment that we have with our D49 community that is not um that goes well
beyond what the requirements legally are for any public entity. Erbosis meets same thing with you are required to post your agenda. You're not required within 20 I believe 24 hours before the meeting occurs. That's the only legal requirement. We go far beyond that. We
not only post our agenda, we post our full packet um for all of our community to read because we recognize that our community is engaged and that's important to them. And we have continued that commitment. And we've all had situations where um you know I've been
told not to do you know been advised hey you know it would be much your life would be much easier if you just did what was required legally. Okay, including this presentation, right? I only kept I kept it in executive se uh in the executive section to make sure I
reviewed it and that there that everything that was in it was able to be sourced from another outside source and was already referred to and actually had legal look at it and agree with me that it should be public. Um, so that included Brad saying there that it was
also appropriate and then released it the very first work day that um, Lynette was back to work. I don't ask her to do things for me on the weekend. I asked her to do things during her work hours because that's fiscally responsible. Um, and board member but board members still
had access so they could review it. Um there have been other times where um we've done things as a board and it certainly would have been far easier for me to not post it till 24 hours before and to follow what is legally required for transparency and because our
community has grown to expect something very different from us. We do it very differently and we quite frankly do it very differently than most other districts even around us. But I would argue that's why we have the relationship with our community. we do. Um, and I'm proud of that legacy that I
helped to slowly build with Tammy way back in the day and John Graham and the other folks that I served with. And I'm glad that our district continues that. But I think because our community is used to seeing that, we tend to try and hold other entities
to beyond what they're legally required to do and that's an unfair standard. Um so and again what the state has learned I I think boundary pushers are necessary in all organizations and in all
entities. Erboseies at some level serves as that boundary pusher. Um and there are boundary pushers on the conservative side. There are boundary pushers on the progressive side. The only way change occurs or that we learn where what we
really want as a community and as a society is by saying where is the boundary? Are we and then do we like where that boundary is? Did we set it too far out or do we need to bring it back? That's a part of the give and take of of good
governance in the long run. Um but also in terms of how our society functions as well. And we see that legislatively on all types of things happening um at the state and the national level. You'll see when the pendulum swings too far in one
direction, you can guarantee it's going to swing and come back, right? And it gets pushed on all kinds of issues in all kinds of areas like that. Education is a very weird entity though because everybody went to school someday at some
point. So everybody expects school to look like it did when they went to school. That also means it's very hard to innovate in education. And it's why when you walk into a math class, it shouldn't look like it did when I went to school 40 years ago. But many math
classrooms have, right? MA mission DNA has been about helping our math classrooms look differently to improve math instruction with what we know about the science of math and what we know about kids brains being different today than they were 40 years ago and needing to learn differently. But the because
education is a public entity with public dollars, there's a lot of fear built into doing anything different. Um, and for innovation and education to occur, for us to be able to try new things and learn new things and develop new models, someone has to be willing to be the
boundary pusher. Um, Spring Studio and Pikes Peak would not exist if there hadn't been boundary pushers in D49. Um, most of our community was opposed to it at the time. I would argue in part because the board that was in charge at the time didn't do
a great job of building that relationship with the community and helping them understand. Um, but when I was running for the board at the time, I was like, why are you paying $3 million for a virtual school site when you're cutting $11 million from the budget,
right? Um, yet that program is incredibly important and it is example of hybrid education that has been held up statewide and nationally and does amazing things for kids. So, but someone had to be willing to push the boundary to say, can we try
this? Someone had to be willing to take the risk and say, does this educational model serve anybody? Does can kids learn this way differently? Um, and we need a space for that to happen. And places like the Boseies where you have people willing to try and say where where is
the boundary? What are we allowed to try to do? Um, allow that to happen too. So that's my other two cents, but we at this point have to decide kind of what direction we want to go. Um, so either
the the option that Mike initially proposed is to leave the Boseies to leave the Boseies would require a vote. So that requires an action item at the special meeting. um if we want to extend for the next
academic year or anything other than that that doesn't require a vote because it doesn't require leaving the Boseies only leaving the Boyce requires a vote. So at this point I need to know where everyone stands on
at this point in time. Are you interested in leaving the Boseies or are you interested in continuing a relationship for at least the next year? >> I would like to remain with Boseis. >> Continue our relationship with Boseies.
I actually would like uh another question answered real quick. I know this. Sorry. Um so being that we are the the conduit for the funding. Um let's say hypothetically CDE does do uh like an audit as to
whether or not Riverstone broke or violated uh constitution. Okay. So if they decide to take back their funding. Now, does that leave us on the hook to resolve any financial
discrepancies? >> Peter, why don't you do the technical? >> So, we actually have direct evidence of this because as we went through the audit that we talked about more last year, it was an audit about primarily around bell schedules and and contact
hours. Uh, some of the erosce schools were subject to that same analysis. some of their individual students didn't meet the requirements. So, they created a liability. Okay? Their their programs and their schools and students created a liability. They paid that liability
directly. We didn't we didn't pay any of that. We paid our part. Some of our charter schools paid their part. Um, and so I will say from an administrative point of view, the level of scrutiny both from the audit unit at CDE as well
as our financial audit as well as the the public transfer of funds. Um, I can say with great confidence we we can track every single dollar. The only thing I would sharply disagree with in Mr. House presentation is the idea that there's untraceable money. If there's
untraceable money and and a black hole, someone's committing a crime. And and I'll I'll stay state with great confidence that that money is traceable. It may not end up in buckets that we like, but we can trace it to where where
it ends up. It may end up in the in the revenue of a forprofit third party contractor, and the law explicitly allows that. So um my my observation is that um the way the state manages
revenues and refunds insulates us from financial liability because it's the Bosey's liability not the district's liability. >> Okay. So, where are you landing right now on
this? >> I am receptive and open to continuing uh like as per the CDE and what they say as far as like the the next school year because like I said, I hate absolutely hate the idea of displacing students. I
think that's awful thing to do. Um that being said, I think director Hyle said that given the situation that we are allotted to members, right? Um I think that we
need to do our due diligence with oversight. Um and I and that's the only way I will agree to um >> lingering sort of >> right now you can't. So we need to give it you
We need to give it time to figure out what the configuration of the Boseies is. Elizabeth just dropped out. Before Elizabeth dropped out, we were only entitled to one. You you're entitled to two only when I believe it's one district and one IG. And the problem
with that is that because the configuration is shifted. I've been on I was on the board at times when we were the only district and I've been on it when we've had as many as two other districts. and um what the configuration is of the board shifts each of those
times. And so we need to give them a few months to figure out what their state what their configuration is going to be in the next year before we look at whether we're designating another member onto their board. Um because we can't do that until we know what their bylaws and configuration are going to be based on
who their membership may be. Um and districts do in fact join and unjoin based on often more than the board composition who the superintendent has been because the workload often in terms of participating
in the erosce fell on the superintendent and so the superintendent in the district would be like this is something I'm passionate about I want to be a part of it and they would convince their board to join and then that superintendent would move on and the board would be like, well, our new superintendent really doesn't want to
have to sit on that board and none of us want the extra commitment either, so we're going to step out. So, more than political uproar, that was us. Now, Elizabeth has been different. There has been political uproar with Elizabeth, right? That has been very public. Um,
but for the most most of those times that there were those changes, it was about that because it's an extra commitment. It's an extra obligation. and they'd say, "Uh, it's no longer worth it for us." Um, because the folks
who were willing to give that time aren't part of our organization anymore. Um, so that has been kind of what I've observed, but I think in terms of their board configuration, we have to wait for them to figure out what their configuration is going to be in the next year or so. Lori, just a quick note that
there are other districts that are looking at potentially join joining the Boseies and also any additional board members that come on have to also be voted on by the Boseies board. So, right now, you're right, there is an upcoming potential change and I think that will
be determined in August. So, one atlarge member has been replaced and we're going to see what's going to happen in August. May I may I speak to the board with just a little bit of perspective because um I think something very critical is going to happen and I appreciate Mike bringing
this to this level of scrutiny now and and I'll I'll explain my myself. In in 2007 I had dinner with this nice guy, this charter school founder. He had started a network of charter schools primarily serving immigrants. ran in him a few
years later when he was a representative in the US House of Representatives and I was at a conference and we talked for a while then he became our governor and he's been a strong supporter of school innovation the charter school world he's been a supporter of homeschool enrichment programs including erosce he
came down in person and visited that haven program that you spoke about and I say all of that because we probably have the most favorable the the conditions for what the erosce has done as a disruptive
entity, an innovative entity, a boundary pusher, those conditions have probably already peaked. And whether we have, respectfully, I'm not a political prognosticator, but whether uh Wiser or or Bennett is is
governor, I think one of them is most likely, and the polls indicate that neither of them have demonstrated the same kind of commitment that our current governor has. And so it is entirely reasonable that the legislation that got
sidailed this year is going to come back again. We had issues with homeschool educ uh homeschool enrichment a year ago. We lobbyied. We had issues again this year. There were a couple of competing models that didn't come to fruition and and we've talked about what
did. I think it is likely that there will be a return to a more aggressive um essentially an anti-bose particularly anti- er bosis maybe even anti-homeschool enrichment and so getting this level of scrutiny is
perfectly appropriate. we need to think about and I'm gonna I'm gonna request of you as a board to think about how you might commission your erosce board delegate our member on that board to do
things like increase transparency to do things like um create criteria don't wait for CDE or the legislature to create criteria for what constitutes an appropriate and high quality enrichment program lead create those so that you
can hold those up to public scrutiny. I was involved in a bunch of discussions this year about some criteria by which you could determine if a program was legitimate or not. Let the erosce with our encouragement lead that discussion. Um, absent that kind of leadership and
forethought, we we could be having a very very more difficult decision where we don't really have the option of retaining those funds or retaining these choices. And so we we need to mend it or
the legisl legislature in particular is going to end it. Mike. >> And that is part of why I wanted to bring up the fact that we are now eligible for two um board members because
as the only member currently, we have some leverage right now and we could vote to remain with stipulations. And one of those stipulations could be that the board being out of compliance in its
current composure um needs to be reformed. And so we would then ask Pikespeak State to send a compliant member. The D49 board would send two members and then that that end those three would
then add the um atlarge members who live in D49. And now you've got a real opportunity for reform. And so now you can start to require transparency. You can start reviewing programs, uh, etc.
So that's one way forward where D49 can demonstrate that, you know, we understand that the that there's a problem here and this is how we're going to address it. >> Lori, under the current configuration, we cannot approve new programs. So
there's not a matter of that. Matter of fact, Governor Polus came and toured one of the erosis um uh homeschool enrichment programs and was very supportive and lobbied on behalf of erosce. So it sounds really good of
we'll crack down the hammer, but just so you know, they're already working on the configuration issue. And so one atlarge member has been replaced. We're going to see what's going to happen in August. and the state is the one who requires
the financial transparency. So just to be clear, it's not a matter of us necessarily cracking a whip, but I am more than happy to carry anything from this board to the erosce board and I will reiterate again, please come attend
one of their meetings. Thank you. I I do think we have to wait to figure out what their membership is going to look like because you're going to swear people in and swear them off and it's crazy. And it's I believe one board member and a superintendent is usually when it's a two. It's a board member and an administrator who are on it rather
than two board members if I remember correctly. So we would be essentially assigning Peter um an additional duty. Um, so before we make him cancel his Alaska trip to go show up to a Bosey's meeting, um, I think we should wait and see what their configuration is going to
be. Um, I think we given especially what we know and it is both I I will say that I I have when I was on the board, I was trying to be cautionary tale quite frequently actually. I was the person who would poke back and say, "Hey, have
we thought about that was a part of my role. I was I was one of the annoying people um because I I like pursuing innovation but I'm also a rule follower. So those two pieces together um sometimes made me be the person who was at a in a clashing
position. But I think that point of this being the wakeup call to the Boseies as an entity of how do we improve those things is important um and should be a part of the message of the fact that we're even having this
discussion and I think it merits saying maybe we come up maybe we have a discussion once we see where this what the structure is looking like to say what are the things that we need to then ask them about because the legislature really has already basically put a break on there's a hard break. They not only
can't add any more programs, but I believe they can't increase number of students in any of the existing programs. And so they're literally only going to be able to serve the students they have um or replace like if a student leaves, I think they can replace them because they can keep the same
number of students in each program. It's pretty locked down. And in the meantime, that gives them time to start rebuilding and reflecting on what can this be to serve our community in the future. Peter, >> I I think the restrictions you just
mentioned apply to homeschool enrichment programs, not to the multi-dist online programs or or the brick and mortar schools that they operate. Although there are there are still some unanswered questions about what happens to the schools that are currently
operating that are based in based outside currently of district 49. Those questions are not yet answered. Um but I anticipate that they're going to be answered at volume and it may depend on whether additional school districts join
as members of the Boseies. That that would dramatically change the conversation depending on where they are. And there are some real advantages to if other districts in terms of long-term components of what that bo the Boseies could be and that would bring my that
would make my heart joyful because I had been advocating for that um since 2015 I think in terms of what what it could be. So I would love to see that but I think that giving that time to wait. So
but at this point the decision point is are we staying a member or not I'm of the we give them at least this year and Lori becomes a stronger voice for how do we build something that helps build relationship in community especially recognizing what that new political um
reality is going to be. So, it sounds like the consensus, we have a a majority consensus to continue membership at this time, which means we don't need an item added to the special meeting regarding this. Mike,
>> I just wanted to clarify that when I did the cover page, the suggestion was an action item going forward to either resend or affirm our membership. who we could still do. Um, but I I leave that to the discretion of the president. Um,
and I do want to point out that, you know, we have that window of opportunity to mend it because we've chosen not to end it. But, um, as we give them an opportunity to reconfigure their board and add new district members, even that
opportunity to mend it, um, at least from this board's perspective, um, we we've essentially given up that opportunity. So, Any other comment or question on this item?
>> Like I said, I think uh moving forward, it's fine just as long as we do have those stipulations in place. And um I'm I'm hoping that any of the perceived shenanigans are behind and all these
children can get the these programs that they've been raving about. Um yeah. Okay. So, I think we're then ready um for our second public comment. And we have one person who has been waiting
patiently and excitedly, Lynette. >> I would have ended this a long time ago to hear from you. >> Okay, board. Brace yourself. So, as you know, I'm not sitting up there because I've been in court most of
the week. And today, we were successful in in my defamation case. So, I am here by clearing my name. I won the case. This is the second time now, and I'm ready to celebrate. And I just want to say thank you to the
board and district 49 for supporting me. It just shows you guys value me as an employee. Thank you. >> Great job. And Lynette, thank you for being willing to stand up and be a named person in that suit because I think
there were um many people who work for the district who were in a similar position and you were the one willing to step forward and say enough is enough and let um the decision to sue on something like that is always difficult
because it's also traumatic to go through even though you know you were right and the other person what the other person was doing was wrong and continues to be wrong. And getting the court decision is a vindication, but the pain of going through it for the last
two years, over two years, um, with the continued public attacks has been ridiculous. Yet, it sends a message to everyone about how unwarranted those are and hopefully sends a message to other staff members as well. And so, thank you for being willing to be the face on that
as well. So now does anyone have anything for miscellaneous? Then we are adjourned at 9:22.