e e e e a l n e is is e e
e e e e e e e e e e e
e e e e e e e e e e
e e e e e e e e so I don't know what I'm G to go ahead and
start my live yeah hello hello oh that is very testing is brainy test test one two three good evening I need that microphone from the
music test test test one two three test test testing one two testing one two yeah okay okay all right we we're good good but this is
what we're going to have to do okay excuse me excuse me can I have everyone's attention please we we can't it a attention attention here we go okay thank
you okay um hello everyone and welcome to the January Fant February fantastic 49 presentation my name is Kayla Maldonado I am the internal Communications manager for School District 49 are we still good to use this
microphone I know I know okay testing okay anyway sorry about that um tonight we have some great nominees are our first hon of theing is Leah dallis Horizon Middle School special
education teacher she was nominated by the known as an educator this year without a doubt has been her year Le has demonstrated extraordinary dedication and Leadership within the Horizon Middle School special education department especially during a challenging time of
transition this year our stud Department faced significant changes um with people leaving and Leo was the only returning learning specific learning disability specialist instead of being overwhelmed Leah stepped up in ways that have made profound impact she's taken on the role
of Department lead ensuring stability and organization she leads monthly department meetings and has fostered a strong sense of teamwork and collaboration beyond that LE has gone above and beyond in mentoring and training our new she meets with them weekly providing
guidance coaching and unwavering support her dedication has not only kept our department running but has made it stronger Leah's leadership passion and tireless efforts Have Been instrumental in ensuring that both her colleagues and students continue to thrive Leah your commitment to your students to your team
and to this school is truly inspiring you're an invaluable asset to Horizon SCH and for do thank you for celebrating Leah Gillis tonight and her outstanding contributions um I just want to say thank you to Liz for being a great
leader and so supportive I'm so glad to work at Horizon which is why I've worked there for eight years now it's a wonderful school with great kids and great people who work there thank you and you walk go ahead y right
okay thank you our next our next honores for the evening are the Santa Toy Express team um represented by shaa orth and nominated by Barbara Austin cely um I don't know how many of you are familiar with Santa's Toy Express but it is truly a special program that we have
here in The District transportation goes above and beyond um to support our students and just the community as a whole um the time and commitment to the district make this program a very special success so if I can have shaa and Barbara come up and we can give a
big round of applause for transportation if you guys want to stand up okay yeah and you can go ahead and sit back down and then I'll give it to Barbara hi um I've been a part of this program as a
person that grabbed an angel tree um student for many years and this year Lura one of my co-workers really encouraged me to go and attend the event to take a student to Walmart and attend the volunteer event and I was super
impressed with Shauna she coordinates and puts this together fundraises and people are dressed up like uh Santa Claus and Mrs Claus and there were elves and uh there was face painting and uh wrapping of gifts we
went to Walmart on the buses we had drivers that picked students up it's one of the most selfless um volunteer things I think we have in the school district and I'm shocked that we haven't recognized them before uh I know it's been going on for about 20 years with RJ
who started the program and passed it off to Shauna um I just was super impressed so I wanted to make sure we recognize this group say anything shaa Shauna loves to be in front of people about as much as I do so
we're going to make her say something I would like to thank anybody who has been a part of it it takes a huge amount of people just from Transportation alone we have about 30 that participate in different ways then
um it sponsors about 50 of our elementary students facing hardships um through the holiday time um and we pick them up on the school bus we bring them we partner them with a volunteer um so Barbara was one of those this year she
got to experience the first time we take them shopping for their family we wrap the gifts we have um a puppet show we have face painters um we have ornament making we have a lot of we bring the or we cook them breakfast um so it's a
morning of festivity so the kids can just forget and let go for a little bit and forget about those worries at home you guys can walk back to the yeah I'll talk all right thank you um last but
absolutely not least uh we will be recognizing the Falcon Zone music teachers all of whom are here this evening um for the amazing performances that you saw we can give a big round of applause um this group was nominated by Brian Smith's Falcon Zone superintendent who I
will welcome up to the podium um according to Brian this dedicated group has consistently gone above and beyond to inspire students build thriving programs and strengthen our community Through the power of music and they coordinated all of the beautiful performances you heard tonight
well good evening welcome to Falcon Zone and that cheer should speak for itself about these amazing people that are standing here behind me right now we love our music programs we love our music teachers in the Falcon Zone we
love the Arts everything about the Arts is something special to the Falcon Zone and what we do um I'm very thankful this evening that you see all the uh amazing artwork that our art teachers provided and uh showed off with the students and as you saw earlier and we're not done
yet these Amazing Music instructors behind me have done something that has never been done before and when we start the real board meeting the official time of the board meeting at 6:30 you're all in for a big treat these individuals
have gone above and beyond we threw down a challenge and they took it to to a whole another level and it just shows the dedication and outstanding work that these music teachers do in the Falcon Zone I am honored that they work in this Zone and the things they do for all of
our kids well done team it's okay they don't let me talk during class either very much I just want to give kudos to this whole team um there aren't a lot of teaching positions where your student assessments are performed in front of hundreds of audience members um and that's something
unique about our choirs and bands and all our ensembles so kudos to them for just going uh the extra mile I'm sure you could survey any student in here and they could list three times their music teacher has helped them out with something um yeah so feel free to talk to them but just thank you and congrats
everybody ready to perform so as a special treat as part of this as a little preview they've prepared two quick songs for you uh that they're going to perform so take it away
guys all right first is nobody home a classic round to be performed by two High School choirs two Middle School choirs and all four of our elementary chir enjo h Falcon Zone
choirs and if you wish to turn around in your seats next are our Falcon one of our Falcon middle bands and one of oural midle enj for e e w um okay thank you um congratulations to
all of our nominees before we wrap up I would like to turn it over to Mrs Lori Thompson president of the board of education for final remarks try this again hello that was I saw the dancers over there just a little while ago I just
want to say this was so incredible tonight first of all to have a a teacher honored who has been with Horizon for eight years and is so committed to her school and then to look at the transportation team who's been doing the
Santa Express for 20 years I mean if you think about that they've been helping kids through this Community for 20 years to give him a really incredible day and then I think the music program speaks for itself that was so incredible I mean to have all the different ages and
voices it was really a treat I think we should start every single fantastic 49m board meeting like this but I just want to thank you guys for having us out here and that was amazing so thanks to the kid and I really appreciate it as a choir
mom and as the sister of a band member it's a lot of fun to see what this is doing in your life so thank you very much we are going to start our regular board meeting in 10 minutes so we're going to have a 10-minute break if you need to use the restroom and I understand we might be in for some more
surprises so thanks for showing up tonight e e e e e e e e
e e e e e e e e e ladies and gentlemen welcome to the
February 13 2025 Board of Education regular meeting the time is 6:30 p.m. and I am calling this meeting to order can I get a roll call here here right here Schmid here
Thompson here tonight we're going to do the welcome and the Pledge of Allegiance a little bit differently first the Falcon High School space force jroc will post the colors then we will have the national anthem done by band members
from Falcon middle Falcon High along with choir members from Falcon High Falcon middle Falcon Elementary Woodman Hills Elementary Meridian Ranch Elementary and Bennett Ranch Elementary all six schools will be performing
together then the students from all four elementary schools will recite the pledge you see so and the rock is e for
nice and L as as you I pledge aliance 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 all right you can go back to your test one two good good can I get a motion to approve the
agenda I move to approve the agenda second any discussion can I get a vote salala hi
Kyle hyle hi liia Wright hi Schmid I Thompson I and that motion passes we are on to public forum we welcome comments from stakeholders during District 49's open Forum please
stay seated until your name is called by the Board of Education chair then approach the well I don't think we have we have over there and introduce yourself speak clearly into the microphone and keep your remarks respectful and orderly
personal complaints against individuals connected with the district except for board members or the superintendent are prohibited each speaker is limited to two minutes the board will not respond during open Forum but may assign
follow-up action to the superintendent we also encourage you to use the stakeholder grievance Pro process for resolving concerns which may culminate in a formal appeal to the board thank you for participating the views expressed in the Forum are those of the commentators and
do not represent official policy of District 49 or the Board of Education and our first Speaker tonight will be McKenzie van deander sorry I got to pull up my
speech hi I'm McKenzie vender um I'm currently a junior at Falcon High School um I've been in the community for um about 10 plus years thank you good okay um I made the transition from a small Charter School in Falcon to
uh the Falcon Zone in e8th grade my first year in Falcon was the hardest one for me the transition between middle school and high school was so different and no matter how many times people tried to prepare me I was never fully ready juggling two honors classes and a volleyball fulltime was something I
couldn't even think of handling a workload like that my freshman year I walked through the halls and everyone looked so intimidating the seniors never showed up to assemblies and the school spirit was always low as I walk through the Halls as I finish my third year at Falcon it's like
a home new place people make an effort to smile and even even know if they don't know each other students enjoy going to the sports events in full attire that matches the game's theme posters are all around the school advertising different clubs and sports
that everyone wants to join I've been in student council since my freshman year and that's where I've seen the most change my first year took so much convincing to get our staff members to help out with events endless complaints came through about how nobody wanted to to do it all the students dreaded the
assemblies and we hadn't got much participation now in my third year I hear people around the hallways talking about the assemblies and how fun they were I hear teachers give nothing but positive feedback about the assemblies we have teacher go that go out of their way to help stucco with events this has
made Falcon feel more like home not just something I go to every day I feel recognized and my presence is appreciated I feel more prepared for my future every day thank you Falcon Zone next up we have and I hope I do this
last name right okay we have Camille kitki okay hi my name is Camille gorowski I'm a freshman at Falcon high school and I'm here today to talk about the impact that the school and Community has had on me I'm involved in student
council drama club show choire and I take honors classes going into high school I was really nervous but being surrounded by these individuals has helped me learn to grow and love it student council has been a really large part of feeling at home because of the positivity and culture it
brings we have been planning really great events to get the community involved like homecoming we had such a great turnout of people that this reflected the school's spirit and excitement our students bring to events doing fundraisers to help benefit our community has been one of the most rewarding parts of this year now a part
of Falcon that not many people know about is our amazing drama program being involved in this silly positive and creative group has shown me how to be myself the theater Community went on a really amazing and beneficial trip this year to thescon this was a great experience to bring us closer as a group
and give us Insight on what a possible future career could look like another one of my favorite things to be a part of that is so fantastic about Falcon is the choir show choir programs show choir is able to expand and add another course next year because of the love and the passion the students have
shown we go on really fun trips to competitions and performances all around Colorado being in choir Falcon has created a safe environment where I can go to learn new things about music and make really great connections now one of my most very favorite parts of all is the really great academic opportunities
Falcon has the classes that we have the option to take are really eye opening opportunities for career starters Falcon has many people that I can look up to and try and model after this school has really opened doors for me to have a really great future and even though Falcon is one of the older schools in
d49 it has been able to keep up with the changes and I'm really looking forward to the next few years of my life that I'm able to spend at Falcon thank you next we have wrinkley kellerer hello my name is Brinkley Reese and I'm proudly a freshman at Falcon High School Falcon has become one of my
favorite schools I've ever attended I'm involved in student council and I've seen firsthand what steps are school has taken to become the best version of itself one of my favorite things about Falcon is our principal Mr oconor he is such a positive influence to the students and you can really see the
respect that the students have from him Mr oconor is very involved in our school and is very determined to change Falcon for the better I've seen how he has pushed the students to become better for example he'll get on the announcements every Friday during our access class and will motivate us to Stay classy Mr OK
Conor is also super supportive in goals and encourages students to go after these goals Mr oconor has truly changed the tone of Falcon High School in the most positive way he is constantly telling the students that they can do it and that they are amazing after an assembly with when Mr O Conor speaks you
can feel the change in the mindset that the students have and it is very inspiring to see student council is also an ex outstanding program that we have there that allows students to plan activities get involved with the community and become leaders within the school student council is easily my
favorite part of Falcon High it has allowed me to come out of my comfort zone and just have fun all while staying organized and professional it has taught me communication skills teamwork skills and so much more the student council has truly been putting in the effort to make Falcon an enjoyable place to be by
putting up posters all over school having Spirit weeks hosting dances and events people participate in Christian Berto our student body president has been working with Mr O Conor and student council to change the tone of Falcon high school and get people more excited to be involved overall Falcon High
School is a super great school academically socially and simply just a fun place to be the people are so fun to be around and I'm so so excited to see what Falcon has for the next these next few years thank you for your time and that was Brinkley Ruiz I found out that our senior executive assistant
she confessed that she kind of mixed up the names but it's so hard to find good help these days you know she's actually great okay next up we have Christy kellerer hi there my name is Christy kellerer and
I'm going to tell you a little story my husband and I got engaged in the fall of 2000 and I moved here from Texas I started teaching in District 20 and we kept driving out here and we fell in love with the Falcon community and the next thing you knew we built our first house out here a couple years later we
had our first two children we've had three homes out here in Falcon we have watched Falcon grow been a part of the community um I taught in Evans at Evans Elementary Odyssey Elementary ston elementary and I'm now here at Bennett Ranch Elementary my children came with
me to Odyssey for all of the years so they started kindergarten through fifth grade then we brought them out here to their neighborhood schools Falcon middle school and Falcon High School in Falcon High School my son went through the ROC program all four years that helped to build his character including through
covid times and he's now in the trades he's 21 and he's working on his a apprenticeship with Bible electric so yay Michael and Hannah is at nursing school she called me on Monday she's at UCCS um she has 47 is students in the
nursing program with her and she said mom I got a 98% on my test on Monday and it was the highest grade compared to all the other students in her cohort and I just want to say I get emotional because they are products of District 49 and
they are successful they have great care character they are strong and they have a passion for Learning and they are going to be great adults they already are the other thing I'm going to tell you is I've been a teacher in the district for 24 years this is my 24th
Year my 30th to teach and I am so proud to be a teacher in District 49 I haven't come up to the microphone before because I have too much passion and I love what I do I love growing children I love these families I love the staff and I
feel very blessed to have been a part of this for so long so thank you I think this might be the Forum that we kept have for a while but all good things must come to an end because our last speaker is Mr John
Graham wait till they get a load of me my name is John Graham I'm a uh business owner a parent and a taxpayer I'm here to speak about performance and I see I have unlimited time on the clock the purpose of public
education is to improve student outcomes and prepare students for adult life we all fall short at times fix it when it needs it and improve it when you can improve it Board of Education role is to set goals that focus on student outcomes and pass a budget that support these
goals the St the superintendent implements these goals and files the action plans this is a tremendous effort of a district this size and complexity involving the contributions of all employees our community at large and yes
parents parents have a role leadership requires more than meetings and management it requires presence of the Board of Education the administration teachers and staff as well as parents and students we are more than halfway through this school year graduation rates and growth scores as well as all
these motivated students we just witnessed in the last half hour shows me and many in our community that teachers and administration are working hard to meet students where they are and Elevate them higher it is a hard work our Paris interventionists and all the other support stars are also working
hard don't rest yet year is not over keep up the hard work and the good work stay engaged you are making a positive difference for our students and within our community and you saw that today with all the performances so thank you for me and the
people that uh asked me to come here and speak thank you just one more um personal note that I wanted to bring up is tonight Ellen is back in our audience she has been attending board meetings 25
years I'm not sure 30 years 35 okay so she's here tonight recovering from a broken fever she's had two heart surgeries and she dresses up for Valentine's Day and comes to our board meeting so I just wanted to honor her for her
support she is also a naturalized citizen that I watch proudly singing the national anthem you are a blessing to our community Alan thank you okay does anyone have an item does
anyone have an item to be pulled from the consent agenda okay can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda items I move to approve the consent agenda second can I get a vote
hi hi Le hi Schmid hi Thompson hi and that passes and I'd also like to welcome our student board members from the Falcon Zone this evening we have Megan and Danielle and I
hope you guys were able to access the board packet and kind of get an idea of some of the things we'll be discussing tonight okay are on to the superintendent update thank you uh Peter superintendent and tonight uh my update is all about
students uh and I'm gonna start with um something I've been doing this for 35 years but I had a a first this year which was that we took eight students from our student Board of Representatives to the National Conference of the National Association
of student councils and the national um h and it was a fantastic opportunity and so Vivian C Jake and Danielle s Bella Aon and Aaliyah all came along with Miss Lauren Stewart and Miss Teresa James um
as student council leaders and advisers and the 11 of us um met at the airport at about 5:30 a.m. and got rolling and and experienced a really fantastic conference I've been to a lot of conferences Through The Years with adults and I will say that our students
were better conference goers than I have been on many of my uh adult conferences they they went to every session they took lots of notes they sat at dinner and compared what they had heard and then emblematic of our mission to learn
which they learned a lot in Chicago work they sat at a breakfast table for two hours and they planned together what would they do when they came back to Colorado Springs and and to the student board meeting and then when we got to that meeting then they LED so we saw
learn work and Lead all happening together they led the other student board members through a series of exercises and planning um opportunities and discussions and it was just great great to see um this was a an unqualified win for the student Board of
Representatives and one of the things that we were really excited about we were there at a conference with students from all over the country um lots of international students students from from European Union from former Soviet Union from South America and the
Caribbean and not once could we come across another District that is attempting to do what we do with the student Board of Representatives uh where the elected board treats the student board as peers where they see the same information sit at the same and
so stud our students were able to articulate what gives them confence and it was just it was fantastic to see uh I think that the student Board of Representatives system in District 49 is world class and I have
empirical evidence to back that statement up because we're doing something that's not being done anywhere else in the world and this was a conference of the elites our students really stood out in that setting so I am sure in her update Danielle will share a students perspective um please ignore
them if they say Mr Hils made them walk cold temperatures uh and sometimes maybe took shortcuts through the crosswalks so we could get home faster in the rain um but they had they had a lot to learn and they shared very generous when they returned the other thing I want to
mention is that I am in the uh season of the year when I start to transition from The Vow learning tour which is the voice of the workforce much more heavily now into the voice of the students where I am meeting with groups from every middle school and every High School including our char
schol and I I have to tell you it's just inspirational um there are lots of things in our world that that are not right there are things that are challenging and stressful and our students don't dwell on the negative yes we did some things around cell phones this year yes we are expecting them now
to lengthen their schedules and have an e day instead of a snow day and and they're not complaining they're not in despair I I just I I see Great Character great respect uh across these groups and these are not just students or or
leadership students or or high performance students the principles are bringing these students from the entire Spectrum uh I I spoke with a student three days ago who talked about how his school supported him while he was incarcerated and then
after now that tells you a lot about the character of the student and the school that he could say that he could talk about that openly and find Value the way his school Community stood with him through a really rough patch so this particular I'm especially proud of our
students and we know that the students I'm describing wouldn't be who I'm describing without the incredible performance of our support staff our our teachers our par Educators our administrators this is the fruit of all their labor so very exciting tonight to
be in Falcon Zone you know this is the ancestral homeland of District 49 and yet we're in the newest building in our homeland and so what a nice full circle to come here to thank the principal team and the leadership team in Falcon Zone
from raising the bar yet again I love board that you committed to do this I know it's inconvenient it it requires a lot of work and a big lift from our coms department but I I challenge anybody to say why this wasn't the way School Board
should sit in front of it community and hear from the students that so thank you for participating in that thank you C zone for an amazing example of what a show and be and I am confident the other zones will will raise the bar and keep raising the bar exactly what we want so
all about students all about the people that make the students who they are thank you so much for being here to celebrate what's going right in District 49 especially tonight and Megan by virtue of the seating arrangement you get to go first with your
update okay um lots of fun things happening Falcon we're having a lot of our senior nights for our winter sports we just had our basketball senior night and our wrestling senior night was a while ago uh another really big thing that happened was our Falcon High School choir went to uh cmea which is a uh
music teacher conference which is a really really really big deal for us and it was kind of amazing to see how far our choir has come and just how great it was being here and yeah that's all I have but Danny has some fun stuff for you okay I just first of all want to thank the board for letting the eight of
us won the trip to um Chicago it was really fun and I feel like it can help bring back fun stuff to our school um for our schoolwise me and alyah and Syler and um Megan sorry okay um we're gonna go and partner with student
council to start making differences in our student body wise and start having more positive impact on our school and we're going to start bringing some student leaders in to bring we don't know what they're going to call them yet but they're going to pump up everyone and bring different people instead of
just having like the cheer team and stuff like that and we just feel like we can add different perspectives into the school now on what we learned from that trip and then the second thing I'm going to talk about is that the snow day from yesterday the eay went pretty well I was talking to Mr Conor this morning and we
had about 70% attendance throughout overall the school I think a little yeah 75 I think um yeah it was really good and I feel like it was a good way for students to still learn still be caught up on their work and then we also have
school spirit week this week where we're doing a Valentine's Day thing it's called you are loved week and we're selling shirts they're not really buying them but we'll work on it and then we also have um what are they called grbands and we also have um flowers for
people to buy but yeah that's it from Falcon yes thank you director Schmidt so first of all I want to thank Martina Brian and Tim um I've been spending Monday afternoons here at Bennett Ranch looking at several different math
curricula with the team of teachers and the administrators here in Falcon Zone um the teacher turnout has been phenomenal and they are asking really great questions it's been good watching the curriculum adoption process so far and I'm looking forward to the next step
in that process um I also attended the wellness Summit AT vist Ridge High High School the keynote speaker was thought provoking and really really fun she stood on chairs um there were classes offered and anything from Financial awareness to
mental health and exercise topics um though I couldn't stay the whole day I found it to be quite an upgrade from last year and everyone assured me that next year will be even better um this month I will be attending the annual planning Summit um also engag 49 live
Safety and Security event for families to hear from a panel of experts and ask questions from local law enforcement and Community Partners regarding Safety and Security so busy little couple months and glad to be here tonight wonderful kids
wonderful thank you director Hy good evening everybody um I was really pleased to see that we were honoring the uh transportation department and their amazing job in uh conducting this an Toy Express um and I
just wanted to let the community know that there is plenty of opportunities to volunteer I participated in it this past year and I understand that they had a last minute you know recruitment drive because they were close to not getting enough um volunteers to to pair one with
every student so I want to encourage anybody out there that this is a really wonderful opportunity and they do such a great job of organizing it you can literally just just like show up and they're going to guide you through everything and you just get paired with
a kid and you escort them through the store and then all of the wonderful activities that they have set up for at the transportation department and um you know you you just get to bask in their joy that that they are getting from this
so I I recommend anybody when when that comes up again next year please volunteer um only other issue I wanted to talk about um we've been getting a lot of feedback about our uh calendars this year just some minor you know things with the eay with the um change
in the schedules for the high schools just want to let you know we're listening um we have a calendar coming before us today that's already got some uh adjustments that are going to relieve some of your concerns and uh stay tuned
and we'll uh we'll uh we'll make some good progress thank you thank you director Li right okay so first to my board leison um position which is with the Falcon Ed Foundation this is just a reminder for
all of you who are purchasing tables that I believe the early bird pricing ends tomorrow so please get those table orders in um sooner rather than later and we look forward to seeing you celebrating the 80s at antlers on the
11th of April um then also I had mentioned uh last month but I didn't have all they they were still doing the judging that uh we had students enter the El Paso Council PTA art contest and Reflections program District 49 actually
had five students plac at the county level who will now be competing for recognition at the state level we had Bria Taylor take first place in dance choreography at the intermediate category for Meridian Ranch Belle Ruez took second place in dance choreography
in the intermediate category she represented Meridian Ranch Hank coltz took second place in Visual Arts in the intermediate category for Meridian Ranch Falcon High School Gianna Randall placed first in the literature category and Christiana hail placed third in the
literature category all of those students will be representing El Paso County and are currently being judged at the state level so congratulations and I can't wait to hear the update on the state level also Shameless promotion here this beautiful Falcon hoodie is
available from Falcon High PTA year round you can order it from our website so please support that as well I noticed um one of the students spoke about her time at Falcon High over the past three years and um one of the things that has
been involved in that was also um Falcon High staff's commitment to the Renaissance program so I believe it was three years ago that Falcon High sent their first couple of teachers to St dip their toe in and learn about the Renaissance program they were learning from the example that um Dustin Horus
way back in the day initially brought to our district at Horizon Middle School and as um Falcon observed that success um decided that they were interested in pursuing that as well and so Falcon is now in their third year of implementing the Renaissance program and Mr OK Conor
has attacked it with a Vengeance you see it in all of our emails the Falcon shoutouts each week the Falcon shout out breakfast that celebrate students and staff every month uh PTA also helps partner on that as well we ask our whole Community to help part in celebrating our students in that way um so it's
exciting to see those changes come forward and see that program also benefit our students and also shout out to Mr height who took over student council this year and we heard the students all comment about the changes they've seen in student council and how much better they see that progressing as
well and then um another mention for a couple of other Falcon High graduates um I happen to know that there'll be a falcon High graduate who will be serving on the com team um as an Air Force enlisted person at the White House in his next tour of Duty and we also had a
falcon graduate helping fight the California fires as part of the 302nd airwing who was also a graduate of the ROTC program at Falcon high as well as parents of our Falcon Zone students that's my update that is incredible thank you
director devola so I was highly impressed with the turnout tonight um I wasn't at the vista so I can't compare but that was really really really impressive um and I know it took a lot of work to put that
on uh to coordinate all six schools is not a small feat so kudos to the principals Brian Smith and the music department um of all of the schools to be able to do that was very very impressive um great quality of that performance as well um beautiful job
Falcon Zone you guys nailed it um I was also a privilege to attend the national school choice fair that was held at the Great Wolf Lodge um it was an exciting time to see all the different choices that parents have here in uh El Paso
County and it um and it was really cool to see all the District 49 schools that were represented there including the Falcon zone so excellent job making sure that we had some representation there I also had a good conversation with Brian Smith and
his team about how parents were asking about the elementary schools and how we could have a possibility of having all of our elementaries represented at the school choice Fair next year because there was a lot of interest in what we do in Falcon so um just wanted to put a
plug in there for you um to be at that next school Fair it's a lot of fun and it's a it was a huge turnout even with snow so um that's what I've got for you this time thank you so much um um well quick
backstory um over the over the summer I had reached out to Brian Smith and I said hey do you have a student who could sing the national anthem for the board of County Commissioners and he actually did try and we ended up getting a wonderful s Creek student to come sing
the national anthem for the board of County Commissioners but he did say to me he goes Lori you wanted a national anthem I'm going to give you a national anthem and you did that was outstanding thank you thank you so much so it it's really exciting to be out here when I
first moved into School District 49 Falcon High School which was what is now Falcon middle school and I remember they built the new high school and then to watch The Genesis of all that has happened since then has been really exciting what year Peter was Falcon
established Falcon School District Falcon School District um traces back to 1888 and if I I'm correct that was just about six or seven years I'd have to look at my Google uh after Abraham
Lincoln was assassinated just for a little bit of context to how long this has been around okay um I attended the student board and heard back from the students who had attended the event in Chicago and cat and the other students actually facilitated some of what they had learned there the kids did a great
job of demonstrating what they learned at uh their event it was it was really NE because the other students who attended helped to guide the other students along in the different exercises and it was fun and informative to watch them exercise leadership skills
as they shared it they also discussed about how to talk how to get all kinds of students engaged with their schools not just the the natural leaders who kind of raised to the top or the kids who are more visible but I really appreciated the discussion of how do we
get all kids to have some buyin some Agency for their school and so they have some plans around that as well as doing listening tours of their own with the elementary and middle schools that they're working on and that was a student board generated and led project as
well um then I attended the uh class event up in Denver with director Schmidt and I have to tell it was the most content-rich presentation on public education that I have recently attended and I strongly encourage my fellow board members and our superintendent or in
leaders to attend if they have something similar last year they had some really really great speakers um they started off with Dr Zach rosnell who wrote the book just tell them and he teaches about the power of explanation and explicit
learning he was outstanding and then I've learned a little bit more about some of his trainings which I thought Jamie Lim would like because it wasn't only the big capital D capital i d i direct instruction but also Al how it can be incorporated with a little d and
a little I and other types I'm going to run over just a second real quick we had Pam Beno speak on the science of learning everything from English language learning Learners to White teaching literacy should be based on scope and sequence and rounding out the
day we had Dr Deborah sheff who was absolutely outstanding um I also quickly attended the engaged the Rockies event to hear Steve Durham from the State Board of education he gave me another shout out to School District 49 and talked about the truth of our scores that I really
appreciated him when he was showing the lines across the graph to mention District 49 is higher but here's what they do and here's the value in what they do with go Academy we had uh Lauren Nelson speak on school Finance she took a course I think from Georgetown
University I'd have to check where she took it from but she really gave good Insight last but not least the president of the D20 board Aaron salt talked about the new CTE Wing they're going to be building at Air Academy and the value of Career and Technical education and my
first thought was you should see what we got at fidge so I have invited him for a tour and if you haven't toured the CTE wi at vist I strongly encourage it so what they were talking about developing in District 20 we already had in
District 49 so for the administrative update tonight I'm going to turn that over to Brian Smith because of engaging environments enhanced opportunities and elevated instruction that Empower our learners for their future endeavors this is
Empower FZ I'm Brian Smith Zone superintendent of the Falcon Zone and I'm honored to lead in an outstanding team of Educators and school community members on this flight path of modern personalized learning the FC we are ready
R hello I'm Tim Sheek academic administrator for the Falcon Zone in District 49 in the Falcon Zone in power ofz or in power Falcon zone is our instructional model bringing this model to life across the district has been my top priority I've worked with leaders coaches and teachers to shift from
traditional approaches to ones that prioritize student ownership and teacher empowerment Falcon Zone We Believe empowered teachers create empower the Falcon Zone evaluation system a cuttingedge approach tied to our instructional model we designed a rubric that not only meets but exceeds the
Colorado Department of education's criteria for educator Effectiveness it's a tool that drives meaningful growth for our teachers and transforms learning for our students focusing on a personalized student-driven approach gives the ability to foster a collaborative environment where students become
confident Independent Artists it's incredibly rewarding to see them develop technical skills solve problems and take ownership of their learning my goal is to empower students while watching their creativity grow each year and seeing their confidence develop as they pursue their future creative
Endeavors through these efforts we're creating second order changes that extend far beyond the classroom modeling of curiosity embracing new challenges and fostering professional collaboration creates our culture of continuous Improvement I love what I do and seeing the impact that our work has on our
students we live by our shared Vision to empower teachers in this journey which ultimately helps our students earn their wings and soar to new heights in the Falcon Zone we strive to empower Learners with engaging environments enhanced opportunities and
elevated instruction with a new approach to challenging behaviors and discipline we Empower students to take ownership of their actions Paving a way for a supportive and effective educational environment ultimately my classroom emphasizes respect collaboration and a shared
responsibility for learning by combining datadriven instruction self-directed projects and personalized support I help students build confidence Independence and a deep commitment to their growth together we are all buzzing toward
success my name is Jamie Mitchell and I a first grade teacher at Woodman Hills Elementary and the Falcon Zone student voice and choice were integral fostering a strong sense of ownership over our interactions and work ethic we celebrate successes by encouraging one another to persevere with grit upon Mastery they
proudly add their name to our goalgetter wall thus cultivating a growth mindset this aligns with our Zone's portrait of a graduate where students work to earn their wings the students conference with me while graphing their data and discuss opportunities to improve my students are advocates for their learning proess
progress and they know the ultimate goal is to grow our classroom remains fluid as schedules and student needs shift often this empowers students to perform at their highest level and honors their path and Pace in my modern Learning Classroom I facilitate learning and Empower my
students to advocate for their individual learning needs as the needs of my students change and grow so does my classroom my students use their voices to advocate for the learning environment they want and deserve I am so proud of my modern learning class room and the amazing students that make
it Shine welcome to Falcon middle school and our students class our vision is why we come to school it's important because it gives us knowledge and helps us lead a good life the code is how we treat each other
the Sops are important because they are what keeps the classroom together and they keep the classroom organized hi I'm Amanda Woodard a 7th grade Eastern Hemisphere teacher in d49 Welcome to our classroom before we start each unit we unpack the standard we discuss keywords
give examples input in student friendly language we use True Colors within our learner profiles to help us learn about ourselves and each other choice boards have activities colorcoded to match our personality types but we can always pick something outside of our color if we want this makes learning feel personal Miss Ward doesn't just teach us lessons
she empowers us to take responsibility for our own learning at Falcon High School our Focus has been on transforming the vision of a modern High School into a vibrant reality through the Empower FZ instructional model we're working with our teams to Foster engaging environments enhanced opportunities and
elevated instruction in order to empower students to Excel and teachers to thrive at the heart of everything we do is our commitment to empowering our graduates with wings wisdom Integrity networking grit and self-confidence hi I'm Jennifer Hepworth and I teach at Falcon High
School in District 49 I teach social studies including the Holocaust and genocide course it is my goal to empower all Learners as we do in the Falcon Zone implementing Empower FC has helped me develop a classroom environment where students are at the center I leveraged a
balanced approach of direct instruction and personalized learning to empower my students when my teachers grow I feel in the classroom lessons are more exciting and I feel supported to do my best work it's a system of empowerment empowering students with their ability to learn
teachers towards elevating their work and administrators to actively lead which will ensure that all in the Falcon Zone can earn their wings falc Z we're earning our e e
thank you so much and I I just have to tell you that video was amazing and I'm sure after the meeting we'll be flying our aircraft around the uh Auditorium here can I get a motion for action item 7.1 I move to approve the new course
proposal for Pathways to success second any discussion can I get a vote dalala hi Kyle I L Wright I Schmid I Thompson I and that passes can I get a
motion for action item 7.2 I move to approve the ace curriculum as presented second any discussion okay can I get a
vote dalala hi hle Hi l right I Schmidt I Thompson I and that one passes can I get a motion for action item 7.3 I move to approve the name change for Patriot High School to Patriot
applied learning campus second any discussion I think the only change we were going to make on that is the middle school will not be starting next year that we had talked about okay can I get a vote please
dalala Hi I hi liia Wright hi Schmid hi Thompson I that one passes can I get a motion for action item 7.4 I move to approve the superintendent evaluation
second any discussion can I get a vote dalala Hi H I liia right hi Schmidt hi Thompson hi can I get a motion for action item
7.5 I move to approve the policy and procedure review as presented second any discussion by the way student board do you have any thoughts on anything that we're covering I don't know if you looked at those revisions that's
okay can I get a vote dalala I hle I Le right I SCH I Thompson I and that passes can I get a motion for action item
7.6 I move to approve the new 2526 proposed and 2627 preliminary Board of Education meeting dates second any discussion okay I guess the one thing we moved is for the aps not to interfere
with Valentine's Day so that will be a good one can I get a vote please dalala hi Kyle hi leier r hi Schmid I Thompson I and that one
passes okay everything was unanimous tonight who says we can't agree on anything okay next up we have item 9.1 V Bridge High School New course intro to dance hipop dance and jazz
dance and I hope that Teresa will give us a demonstration of some of the dance moves you know should approach with your your jazz hands e e Megan
no how about Danielle okay nothing director Schmid I don't really have a question I just my daughter danced her whole school time in addition to Scholastics and volleyball and all kinds of stuff and it really
gave her a lot of body awareness and you know when we first started taking her she was very very clumsy and after doing some of the dance she really started to get a little Poise going on so I'm really glad it sounded like there was a lot of kids signing up to be interested
in that so I kind of like the whole idea it's another good way to get that physical exercise because it's hard dance is hard so yeah a strong work ethic collaboration teamwork I mean the Arts are just a
great platform for really building strong students who move into the world as strong adults and most of our kids in our Arts programs are they're some of our highest achieving students as well so we just think this will be just another element and add choice for our
students and another source of confidence yes and for some students you know this is this is what brings them to school this is I mean I I have a son who's a professional musician he went through vist high school and um he's my
oldest and he's my he was my handful if it weren't for music I'm not sure uh that he would have finished as strongly as he did and he finished and went on and studied music and now as a professional musician in Denver Colorado and starving artist but he pays his own
bills so something's working right uh so I'm a huge proponent of anything that can help us enhance this for our students director hi I just wanted to let you know U that I have been endorsing the fine arts
department at dist Ridge High School recently met a um a couple who moved here and they were looking for where should they Place their high school student and you know what are they into and they said theater ah Vista Ridge
thank you we'll take them absolutely part of our theater we have u a musical every year and so we right now we have to work with a choreographer because we don't have our own dance department so this this would work in conjunction with
that as well so one question I had for you for this course because I could see it qualifying for either one have you considered whether you might be able to flex it depending on a student's um uh needs for their transcripts or whether it would qualify as a PE credit or a
Fine Arts Credit potentially there could be some Choice there yeah thank you thanks director in the bureau that was actually my question as well um but there is is precedent for it because I believe March and man can give you a
half credit um of towards PE as well so that we do have precedent actually in our graduation pieces but when I was reading I was like okay signups outside of music so I'm assuming this is under the graduation the required fin art requirement so now they have an option besides drawing or singing or making
Ceramics which is also so I think this is a great IDE great thank youa yeah I really like the extracurricular expectations on there they actually get to go to attend performances as well as
Community involvement such as the local hip hop workshops battles and showcases that sounds fun does i' like to see some Demon well Tom Payne was going to do that so if he shows up we'll just pull
him up here and well I see here that it also you're going to acquire a temporary dance floor and since we've asked for all the demonstration I think' be highly appropriate for the Board of Education to also do a demonstration on your portable I agree we'll have a we'll have
a ball Board of Education ball how does that sound you know it's kind of interesting because one thing and I mentioned it before and I'll keep mentioning it um when we go to the 3.75 dinners and celebrations um they uh one thing that's in common is
they're always involved with extracurricular activities they're involved with Roc they're involved with the Arts they're involved with band they are involved with dance I know that Mr Miller has a daughter that sings and has perform before I think you mentioned your daughter's a singer um and then I
uh is that yes no uh she's a dancer pretty accomplished dancer yeah then this is really going to date me here but in 1980 I used to teach dance
Ballroom disco country swing because that was the time when Urban Cowboy and Saturday Night Fever came out and so I really I really loved it it's a lot of work so I just think it's an incredible
opportunity I think you're right it goes back to what we talked about student board is finding ways to get students engaged with their school and so to reach them at different levels and the more opportunities we have the better so
I think this one is going to be wonderful well you taught dance are you looking for a job because we might be hiring oh that's true and I might be a little out of shap
I'm willing to tackle it sometimes my out um but if there are no objections we we will move this forward for Action at the March regular meeting and if Mr Payne shows up we'll see if he can show
us a few of his moves I mean it's only common sense that's right well thank you thank you okay next up item 9.2 the school family calendars good evening uh Peter
superintendent uh you'll notice that uh I am not Lisa phillow although she is here uh there are enough variables and and there's enough explanation required here that that I asked if I could red delegate this back to myself you'll be proud of me that
some of what I'm about to share with you is because I delegated to Dr lond and miss phow and her team to create some additional insight about calendars and what's possible um but when it comes time to present some things that where we're asking you to make some changes I
think that's my responsibility we're asking you to change board policy and also uh change what we're going to adopt going forward before I open up the uh red line of the policy um I want to give a little bit of background because calendar discussions over the last uh
two weeks really have really blown up appropriately uh there has been sort of an avalanche of concern about our calendars and how we got Where We Are so I wanted to give you a little bit of background just as I was coming into District 49 uh back in 2013 and 14 uh
the district immediately to our North Douglas County ended up in a situation where they had 1,200 students who were short minutes in their senior year as a result the Colorado Department of Education audited them and asked them to
reimburse the state $5.3 million for 1,200 students because those students didn't reach the number of hours that were required they were not going to be funded at full-time per pupil they were going to be funded at halftime they ended up eventually
splitting the difference and settling between the the state and the district but it took a lawsuit and then they put them on a 15-year payment plan so when CDE does an audit and asks for a reimbursement they're not playing and they have the authority in annual
funding to make sure that we comply well this 49 has not been audited since the '90s is the last time that I can track so it's been a long time since we've been subject to that level of scrutiny they go on a rotation it's not because anyone did anything wrong they
just rotate through the districts and we're one of the the largest districts now one of the top 10 largest districts in the state so our number came up and since over the last nine months or so CDE has been examining our attendance our schedules our calendar and as a
result of that audit which covered a 4-year period they found that on average we had about two students per School per year that didn't meet their standards and some of their standards had not been clarified for us because it's been a
long time since we were audited two students per year doesn't seem like a lot but it added up to multiple millions of dollars because each student each year is in the neighborhood of $10,000 and so
although that report is not officially final until tomorrow I don't know if it's like a Valentine's love note we started learning in November and then December about what our liability was going to be but more importantly we started learning that there were some things that we had counted as
attendance that the Department of Education was going to disallow and so we had to do something about it now I want you to imagine if uh if the IRS were to audit you you would probably pay attention I have submitted 45 tax returns in my life I have never
been audited I'm getting ready to submit 46 this year but you can imagine if I got an audit from from the IRS and they came back and said good job with withholding you're in the right tax bracket but you know what you took some some deductions that we don't think are
valid so we're going to need you to reimburse us and instead of getting a refund I owed some money let's imagine that that had happened if that had happened wouldn't you expect me to take those deductions out of my next tax
return I sure would and that is exactly what has happened between District 49 and CDE in this case CDE is playing the role of the IRS they have told us that some of our allowances are not going to be permitted and so we had to do something about that now a second
analogy that I think is really relevant because people are saying well what's different between last year and this year the big difference is the audit things that we thought were allowable related to assessment days and orientation days and graduation days we have been counting them but CDE does not
want us to continue to count them so we are changing this year's calendar and bell schedule because we don't want to pay them back we want to be in a strong position and not have a bill but here's the other thing if I knew that I was going to be late to tonight's meeting
let's say that I was half an hour away at a meeting at quarter till so I'm 30 minutes away 15 minutes before the meeting starts am I late yet no I know I'm going to be late and so I do something about it I call I find out
if I can I zoom in but I at least take responsibility to try to do something about what I know is coming and that's what we have done this year with our Bell schedules with converting to eay we are not out of compliance but if we had done nothing we were going to be late we were going to
be out of compliance we were going to owe money back for the current year and so we've taken some pretty decisive action because in some cases we needed to move within a matter of days we didn't have time to wait or even bring it to you for this year it's inconvenient and it's disruptive I'm
gratified to hear that it's working for a lot of students in families but we know that e-learning is not optimal that's not why we went to e-learning we went to e-learning because CDE explicitly allows us to replace up to five snow days with eay and count that
as instruction that's a reasonable accommodation in a in a very wintry year and so we're going to take advantage of that accommodation instead of having class after Memorial Day that's the main uh either or that we had to consider we don't want to end up in this
situation again next year which brings us to this agenda item we have worked really hard we've actually started working on this in early January with the cabinet members especially the Zone superintendents we have identified a set of things that will make our calendar
itable or or acceptable to CDE so that we won't get dinged on those deductions but we've also addressed an imbalance in how we have been building our calendar as of this year District 49 has more
teacher paid non-con days than any other District in our region it shows our commitment to teacher professional development teacher work time our Pro days personal and team pro days we have overc committed on that side and even
with the adjustments I'm about to recommend we will still have more teacher paid non contact days to support our professional staff but we will also restore more student instruction and contact days to our calendar some of the solutions that will
allow us to do that require you to change policy we have a very robust calendar policy and so I'm going to bring that up on screen and I'm going to show you the adjustments that we are re recommending our board has routinely asked to see a
red line and so what you have in your packet and what I'm placing on screen now shows you three significant changes the first one here in red is that it used to say that we will
build in a reasonable buffer well when you're extending the school day and you're converting to eay and you're converting profession development days to student contact days that buffer doesn't look so reasonable and so instead of having uh qualitative
language reasonable we are asking to put in quantitative language which says that we will have at least 167 student contact days that is seven more than the state requires and we will have 1,00 student
contact hours that is about 6 days worth of time more than the state requires so we are converting the language of a reasonable or two numbers uh secondary schools have to have to have up to 10 uh 1,56 hours we want to go well above that
standard elementary schools have to have 980 we want to go well above that standard to 985 and so we are we are confident that this calendar gives us a much greater chance of of getting through the year without
having to shift to eay I will tell you and we should be very clear about this if we use seven true snow days or if we use seven days worth of cancellations and delays then we have to keep eay as an option or we have to go past Memorial
Day historically this board in its previous iterations but you all voted on this last January this board has said start in August but not before August 1 make sure you take a full twoe break at fall make sure you take a full week at Thanksgiving two full weeks at Christmas
two full weeks for spring break make sure you end before Memorial Day so the second adjustment that we are asking for Redline down below is prior well actually current policy stipulates that we will hold our large High School
graduations on the Friday before Memorial Day which makes it difficult to use that Friday as a student contact instructional day or for finals we are asking that you would permit us to make those graduations a Saturday experience
and in anticipation of your approval and Miss devet would be very excited because now she'd get to go um we have already reserved the World Arena for those dates for the next two cycles and we would continue we're not committed on a contract and if you approve it tonight then we'll move to contract um but those
dates were remarkably available we were surprised and so we jumped on them we got a reservation and if you don't adopt this then we'll we'll revert uh to our existing contract but it would be better for our calendar it would give us another day and it would prevent us from
having to move to eay as soon the third thing um that we are asking for is in compliance with new learning from from CDE that when we gather our students on a half day we are allowed to count that half day as three or four or
three and a half hours but we're allowed to count it as a full day of contact and so the policy currently does not allow half day but we believe there's a a compromise or a or a um a dual benefit available to us if we use some of our
end of quarter and end of semester days um as half days and so we get some time with students and do some learning but we also give our staff time to conduct things like preparing for conferences or report cards um and and we understand
why that why we made the decision um Miss L Wright and I were were're part of the initial conversation where we moved away from half days but we were in an environment where we didn't know all of the CDE expectations and and their interpretations and so this is one um
that we are asking the board to restore that option we will not use that option uh lightly and in fact we are still getting good input from our own staff uh we would have gotten even more yesterday uh with our Val collaboration team our VCT team but that's not a team that can
work that can meet over remote uh technology so we had to that we haven't rescheduled it yet I'm sure we'll get great input from that team when we meet with them but we need to move and ideally we would like the board to make
these policy revisions sequentially you would have to take action on this policy first because if you don't then the calendar that we've put in front of you is an invalid calendar and so if you know that you won't support these revisions the Saturday the half day and
the and the specific minimums then you've got to task me to go back to my team and reexamine the calendar uh to find a different set of days that is still compliant gives us enough buffer to prioritize safety and gets us out
before Memorial Day so those are the policy side backgrounds if you would open up as I am going to now open up the actual calendar that we are proposing I'm just going to focus on the 2526
calendar because the 26 27 it's is actually a little bit more generous I'll show you why in a moment but what you can see here are the days that we have adjusted this calendar increases our contact with students by six or seven
days depending on the level so we get more instructional time it reduces our team prod Day by one it reduces our personal prod day that's individually directed by about two hours
uh from what it is right now and it converts some of our contact days from full days to half days so that we can get both and both student instruction and learning and adult learning and adult professional collaboration so we think that with the leadership of our
Zone superintendents our learning Services team under direction of Lisa filow careful analysis of the impacts on individualized education from Dr lemand we think we have a calendar that displeases everybody a little bit but it
does three critical things it gives me a superintendent the buffer I need to confidently call snow delays and days when safety is in Jeopardy it gets us compliant with our new understanding of cde's
expectations and it fits the broad parameters of our calendar policy by starting in August finishing Before Memorial Day and preserving the two-e breaks that have become so distinctive and attractive in District 49 it also
maintains a full week at Thanksgiving which is no small thing we we used to and we could have class on Monday and Tuesday but then we make it really hard for families including especially our staff families we make it really hard for them if they want to take any kind of travel to be with family around that
Thanksgiving holiday we we we really put a crimp in the that their ability to travel and as a dad of six and and Grandpa I know how valuable those times can be and I know most of you um have had that experience of getting on the road and overh Hill and overdale to Grandma's house we go we want to
preserve that and this calendar allows us to do that so that's the background the policy side and then the literal calendar side I know that there will be questions I know that we'll have probably some additional refinements and tweaks as as many people put their minds to work on this um but I thought I owed
you an extended explanation tonight and I appreciate Lynette for not starting the timer because I'm certain I went more than 5 minutes what questions could I possibly answer well case your wife is watching you forgot to say great grandfather as well so we will start with Megan to see
if she has any questions about the revised calendar Daniel director Schmid so do we have a liability right now we have a liability looking back yes
the audit that is going to be final tomorrow will have a liability we will go into some negotiation with with the Department over that um but we have briefed you previously in the year we have brief to you that this is one of those unbudgeted expenses we knew it was
coming we didn't know how much and because it's a very it's a multi-year cycle and you can't predict when it's going to happen it's not something that you can build a budget for and so that's why districts have contingency or Reserve funds we're going to use those appropriately and we're fine on the
budget um but we would prefer not to be able to pay the bill we'd prefer not to get the bill at all Saturday congratulations I love that's we're onethird of the way to those changes director
hi I second that on the Saturday graduations I have to take a vacation day in order to attend those and so you just return to vacation day to me that I could use elsewhere um I'm really pleased with uh the the initial effort here it looks like we've added some
instructional days without doing too much to you know touch any of the Sacred cows for the district we've still got you know the vacation days the start at time the the end days um so it's just been some minor things I think we know our teachers are probably going to you
know feel a little bit of stress but I think it's better that than returning to part of the Thanksgiving week or extending pastor day or losing one of the weeks for fall
break so um but I I also understand that um you know increasing contact days in and of itself is a benefit you know plenty of studies out there that highlight that that drives student uh
achievement and so as we pursue um uh the distinction level um that that is a good thing to continue to build on so I would just like to see if we can you know take this as a great starting point I I love what what's been done so far and if we can continue to build on that
and uh see what other gains we can make for contact days I appreciate the work that went into kind of of respecting um what had been built in the past and what was behind the requests for those in the past and then making
sure that we can meet those commitments um the reason that policy is so robust so if you look at most other school districts calendar policies they're like maybe five sentences not do 49s but that came from our community and it came from
our community over many years of surveys every every couple of years when I was on the board report we should do away with the two week break well let's do a survey you do the survey and it would be I don't care how many people email say they get 90% of people no matter what
category they were in staff or family said don't you dare touch my break um the same thing when when we went from the the three-day to the FED Day Thanksgiving that became very important to our community too both in terms of our staff but also our military families
many of us don't have any family here so if we're going to spend time with family on any of those holidays it requires traveling and I don't know I can't fly up now six to do next if I can do it can Saturday before um so you know I think
that that you honored what has been and continues to be important to our community overall um kind of another little thing Co soured everybody on eays but Falcon High used e days before Co
happened um during some snow days they had a waiver and um because I had kids at the school so my kids had that sometimes and if we had a 2our Del even sometimes felt and high with him instead um and parents were gr because it was
more dangerous to drive out here than it was in town so um we had that was one of our Innovation plan MERS a while ago so I'm hopeful both for the students responded positivly to it my son handled it applying as a student his special
education services he was on where he was supposed to and did what he needed to do um that now that it's not The Angst of Co and night to Le in that way the teachers are doing it differently um it's not no primary instruction that's happening but extra review and and
things that students can reinforce from home um that that I think that that would be a great compromise for our community as well so I appreciate that and and I like that we're saying when possible to try and make full but recognizing some Advantage just some of those halves because that gives you some
of so I think this is great and think you H where we need to be um because the other M so those things that we built into the calendar agre for families also we will never unless somehow the state changes
the way they fund never be the top paying District in our area the reason people stay with us as because of all of the other things that we do together part of it is honoring them as professionals and making sure they're paid so that time we spend as
professionals doing that work through these p p days expanding out and starting a little earlier in August but making sure that those breaks are times that allow travel at less expensive times if you can fly out on a Tuesday and fly back on a Tuesday it's way
cheaper than do Friday and Sunday right so there's all kinds of things that are built in there that honor our staff as well and are part of that compensation package that we can't make up more dollars but we can by respecting them as professionals and um which is a part of
balancing those with overall paid contract days um so I appreciate making sure that we're paying attention to that and if we didn't take away from that value that it's so important to keep our our staff
director well you're not going to hear me complain about graduation on Saturdays because then I don't have to take off work and then miss my my um last uh celebration with my staff um so that's really awesome um so let's keep
Saturdays and like that uh also the the whole week Thanksgiving break is so important um because we used to have the three day and so we would have Mondays and Tuesdays and do you have any idea
how many uh student absences we had on that Monday and Tuesday to the point where we're like well I can't really progress in my lessons because a third of my class is gone um so it's it's it's a good thing that you have a full me for
Thanksgiving so yes um and I agree with every else everybody else you know I know that this has been a really heavy lift I had stopped by to ask Dr L man a question and her and Carrie were calculating days and I get an idea of just the scope of everything
you had to look at and of course change is always difficult it's difficult for the staff the students and the parents and you know trying to find the best way that benefits our district I think is the most important thing so there's always a bumpy road when there's a
change I mean back when my kids were in in the school district and God bless all of the teachers who helped my son I had the same son that Teresa Ritz had anyway um just to know that um when we made the change back then to go to what they
called a modified year round schedule with the goal too of retaining learning when they talked about since we had the shorter Summer and the longer breaks in between that there would be a greater retention of learning so even back decades ago when they were doing
surveys I think District 49 has always had a good history of trying to reach out to the community and knowing that there is no answer that will make everybody happy so I just wanted to say a couple of things first of all I want to thank you Dr Lemont and the staff for
all the work you put into this to make compant with CDE I appreciated your apology too for not calling a snow day District 49 is 132 square miles and anyone who has lived in Colorado for any
length of time there can be a completely different weather event in Falcon than there is in town and it can be the reverse sometimes it's hitting in town and not as much out in Falcon but it can be kind of hairy but I appreciate that you expressed concern for not only the
students first and primarily the students but for the staff and for transportation and everybody else involved I also wanted to thank you for the 2hour delay when we had those bitterly cold temperatures yesterday I was outside for about 10 minutes and my
face hurt because it was cold so anyway I think you did um a good job and if there's no objections we will move this on oh thank director Li right one request um sounds like we're all in
agreement and so this will get approved as well calendars the preliminary calendar for last year had already been sent out to parents there aren't a huge number of differences but if we can when we approve the the revised one make sure we highlight what those differences are
because it's Pro there are probably a couple days in there where people where they would have had where the kids would have had the day off they don't for example um make sure we highlight those are aware of it there aren't a huge number of people who that will impact
but there are some the reason we went to a two-year cycle of having the preliminary out because there are people who have to turn in their um time off sheets and cors for their employers so if they see a shift in that they'll know whether they can put a a back on the calendar or there's something different
they have to plan so we can just keep that in mind and we send that update out I would appreciate it and just to follow up I left off Foo and all the work that she did on this as well um if there are no objections this
will be moved forward for Action at the March regular meeting a request that you you convert your work session to a special meeting so that you can vote to approve this because those two weeks matter and they will matter for hiring they'll matter for planning and so um I don't do that
very often you know that that that's a card I'd like to keep keep in my hand but I want to play that card and ask you to vote on this um and you could do it as a single item special meeting followed by your work session there's reasons that that work session should stay a work session but you could do a
single item special meeting right at the front to approve this if it meets your expectations is there any objections to that I would prefer to do anytime we have a special meeting conversion I would always prefer to have whatever the special meeting is as a separate meeting
to the work session I think combining changes a dynamic and we used to do it that way a long time ago but I think there are advantages to saying okay this is one thing we're doing it also keeps people from tacking way more stuff on us so I agree a single item special
followed by a work session that are technically two separate meetings Okay director Schmidt can we adjourn this meeting and then do a special meeting afterwards and vote on it would that be a good way to do it no 24 our posting notice for special
meeting okay so if there are no objections we could do a single item special meeting so it shall be written so it shall be done okay next up we have item 9.3 the
performance Excellence annual report well good good evening everybody I'm Matt Barrett I the director of data uh performance excellence and I'm here for my annual update so um as you know performance
Excellence provides data analysis and Reporting supporting the district's continuous Improvement efforts the reporting we provide is largely used by our district leaders to inform their decision- making and identification of opportunities for improvements it also
supports the implementation of best practices in pursuit of uh or in pursuit of recognition from Baldridge as a role model organization and I know you're at least somewhat familiar with the word Baldridge but I thought I'd take a
moment and just expand on that for a moment so uh the balers performance Excellence program is recognized by Congress and the president of the United States it was actually created by a gentleman named Malcolm Baldridge the Secretary of Commerce under our great
President Ronald Reagan Mr Baldridge and President Reagan were friends and this was their idea to compete against Japan and other countries at the time uh that were beating the US in business and over time it expanded and it began to include uh Industries like healthc care
nonprofits and then of course education which is where we fall into one way to think of it is it's essentially like the Olympics it recognizes top performers across uh America and by joining this National community and by uh submitting
applications we gain powerful tools to improve every part of the district uh along with getting valuable feedback uh that that helps our Improvement as well and so through Baldridge uh we can become a national role model and education become best place to learn
work and Lead this is uh the team of uh performance Excellence as it exists right now I'm very fortunate I've got a great team of people who are dedic D at to helping the district continue to get better we work hard to collaborate with and support all of the Departments
across the district we spent a lot of time Consulting with uh departments on developing their their key performance indicators their kpis uh these are the ones that you see um hopefully you see them every month on the district performance dashboard we're now spending time working with those departments uh
to help them evaluate uh and when possible improve the processes to help them continue to improve the uh the results of the kpis and we also work very hard uh to create a lot of tools that we can use to measure performance and be uh
better prepared you're familiar with the uh beags the big hary audacious goals and of course we gather and we report the data that fills these charts we also created great tools at the district uh
started uh using last year and and if you'll notice the uh the top of those two charts there is a huge substantial jump uh in that performance this is the result of a lot of really cool things that happened all throughout the district um I'd like to to think that
performance Excellence had at least a small part in contributing to uh into that although we're not in the classrooms we're not educating U but we do provide tools for people who do those things or or lead the people who do if you haven't already um had the chance to
see the district performance framework calculator uh and I'll give you a little glimpse of that but I almost guarantee with my life that you will see it at the annual planning Summit on Saturday I think Peter is is uh charged up and ready to go with that and so the DPF
District performance framework is what CDE uses to measure Colorado districts and compare them to each other academically um and so just hold the thought for a second on the substantial jump there uh on that top one I'll I'll
come come back to it in a second this is a overwhelming screenshot of the DPF calculator uh it's an incredibly complex spreadsheet it takes uh all of the state assessment data and it confirms the
score that CDE gives us and then it also gives the opportunity for principles and Zone superintendant and and the superintendent uh the ability to make informed goals based on actual data and you don't have to worry about understanding what all these numbers
mean uh but I do want to use it as an illustration of how this tool works and what's important is that it provides the ability to focus on an area where there's a strategic priority that can provide uh significant results and we
are absolutely celebrating this at least at least I am we're not aware of any other schools uh in the state that are using a tool like this if you notice way off to the right of that screenshot is a column that says goal and when we give this tool to the Zone superintendent and
the principal it allows them to go in and project what they think their result will be for next year and then it calculates what their projected goal would be uh for that year and so now back to that significant
jump that that we looked at in the last slide uh this tool was purpose-built specifically with this in mind uh and the contribution that this tool helped uh the the schools and the zones make
towards increasing our district performance framework and getting closer to accomplishing our behag for achieving diversity or distinction with diversity it's a tools that principles uh have continuous access to it's a very important part of this because it uses
actual data from CDE provides principles the ability to work with their teachers in their classroom to make datadriven decisions on educating students uh when when using this tool it becomes evident that there's a variety of areas that just by making a small
impact uh a small increase in one area it really can have a big result and I think those are some of the things that uh Peter will continue to emphasize uh in the annual planning Summit on Saturday in essence this is smart goal
setting this tool contains smart or specific measurable attainable realistic timely all within this tool it's an example of what uh my team loves to do uh we get excited about this kind of stuff I know not a lot of people go home and dream about spreadsheets but um we
we joked my team goes home and they build spreadsheets just for fun uh in the evening to track one of my guys went home and he built a spreadsheet to track all of the concerts he's ever been to who he attended him with which venue he went to and uh then he brought it in the next day to show us so that's that's that's
that's the kind of excitement we get in performance Excellence I don't expect you to share that if you do we have an open position uh this Slide the uh the other thing you're aware of is the district performance dashboard this is just a clip of the very top of that it's it's
quite lengthy and you continue to scroll through it but this is where the kpis across the district are displayed publicly for you and your stakeholders to see as part of our commitment to transparency uh we're responsible for creating this and maintaining this and then lastly these are the three goals
that we have as part of our uh uh part of our uh annual plan the Baldridge application uh that due date is May 22nd we are geared up for that and managing that project and and uh in fact had you not been so fast I would have had the time to create two more charts to get
closer to that but I only got one done uh so I'm I'm glad you're efficient but I'll have to go home and continue to work tonight to to continue to to meet our deadlines uh the second one is process documentation this is something we got a lot of great feedback on on a
previous Baldridge application uh and we want to make sure that we are systematically using and uh documenting our processes uh so that we can deploy those throughout the district and so this is a project that we've uh that we're just kind of in the the we've had
the concept for a while we're just beginning to deploy this now and then once I gets done our third part of that is it's it's great if you have this this thing and you put it on a shelf it's a lot better if people go to it use it reference and that's uh our goal is to make sure we get utilization out of that as
well um so I think that is the end of what I've got and happy to answer any questions for you do the students have any questions director Schmidt I have a bunch of questions but
I think what I'd like to do is meet with Peter and discuss it a little bit better at this point Point not publicly this is a significant part of our planning Summit on Saturday and so Matt's right I won't be using a presentation I'll be using the live
dashboard and the live um the live District performance framework calculator but I'll also show you you'll see in the packet for Saturday um something that was one of our annual strategic objectives which was to see our district performance framework with uh the the data from go High School
sequestered out of that and I'm really proud that we have the second highest graduation rate in the Pikes Peak region um when you when you make that change because our high schools do a fantastic job of staying with it and getting our students to graduation so um we're gonna
have a fun morning on Saturday I'm really looking forward to to celebrating together from the somewhat geeky data side of the table director H so I am a data nerd and uh in fact um
my daughter and I we've been playing PC games side by side on different machines for you know as far back as we can remember and she has habitually made fun of me for building spreadsheets for things that'll help me like build characters and stuff like that even
though she's now quietly starting to get converted and she's making a couple of her own so on that basis Peter um presented this information to me because he knew I would appreciate it in one of our one-on-one so I've already seen this tool and how it works and then with that
as a background I was at another meeting where one I got to hear directly from one of our principles who has been using this tool and it is just so powerful and effective and easy to use um it's it's it's brilliant work thank
you director Li right director DEA I love data so this looks amazing um how can we get your currently open position filled we're almost there uh had this
probably been another few days I might have been able to give you an answer uh I've just got to do some administrative work on the back end to make sure I can give the answer that's a really important position so that's awesome um thank you so much for all the data and everything
that you've inut input inputed into this I am not a data nerd I appreciate data nerds but I'm still wrapping my mind around the spreadsheet of every concert they ever attended and who they were with I would like to say because we do have students here that a lot of those concerts were in the 70s and it's just
been too long of a span of time but um I really appreciate all the hard work that went into this and I really like to receive the data even though I wouldn't be capable of putting it together but just to give us benchmarks just to see what areas we could do I know that um I
watched uh superintendent hiltz when he was analyzing even the school performance framework and finding out where we were leaving um points on the table that were easy for us to achieve so it's because of that collaborative working process that we can get higher up and I'm
looking forward to what more we can learn on Saturday of data and we always want to make sure that the people are giving it to understand it and so we happy to to inform what I can thank you thank you okay and next up we have the
discussion item four 9.4 the annual planning Summit proposed agenda review and I think uh we had to update there was one thing that was in there that wasn't showing up in board docs that was added into it but if anyone has
do we able to get that updated one okay so what we do with the annual planning Summit as we talk about what is our plan going forward for the district and it's a team of six it's the Board of Education working with the
superintendent and there will be staff there to present and a lot of these items came because of the feedback from the board and so I wanted to know if anybody has any questions about the proposal I think there's just a few
things added at the very end as a discussion item director Schmidt so am I understanding that these are Administration generated priorities or these board priorities or what am I
understanding this Summit to be the purpose it's both it's both yes so if we listen to all the presentation Saturday and we have
consensus then it is considered the boards strategic priority well there's two things first of all there's the Strategic priorities like some things are there every year and that's like improved academic performance that's always a big priority
so you have the goal and then the administration works on how can we help achieve that goal and then the board can bring forth things they want that will also become part of it now it's it's kind of the framework for moving forward the next year but it doesn't prohibit
other items that we may want to address or deal with throughout the year okay I had three items that I did want to discuss and not one of them is on the agenda well we had for the last I think it's been almost two months asking for
that input and I think you actually did have you have part of this that was put in here um which were primarily legal updates you want if I can um interrupt the ones you
wanted were about training so that is what Brad Miller's going to do and I had mentioned that to you in the email so were those the ones that because those are the ones that you had submitted no there was one that was not
training um I don't want to get into an argument on the in in public um talk about this director H so my understanding of this is that part of the the day is that the cabinet
is going to give us some in-depth presentations and we're going to get some training um but then some of that uh some of those presentations are going to set the stage for some suggested strategic objectives that that
Administration is presenting we will at some point choose those and we have also had the opportunity to submit our own suggestions for what we would like to consider but the one problem I have with his agenda is I'm not finding if you can direct me to it that would be great
where we talk about what our strategic objectives are going to be and we vote on them may I respond to that so we we would never vote at the annual planning Summit on the next year's strategic objectives we' have typically done that at the first meeting in March um and so
what will happen is in the first meeting think of think of a hardvard outline in the first meeting you're approving the Roman numerals in the next meeting which could be the work session or it could be the regular meeting in March we'll break
that out further with some ABC and say all right if we are pursuing for example we're we're recommending writing across the curriculum well that that's not a strategic plan that's a strategic intent we need to break it out and say what does that look like does that look like training does that look like a
specialized assessment does it look like um collection of portfolio or evidence of writing achievement so we have to break it out and and the board will have an an excellent opportunity to see the end stage in the first hour because
along with with some of my presentations I'll have other members of the cabinet who will help you look back and say hey last March you said let's get working on teacher compensation here's Paul Anderson to tell you what we've what we've done last March you told me to get working on advocacy specifically to
develop a DPF without goals data well here here it is so we'll be doing what we call the look back with some level of specificity and that will kind of inspire you to say oh okay if we do adopt writing or if we do adopt a focus on other than teacher
compensation we should expect the administration to flesh that out come back and and propose to you so here are the kind of the sub points of that strategic objective and and what happens is the the headliner objectives plus all
of that additional data that's our strategic plan and the Aspire acronym that you see first on the agenda is the annual strategic plan ASP integrated report and evaluation so we'll be reporting and evaluating our
perform performance um when you get into that packet you'll see a lot of green check marks but not 100% there's some things that we either didn't complete or we we declined um well not declined but we we didn't achieve the performance that we intended to achieve and and so
we owe you that uh report um but it's really a great way to say look back at what we've been doing and let that inform what we want to do looking forward and my I guess my only confusion there is I seem to recall from our
previous uh APS that there was a point um where it wasn't necessarily like a vote like an action item you know it wasn't a formal thing but it was more of a consens consensus you know do do we have consensus on that this is one of the the ones that that gets
selected then that gets referred to admin to develop further so I just don't see that in this process so I don't know if we're changing the process or I'm maybe remembering no I I don't think you're misremembering and I'm looking at there
have been a couple of iterations of this document number nine as I see it on the screen should have those four proposed items beneath it they were there in the one that we looked at at at a previous meeting and so I suspect that I made an
error in developing this and transmitting it don't you take responsible um I believe I made an error in transmitting this and that that's where that would happen so how long did it take me to to share writing two minutes but we have 20 minutes to
discuss and so if at the end of it the board is convinced that middle school performance is a good Focus area or writing is a good then the board will say go if you if I recall last year that you added advocacy at the annual planning C we did not bring that
administrative and and there that may be again I know there had been some interest in making calendar an annual objective we worked really hard to to make that to not have to dedicate an anual strategic objective to that in part because we wanted to take care we
wanted to solve that problem quickly um but we would expect the board would come with its own um literal and very appropriate agenda to add to this discussion I'm good thank you director
Schmidt where is that board agenda piece of it the the component that he just said it's missing it's actually part of item nine and I apologize it's not it's not broken out and I should have caught that and I did not but it's it's part of
number nine what is currently listed as 9.1 and 9.2 is actually part of the board's work and I believe it belongs after lunch yeah because I think you had the staff leave right around
and so what we could do is just get this revised breakdown out tomorrow prior to the aps um right I think this will be number n or 10 for you okay is there any other further
discussion on this okay I I do have one small question right now we are scheduled to meet in Peak View Hall which is spacious and big and has great sound Etc historically we've met in the Excellence lab it's a little bit you know easier to hear each
other and a little more and so we we could do it either or I just want to make sure if someone is coming from the public they would know to find us we could easily do signage but does the board have a preference for excellence lab compared to Peak viiew Hall I have pref a pref reference for excellent lab and we've had community members who have
joined us before and we were able to scoot them in um so I don't know about the rest of you but I like the it's a better environment I think for discussions I think it depends on who turns up if there's a bunch of them that come then we might have to
move yeah because I think one one year we had five or six people come and we just put in seats along the back wall and it it fit so I like the excellent slab okay I remember when there was about 40 people who
came yeah but yeah yes in my very first board term we had 40 or 50 people I believe show up to that one a whole bunch of Staff filled out the steps I believe Peter was there for that one weren't you yeah well the good news is if we
have a surprise influx we could always pivot right Lynette okay I don't think we have a second public sign up so we're on to miscellaneous nothing for miscellaneous
okay then we are adjourned at 8:29 and Ellen has a new nickname it is Timex and if you'd like to know what that means you can ask her thank you Falcon zone for hosting us it's been great