the meeting of the board of education is now called to order Guyger present Meek here Moore here Meyers here Thompson here Williams here Wineer here Please stand for the pledge of allegiance I 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 moving into DCSD spotlight Okay thank you Hey good evening everyone Um it's hard to believe the 2425 school year has come to an end I along with the board directors and cabinet members had the absolute privilege of attending graduations over the past couple of weeks and it is truly a reminder of why we do what we do We are so incredibly proud of the class of 2025 Um and I know that you all
join me in wishing them the absolute best So to get started with recognitions tonight we are celebrating Colorado 5A High School athletic director of the year Mr Tom Briski uh from Rock Canyon High School So Tom will you join me up front Oh you're buried way back there Come on up Tom Tom along with director of athletics and activities Derek Cheney and executive director of schools John Gutierrez please come up and join us Unfortunately Mr Abner was unable to
make it here tonight due to a personal conflict He himself has a 2025 graduate So first of all how about a round of applause for Tom Amazing What a great accomplishment And I'm actually going to have Derek talk first because I know he's dying to brag about you Thank you Thank you Erin Thank you board for having us this evening Um hey just do want to brag on Tom here for a while He's um he's been doing the athletic director role for 22 years total Uh 14 years We've been lucky
to have Tom 14 years at Rock Canyon High School Um and just the amazing job that Tom does He's really emerged as one of the leaders in our district Um he actually helps me with mentoring our new ads and our younger ads They go to Tom as a um as a veteran and a leader Um he's in the trenches with them He has he's gained the respect of them Um he is the president of the Continental League Uh that's a league that all our schools are in along with some Littleton schools and and Regis and Tom's a president of the Continental League and he also just got voted in as a president of
the Colorado Athletic Directors Association So um as you can tell he's well respected by his peers That's voted on by his peers Uh which I think is the greatest compliment and respect you can give is when your peers vote you into it So um yeah and and to be the 5A athletic director of the entire state of Colorado is quite an honor and uh Tom is so humble so that's why I have to brag on him But uh we just we just appreciate everything he's done Um I'm personally proud of all of our ads Um if you recall we had Mr Johnson last year uh Mr Brisky this year We'll have an a middle school 81
in a couple weeks But um I just appreciate Tom your leadership your mentorship how you lead um very humble heart and and just helping all our younger ads So thank you for everything you've done for all ads Thank you Would you like to talk about what you Well yeah Thanks Derek I have to pay him a lot of money later Um no it was it's great Thanks for having me here to recognize this Uh we got recognized at the Kada conference up in April Um and that's when I found out I I won the award and I think it's the longevity award because I've been doing it for 22 years
So um but no I it it means a lot I love being an athletic director I love seeing our kids succeed Um going through the struggles of a season If you guys have kids I'm sure you do You see youth sports and and high school sports is a very passion uh you know passionate environment And so kids go up through the ups and downs of the season Our coaches do as well And I have some great coaches that make me look good on a daily basis So I just appreciate what I do And I I know that um it's the one area of when I was in high school that I really loved I loved high school athletics
and that's what kind of drew me to this position I used to be a baseball coach and I just kind of worked my way up and it it means a lot um that I you know I got this recognition but it could have gone to a lot of people in the state Um athletic directors out in the state work very hard to make sure that their kids are provided with a a great environment And I always tell people my number one job is just surrounding our kids with um the best adults I can find So thank you guys very much and thank you for having me up here Well and as on a personal note as a parent of a former Rock Canyon
swimmer I know what uh an incredible environment you've created throughout the school for our youth athletics So congratulations again Director Guyger is here with your certificate Congratulations And we're going to do a quick picture before you get to get away You don't get to leave us yet Yeah we're really proud of you Tom Thank you very much Scooch in Congratulations Appreciate
that Thank you Thank you very much Thank you so much All right Now we are going to recognize another uh special group Um we'd like to recognize the members of the 2425 leaders for Douglas County Schools cohort So if you're here please come on and join me Join us up front What a great showing Yeah Uh the leaders for Douglas County Schools is a program led
by Allison Roush our director of government affairs in order to offer the opportunity to deepen members knowledge and understanding of the school district's mission operations and strategic priorities The class is designed for people interested in becoming more active participants in school district affairs and advocates for DCSD Um so this cohort met nine times to learn about the district's finances safety and security open enrollment student support services curriculum and more I know I've had a couple of opportunities to speak to you all It's been amazing Um so thank
you to the members of our district leadership for presenting I'd love to have you introduce yourselves but first I'd like to have Allison tell us um a little bit more about the program and its importance Thank you Um this is the second year that I've been in charge of this and doing this It was run um a few years ago as well but we um resurrected it last year So this is the second class that I've had the pleasure of um facilitating Um we had a large group um and we were so fortunate As always we get a nice uh representation of um parents and
um uh career backgrounds and and education and they're from all different corners of the county um different types of schools and different ages So they bring as much to the class as our presenters do Um and again our presenters have been many of the cabinet members that are sitting here um and then a lot of their staff And I just am so grateful that they all take time out to come talk to us Uh the classes are three hours They don't all stay for three hours but some do Um and for the most part the the good stuff happens when these guys ask questions So I always tell the
presenters to go ahead and give the info Don't don't dwell on your your presentation because they're going to direct um the conversation And so we have great great conversation So it was a pleasure having you all there and then we'll have you each um introduce yourself and maybe a a quick thing that you enjoyed the most or what you got out of it Okay Okay Uh my name is Cassie George Um I have two kids at Copper Mesa Elementary and so I was just very excited to learn Well I came in with the whole you know pairing thing very interested about what was going on with my
school So I really appreciate learning all about that And I also one of my favorite classes was the safety class learning about like um the snow days how it's called all the stuff that keeps our kids safe So I appreciate everybody that came Thank you Hi my name is Chad Lucero and our son goes to Northridge Well not anymore he's graduating or continuing She's going to middle school Uh and he is from England It's their first year So my wife uh they just moved over from England And what we learned about the school district versus what we've seen in England I I wish she could come up
and talk about it but it as much work as you guys put into this school district is so much better than other school districts but certainly England It's it's a it's a challenging it's a it it's a challenging system there And what I learned the most is the time that is put in we don't see it We only see what we hear from our kids or from the occasional email that we get from a school So if there's any way to broaden this program to where more people more parents could see it
and get involved you learn a ton every time So every time I walked out of there I learned more and thought I don't appreciate what you guys do as much as we should And I think that's that's probably standard with most parents We just don't know how much you do So thank you Thanks Chad Oh hi there My name is Heath Mclofflin and my son is currently attending Crest Hill Middle School or just graduated moving on to Highlands Ranch Uh will be a ninth grader And my two older kids uh we moved to Monument uh a number of years ago so they were in Palmer Ridge and El Paso County So
I was introduced to Douglas County by the national news which was tough So I'm thinking "Oh God I got to live in Douglas County right?" Uh but I have to say I came with some bias and and yeah and Allison goes "Just hang on Just listen learn." And I have to say so impressed And Aaron Kane won me over like in the first meeting She's she's such a rock star and she's really got so much going on so much energy and enthusiasm And then I learned that her secret sauce is she's got like a rockstar group of of people behind her that are all kind of supporting her And I was just so impressed But
beyond that as a as a businessman/ontrepreneur I was really impressed with the the business of it all And that really really impressed the heck out of me You guys have such a large organization It's so complex It's so expensive and every dollar matters And you're really trying to think how do we put kids first and how we spend it properly And I was so impressed with that So you won me over Thank you Thanks for the information and and I'm a changed man and I'm willing to admit that That's great Melissa Gilstrab I have two kids at Pine Lane Elementary Lydia is with me tonight and
I really appreciated the opportunity to just go really really on a deep dive on so many different subjects We got to nerd out together and it was just lovely to hear all of the um really smart people who are making really difficult choices with a big big moving ship as you said over and over again Um but I really appreciated what we were able to learn I agree I wish it could be for everyone I wish they could be recorded and almost required for people to better understand what's going on at the district every day But because of that foundation I felt comfortable
enough to join the school accountability committee So your goal worked Allison and I uh will be able to ask better questions and uh be better prepared for that because of this program I wasn't expecting this part Um I probably didn't read the email all the way through part of the course for me Um my name is Alyssa Benson I have four neurode divergent kids in the district The first one unfortunately dropped out in order to pursue her GED um last year Um and
the other three are in Vale um Mesa and Sage Canyon um all four of them have struggled as um neurodeiverse individuals in um the public school system And um so my goal was to come and learn as much as I possibly can about district interact with district district leaders and um you know form relationships so that we could you know collaborate and find ways that we can work
together to support you What I learned through all of this is just how big of a heart that each um of the leaders of our district have which as a parent in my position was I'm happy to see that Um very much so And and I also learned you know like you had said just how big the district is which we know from you know pupil count right but um but also by extension like how much support
you rely on by each community um within the district and and that's really that's why I'm here Well good evening My name is Brianna Ranger Um like Alyssa I have a twice exceptional student um who was just up here with me Um so honestly what I came to look forward to with this um collaboration and for the leaders of Douglas County Schools is to learn more
about the district and to see how I can help and how I could make a difference not only in my son's life but throughout the community um for all students and and how to partner with the district Um I also um am really excited to really get more involved not only at our local school but within the district and um with district leaders and uh making sure that we can make a difference So I I really appreciate everything that you've done Hi everybody Um I'm Christina Parent and I have two
girls Um my one of my middle schoolers is going to go to CEC next year Um so now I have a high schooler and the other one is at American Academy in Castle Pines Um I guess I I'm pretty involved in um American Academy so you know I was on the PTO then I joined SAC Um I ended up joining the DACK for the district Um and when Allison like mentioned this class I just thought it would be an excellent opportunity to learn more The more I learn the more I like yearn for more So um
this was a fabulous program Allison Thank you And thank you to all of the people that came because um my favorite part was just variety and getting to learn all all the things that I had no idea u went on behind the scenes So hi my name is Kimberly Adams Um I have seven kiddos So I have two graduates now from Ponderosa I have one at Sagewood who will be an eighth grader Um I have a third well fourth grader They all just changed right at Franktown and then
two kiddo twins who will be first graders at Franktown So kind of like others have said I've been involved with PTO um and with SAC and that kind of led me to just and actually with the last MLO bond well not the last but the one two years ago Um getting more involved in getting those that information out there to our community And so my um Mark Herrell the principal there said "You should you should look into joining this group." And so it has like everyone else said it's been a really good opportunity to understand more about what goes on besides what you hear in the news or from other people Um and to just see like you
said the heart of everybody that's involved and to you know be able to know I guess what my kids are getting what opportunities there are um and what the goals of the district are were really helpful Hi my name is Jen Boyd Um I've known Allison for a number of years We go way back although we're like what in our 20s Yeah Yeah Um so when she asked me when her and I connected last year and she said "You should come to this." I was like "What am I going to learn?" I' been in the school district I have a now senior at Chapperel High School and my fifth grader is in the back row um not wanting to
be up here with me but that's okay So I decided I would attend the meetings You know we hear a lot of complaints on the PTO from other parents about just everything within the school district and nobody wants to give credit when nobody knows about the back end all the work that goes into it So I learned so much I mean I couldn't just pick one favorite thing Everything was amazing from what you're doing to challenge GT kids what you're doing for SSN what you're doing for kids that are just kind of falling in between the staff the security what you're teach I mean I could go on
and on So now when a parent comes to me I can say "Hey here's what I've learned Here's what they're doing for our students." And it's not like there's a bazillion people sitting behind the doors working on like you know they always say Douglas County's very rich very wealthy county but I'm like we're not like you know paying 500,000 people to do this job It's a lot that you guys are taking on And it was really eye opening So thank you Allison I highly recommend it And it was really just invigorating eye opening I mean I can't say enough great things about it
Well and many thanks to uh Mrs Allison Roush for making it happen So congratulations everyone Thank you so much for investing your time in our school district and in learning more We're incredibly grateful Um the more people that we have that that have a great understanding of the district the better off our community is and we're so grateful that you took the time So thank you How about a round of applause for these amazing Oh yeah we're going to take a picture right after President Williams hands out these certificates
I didn't do that [Laughter] Okay Yeah Thank you everyone [Applause] And that concludes tonight's recognitions Thank
you All right Then we will move on to the acceptance of the ag of the agenda I just want to make a quick um comment before I take a motion Um I just wanted to say that I know that there's been a lot of discussion about the home rule presentation that we have on the agenda later today and I just thought I would give some clarity of how that came about
Um I was speaking with Commissioner Leaden and I know that there had been other directors that had made comments about wanting some sort of presentation from the home rule and he offered at that time to come and speak to the board So um because it may impact the board in some way or the district in some way we opted to put them on the agenda So that is that but I will take a motion for the agenda Motion to accept agenda Second motion by Wineer Second by Meyers Guyger I Meek
I Moore Yes Meyers I Thompson I Williams Iger I Passes seven to zero On to superintendent updates Great Uh thank you very much So I will say once again what a pleasure it was to go to all of the class of 2025 graduation ceremonies over the past couple of weeks There are still more to come Um so I know some of you will be joining me uh this week and next week as we do two more graduations Um it it is just a true honor to be able to do that and we have graduates that are doing such amazing
things in their future Um we have graduates going to college directly entering the workforce serving in the military um or taking a gap year to travel and see the world Some of our outstanding graduate profiles as well as individual scholarship recipients can be seen on our website at www.dcsdk12.org/graduation We still have as I mentioned earlier a couple of graduations coming up Daniel C Oaks High School is this Thursday May 29th and Eagle Academy is June
6th So we are really excited about those two graduations We had our first teacher recruitment education program or TREP graduate this year Congratulations to Chapperel High School graduate Alexis Lopez The TR or TREP program will help finance her first two years of college In the meantime she continues to work in our DCSD base program During the recent production of Beauty and the Beast the Sagewood Middle School Cooking Club hosted a special fourcourse dinner for attendees as they watched the tale as old as time come to
life on stage Uh it's amazing to see our career in technical education work its way into our middle schools The Colorado Department of Education recently recognized several col uh Douglas County School District schools for high academic achievement with performance awards earned in the 2023 and 2024 school years and m much more than several We had the honor of recognizing these schools during our state of the district event in early May 32 schools received the 2024 Joner win
award of excellence Um nine schools received the 2024 Governor's Distinguished Improvement Award These awards are given to the top schools uh top academic performing schools in the state of Colorado Our district took home more awards than any other district Mountain Ridge Middle School's basketball team has done it again The DCSD 7th grade boys basketball championship win clinched the third basketball championship for the school this academic year Congratulations to the eighth grade girls eighth grade boys and seventh grade boys for their basketball team wins Mr Burkska's
fourth grade class at Cherokee Trail Elementary had a goal to improve safety in our community They worked with the town of Parker to have two crosswalk flashers installed on Clark Farms Drive As you are leaving the school take notice of the new flashers The kids are really excited about them and we are grateful for everyone's advocacy Speaking of safety we are excited to be partnering with Douglas County Sheriff's Office on the first ever transportation and road safety event taking place this summer on Saturday July 19th at Mountain Vista High School Be sure to
save the date It is our hope to replicate these events in other parts of the county with our law enforcement partners Congratulations to Cloverleaf and Richmond School student Kaylee who is the winner of the core electric art contest Kaylee won $50 for herself and $500 for Cloverleaf Core Electric representatives came and presented Kaylee with her award check and a check for Cloverleaf So way to go Kaylee Congratulations to Highlands Ranch High School student Addie Overgard Addie
received the outstanding youth of Lone Tree award Lone Tree Mayor Harmon City Council and Lone Tree Youth Commission awarded her for her academic achievement as well as her commitment to an artistic presence in the community Veil High School students Scarlett Marone and Hunter Jackson are national finalists in the Junior Achievement Social Innovation Challenge They are one of 15 teams that are heading to Atlanta Georgia to compete in a national national pitch competition Congratulations uh to Hunter to Hunter Scarlet and to Vale DCSD's nutrition
services department has begun serving free summer lunches in our community uh as part of Colorado's free lunches for all program Please find locations and times on the nutrition services website And with that I would like to once again thank the board of education for all of their support for our graduations over the last couple of weeks You all have spent countless hours at graduations and it is just amazing to have you there and it means the world to our students and our staff and our leaders So thank you for putting your time in That concludes tonight's updates
Thank you All right moving in to public comment tonight Um two minutes will be allowed for each speaker Please remain respectful and address the board rather than the guest or staff in the room Please keep comments appropriate for a K12 audience and please adjust the mic so that we can hear you as you speak I will be starting with those uh students first and then we'll move to anybody speaking remotely on the new charter applications and then inerson charter applications
and then we'll move remotely to general public comment and then in-person general public comment So with that we will start with Amelia Moldro Noel Goldstein and then Jackson Ditzsworth Amelia is that good It's great Thank you Thank you Good evening board directors and thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak today I'm here to ask you to approve Renaissance's application to expand
RSS has a very strong community that brings people together Everyone is so incredibly welcoming I started at RSS halfway through my eighth grade year and I immediately felt like I belonged there because everyone welcomed me with wide open arms At RSS students are not just a number They are each their own individual amazing person who are all a part of the same crew And RSS never fails to recognize that Everyone at school really lives up to our motto We are crew not passengers And it is evident in everything that we do as a crew Every single teacher takes the time to truly get to know
their students and what they need in and out of the classroom This creates a space where students feel seen and supported no matter where they are in their learning journey RSS's hands-on learning really allows students to get fully immersed in their education Along with that the outdoor-based education helps students to trul sorry to truly enjoy learning Voyages create extremely strong bonding experiences between classmates that cannot be found at other schools Being able to learn outdoors and grow through shared experiences is something that makes RSS really special There's
also a lot of flexibility for students to have the opportunity to participate in extracurriculars outside of school which makes it easier for each student to explore their different interests and passions RSS is not just a school It's a place where community individuality and learning go hand in hand I hope you'll consider approving the application to expand so more students can have access to the incredible opportunities my classmates and I have had Thank you Thank you Noel And then Jackson and then we'll move to our remote
speakers Hello Okay Hello My name is Noel Goldstein and I'm a rising junior in high school I attended Renaissance Secondary from grade 7 to 8 before continuing my journey at a school in Denver my freshman year The community within RSS was unlike anything I had ever experienced Right off the bat teachers took the time to learn our names and personalities um and worked hard to determine which ways of learning were best for us This may seem like a small meaningless detail but as someone with an ALP who's always looking for more challenges I
often felt like I didn't even need to ask for the resources I needed This was something that changed significantly when I proceeded into high school in Denver Everything in the classroom felt far too impersonal and disconnected I was used to the expeditions the spontaneous seminars the field trips there It felt like my learning couldn't really be applied anywhere And I missed the inside jokes with my teachers if you can believe such things existed I missed my crew of silly classmates with big personalities and hearts I miss being able to walk up to any student or staff member and spark up an interesting discussion on something as big as current events or as small as
weekend plans The things that seemed normal about school culture were the things I took for granted the most That became the reasons that became the reason I ended up switching back to Renaissance It may seem strange for me to have talked about high school and middle school and I'm here to dis discuss expansion into elementary school but I am a firm believer that the lessons I've learned along the way Renaissance has taught me are far more valuable than those I've learned in a traditional school environment Excuse me I also think that they have better equipped me for my future Having the opportunity to start students on this trajectory when they
are younger will ensure that our future generation is filled with modern learners Kids who understand the power of community and asking crucial questions to both themselves and others Kids who take educated action instead of sitting around That is what Renaissance has taught me and I think we could all learn a little something from that Thank you Thank you Jackson Hi my name is Jackson Ditzsworth and I'm going into seventh grade at Renaissance
Secondary School Thank you so much for giving me the chance to speak today I want to talk about why it's so important to expand our school so that younger students can have the same opportunities that I have One of the biggest experiences that I've had at Renaissance was during a trip called Voyage On that trip I had to climb a huge rock wall At first I was nervous and didn't think I could do it But with the support of my teachers and classmates I stepped out of my comfort zone into my growth zone That's something we talk about a lot at Renaissance It means pushing yourself to try new things even if they're sc hard or scary because that's how you grow That
experience taught me more than just how to climb a climb a wall It taught me confidence teamwork and how to face challenges And I believe that younger students should be able to have some some of those kinds of experiences early on There's a real demand for this kind of hands-on supportive and growth focused education I've seen it help me and my classmates and I know it can help even more students if we had the space and resources to include them Thank you so much for listening and I'll help you support expanding our school to give more kids the chance to grow like I
have All right moving to our remote speakers uh regarding the charters Jamie Bosley Jenny Hoskins and Gerald Anderson Jamie good evening I come to you today as a concerned member of this community a proud supporter of public education and someone deeply invested in preserving the quality and integrity of Kasa Rock schools I'm urging you to deny the three charter school expansion applications currently under consideration These proposals are not only incomplete they are irresponsible
None of the applications provide specific address locations only a vague reference to Castle Rock Two mentioned Crystal Valley as a possible placement but let's be clear Crystal Valley already has a charter school serving that area Introducing two more would oversaturate the region with programs that fail to meet the diverse needs of all students That's not expanding school choice it's diluting it Even more troubling these applications lack letters of intent documents that are fundamental to determining need and long-term viability Meanwhile our district is facing school pairings and consolidations due to underenrollment
How can it possibly be fiscally fiscally sound to approve three more charters when we're already closing and consolidating others We all remember the MLO and bond measures that barely passed Those funds were a gift from the taxpayers one that we have a duty to manage wisely Approving un ungrounded charter expansion threatens to undermine the existing neighborhood schools potentially p pushing them towards closure just as we've seen in Highlands Ranch Is that the message we want to send the next time we ask voters to invest in DCSD And finally
as we approach the June 24th special election on home rule I want to be clear This is not about local control It's about a power grab by three grifters bent on dismantling public education in favor of a voucher scheme that will bleed resources from the high-erforming schools Vote no on home rule Our children deserve better than political manipulation disguised as reform Let's protect our school choice our public schools and the trust of our taxpayers Deny these applications and vote no on June 24th for home 15 seconds remaining Jenny Hoskins and Gerald Anderson
Hi my name is Jenny Hoskins I a proud Castle Rock resident and parent to three boys two of whom will be um of elementary age in the next two to three years I also live in Crystal Valley and being a resident down there I will say it is tough enough to um commute to different schools especially for my oldest child And having options in the Crystal Valley area would significantly help our population um with parents finding
other schools that aren't as far away um to to get our children to the best education Um I'm fully in support of having STEM school Highlands Ranch expand into STEM school Castle Rock STEM school h provides one of the topnotch quality uh education experiences scene and I'd love to be able to give that option to my uh children as they get into elementary school age Um and that is my time Thank you so much Thank you Gerald Anderson And then we will move to in person
mute Greetings Uh do you hear me We can go ahead Okay Greetings I'm Jerry Anderson I live in Castle Rock and previously taught for two years in California and two years here in Colorado I want to state that I support the creation of the new charter schools in Douglas County for the following reasons One parental involvement Uh charter schools prioritize parental involvement This fosters a strong sense of purpose in connecting the school experience between
children and their parents Two high responsiveness The autonomy and flexibility that drive charter schools often allow them to quickly respond to students needs more efficiently than a public school environment Um and charter schools can quickly implement curriculum changes adjust teaching methods or shift administrative practices to address emerging issues or challenges Three resultsdriven Charter schools are inherently uh results driven because of their ex uh their
existence depends on meeting specific performance goals as outlined in their charters Uh the focus of on measurable outcomes helps drive innovation and accountability Four innovative teaching approach Another area where uh charter schools excel is in their innovative teaching approach Um five better autonomy Charter schools enjoy a higher level of autonomy than traditional public school districts Uh from curriculum decisions to teaching methods Finally six higher
uh graduation rates and performance Charter charter schools often boast higher graduation rates than their traditional district peers and are uh and also academic performance I thank you for this and I encourage you uh to consider uh charter schools because of their increased accountability especially because of the performance and all um uh requirements that they need to be met which are more stringent than in the public schools Thank you so much for your time Thank you All right in person we have Lisa Bane Amy Stevens and Melissa England Lisa
How does this sound Great Thank you Great Good evening board directors My name is Lisa Bane I am the assistant principal of Renaissance Secondary School I speak to you as a longtime member of the Renaissance community As a parent of two alumni an elementary teacher and more recently an administrator From every vantage point I can say with confidence this program changes lives Since finding Renaissance for my own children back in 2001 I've watched it grow while staying
rooted in its core principles Respect for all learners the cultivation of a strong sense of belonging authentic interdisciplinary learning and meaningful connections to the world outside the classroom At every stage the goal has remained the same to inspire students to become more than they imagined and contribute meaningfully to this world Kurt Han once said "There is more to us than we know If we can be made to see it we may never settle for less." This is the
essence of a Renaissance education Our students aren't just taught They are seen challenged and empowered to act upon their potential They leave school unwilling to settle for less from themselves or the world around them Over the years I've witnessed this impact again and again Our students are courageous learners thoughtful communicators as you just experienced um and confident leaders coaches teachers youth leaders and community partners regularly tell
me how our students stand out Alumni say the same Renaissance gave them the foundation to thrive in college and beyond You know the popular Colorado bumper sticker Not a native but I got here as fast as I could Yeah Um students have shared a similar sentiment through the years with me regarding Renaissance too many times I got here in seventh grade I wish I could have started sooner Families wait years for a spot As I retire this summer after 24 years as part of the Renaissance community I am more confident than ever in the strength of the current leadership in the
direction of this program I urge you to approve this Thank you Amy Stevens Melissa England Tina Howell Good evening board members My name is Amy Stevens and I'm here tonight as a parent who passionately believes in the value of diverse educational environments and the importance of schools that meet students individual needs My son began his journey at Renaissance Secondary after seven years at Renaissance Elementary With curiosity he chose to explore other options for
high school and enrolled in our neighborhood school For two challenging years he persevered in an environment that simply wasn't the right fit Ultimately at the start of his junior year he decided to return to Renaissance Secondary a choice that confirmed what we already knew Renaissance is where he felt truly seen supported and inspired What sets Renaissance apart are the programs that nurture the whole student Their adventure education pushes students beyond the classrooms and into real world leadership and resilience Alternative sports programs offer
opportunities for teamwork and challenge beyond traditional athletics And the senior capstone a year-long passion-driven project allowed my son an opportunity to reflect on his identity and values with a deeply deeply personal educational experience These aren't just enrichment programs They are essential They foster academic growth emotional well-being and a lifelong love of learning Renaissance creates a space where students are known valued and empowered to
become their authentic selves in a culture built on connection curiosity and community That's why I wholeheartedly support the proposed expansion of this exceptional school's charter We are alumni now My son graduated with the highest honors two weeks ago but every family deserves access to this kind of transformative educational experience from the earliest years on through graduation Please support this expansion not just for today's students but for the future of education in our district Thank you so much Thank you Melissa England Tina Howell and Jackie Bradley
Good evening and thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight My name is Melissa England and I'm a teacher at Renaissance as well as a former Renaissance parent Tonight we are simply asking for approval to begin the next phase of growth Our current site isn't big enough to add pre kindergarten through fifth grade We are only asking for approval to do our work on another site as an extension of our current campus I know one concern has been whether there's enough demand to justify this Please bear in mind that this is not a new charter application We are striving to meet a demand for our programming Currently there is a huge
weight list at Renaissance Elementary Magnet School which is a relevant indicator of the demand for Renaissance programming Our school regularly hosts tours that are close to 100 plus people Tours are so large that we're often struggling during the day to offer um more room for them to visit And we're trying to figure out how to meet this massive demand Families that visit just aren't curious Many of them go on to apply Our wait list is long and includes families who are specifically looking for the kind of integrated supportive and academically rigorous environment that Renaissance provides They want what we do well and we want to be able
to say yes to more of them We're asking for the chance to take the first step to build responsibly towards something we believe serves students and families and will for decades to come In 2013 my then third grader and kindergartenner were lucky enough to get spots at Renaissance In 2017 we opened Renaissance Secondary School and both of my children continued to learn in an environment that has truly set them up for success as a college student and rising high school senior Tonight in 2025 you have the ability to meet this demand and give more parents the satisfaction I
felt when I enrolled my students in Renaissance There is demand There always has been 15 seconds and there will continue to be and you have the opportunity to make it real for Douglas County students and families Thank you Thank you Tina Howell Jackie Bradley Scott Williams Good evening My name is Tina Howell and I've served as the director of Renaissance Secondary School for the past two years My family has been a part of Renaissance for the since 2017 and as
of last week I now have two RSS graduates classes 2020 and 2025 I'm here to share why we're seeking to open a feeder school Right now only one in three applicants to schools like ours get a spot That means twice as many are turned away Families are actively searching for something different like my family was We were one of those families in 2016 looking for a school where our kids would feel connected at RSS The expeditionary learning the capstones and the voyages have made a huge
impact on our life The skills that they learned in critical thinking the communication and problem solving Our model works My daughter the class of 2020 is now a graduate a college graduate working in sustainable outdoor clothing This passion was sparked by her RSS teacher and her capstone project The voyages have also been a huge impact on my family My son his IEP teacher and his voyage teachers helped him find an avalanche rescue class over spring break and he's decided to go
into outdoor leadership um this fall Families are responding We already have 265 intents to enroll for grades PK through 5 over half of our target and ahead of where we were in launching back in 2017 As a parent I searched for something like RSS for my son when he was younger Luckily when my daughter came for the tour at RSS she came home with a pros and cons list on why she should also switch 15 seconds remaining as a sophomore After seeing what RSS did for both our kids I know how
powerful it can be The next step isn't just about expansion It's about reaching students when it matters most Thank you Jackie Bradley Scott Williams and then Scott Mingle Jackie Bradley All right Good evening I brought my oldest daughter's drum with me tonight Not just as a prop but as a symbol At Renaissance drumming is more than a tradition It's a shared
rhythm that connects every student teacher and staff member It's how we express unity and celebrate our culture of crew Last summer as a student leadership adviser I had the privilege of sending students to the statewide Chassa State Leadership Conference When they returned they were bursting with pride Not just because of what they had learned but because they saw for the first time just how special our school community really is They told me "Bradley no one else does this No other school drums." And at Renaissance we drum together because we are together And our students
made a commitment to make that a cultural focus this school year because they saw for themselves the value of crew My name is Jackie Bradley and I've been a part of the Renaissance community for 10 years as a parent and for the past five years as a high school teacher at RSS My children have been students at both the elementary and the secondary school And I've had the unique opportunity to witness the full progression of this incredible school community At Renaissance students are more than learners They're scholars detectives and problem solvers They are valued
as individuals and they know they are a part of something bigger than themselves Families see that Families feel that and they want to be a part of it One of the foundational purposes of a charter schools to meet a need in the community And right now our community needs renaissance Not just more seats but more renaissance We need space yes but we also need to preserve and expand a model that raises the bar for academics creates meaningful belonging and empowers students
to solve real world problems with their ideas and leadership We need to build a K through2 campus that reflects the size and strength of the community we've already built and makes room for those still waiting Thank you Scott Williams Scott Mangle and then Karisha Krakow Sorry Scott Williams Hi I'm Scott Mingle not Scott Williams Uh good evening directors Thank
you for the opportunity to once again express my wholehearted support for the Renaissance K12 charter application As a lifelong educator with deep knowledge of expeditionary learning and a proud grandparent of four elementary age boys I urge you to vote yes on this application Our children need schools their families believe in and Renaissance has already proven itself to be such a place as you've heard tonight Douglas County has long valued family choice and this vote is an opportunity to affirm that tradition I've repeatedly heard from district staff that we're
a declining enrollment district That may be true in general but it is not the case at Renaissance Both Renaissance Secondary and REM maintain robust weight lists a clear sign of unmet demand from families specifically seeking an EL experience Declining enrollment may be a district-wide concern but it is not relevant in this context It would be unfortunate if the district recommended a no vote based on generalized enrollment concerns That rationale does not reflect the actual experience at these thriving schools and fails to account for the high local interest in
EL programming When I opened the downtown Denver Expeditionary School in 2013 we had no building no funds no staff nothing And still we had a great vision and a great charter Uh the the district the DPS board approved our charter Contingent on meeting benchmarks we went on to exceed Renaissance Secondary by contrast is already a high-erforming wellestablished EL school ideally situated to serve students from Crystal Valley Crowoot and the Canyons With no immediate district
plans to build schools in those areas approving this charter is a proactive way to meet the needs of growing communities and provide families with real choice I trust you'll do the right thing for Douglas County students and families Thank you for voting yes tonight [Applause] Scott Williams is not here He's not Okay Um Karisha Krakow and then Judy Bramberg Harold Britain Sorry if I got your name wrong Good evening and thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight My name is
Karisha KGO and I am a parent at Renaissance Secondary I am here to express my strong support for the approval of Renaissance Secondar's expansion application As a parent I have witnessed firsthand the positive impact Renaissance has had on my children Both who have attended have expressed a desire for a larger library to support their academic development They have also been involved in the wonderful theater program which I know needs more space to continue their growth Renaissance Secondary offers a unique educational experience that combines rigorous academics with real world learning The school's commitment to expeditionary learning project-based instruction
and adventure education prepare students for success beyond the classroom Students engage in interdisciplinary courses that tackle real world problems fostering critical thinking and problemsolving skills The school's emphasis on character development community service and experiential learning creates a supportive environment where students thrive academically and personally There is demand for this approach from families in Douglas County Expanding Renaissance Secondary would provide more families with access to this exceptional educational experience I would
offer an alter it would offer an alternative for those seeking a smaller school that prioritizes academic excellence individual refinement and community engagement I urge you to please consider the positive impact that approving this expansion could have on our community By supporting Renaissance Secondary's growth you are providing more students with the opportunity to receive an exceptional education that focuses on them not only as a student but as a whole person Thank you for your time and consideration Judy Bramberg Harold Britain and Sarah
Dah Good evening My name is Judy Branberg and I'm the co-founder of the STEM School Highlands Ranch Since 2014 I've submitted 12 charter applications in Douglas County None were denied for academic reasons but in retaliation for whistleblowing about Douglas County's statutory non-compliance forgery discrimination attorney buyouts sabotage bond fraud and safety failures which caused the
preventable May 7th 2019 STEM school shooting I now have an active appeal before the US Supreme Court exposing the public education antirust RICO cartel enterprise In March 2023 I submitted eight charter applications for Sterling Ranch Ridgate Castle Rock Crystal Valley and Highlands Ranch Each was denied in retaliation for exposing Douglas County corruption While my federal claims are pending it is illegal and unlawful for Douglas County to approve any new charter
as applications including John Adams Lehman and Renaissance on land and in areas tied to my current Scotas appeal These approvals violate federal injunction protections and constitute a racketeeringbased seizure of protected educational opportunity On May 27th 2017 under the leadership of the superintendent and board president I formally warned the board that STEM school was in catastrophic financial failure and ineligible for bond financing
A secret bailout was arranged by DCSD chief officer teacher union president and the current Sterling Ranch correspondent Pat McGrath using a fraudulent SECA bond financed by UNB After exposing this Douglas County retaliated denying all my applications suppressing racketeering evidence and silencing my public comment Tonight I asked the board to halt all 2025 charter approvals pending resolution of my Supreme Court case Thank you Harold Britain Sarah Doll and Kelly Shoemaker
Hi my name is Harold Britain I'm an educator an active community volunteer living here in Castle Rock Uh with my wife and two sons we support Renaissance Lehman Academy and STEM charter schools in Castle Rock Parents like us increasingly prefer to choose charter schools They are committed to an educational system that empowers students supports families restores better parenting rights and promotes American values We need more schools to prepare students for successful lives and for the best jobs available going into the future We also support
adopting merit pay for exceptional teachers which many of our schools have much more than teacher tenure That historically has not seemed to work very effectively Parents and families can be encouraged to se select values that align better with our constitutional principles and truly support our children's future development We also support uh universal school choice hoping to see this eventually spread to every state in the USA We hope to expand 529 educational savings
accounts and support both charter schools and home schools We also want to prepare our students for life challenges and will fund and support proven career training programs Charter schools will help us inspire and prepare our students for a greater future Thank you for the opportunity to express our hearts for the kids Thank you Sarah Doll Kelly Shoemaker and John Shookie
I hate public speaking Um you members of the Douglas County School Board Woo Excuse me Don't start my time yet Um my name is Sarah Doll I'm a current parent at Renaissance Secondary School and here to express my strong support for expanding the Renaissance model in Castle Rock I understand you've already received a recommendation from a committee but if your conclusion is anything but yes I urge you to recall the voices of this community at the Douglas County School District meeting two weeks ago I listened as you all did as staff students and
parents spoke overwhelmingly tonight as well in response and support of Renaissance And I understand there's currently a wait list at Renaissance Elementary that's double or even triple the expected attendance next year Clearly families are seeking student centered highquality experiential learning and Renaissance is delivering Excuse me Our story We moved from Washington to Colorado two years ago After much research we chose Renaissance for its smaller more personalized learning environment And that
choice has been transformational for my son Carter Gosh I'm so sorry Carter just finished eighth grade He's thriving academically socially and emotionally But it wasn't always this way He started seventh grade in a new school in a new state with no friends That's tough especially in middle school But the staff at Renaissance listened adapted and made sure we felt supported every step of the way Carter is also twice exceptional and I
want to commend both the Renaissance SPED team and the the district's sped staff for the high level of collaboration they've shown They took the time to really understand his needs putting the right supports in place and demonstrating they truly care But what truly stands out about Renaissance is the sense of community As you've heard over tonight it's a place where each student is known where families are are involved where educators go the extra mile Carter's not just another face in the crowd He's found the community he never has So with that I hope you'll consider
Thank you the community's resounding support Thank you Kelly Shoemaker John [Applause] Shiffy can you hear me Okay Good evening board of directors I will actually be um speaking on behalf of another Douglas County resident Um and he writes "Hi my name is Wilson Krishnner and I'm a parent living in rural Douglas County I really appreciate the chance to speak with you today and I'm here to ask you to please vote yes on Renaissance Secondary's expansion application
For someone living in the rural part of the county I can tell you that school choice is still very limited for families like mine We want highquality options for our kids too And right now there just aren't enough Renaissance stands out as a high performing school that offers something different They focus on realworld hands-on learning that get kids that gets kids out of their desks and truly engaged Whether it's learning expeditions outdoor education or project-based coursework students are actually excited to learn because it feels relevant and meaningful What also appeals
to my family is that Renaissance doesn't just focus on academics They care about the whole child They're building a community where students feel known supported and challenged in all the right ways That's the kind of environment I want for my kids Expanding Renaissance would open the door for more families especially rural families to access this kind of education without having to move or make impossible commutes Please consider what this would mean for families like mine I strongly urge you to vote yes and help bring more choice and opportunities to
all corners of Douglas County Thank you so much for your time Thank you John [Applause] Shookie Good evening My name is John Shuki I serve on the board of directors Renaissance Secondary School I'm here tonight to provide a statement on behalf of my fellow board member Shannon Andress who was unable to join us this evening Good evening members of the board
Thank you for allowing me this opportunity to speak with you about the expansion of Renaissance Secondary School Last month I spoke about the impact Renaissance has had on my children how the community curriculum and spirit of crew have shaped their learning experience Tonight I returned to speak about something more quantitative I'd like to offer a few numbers for your consideration 451 That is the number of students we currently have signed up to attend Renaissance Secondary School next year our largest student body to date with almost 100
additional students on the wait list who are not able to obtain a spot 265 the number of intents to enroll that we already had come in for a potential additional RSS campus 172 that is the number of students who remained on the wait list at REM this year so far were not offered a spot 104 is the number of families who applied for a spot in kindergarten at Renaissance Elementary this year 40 is the number who got in So that means 64 is the number of families who
currently on the kindergarten weight list meaning well more than half of the families who wanted a spot could not get one Finally the number four that is the number of acres our 6th through 12th grade secondary school is on For those of you who have had a chance to visit RSS you know we have a beautiful campus and we use every inch of it to excellent effect Our courtyard slide gorgeous commons and fireplace multimedia room and light-filled classrooms enhance our students learning every day However we are only able to construct a threequartersized gym As our school has grown we are in need of more space to expand our STEM lab class Seconds remaining
I hope you'll reflect on these numbers what our current enrollment represents about the growth and success of RSS over the last eight years and what the weight list at both RSS and Renaissance Elementary represent about the number of students and families who wish to be able to choose this educational approach Thank you Thank you All right we are going to move into general public comment where we'll start with our remote speakers Tiffany Baker Robin Dean and Carrie Schlacker Tiffany are you there Yes I request that the board review and if necessary revise
district policies and procedures to ensure that all school affiliated events whether officially sponsored or heavily promoted by schools uphold the district's commitments to educational equity inclusion and belonging for all students My concern is specific to Highlands Ranch High School's continued use of Mission Hills Church as the venue board's annual senior celebration Although the event is organized by parent volunteers it is actively promoted by the school attended by staff and experienced by students as a public school milestone The
issue is not about religion per se It is about the district aligning itself however indirectly with a venue whose public teachings explicitly reject LGBTQ plus identities Mission Hills Church's blog series A Pride Conversation describes same-sex relationships as unnatural and against God and urges LGBTQ plus people to repent These are not vague or private beliefs They are public teachings that create an objectively unwelcoming environment for LGBTQ students and families
This stands in direct conflict with DCSD's educational equity policy which commits the district to creating inclusive unbiased environments and to prohibiting exclusive or discriminatory practices That policy promises equitable educational opportunities regardless of sexual orientation gender identity or expression It is particularly concerning that HRHS leadership has acknowledged the venue's inappropriateness yet continues to use it due to logistical convenience
fiscal or space limitations should never justify compromising student belonging or identity safety To be clear this is not a statement against faith-based basis Many are inclusive but when a venue's public doctrine undermines students identities it cannot be seen as aligned with DCSD's equity values I urge the board to establish clear district-wide guidelines for evaluating off-campus venue suitability Thank you for your time Robin Dean Carrie Schlacker Aaron Yao Good
evening My name is Robin Dean and I'm a Douglas County resident and parent here to share concerns about the upcoming special election on home rule governance Voters will soon decide whether Douglas County should adopt a home rule charter and who will draft it This is a major shift in how our county should be uh could be governed Yet it's being rushed through with very little public engagement The idea was introduced in late March 3 months later We're voting on it at a cost of $500,000 to tax taxpayers That's a fast-track timeline for something this consequential
Other counties like Weld and Pitkin took many months to hold public meetings gather input and create citizen-led charters Here the process is being led by current commissioners several of whom are also running to be on the charter commission That raises valid concerns about transparency and conflicts of interest Now let's talk about what this means for our schools Under home rule county commissioners could gain broader authority over land use taxation and public health areas that directly impact school funding growth planning and partnerships There's concern this could open
the door to more interference in public education especially when we've already seen tension between some county officials and the values of our public schools We have to ask who benefits from this shift And what safeguards do we have that it won't be used to undermine public education or push political agendas With so little input and so many unanswered questions the risk feels too high Our children deserve stable thoughtful leadership Rush changes with unclear motives don't serve families or students Thank you for your time Thank you Carrie Schlacker Aaron Yao Jennifer Williams
Good evening My name is Carrie Shter and I'm a resident of Sterling Ranch First I want to express our gratitude and excitement for the new neighborhood school planned in Sterling Ranch I'm here tonight on behalf of a growing number of families who feel deeply concerned and increasingly confused about how school land decisions are being made in our community Recent events surrounding the proposed John Adams Academy site have brought these concerns to the surface residents were under the impression that this parcel in filing six was intended and identified for a future Douglas County School District school A belief based on PD amendments from both our
developer and Douglas County School District on public record and statements from both the developer and Douglas County School District Yet we now see a private charter seeking to build on that land without a clear or formal response from Douglas County School District to clarify whether this is something the district supports or opposes Based on theus on public record this appears to directly violate John Adams release to CSI which clearly states that John Adams cannot locate on land identified for Douglas County School District So I ask does the district believe that the
release is still valid And does the district find this concerning I can't determine if I'm yelling into the void or if the district is involved in the background What makes this even more concerning is the possibility of home rule In an April 14th board of county commissioner meetings the commissioners discussed using home rule powers to alter zoning on school land currently held in trust at the county This meeting was recorded but was not publicly posted and I have that recording Please reach out if you want to listen for yourself That kind of change without strong
advocacy from Douglas County School District could not make it could make it harder to preserve land for neighborhood schools and easier for public obligations to shift to private hand land 15 seconds remaining We aren't land experts We rely on the district to pay attention to this and advocate for our schools and I have faith that you will do that We are asking for more transparency and support regarding these issues from the district Families are paying attention and we want to partner with you to ensure Sterling Ranch and other fast growing areas have public school infrastructure they were promised Thank you Aaron Yao Jennifer Williams Laura Wright
Hello my name is Aaron Yao I'm a Douglas County resident and live in Sterling Ranch I have three young children I'm concerned about the vague generalities that have been presented in support of home rule in Douglas County and how home rule could affect our schools One of my greatest concerns is for school safety Here are some questions I'd like the board of directors to research and provide specific answers to about home how home rule affects school safety DCSD and DCSO and the municipal police department seem to have a great system Our director of security has
built out a wonderfully robust program for safety and I find it concerning that home rule could open a door to disrupt that system I am concerned about how they may impose their power and where they will do so by force or by retribution Do you think home rule will make the answers to the following questions better or worse How would the county's home rule authority over safety intersect with school district policies on safety and emergency procedures What changes could home rule create in coordination of county emergency management plans with school specific crisis responses Now
we're in the future Could how could home rule impact any of the formal agreements between the county and school districts to jointly manage safety Now we're in um how could home rule What happens if county safety policies conflict with state level education mandates Who wins and who loses The majority of respondents on the 2025 citizen survey said they would vote against a home rule initiative This makes me concerned that the commissioners are out of touch and that they might try to upsert state laws in spite of what citizens think What makes DCSD confident the
commissioners won't do the same to the district How have you as directors been consulted on this initiative brought into the fold about what their plans are or even been offered representation on their slate of insiders Your answer should lead you to question the intentions of this initiative Thank you Thank you Jennifer Williams Lauraai Wright Jacqueline Charles Jennifer on the line asking you
Hello Hello Okay Hopefully you can hear me We can I have a number of concerns about home rule in Douglas County but I want to put a spotlight on the rush timeline the commissioners have defined Every time the commissioners speak on home rule the uncertainty around exactly what powers home rule will establish and how those powers will be exercised because they say it all depends upon how the charter is written I would think that with everything relying on that charter there would be plenty of time for the 21 member charter commission to listen to citizen voices and come to a consensus on a home rule charter But the opposite is true In fact Colorado statute
provides up to 240 days for an elected charter commission to draft a home rule charter That's right eight months But the county commissioner's timeline provides less than two months for a charter commission to do its work For context the DCSD board took 21 days to study the relatively simple addition of an AP African-American studies course to our school's approved curricula If home rule passes 21 days is about a quarter of the time the charter commission would have to write a charter The charter commission will be dealing with literally hundreds of decisions of that same magnitude and they will have less than 60 days to do it It begs the question have county officials
already drafted a charter And are they endorsing charter commission candidates who will quickly and efficiently rubber stamp their carefully crafted plans This timeline seems reckless There's too much uncertainty around the powers home rule would give the county commissioners and how those new powers would affect our schools our county services our elections our designated public land and many more local issues I urge our DCSD directors to devote a high level of due diligence to studying how a home rule could impact land use and other issues that would impact the future of public schools in our county I also ask that Douglas
County voters vote no on the question of whether Douglas County um should form a home rule charter commission Thank you Thank you Lauraai Wright Jacquellyn Charles Bob Marshall Hi can you hear me We can Go ahead Hi I'm Lauraai Wright I'm a resident of Sterling Ranch and I have serious concerns about how home rule could affect schools and communities in unincorporated areas like ours While cities like Castle Pines and Lone Tree have municipal home rule communities like
Sterling Ranch and Highlands Ranch do not and that leaves us vulnerable to county decisions that we may not agree with Douglas County's recent opt out of state firearm restrictions and government buildings only apply to unincorporated areas for example That's a preview of how home rule could expand the the county's authority over zoning land use utilities and even school safety without clear input from our communities What powers would the county gain over our schools parks and infrastructure Could they mandate school safety measures or allow firearms on
school grounds And if so who pays for it Would our school district be accountable to the county Without municipal home rule what recourse do we have if we disagree with county policies This feels like a shift that could silence the voices of residents in the most populous parts of Douglas County and I can't support handing over that kind of unchecked power I'd also like to say briefly that I'm concerned that the school district has allowed 20 minutes for the Douglas County Board of County Commissioners to speak um uninterrupted in favor of this rushed home rule
initiative without uh an opposing viewpoint Um I think that's an uh irresponsible use of DCSD resources Thank you for the time Thank you Jacquellyn Charles Bob Marshall Ada Liska Good evening Can you hear me We can Go ahead Uh my name is Jacqueline Charles I'm a parent of a soon to be kindergartener and a resident of Douglas County I want to take a moment tonight to raise awareness about the county's rushed home rule initiative and what it could mean
for our schools and our community The county is spending $500,000 of taxpayer money on a special election this June Money that could instead have supported our public schools our teachers or student programs that are desperately underfunded At a time when educators are stretched thin and budgets are tight this kind of spending deserves scrutiny Even more concerning is how this whole process has unfolded The commissioners are pushing through a major change to our county government Drafting a new charter could could shift power from the public with very little transparency or public input This effort doesn't fill a gap It raises questions Why now Why so fast And who
really benefits I'm not here to argue politics I'm here because families educators and community members deserve to know what's happening This initiative feels less like an effort to improve local government and more like a quiet power shift one that's happening with our money and without our voice We elect schoolboard members to represent us and focus solely on education not to have their hands tied down by county level political agendas This home world charter risks changing the balance of local control in a way that could weaken the voice of parents educators and the board itself Thank you for giving me a few minutes to share this I urge everyone to look into
what's really going on with the rule and vote no in June Thank you Bob Marshall and then Ada Liska He's online Thank you All right let's move on to Ada and we'll come back um after Ada if he's available Ada Liska she is not online All right and he still has not responded Correct All right we will move
to in person at this time Um we'll start with Aiko Browning Kelly Mayor and David D Carlo Hello director superintendent My name is Ako Browning and I'm a Douglas County resident a taxpayer and a Douglas County parent Um I've been a parent of kids at Elorado Elementary for the past 12 years and I cannot say enough positive things about Elorado Elementary Um I have two ends of the spectrum So I have a child who has special needs who receives special education
through the SSN program and I also have a child who received um additional services through gifted and talented And the beauty of neighborhood schools is they serve all children I did not appreciate that myself until I had a child with special needs And I you know I went to high school I went to private schools until I went to public um college and post-graduate education But I had never even thought about kids with special needs because I lived in my own bubble when I was in high school And um as a parent of children with special needs I have to say that neighborhood schools do the best job of surrounding all the
supports and services to help my child with communication and life skills and lead his best possible life So thank you so much to Elderorado Elementary We're going to really miss you My daughter's moving on to Ranch View and my son is at Thunderidge The other issue that I have I would like to speak out for no one home rule So home rule is a charter and um it's not necessarily good or bad It depends on what's in that charter and who wrote it And my concerns are one commissioners have conflict of interest They're looking to write their own pay scale to change their own term limits to be able to appoint their own buddies to positions like coroner and
sheriff And I believe this is a power grab and I believe that all county officials should recuse themselves from consider consideration for this home rule charter commission because they've got blatant contra conflict of interest In addition I've got concerns about the intersection of potential home rule and school district and land use 15 seconds remaining For people who want to know more about the deep dive please check out Emily Suyat's podcast Red County Blue State It goes into a deep dive about how this land could be diverted to cronies of commissioners Please look into this issue Thank you Thank you Kelly Mayor David D Carlo Allison Ridwell
Good evening board directors My name is Kelly Mayor I'm the mom of many former and current DCST students Many people here tonight or listening online are still learning about home rule The commissioners will spend 20 minutes informing the board about home rule but there will still be a lot of questions voters need to be asking Why pursue home rule at all Pitkin and Weld counties are the only two counties in Colorado with county specific home rule In both of these cases home rule was initiated by citizens who were trying to take power back from corrupt county government
But here in Douglas County home rule is being initiated by the commissioners who were asking the people to give them even more power Why the rush Why did the commissioners announce a special election for June 24th with exactly 91 days notice to the public Why are Douglas County voters being given very little time to learn about this change to county governance that was not initiated by the people Why the cost Why did the commissioners announced this special election at the cost of
$500,000 to Douglas County taxpayers only 4 months after a general election A ballot question in the last general election would have cost zero additional dollars and a ballot question in the next general election will cost zero additional dollars Could the timing and the cost be because both commissioner Leaden and Commissioner Teal will be term limited at the end of their current um terms Under a home rule the commissioners will be able to make changes to county election procedures term limits and even their own salaries among
other powers Could those be the motives for the timing and the cost Please educate yourselves and the community about how home rule could impact the school district 15 seconds remaining I am voting no on home rule Thank you David D Carlo Allison Ridwell Kathy Lease Good evening Good evening Dave D Carlo Highlands Ranch Uh my kids are all grown so uh I can answer
a lot of these questions but I wanted to thank you guys for having the presentation tonight cuz there's too much misinformation out there First of all the first thing I'd like to say is yes the timeline is statutory And by holding it this year we have one election on the 24th of June and the other one that coincides with this fall's election So it's not going to cost 500,000 We already have that election So there that's not completely true It is it's it's beyond me I've interviewed 25 of the different candidates on behalf of the Republican party for endorsements
Not a one of them will be extending term limits extending pay or having any touching any of that That's not what this is about What this is about is are we Douglas County or Denver County Why this year Because every year more garbage rolls out of the state limiting our freedoms and rights and we've had it And this is going to give us the standing to push back This allows us to get into court We can't even get into court when we're a statutory county because you're suing yourself
It's a diode It's one way The state can sue us for not complying but we can't consu uh sue them for passing laws that violate our constitutional rights We have no standing So Highlands Ranch and Sterling Ranch were brought up Right now when your neighbor subdivides their house they can move into up to 32 people into it as an ADU You have no way of pushing back You're worried about what's going to happen with the with the land for the school in the area How about when your your neighbor becomes a section 8 housing and what that does to your property value But see these
this isn't being explained That's a Denver value not a Douglas County value Anybody that shops in the 470 corridor knows what's happened the change Been to Harbor Freight nearly run over by people running out stealing things That's the exportation of crime from the counties to the north We need to stand on the line Learn learn what's actually happening Allison Ridwell Katherine Lee Michael Lee I have to find it There it is All right Okay my name is Alison Ridwell and since it
seems important to some tonight to trot out all of our extras I am a parent of five including a severely special needs child and a trans child I've come here today to say thank you I don't know if you guys hear that enough So thank you first for having the forethought to have conversations about home rule and how it might or might not affect the school system Thank you for the true understanding that if people want to be angry about the process of home rule they need a time machine to go complain to the 1970s state legislature
who put it in place over 50 years ago I'd like to also tangent just a bit and say thank you for understanding that declining enrollment across this very large district does not mean every neighborhood has an aging population And most importantly I'd like to say thank you for being smart enough to understand that charter schools are public schools with all of the choice and vibrancy that entails Thank you Katherine Lee Michael Lease Amy
Wu Greetings President Williams and directors My name is Kathy Lee I'm a 30-year resident of Douglas County I'm speaking on behalf of Stop the Power Grab Tonight school board directors have dedicated 40 minutes to listening to candidates for an upcoming an election and ballot initiative that is 28 days away Stop the power grab has requested equal time to speak to express our grave concerns about this ballot initiative and the possible impacts to DCSD and our community We look forward to receiving an invitation from the board for the June 10th
meeting In a in a talk to a conservative group a couple of weeks ago Commissioner Teal said there's a capability when it comes to how land is dedicated to schools I'll tell you right now the vast majority of land in unincorporated Douglas County that is dedicated to the schools it's dedicated for public use Those are the words It doesn't say school it says public use You can change that to where it actually has to be the schools We can do a number of things when it comes to that land dedication piece and put it into the charter Since the BOCC
has not made themselves available to general public to ask questions we have the following Is it the commission's intention to write a charter in such a way that it takes land set aside for DCSD and use it for other nonDCSD schools and other public uses Several times the commissioners and county attorney have spoken about the lawsuits about lawsuits when they do things that that don't pro progress their ways Would the home rule allow the county to sue the school district if they are unable to get the land changes they want Since the commissioners are not allowing public to ask
some questions I'm asking you to I would also like to know why an officer of the GOP County Party has answers to all these questions yet the BOCC refuses to meet with Democrats unaffiliated and Libertarians Please vote no Thank you Thank you Michael Lee Amy Wju Jen Iverson Good evening everyone My name is Michael Lees and I've been a longtime Douglas County resident with
uh children in DCSD I felt obligated to speak tonight after seeing the commissioners on the agenda to talk about home rule I'm worried about how home rule could impact our schools While education isn't directly governed by the county home rule could shift priorities and/or resources in ways that ultimately affect students and families Only two counties in Colorado Weld and Pitkin have adopted home rule and in both cases it was initiative initiated by the
residents Douglas County's process is different here Our home role was initiated by the sitting commissioners and now all three commissioners are running as at large candidates for the charter commission That's not just unusual it's a conflict of interest Is this initiative truly for the benefit of the community or for the benefit of those already in power Well county held over 40 public meetings across seven months Douglas County is offering just one town hall before
a rushed special election That's not enough time or transparency for a change this significant And once a home rule charter is adopted it's permanent Changing or even reversing it later is extremely difficult Whether or not you support home rule we should all be concerned about a process that concentrates more power in the hands of those already in office with minimal public input I'm voting no on home rule and if it passes 15 seconds remaining I'm running to represent district 3 to
make sure residents have a citizens first voice Thank you Thank you Amy Wu Jennifer Iverson Julie Gooden Good evening board and thank you for all that you're doing I want to thank you guys for giving the opportunity for the commissioners to come speak tonight What a lot of people don't realize is that their local governments in Douglas County collaborate It's called the Douglas
County Partnership Yes there were land deals Yes there were agreements Just about in January the school board sold land back to Castle That's how this works Um but what I want to talk about this evening is home rule Colorado is just one of six states in this in the nation that has home rule Article 14 section 16 of our state's constitution grants our counties the ability to adopt home rule And no the commissioners don't have the final say what's in it We the people do when it's voted on
Um in Colorado over a 100 cities and towns have home rule to include every single city in Douglas County But I'd like to talk about something else Susan Meek Valerie Thompson and Brad Guyger have really spoken about how they don't like politics being brought up in the school board I have noticed this evening that Douglas County Democrat party activist spoke out Susan Meek is a candidate
on the Home World Charter and is a member of the Douglas County Party Valerie Thompson will be speaking at a Douglas County Democrat party event last about four days ago Director Mike uh Guyger who's also part of Douglas County Democratic Party put out on his Facebook page that the board will be speaking about home role What these three people are doing is bringing politics and activism into the school board and our community I find it very unbecoming Thank you And please
vote yes It's really for the betterment of our people Jennifer Iverson Julie Gooden Bana Ranger Good evening I am speaking on behalf of Douglas County Douglas County parents excuse me To avoid any misunderstandings let's clarify what county home rule actually provides Many people including some commissioners incorrectly assume county home rule grants the same broad
powers as municipal home rule It does not According to Colorado's Attorney General's Office county home rule has not been found to be an expansive source of powers and cannot override state laws Unlike municipal home rule counties have no protection for matters of local concern State law takes precedent Just last year Weld County learned this the hard way when
the Colorado Supreme Court rejected their home rule argument and forced compliance with state redistricting laws Why should this alarm every parent and taxpayer County Commissioner Teal has touted that home rule dramatically expands county authority over land use and zoning These powers that will directly threaten our schools Commissioners could seize control of land that has always and should always be under the purview of Douglas County school districts and redirect
it toward their own pet projects This isn't speculation It's exactly what home rule permits Commissioners would gain unprecedented power to determine where residential development occurs manipulate enrollment patterns and control whether adequate land remains available for desperately needed new public schools Tonight's meeting perfectly illustrates our concerns Director Williams invited a commissioner to speak promoting home rule while not inviting opposition voices
This continued lack of leadership by Director Williams allowing a one-sided presentation previews how home rule could enable political manipulation Thank you Julie Gooden Briana Ranger I got older I need glasses Thank you for having me guys Um good evening board members For those watching my name is Julie Gooden and I am the chair of the district accountability
committee I am here tonight to respectfully ask for your partnership in making DAC meetings more accessible to the families and school accountability committees that we serve throughout the district by recording and/or live streaming our meetings For over three years I've had the privilege of serving on DAC And during that time we've consistently heard one message from our SAC representatives Many families and SAC members want to engage with DAC but aren't able to due to scheduling and accessibility barriers This fall DAX sent out a survey to Sachs across the district Of the 59 schools that responded nearly half reported that they do not
have representatives attending DAC meetings And among those 42% cited time or scheduling conflicts as the reason That means approximately a quarter approximately a quarter or more of our schools are struggling to access a key channel of district level engagement As a committee we are working hard to bridge the gap We now send top five postmeating bullet summaries to Sachs to share timely and relevant updates prior to the meeting minutes being approved We've offered to visit SAC meetings directly to better understand their needs and how we can support them But we've reached a limit We can't meaningfully sol meaningfully solve this problem and challenge
without your help Colorado statute tasks DAC with increasing parent engagement particularly for underrepresented populations Yet year after year our sacks continue to tell us the same thing They need meetings to be streamed or recorded to meaningfully participate DAC does not have the authority or resources to make this happen But you do So tonight I come to you not with a complaint but with a request for partnership Help us fulfill our statutory duty to increase parent engagement with authenticity and intention Provide DAC with the support needed to ensure our meetings are accessible to all who want to be involved Thank you for your time and for your ongoing commitment
to supporting parent voice in our district 15 seconds remaining Thank you Briana Ranger Good evening members of the board I'd like to take a moment to express deep appreciation for the incredible collaboration that has taken place over the past few months First thank you to Allison Roush director of government affairs for an amazing year with leaders for Douglas County Schools Your leadership and commitment to connecting parents and district leaders have truly made a difference and inspired me to get more involved I also want to thank deputy superintendent deputy superintendent Denell Hyatt executive director of SPED Liza
Meyer and director of GT Natasha Straer for your openness your willingness to be vulnerable and for truly listening to the uh voices of parents like myself parents of twice exceptional students Your dedication to hearing us out and engaging in honest dialogue has created meaningful momentum toward change I'm excited about the work ahead especially the formation of a new 2e parent advisory committee on the horizon which will further support our shared goal of equity and inclusion for all students especially our twice exceptional students But
the work doesn't stop here As we move into the summer I hope this important progress continues Our teachers and administrators need continued training and deeper understanding of twice exceptional learners so they can better support the unique needs of these students in every classroom Lastly to quickly speak on the charter request to expand I implore you to think about which schools actually address twice exceptional students in their presentation Only one of them did STEM school Thank you for your partnership and continued commitment to all learners in our district Thank you All right that concludes public comment Moving into the
adoption of consent agenda Do I have a motion concerning items 11 through 18 I move to adopt the consent agenda including items 11 through 18 Second Motion by Guyer second by Meek Guyger I Meek I Moore I Meyers I Thompson I Williams I Weer I Great Passes 7 to zero Moving into
the approval of minutes Uh the recommendation is that the board of education approves the minutes from the regular meeting held on May 6th Do I have a motion to approve those meeting minutes So moved Second Moved by Moore second by Guyger Guyger I Meek Hi Moore I Meyers I Thompson Hi Williams I Wineer I passes seven to zero Moving into our first study action item or
uh study action item is the approval of school capacity and boundary analysis recommendation for a 10-minute presentation and a 15minute Q&A Okay Uh my name is Siobhan Caldwell I'm the planning manager for the district I am here tonight as a followup to the March 4th meeting um when staff briefed the board on a recommended outreach and engagement plan uh with those affected by a potential boundary change in the Meccan subdivision Um what I'm going to give tonight is a recap of what was reviewed at that
meeting followed up by a summary of the outreach and engagement that we've done and the feedback we received Uh we do have a a staff recommendation tonight that we're asking the board to consider and take action on Um you've seen this slide before This is just uh to highlight the history and context of the SCUBA effort So in summary um this is an initiative that started in 2019 uh when staff the LRPC and the district's demographic consultant noticed some pockets of overcrowding in the district and a need to provide seats and and plan for um growth and capacity needs So since
then we've done some pretty extensive work um to accommodate the growth coming out of the Sterling Ranch and Solstice developments uh the canyons of Castle Pines uh east and southeast Castle Rock area and then growth along the Crowoot uh Valley Road Corridor which is what we'll be looking at tonight This slide is just to ensure that we are clearly communicating and highlighting the history of this area Um we want to be perfectly clear that this area has been through some changes and some
past boundary adjustments and reassignments already Um so pre2020 this area was initially assigned to Castle Rock schools Um the schools of Sage Canyon Elementary Mason Middle School and Douglas County High School Um at that time Sage Canyon Elementary had their capacity had exceeded all available seats um including available seats in portable classrooms and an urgent boundary change and reconfiguration of sixth grade was recommended effective in the 2020 year for the reconfiguration and the 2020 2021 2022 school year um for reassignment to
Parker area schools of Legacy Point Sagewood Middle School and then Ponderosa High School Uh this is a map showing the area proposed for um reboundry and under consideration tonight The green areas of the map are currently um assigned to Sage Canyon Elementary Mason Middle School and Douglas County High School That northeastern portion of the Mccantis subdivision which is the area outlined in red uh that was adopted for reassignment to Castle Rock those Castle
Rock area schools uh May 2024 of last year what we were referring to as phase one of this effort Um so the area being considered tonight is that area in pink again currently assigned to Legacy Point Sagewood and Ponderosa High School That's just a zoomed out map just to look a little bit more at the area zoomed out And then just a restatement of the problem statement why staff is recommending looking at the feasibility of this reassignment Uh we are currently anticipating that Legacy
Point will be at 137% of its facility capacity uh in 5 years It is currently over capacity um over its facility capacity as we speak right now this school year Um and concurrently we're forecasting available seats um and room at Sage Canyon Elementary Um so not only within the 5-year forecast but through the full develop the full buildout of all the residential development in that attendance area Um and then we also I'm going to highlight or
go over in a in in a couple more um slides There are some chronic transportation issues um that we're experiencing in this area that we believe could be uh resolved with this change So this is just to give context of the growth in this area that we're trying to accommodate Um this is the a summary of all the entitled h uh housing units in this area So there's about 5,800 homes um that have been approved or entitled or zoned for this area Um and we're about 24% built out Um
when you account for the Meccan subdivision and Anthology North and Anthology South which as you know includes uh Tantara Looking Glass and Trails at Crowoot This is a review of what what is the current capacity facility capacity and projected school capacity and some of the work that we have done to provide seat to continue to provide seats at Legacy Point Elementary Um so you can see that in 2020 areas were taken out of the Legacy Point elementary attendance area and reassigned to
Mountain View and Northeast We continue to work on our strategy to overflow um areas west of Chamber developing areas west of Chambers to Gold Rush Elementary as needed Um and then we continue to partner with Lehman by Yugulch to annually weight their lottery by geography um as needed This is a summary of the transportation efficiencies that we believe could be achieved with this change So we have uh four routes currently servicing this area two to uh servicing the Manta area two to
Legacy Point Sagewood and Ponderosa High School and then two to those Castle Rock area schools Uh we are currently there's no current riders on the Douglas County High School route So we are not running that but we would be if there were riders So five total routes 1 2 3 4 five that we believe um if the boundary change were approved The efficiencies that we could achieve is we could shorten that legacy point uh elementary route from about an hour and 15 to 45 minutes and then we can
consolidate and tier those routes in a way that we would um eliminate or save one net route Um and then you'll see that the future route needed to Goldrush Elementary when those houses start building out um is accounted for here as well Here's a recap of the timeline that was presented at the March meeting So again we uh briefed the board on staff's recommendation and the reasons why and we have been using the last few months to reach out to our stakeholders Um we worked this
was a multi-EP department effort so we worked with uh a lot of DCSD staff to to vet these options and then who we tried to reach or who we we reached with this effort were all residents of MCanta um with special consideration and additional targeted outreach to DCST households of course um particularly those with um a student currently enrolled at Legacy Point Sagewood or Ponderosa High School This is a snapshot of the total students and households that would be affected
by this boundary change So there's 235 total DCSD PK-12 students currently residing within the project area It's 163 households um with those students um with the majority being in PK through 5 grades grade levels Um there's a lot of information on the slide so I'll walk through it Um so this slide is a breakdown of all those 258 students uh by their school level and their current school of attendance So there on the left axis you you'll see their school level grade level
So the grade levels served at those um schools proposed for reassignment Um the dark blue is the total that are already attending Legacy Point Sagewood or Ponderosa Uh the medium blue are those already at the target schools so attending Sage Canyon Mason Middle School or Douglas County High School Uh the light blue are those currently attending some other DCSD school So uh I believe the majority of these were Renaissance um magnet school students Um and then those the the totals
in the gray are those attending DCSD charters Um so we consider about a quarter of these households and students directly impacted meaning that they are the ones currently attending Ponder or Parker area schools that we are asking how do you feel about this change Um and of those students uh 19 total 19 is the most at any time utilized DCSD transportation over the last school year This is a recap of the um proposed change and how it was communicated to the to stakeholders
during outreach and engagement Um so as proposed what we asked stakeholders to consider was reassignment of all households from those Parker area schools to Castle Rock area schools effective the 2627 school year Um so if approved we made clear that uh this change would not be asking or mandating any students to change their enrollment They are welcome to stay at those Parker area schools throughout the rest of their educational career Um what we did ask them to consider is getting themselves there transporting themselves there
Um so what was what we did offer and vet with the stakeholders as part of this proposal was that we could provide one year of legacy transportation to those students wishing to remain at Legacy Point Sagewood or Ponderosa for the one year following the boundary change Um and any open enrollment uh requests for students and households in the project area would be given first priority as per DCSD or per district uh policy and that's to any district operated school just be clear not
charters here's a summary of the outreach and engagement that we did um we presented at at multiple various sachs and PTO meetings um at the current schools of um current schools assigned and the target schools for assignment We held three virtual info in info sessions for meant developers and builders Um the principles at Legacy Point and Sage Canyon Elementary held a meeting just for those affected families where they provided information and gave a tour of Sage
Canyon Elementary which was really cool And we held two public meetings open to anybody that wanted to attend one in person meeting and one virtual Um and then we did monthly briefings to the long range planning committee and at their most recent May meeting they did unanimously approve and recommend that um that the board consider staff's recommendation as proposed tonight Uh we also released a survey as part of this effort We had 49 respondents We asked
three basic questions Um we asked what was um do you support the change and why Uh if you do or don't why Uh if the bound reboundry were to be approved would you go to the Castle Rock area schools How important is transportation or DCSD eligibility for transportation Um in making that decision and why And then specifically to those attending Legacy Point Sagewood and Ponder Ponderosa we asked would that one year of transitional service be helpful and in what
way So this is a summary of the 49 respondents and their support for the proposal It's broken out by the feeder school So those in the PHS uh column are currently attending Legacy Point Sagewood or Ponderosa Um we had 19 total opposed the change Um they were all attending Parker those Parker area schools and 24 either agreed with the change or neither agreed nor disagreed with the change Um
and 11 the 11 of those were attending uh Parker area schools Uh some of the reasons why are on on the side there So those opposing the proposed reassignment cited disruption inconsistency and stability that the boundary change and reassignment presented to them and their families Um they there was a theme of uh these families are established in the Parker community They do all their activities and they're they live in the Parker community and this would be a a big change
and pull away from those um nonDCSD activities that they're invested in in the Parker community uh transportation issues and logistics was also a prevalent theme Uh so this change is you know represents a a major issue in terms of our household logistics and getting to school and then poor district planning and process and what was ref referenced there and what that's in reference to is the um multiple changes that this community has has seen and is being asked to consider Um
those in support of the proposed reassignment said "We live we work we play in Castle Rock We should go to school in Castle Rock." Um they cited proximity and convenience of Castle Rock schools as a bonus and something that they wish to access Um and they also stated they are established and they and they have their routine and they have all their activities and their clubs in the Castle Rock community and they would like to go to school in the Castle Rock community Um and then they also cited a course correct from the 2021 decision as a reason for supporting this that that decision
should have never been made in the first place and this is their their preferred school assignment Um those that stated they neither agreed nor disagreed stated that school choice is what's important here and the the enrollment choice we are offering makes this not an not an important decision to them Um and then or they don't need any transportation So they don't care about this boundary change They're going to choose the school they want and they have no need for for transportation So this chart um also showing a lot of information Um it is broken down by
the feeder of the resident student or guardian parent So those that going to Ponderosa High School feeder schools those going to the targeted Castle Rock area schools and those going to some other district operated well some other that includes charter schools as well Um the dark blue totals represent so then it's also broken down by if they would go or stay at their current school of assignment should this boundary change be adopted The totals in the light blue dark blue
and medium blue represent um if transportation was important to them or not Dark blue indicates transportation is very important to them Medium blue indicates transportation is only moderately important and light blue indicates those that said transportation is not important in in this decision Um so there's some totals there that you see Uh some of the the reasons cited for transportation being important to these folks were um that is it's a critical service They rely on it
Both parents work or they have a single parent in the household and they need this they need this service Um they also cited or and made note that other public transportations are not available Um and multiple child schedule scheduling and household conflicts was another reason Um those that stated that DCSD transportation was not important in this decision said they don't use DCSD transportation anyways They cited the one plus hour bus ride as a reason for that inconsistent service or they were a DCSD employee or had a student driver in the house
Um and those that said it's you know moderately important uh they said this would be nice to have um but we'll make it work The the school choice is is really what's important to us here So specifically from those 16 wanting to stay at Parker area schools and stating that transportation was important to them in order to do this we asked would one year of legacy service be helpful to them Um and we had a total of 12 that said yes and four that said
no The additional ca uh feedback that we captured was via email We had four uh responses come into our we had a dedicated email address for this effort Um and then we had seven attendees at the virtual public meeting and a summary of their feedback um is stated there In general in summary those that attended or wrote um to us on the dedicated email address were opposed to the change stating too much change in a short
period of time the need for transportation um as as options or as as reasons for opposing the change So this is just a final recap of what staff's recommendation is Um going back to the justification and the reasons why we looked at this um we still are recommending adoption of the reassignment as proposed effective the 2627 school year providing one year of legacy transportation to those that would like to remain at
um Parker area schools for the 2627 school year um for filings 1A amendments 13 in Canyon South Meccan subdivision And with that I'll open it up to questions Um thank you so much I really appreciate the thoroughess and all the feedback was very helpful for me Uh Director Guyger thank you Miss Caldwell Uh I would echo that Um not the first time I've seen this presentation although the feedback's excellent Um and I want to thank you for how well
the district has kept the long-range planning committee involved in their feedback as well I have I mean the reality is if we do this we're doing it over the objection of the majority of the people who live there Short version the majority of the people that took the survey that we received feedback from and how does that compare to the majority of of the identified students still what percentage did we get feedback from So there was 163 total DCSD households the survey was
open to everybody but that's who we were really trying to reach Um so 49 responses um would be a 28% response rate which is pretty decent Um and then yes the the the major um engagement we had was at the SAC and PTO meetings and that virtual public meeting that was held um and the the email that we received Okay So fair to say we the majority didn't choose to firmly respond I would
say that I would agree All right And I I don't know if I noted so um all 200 what was it 250 plus students 163 DCSD households Actually every household within the proposed uh project area was notified by email and mail um three times so far So and they will be notified again following the board's decision um with follow-up actions and what the decision was tonight You preaged my next
question I want to say that I think the outreach here has been as extraordinary as it can be Um you cannot force people to respond You can give people every opportunity to just off the top of your head how far is it from Legacy Point to Sage Canyon Miles or I I just I don't care about miles Nobody nobody flies a crow to school What we did look at was was transportation routes and it it um on the website what we site is that it's about a 30 minute shave off time to Sage Canyon as opposed
to Legacy Point And then uh Mesa Middle School and Douglas County High School That's about 15 minutes quicker that you could get there from the Meccan Development than to Sagewood or Ponderosa High School So for most people for most and it appears that a sub sign sub sign sub sign sub sign sub sign sub sign sub sign sub sign sub sign sub sign subant portion of these people do their own transportation For most of them transportation wise for themselves is going to be a faster trip Correct That would be correct Yeah If they attend their their assigned neighborhood school When will we know about the likelihood or possibility of the one-year transition I
mean I understand we don't know how many bus drivers going to have tomorrow but when is a reasonable time for us to be able to address that with some certainty So I might have to let Rich Cosgrove state the time frame but just to clarify the the changes proposed all these writers would be eligible still for service their eligibility is what's being promised It's the um pending driver availability as all DCSD routes are pending Um that is the wild card there and
I'll let So thank you for the question We already provide this one additional route We're running that now and that's from the legacy from the 21 decision No Okay This is the current hour and 15 minute route to and from Manta to Legacy Point as well as the other route to Sagewood and Pondo So that is in our plan now And right now to put it in perspective since we started the roll in black out
August two years ago we've added nine routes for growth We've restored 12 routes So we are making progress That's in the last two years We typically have four driver training cohorts a year anywhere from 9 to 12 applicants per cohort and we balance that of course with the retirements So we are making progress every quarter by restoring routes Okay Um and I see Mr Moer sitting in the
front row so this may be a question for him There is still space at Layman Bio Gulch Am I correct Thank you Yes they are Um they they have a lot of room there So if some parents did not want to go on to Sage Canyon there would be a charter school option still available and I believe that's probably closer to some of them Is that correct Absolutely And any other charter school as well and any other neighborhood school has an open enrollment option All right
I I just want to say and this is not a question it's a comment We're going to deal with this until we have a consistent long-term evaluation of the boundaries throughout the district Now that's not a project that anybody looks forward to doing but to have to change in 21 and I was part of that as on LRPC and I think some members of this board were here for that decision to having to do that immediately and now have to change back because of rather predictable growth Um I understand people frustrated with that I really do And and to the families there
it's like where are we going to school It's not the best way to do long range planning But we also have to deal with the reality of the numbers that we have here And I appreciate that you've given us those And I appreciate the outreach that the district has done I think it's been everything we could ask for And I think it's probably going to be a model for more stuff we're going to have to do Director Wineer Yes Agreed Thank you for all the feedback you've gathered and um trying to make sure the community is informed around this Um back to that survey where
um a lot disagreed with the decision And I feel like probably a decision like this would um have a lot of disagreement naturally So I was just wondering if uh you have any information on past um rebounding that's gone on what those surveys have looked like Has it looked similar Is this one um better or worse or if you know that question or answer at all Sure Uh so this is this is the first reboundary that I know of that has actually been affecting that hasn't been
slipped So the streamlined limited impact process where it's less than 10 households and we've offered legacy transportation or even before that indefinite transportation to those um handful of households that were impacted Um we the only other boundary change that that I am aware of during in the last decade similar to this was um to provide relief at Prairie Crossing Um I believe back in 2020 2021 that time frame Um and no legacy transportation was offered to
those wanting to stay at their uh former school assignment So I I do I do think that we are doing doing more than than we did previously um with with that reassignment We are trying to find some um common ground and a compromise to to um help these families with their transportation needs as much as possible Superintendent Kane Yeah thank you very much Um just for perspective so 19 uh families um were upset out of the 165 households that um the staff uh communicated with And um we
certainly want to have a better eye on making boundaries that make sense You know having just gone what we went through in Highlands Ranch there were certainly a lot of um boundaries in Highlands Ranch that did not make any sense that we have had to try to clean up And yet this situation is a perfect illustration of how we got into that situation in Highlands Ranch Just not being able to stay ahead of growth um is a is a significant challenge for our district But hopefully as we go
into the future we can work with our um community to be able to stay ahead of growth instead of always reacting to it based on available seats in elementary schools Thank you Director Meek Thank you for the presentation I think this is a higher level Are there other boundary changes that are weird looking at to the future I'm just wondering are there other scenarios that we should be getting ahead of Well I'm the majority of what we've been working on will be addressed with the
2027 opening of elementary school 50 and 51 So that's you know the Sterling Ranch and Solstice area and the northeast I25 corridor are big areas of growth that we have been looking at Um and the we do have a strategy um that's you know boundary related and that's uh new construction and that's recommended in the master capital plan So I would consider that to be the long-term strategy for those remaining areas of growth along the Croat Valley corridor and southeast east Castle Rock Um
um but yes I do acknowledge and recognize that there is a need for a comprehensive district-wide boundary strategy Um and we we have that on our our to-do list in the planning department So Director Thompson thank you for the presentation Uh just a couple clarifying questions What part in the process was the survey conducted Sure So we um we posted the survey
immediately following the March 4th presentation on the uh project website um and then sent out a notification to all DCSD households via email and mail and then to all households in the project area with no DCSD student just by mail with a link to the survey So um we try to get respondents that way through direct notification Um we communicated it out via the Sachs and the PTO's communication channels So asked them to put it on their social media send it out to all their members Um we asked
the principles to communicate it out through their newsletters and communication with their students and parents Um and then through the LRPC the LRPC helped a lot with their their connections in the community um promoting the survey So so we did Yeah we did promote it a lot Um unfortunately 40 49 responses though Okay Was it um I'm just curious was it before or after the community meetings like being at the Sachs uh the principal meetings Yeah it it was open the entire time So opened um immediately following the March 4th and it's it's still open actually Thank you And then
um there there was mention of the 1 hour plus bus ride So uh with this change what would that transportation look like It would be cut down to 45 minutes So that route would go from an hour and 15 minutes to 45 minutes if it no longer serviced the Manta area And that's just one way route That is one way Correct A lot of bus time Okay And then um Oh you got that one already when you were presenting My last question was just how many around how many emails did you receive We received
four Uh well we we we received more than that Four individuals Some some of them submitted multiple emails but four individuals um stated on the the um proposed change via email Okay Thank you Y all right Um well with that do I have a motion concerning uh the school capacity and boundary analysis
I move that we adopt the school capacity and boundary analysis and move forward with the reboundering as previously discussed Second Second motion by Guyer second by Wineer Guyger I Meek I Moore Yes Meyers I Thompson I Williams I Wineer I passes 7 to zero Thank you so much Thank
you All right moving into item 21 is our recess We will take a recess until 7:25 All right The meeting of the board is back in session where we will move on to item 22 the board decision concerning charter school applications submitted by Lehman Academy of Excellence
Thank you board Thank you superintendent staff Um my name is Gordon Moer I'm the executive director of schools for choice programming Uh go through some things that you've probably already seen before but I always like to refresh the process and speak those through as we go um through these presentations on an annual basis So the in alignment with Colorado statute local board of education is required to receive and to review uh all applications from charter schools uh we we have that obligation by state law If the local board of education does not review an application
then it is deemed to have denied that application Um and that is statute here in Colorado So we welcome highquality charter applications on an annual basis between February 1st and April 1st on an annual basis That's our application cycle We welcome those uh applications because it will add student and parent choice and increase the diversity of educational offerings in the district Um we have three applications and and again uh I'm not going to repeat all these slides each time I'm doing it as a a pre pre- little uh discussion first and then we'll just do the recommendations
uh that come from staff as we go We have three replications or sorry three applications this time two replications and again I want to give a little clarity on the the definitions of things in our uh policy in LBDR1 So we have uh we have a number of ways that a school can apply to the district the there's a new application which is a uh we do have one of those and I'll explain that here in a second We have an expansion an expansion in our el in our policy your policy um is that a a it
can do its various levels but it all centers on one address So that address of where that school currently is so it's physically located on one address by policy if that school wants to because uh they want to add another level to the school that say they're a K8 school They want to double the size of the building and put a second story on and make it twice as big as a K8 They're already approved by you as a K8 school They're at that location They build another story on to double their enrollment The law is clear that we cannot cap the enrollment of that charter school Okay So
they can expand that building to meet those levels Second level of expansion would be that if they are again on that one physical location they have that address that's where their charter contract is today but let's say they're a K5 school and they want to add grade 6 7 8 That's an expansion of grade levels Okay on the current pro physical address we're going to add building space while also we have to add grades because of the student population we have That's an expansion application
where that would go through and we have that process That's similar to what uh Global Village did uh earlier this year They were expanding grade levels back That school was was originally approved as a K8 because of of challenges early on They dropped down to a K5 They expanded back up through an application that was an expansion So a replication is same physical copy I'm going to copy this K8 school from this one location to a different location I'm going to move this exact copy This is Lehman Academyy's application that that was approved uh two years ago three years
ago We've already got a K8 You've already approved us We're going to take that exact same programming that exact same everything and we're going to move it over there Okay Now a new school which we have do we do have two of those replications So we have STEM and Leman Leman that we're going to talk through in just a second is an exact copy moving to a new location That's a replication We also have a school that we'll talk about when we get to Ren uh later on with Renaissance That school is again they're currently a 612 on one location There's a number of things elements in their
application And I want to be clear that there's there's a portion in there that talks about a gym expansion That falls under the first thing that I talked about That's their building on the land that they already have If they want to expand the gym totally fine they can expand that gym out They don't even have to come to us to you for approval on that process They can expand that building out and do that Okay So they have that that is not part of this application because it's again a they they're not currently a elementary program school and they're not adding onto their current
building to do it It's not an expansion It's a new school They're going to a new location with new grade levels By definition of our policy that's a new school Okay Okay So I just want to be clear on those the three different ways that that wording can be confusing sometimes and hopefully that's clear as crystal and not mud as a little bit So we do have those three that we'll go through and I'll and I'll be free to answer questions as you have those All applications have submit uh they have submitted their application for review They did meet those deadlines They participated in a
capacity interview where we had um we'll talk about the different representatives there Um all go through a process for a capacity interview where we follow up on the information they submit and judge again in in the capacity evaluate the capacity of that leadership team to open and run a new school or a replication or an expansion So those were all presented to the board of education at a public hearing on May 6 the applicants all were able to give you a overview of their
um of their application of the school proposals and also we have all of those applications attached in the board docs Those are all there along with all of the expanded um reasons behind the staff recommendations we're going to make for you today Again they're all reviewed in uh alignment with the CRS the components of the application You can see here these are all of the components that are reviewed Um some of the applications again that replication you're going to see a little bit less information needed in some areas Uh let's say because again we let's
look at the two different types of applications we have We're already doing prek8 We're just taking that and moving it And they can say in there we're going to do the same educational program You've already proved that This is what we're doing Now if it's a something we don't have already let's say a 612 we've never seen them do a preK5 then we're going to want more of an explanation How are you going to do that What are you going to use How are you going to meet your uh educational goals What are your staffing going to look like All those questions then play in So you're going to see a little bit more detail in a new application than you are on a replication application But all
these elements are are common and go through So April 1st we did receive the applications That means when we get those the cart team is assembled Um the executive director of schools met that's me met with the full uh DAC for feedback All DAC members um did receive a full application They received all of the applications and I attended a DAC meeting to receive feedback and questions that I brought back to CART Um after that capacity interviews were on April 22nd May 6 we held our first public hearing That's the opportunity for the public to present much the same as
you heard tonight in the second public hearing uh presentation to the board of education was done at that time May 14th a staff staff recommendation was shared with each applicant So on May 14th after taking the uh cart recommendation to staff recommendation to cabinet that recommendation was shared back with each applicant saying in detail here's what the recommendation will be to the board of education At that time on May 14th we gave them until that Friday I think there was a 17th at noon to either let us know would you like to withdraw your application and we gave them the
full rubric with all of the feedback and said you can either take this withdraw your application and build it again for the future or would you like to move forward to have the board of education rule by resolution Um and so they all had that choice to do that They've all chosen to bring that uh staff recommendation knowing what it would be to you today Public hearing number two was on May 27th That's today Another public opportunity And then tonight uh we are asking you to um to rule by resolution and approve or deny those um those applications as we've received
them Just a a little bit of again where we are and this graphic kind of explains it As you can see it's a funnel We start with a pretty wide group of people reviewing these applications I want to brag a little bit on our um charter application review team here in in Douglas County Um there's a lot of districts where they don't have the expertise um or the availability of staff that we do And I want to thank cabinet for allowing many highlevel members of their teams to be available for a couple of days to do the capacity interviews
to review the applications and then to also meet for a full staff recommendation There's not a lot of districts that have directors of departments and multiple uh planning members and and we employ an outside independent reviewer We have a pretty robust team that meets to do these and and goes through um very objectively um and and in alignment with our current processes and in alignment with the state law to evaluate the ability of that school to operate that new school um as they move forward So you can see DAC FOC and LRPC were all involved in that um those those
members discuss the comments everything is shared everything is open One new layer um so we did have after the recommendations were given to the um to the applicants uh we did have a another follow-up meeting with the superintendent and with all cart membership to make them all aware of the the recommendation that would be moving forward from staff as well So that was something else we added in this year so everyone is all in the loop and everyone knows exactly what the recommendations will be So the first um first recommendation again is for Lehman Academy of Excellence This would be
a replication because it's an exact copy of the two schools that they operate already One on uh Strow Road and one on Bayou Gulch um taking an exact copy of that and moving it into a new location to have another campus operating the same with the same grade levels with the same educational philosophy Want to highlight that in the board docs there's a lot of more detail for the staff recommendations There's many more points there but the the points that I'm going to give today are the ones that are the overarching staff recommendation and those are the ones that
were developed by staff Um and you'll see those in the resolution as well So the staff recommendation uh for Lehman Academy of Excellence is to deny that replication application and the major basises for that recommendation are that there were no verifiable letters of intent submitted Uh there was no verification there's sufficient evidence of demand for that replication There was not a school location that had been selected uh the facilities plan uh was was or no no facilities plan was
submitted with the application and and again we've stated openly that an application would be welcome in the future when the demonstration of demand demand has been established Um that was the feedback given to that team So um I will now open up for any questions or discussion Director Myers more like a comment a couple of concerns Uh I think we were reminded tonight during public comment that one of our uh public commenters reminded us that charter schools are are public
schools And what I'm asking is um there it was mentioned at the last meeting I mentioned it at the last meeting about maybe reaching out to these communities um Crystal Valley Canyons um I mean the need for how desperate are they for a school because just as one board member I'm just kind of thinking how difficult it was to get a bond passed in this district So let's
say we get a bond passed in the next three years We're looking at what a three to threeyear build time So we could possibly be looking at a six to eight years before we do get a a ch a neighborhood school in And I I just wonder if reaching out to the community would help to ask if they want I mean I know we could wait till next year They can reapply next year get their letters of intent But I from what my understanding and especially in the uh with Lehman is um I know they had delayed
opening but I think a lot of that has changed since 2020 and so construction's not as it used to be Our contractors our all of our different we're just not nobody is getting anything done on time building in any kind of homes uh multif family whatever So I wonder if there's a part where we need to and I and Gordon I don't know if changing the cart system or taking a look because
I think it's difficult to forecast if they did have a an extension to forecast that in 3 years they would have letters of intent So much can change in 3 years So I guess what I'm asking and looking at like I did the last time and I know that was short notice It just came on me that reaching out to these communities to see to hear what you know are they actually opposed to maybe a charter school coming in if that's possibly the only thing that might be in there in the next 6 to
8 years Thank you for that question Director Myers Um a couple of things Uh a neighborhood school in Crystal Valley is in our master capital plan Um it is in the 6 to 10year part of our master capital plan And the master capital plan is revised every year based on um projections So it's it's not in the 1 to5 it's in the 6 to 10year um part of the master capital plan As to um a survey it is um and and speaking as someone who founded and replicated charter schools Um this
doing a survey to gauge community interest is that's at the onus of the charter school um that that is a step that Lehman for example could have potentially taken They could have reached out to Crystal Valley residents to gauge interest um in their charter school That is not something that is on the onus of the district That's that's the responsibility of the applicant um to show that demand And and to your third question and again I I can only speak as a
charter school founder and replicator myself Um but in American Academyy's last replication we had 1,800 letters of interest We did not have a site picked out um that we had but we had 1,800 letters um of interest for an opening 2 or 3 years down the road So it it it is you are able to get those if that community um interest is there it it is something that is achievable and
and that is what our charter applicants have been doing for a very long time Um so I don't know if that if if those things help but um from terms of capacity that uh Crystal Valley school is on the 6 to 10 year part of the master capital plan And should we get closer to the mark where um that's becoming something that we need one of the options that we have of course is to pass another bond And one of the options that we have is to put the elementary school site under an RFP for a
charter school at the time when it's needed for capacity I hope that helps Okay Thank you I um I actually have a quick question I know that we got a lot of um memos and such about a contingent uh a contingent offer Um and but one I I didn't hear anything about the world compass There was about a couple that had that didn't succeed Um but do we have any information about why perhaps
we did that with World Compass and how that was successful I don't know if you know that either the um the team did some research on World Compass which um I'm sorry I don't have it in front of me so I just need a second Um World Compass did receive a um approval with conditions I'm sorry I need a second here They received an approval with conditions um 12 years ago in 2013 We do not have
a record of how many letters of intent they had at that time Um and so but but they were um that was 12 years ago Certainly um the process in the last uh decade again including um my own experience um we we did we always do approvals that have milestones as part of them Um but it just depends on the starting place So if the school is not at a good starting place that approval with conditions
and it really should be called an approval with conditions rather than a conditional approval there's a significant difference An approval with conditions um means that we lay out milestones but if those milestones are not met you're going through a revocation process So it really is an approval It's not a conditional approval It's an actual approval um which is what has gotten uh our district in trouble in 2016 Um you know we we uh gave an approval with conditions to to
schools that were not prepared um and and not uh did not have the demand um to be ready to open and and those both as as like without being real specific became incredibly problematic um for the school district That same year in 2016 Renaissance Secondary was approved with 753 letters of intent and American Academyy's um replication that I already mentioned was approved with 820 1826 letters of intent Thank you Yeah I mean I obviously have personal concerns for
having no letters of intent Um but just thought I would ask the question Any other questions for Mr Moer Uh Director Moore Yeah I appreciate all the hard work on behalf of um the district Mr Moer and the superintendent and all the work you and the staff and the car team has put into this And I also appreciate all the hard work from Lehman Academy I mean I I really do like the Lehman
Academy campuses that that do exist right now I I want to acknowledge that they were the only of the charters that um at least in the application that I saw were willing to do center-based programming which I'm a big fan of having sat on the board for developmental pathways and and continuum of Colorado I I'm very um cognizant of that need and and how the ability to to have a local school that assists parents and stuff is a big deal So I want to acknowledge that I think that
was that's really important But I also am and very concerned of the of the uh lack of demand I I don't doubt that there will at some point be demand Not at all doubt that Um I just doubt the timing of the demand and and I'm very concerned about that Um and I I noticed that they're just a smidge underenrolled at the Bayou Gulch campus which really isn't that far away from Casserock as
it stands And so I think we should consider that that and again out of fairness there was a delayed opening of that school and it's now up and running and they're and they're starting to click on all cylinders and and I think um I my personal opinion is maybe we're just a little ahead of the where it would fit to to approve it as much as I would like to I just I do have those concerns So thank you If I could I I also was going to say and I I just missed it when I was going through but um
I want to say this this objective recommendation is nothing about the current school This the SSN program that partnership is lovely Um the students in the community there support their current schools They're doing they're doing great work for great families at the current schools This is an objective recommendation based on the application for another campus Director Thompson Yep Thank you I just want to echo the sentiments by Director Moore and Gordon as well Uh Leman serves the Parker community serves my community and
uh they do a great job at serving the community So I just want to note that And then I also appreciate the call out of center-based uh programming in the application Uh so I know that we've just you know the new center is new and I'm looking forward to seeing how well that that pans out Um and so you know I mean hopefully that will lead to future considerations But um but yeah just want to make sure that I'm making a positive note about Leman
Director Myers I just have one more question um the memo that we received from Superintendent Kaine Apex and the other one that we talked about were they new schools new applications Yes thank you for that question Director Myers They were new applications That is correct So when um and I'm sorry if I don't have the information on this when the and you talked about American Academy and Renaissance the first time around we were looking at seven
to 800 Um is that pretty much what's with our three schools now where look we want to look at those numbers coming in for in letters of intent Yeah I don't know if there's an exact number you know really It it all plays into the the budget I will say in those examples of Apex and Milestone I believe Milestone had over a thousand letters of intent um and failed to open Have we ever had a school a charter school in Douglas County that's an established
charter school like Lehman STEM or Renaissance that has not been able to follow through with their commitment to building or replicating Well uh thank you for that question The only schools in Douglas County that have replicated are um to date are Lehman Academy and American Academy So Lehman Academy um this board at staff's recommendation approved their replication in 2022 They had 951 letters of intent um at that time that their last replication was improved approved
um which is a good number and um and but of course experienced the delay as you said due to construction and the economy and all kinds of other things And I would like to echo that we love love love our partnership with Lehman on our center-based programming Um their programming is amazing and they are amazing to work with and they are a fantastic school Okay Thank you All right With that I'll take a motion
Uh so yeah I just wanted to make note I feel like there's some missing in the resolution So mostly under um right before school like times we mentioned school So I would just say that we would need to add a few those and I'll respond Can you hear me Yes I'll respond to that question That's just a question of form with respect to how a resolution is drafted Okay In some instances the
term 'the' in front of school is eliminated we're still referencing the school I don't think it's a substantive issue If however the board would prefer athe before school in those places that's perfectly fine If if it if that's fine then I'm okay with it Thank you doctor I move to adopt the resolution of the board of education regard denying the layman classical schools replication application
A second motion by Guyer second by Thompson Guyger I Meek I Moore I Meyers no Thompson I Williams I W we I passes 6 to one Moving on to STEM Thank you Um and again I don't want to go back through all of the previous slides Know that the same process applied All deadlines were met Um all
um you know the uh completeness was done The capacity interviews were done The staff recommendation was given to cabinet um formulated and then also delivered to the uh STEM school and they had the opportunity to either withdraw theirs or to move forward Again I I don't want to make I want to make sure I put that out there and and say um this this recommendation is not again a reflection on the current school Um STEM School Highlands Ranch is an amazing school in our district They have amazing families and and uh students who
support them You saw that at the first public hearing their current families and current uh students are are mostly um committed to that school and and uh they do have some uh academic performance that is exceedingly good They have done very well and they're a they have been good partners uh for the district That being said after objective review and the full process uh the recommendation from staff is again to deny the application for STEM school Highlands Ranch
This would be a prek5 building a a portion of their building they're already doing that would be moved to a new school So that is a replication Um no verifiable letters of intent were submitted There was no uh verification for sufficient demand There was not a geographic location that was identified and no viable school site had been selected um by the by the committee There was not a facilities plan submitted and again an application would be welcomed by STEM school
um when there is sufficient evidence of demand in alignment with our process Director Gger Mr Moer Um I think it's fair to say that STEM who I'm I mean people I care a great deal about are extraordinarily supportive both of STEM now and of the expansion Um and they're providing an excellent education It's fair to say that their proposal was essentially a build it and
they will come proposal that it is difficult in these days to prove demand without a propo without a without a clear approval or at least a approval with conditions Can you give me your opinion because I'm relying on people with more expertise than I about whether or not our current plan requiring sufficient letters of intent and direct clear facilities may need to change as as conditions change We're not in 2016 anymore or 2013 when everything got built Do you believe
that our current process still fairly evaluates the need for a school or the demand for school I would say that our current process aligns with the intent of charter schools not just in Colorado or in Douglas County but in the nation where parent demand drives everything So parent demand evidence of demand families committing to attend is what the foundational aspect of a charter school is And without those families or intents or commitments the budget doesn't work
the facilities plan doesn't work etc that that it's just a such a key component that drives everything else The demand has to be there in order for other things to work Okay STEM and to and to some extent Renaissance we'll talk about them in a minute both use their waiting lists and their denial rates as some evidence of parental demand Do you believe that is sufficient to show that a replication or an expansion would work Uh I mean if you current weight list of of current
weight list of STEM is that what you're asking me There's at the primary grade levels roughly 10 at each grade level I believe the current weight list would be 70 So even then with a that and and there's not a evidence that those families would then commit to going somewhere else The geographic location is key there Um charter schools don't provide transportation though it might be applicable for a family in Sterling Ranch to drive to the current STEM campus but if that campus was located in Northeast Parker or Castle Rock would I
there's we don't know if that family would commit through a letter of intent they might Thank you So I um I just want to say that one thing that I think STEM did well in their um application was that they did put a they're just asking for a longer timeline essentially Um but again without any intent to enroll currently but I just want to say I I appreciate the the longer timeline Director Myers a couple of things um you know what a couple of years ago we denied STEM and
I was quite impressed with their uh presentation this time I even felt like they had gone beyond just a STEM school with the arts and it appeared to be more of you know a variety for kids So um when there's h how can a school when you say no geographic locations but been identified and no viable school location does that mean it needs to be purchased No it doesn't need to be purchased
It but it helps as a family like we just talked about with where the school is is going to decide whether I can get there or not Right And when they go out and once if they were approved they are you know with some of those conditions that like the no verifiable letters of intent do um when they search for a bond then and they retain Isn't all of this like letters of intent They they cannot borrow money without proving that it's a um school that it's going to be a viable school
Yeah I can take that one Um yes they they they um bond holders and especially um the financers that financed one of the schools that we talked about before that did not open Um they were left with a school building and no one to pay for it So um yes the bond holders would absolutely demand letters of intent in order to approve um any kind of financing On the um location question
um it is important again uh as director Moer said it's driven by parent choice is right driven by parent demand And um so you would have to kind of figure out what general location um what general location you would want to be in So I I'm sorry to keep using my own example but it's my experience But for example you know with a we had a wait list of 3,000 We surveyed them to see where they would want to go and therefore we knew that we should apply to be in the Parker area and that that's
where we would need to find land to purchase which we did So that's kind of how how that piece would work You have to kind of see where that parent demand actually is I guess I'm I'll reiterate my concern is that because of a delay of neighborhood schools possibly Um I just wonder if we need if we're going to have to look at a charter school to fill in and maybe an LRPC could director Guyer
do they look into you know forward fast and and know I mean I know we've got growth areas I'm I'm near Crystal Valley I know something's coming in west of I25 and so my concern is you know these kids in Crystal Valley are going to what South Elementary if or if they're choosing World Compass Um maybe Castle Rock Elementary they're going there So do we anticipate South Elementary
and say Castle Rock Elementary a decline so that they will be able to handle Crystal Va Valley And I'm in Castle Rock So to me that's not a big drive from Crystal Valley to either one of those schools Yeah So the reason that we have located um the CA Crystal Valley neighborhood school in the sixyear 6 to 10 year part of the master capital plan is that we are 100% confident that we have capacity in um South Ridge and Rockidge in order to handle the population of Crystal Valley um up until the
time when uh a neighborhood school or a school could be constructed in the 6 to 10 year part of the master capital plan And not to prejudge but I've seen the draft of the master capital plan and it does appear that there is elementary school middle school and high school capacity in Castle Rock We also have six sites in South Castle Rock for building elementary schools So there is both site and capacity and range for further capacity Um looking out 10 years we're going to
need probably in the six to 10 year I think that's what long range planning committee does is look at those and look at those connections and when they make a recommendation and move for example canyons and crystal valley down to the six to 10 that's based almost purely on demographics What we're learning is that construction of housing does not have the same relationship to student generation that it did in the past some of the construction areas uh Crowoot Valley for example we are not
generating in some areas as many children as we would have in the past because they're 1.75 million houses Those don't generate students like they used to Um so you know obviously it changes We had to do that today but yeah that is exactly what the long-range planning committee does with the master capital plan Director Moore um couple comments First of all I you know I want to just say how much I appreciate all the hard work that stemmed in on their presentation and I I too was
impressed by their presentation And I am a huge fan of school choice I love for parents to be able to have opportunities to pick what they think best best fits the needs of their kid or or their child or the future aspirations they may have And so I'm a big school choice choice fan I I love the STEM model I have a daughter who's well she's not going to be an engineer but she graduated as an engineer but she wants to do something different but I love the I love the context of what they teach I love the classical model when I love the expeditionary learning model
I love I love the choices and I I appreciate all these schools putting this work into this Um I am concerned about the lack of uh one of the core tenants that we have to have to be able to approve these which is the kind of the verifiable uh demand from the community Um although again I do not doubt that there will be demand at some point for a STEM school in s in southern Douglas County I just feel like maybe we're a little ahead of the curve But that said
um one of the things that I I was curious about in the STEM application and I wasn't sure because I'm new to this how how this resonates or if this is normal but they talked about having the current board of the current STEM school in Highland Ranch be the board of the new school if it was replicated Is that customary Is that common or is that unique in this situation Are other or other replicated campuses operate under that model as well Yes Okay Um I appreciate that And
um if I remember right my notes are a little sketchy here I was sick at the time when I was writing so I apologize But STEM was one of the the applicants that said "Hey consider a conditional approval if I remember right based on their extended timeline." And I I know from a little side bit of information but I don't have all the facts I know we've had
some experience with conditional applications in the past on charters and I don't know how that's worked out for us as a general rule And I just wondered if you could just provide me a little bit of insight What Nothing Okay It's not good Sorry they they were messing with me Is that a question Sure Go ahead Thank you I just want to add on to your question because um we received an email from Matt um which Matt you're a great communicator um and a good marketing person
Um but the comment that they left or he had made in this was you know about meeting the milestones that they would withdraw the application and um so I'm just curious just adding on to uh uh Director Moore's question and then also addressing um how how that would work based off of what we know so far about approval with conditions And Director Thompson I appreciate that because that's where I was going to go next on the process of if we were to give a conditional
approval Again I wanted to know how that's worked out in the past but if we were to do it and there was a milestone not met would it met would it require us to go through the process of um the formal process of denying or you know withdrawing or not not not a withdrawal but I forget what I'm thinking of the wrong word Revocation Yeah I'm missing Sorry my thesaurus mind isn't clicking tonight So anyway Mr Moer thank you I can handle that one Um yeah so the the answer is
uh yes any approval with conditions voted on by the board is considered an approval And so if one of those milestones or conditions are not met that has to then go through the revocation process What what is our history with these or have we done these in the past or am I just mistaken No that would be the examples of Apex and Milestone where the district actually had was brought in and went into litigation as a responsible party for the purchase of the property Did
we do revocations on those have to do that Only one of them right Because the other one withdrew right This is not Have we had success with any World Compass World Compass Okay In 2013 Okay All right Thank you I would say World Compass was approved just approved and then came back to the district and said we are not able to open and worked with the district to then create those milestones as a approval with conditions as an extended
on-ramp because they were not able to meet the original intent of the application I'm so torn I think there is at some point not just space but long-term demand for a STEM school on the east side of I25 And with you know full consideration I was invited and spent a lovely morning at STEM a couple weeks ago Um they're doing a great job and they're their recovery
from the tragedy has been extraordinary Um and that's that's a great school there and I am so impressed with what they've done and what they're doing which is why I've asked these questions I I I find it possible to believe that there would be demand on the west on the east side of I25 Um the question is whether we are premature at this time with this and I appreciate Mr Moer at some point and I've been very clear about this I'm not an educator At some point I
have to rely on the expertise of the district and I appreciate you answering my questions Okay then I will ask for a motion I'm gonna let you do it because you did a great job uh proposing it for a denial for a vote So I'll let you Brad
At this time I move to adopt the proposed resolution denying the expansion the replication of STEM Academy at this time as written by the district Second motion by Guyer second by Thompson Guyger I Meek I Moore I Meyers I Thompson I Williams no weer I passes six to
one All right moving into the last one Renaissance Thank you Um and again just reiteration of the um the differences here This one is a a new application Um I know that there was some discussion back and forth about the you know reasoning behind that and how is different um from uh Global Village Hopefully I explained a little bit of that difference tonight the location the address is the the the key factor Also the um the
piece here that Renaissance has not as authorized by this board operated a preK5 and so therefore is a new program at a new site which by definition of our process is a new school So that's why it's a new charter application to you Um I want to again say you heard from families uh current families speaking in support tonight Um you heard from uh some community members who came out and spake spoke very favorable of their current school um and talking about the great things
that that school does for their community I would agree with those things that the Renaissance is a is a fantastic school is a great school in our portfolio They meet the meet needs of their parent community at a high demand in that um in that secondary model They um have been there multiple times as I'm sure many of you have as well It is a great feel All of the things happening at the secondary school are fantastic This again is an objective review of the application by cart pushed to staff and then staff's recommendation to you based on the ability and
the staff's recommendation for them to operate a new campus at a new location in those grade levels So staff recommendation for the application for Renaissance PreK12 Again this is just the preK5 portion I said this in the beginning piece This has nothing to do with their gym expansion The gym expansion is their current physical address It is not a change in program The gym expansion can move forward without any action of the board Uh that has been conveyed to them as well But for
the prek5 school that they have applied to in a new location the recommendation is to deny that application based on again letters of intent were submitted but they're insufficient to support an economically sound charter school Uh there's not a viable school location there that's been selected but the applicant has identified a geographic region which is a a better step of Castle Rock and has engaged with an architectural firm I I hope you saw that in the first uh presentation
Those were attached a very comprehensive plan um and multiple designs and features of that They have done some of that work which is uh commendable The assumption that the weight list of Renaissance Elementary Magnus School which is a district managed Magna School will transfer is not warranted We don't know that We don't we cannot make that assumption that those will demand that demand will come over the intents to enroll those are different right and so that weight list is not a a viable source to say we know that if we build something else in a different location those
students will come over and again an application would be welcome in the future when there's demonstration of demand that has been demonstrated uh for a prek5 addition to Renaissance Director Myers So I guess if I was to look at a school and a place I would immediately think Crystal Valley because with the the last board meeting and this board meeting with the number
of pe kids parents teachers that supported Renaissance Um and I and I understand I know it's a little bit different than a you know than Lehman a classical school in STEM but um that's I guess where I would ask um maybe Renaissance that they had reached out to Crystal Valley and I know that you said right here the the weight list of Renaissance Elementary Magnet School is did they
reach were they able to read out reach out to that waist weight waistlet I'm sorry Wait list Uh there was a u there was an ask and a coral request for the um numbers and then also the names and that is not something that we share We don't share student identified names We did give the numbers Yes Um I would add that the majority of the elementary students in Crystal Valley currently attend a charter school World Compass Academy How many 293 currently
attend World Compass Academy And that makes up about um 40% of World Compass Academyy's total enrollment Um so yes Director Guyger Um we've talked about the gym expansion Can Renaissance buy a location in say Crowoot Valley and build a gym that doesn't change who they educate It's just an offsite gym Do they need our approval to do
that If they if they're if they're building a facility that's not on their current site but that is not used for educational purposes but for recreational purposes do they need our approval to do that I would have to defer to general counsel on that one like an application Obviously there's no clear answer to that question in the statute and I'm not inclined to provide legal advice or conclusions in an open session of the board but would certainly
be happy to respond to that in a memo to the board of education I would appreciate that either for now or the future I again we're talking about a non-educational facility You turned your mic off You mean the light needs to be on for people to hear me Finally learning that lesson after year and a half So no I would if if general counsel could look into what constitutes an educational facility I think would be the question Sure We'd be happy to look into that question and provide
a memo to the board Thank you Superintendent Kane Yeah I would just add that something like that uh we would make as easy as we possibly could under the current board policy So it's just all about what the board policy would require and something that probably wasn't contemplated when you all last approved the board policy So but something like that should be made as easy as possible Director Wineer Um I would say with this application um the demand part was the hardest
um part for me to wrap my head around cuz I understand that letters of intent are a big driver of what's showing demand and I understand where just cuz there's a weight list which is it accurate that about two out of every three kids are weight listed at Renaissance Elementary Do you know if that's accurate um because I believe I heard a public commenter mention that Correct Um it was uh roughly 44% of the enrollments So applications to enrollments Gotcha Yeah And I feel like
that is a a big demonstration of demand for um more elementary level for Renaissance And um this is like one where I could see an approval with conditions more so because we could try to give them that opportunity to provide those hard letters of intent and we already have a relationship with Renaissance So um this one I am struggling with and just if any other directors have thoughts around that um I'd be welcome to hear them Director Meek Yeah So first I just want
to thank everyone that showed up tonight to give public comment and to share your personal stories on this option and what it means to you And it's clear it's a wonderful choice for families that that meets a demand And I've just been sitting here struggling with all three choices because of the letter of intent and making sure that we have the demand that is needed especially I I just think our district is in a very different situation today than it has been in the past
when we're a growing district and we were looking to add additional choices and additional schools Um having just gone through the consolidation process and having heard our community members um express frustration with a lack of planning when there are more schools than are needed Um I that's that's really my area where I'm really trying to balance and and so I think Director Wineer raises a good point around the demand piece with the
um whether or not the Renaissance PK5 um would translate you know for for letters of intent And maybe if you could just expand on why you don't feel like that really works Um I would say you know this is it's a kind of a general recognized practice This is something that across the state you know letters of intent are they're they're difficult good and bad ways
Um because again we're talking about committing for a school that's not built that's maybe 2 or 3 years out in a location that I'm not 100% cons certain about So it should be easier to generate way more letters of interest than you will need to open that that demand that interest just to say would you welcome another preK5 expeditionary learning school Would you attend if there was that option those letters of intent we would expect would be much higher And that that's
something from experts in the in the charter authorization field We've got um we know through looking at state and also national data that it's it's roughly a 15 to1 letter of intent to an actual enrollment That's not to say that that that 250ish or 265 I think they said tonight is going to translate to an automatic division of 15 to that 12 or 14 whatever that is mathematically But it's to say that's a good rule of thumb that most authorizers in CAXA and also in NASA the
national organization recognize that you're going to get a lot of interest You heard Superintendent Kane talk about 1,800 then translating into what 6 or 700 at opening Um we should see a much higher interest level than half of the enrollment So to be clear do we as a district require 15 times the amount of students We do not require that but it plays into the discussion
It's one of the elements of discussion of is there sufficient demand Yeah I mean um going off of what Director Wearer says I I mean I would definitely advocate for um a conditional approval for um I'm sorry approval with conditions um for Renaissance Um but that's just me So Director Meek so I I guess a question for the superintendent um the terminology there
conditional approval versus approval with conditions Does the approval with conditions still carry the same um potential lawsuits and challenges and cuz I know we have a history in the past where um it has created legal entanglements and there have been lawsuits or we've lost land you know different situations have happened So I think understanding that a little bit better would help me Sure And so I'm going to take this rather than um our general counsel that I am not
providing uh legal advice but um what has been termed an approval or a conditional approval in the past has actually been on approval with conditions There is no such thing as a conditional approval It's an approval that has conditions now in the past whatever um under the uh so it's an approval that has conditions and if those conditions aren't met then it is uh the onus is on the board of education to revoke that charter because it is um it is an approval
and and um it is that that uh has provided challenges in the past So there's no change We're just using clearer clearer terminology that there is no such thing as a conditional approval It's an approval with conditions So it still raises legal challenges potentially that could happen in the future where again not only are we in a situation where we are you know had to consolidate
schools but our finances are very tight and to put ourselves in a situation where we know there's a a chance that we're going to have lawsuits in the future I I'm not sure that's a a good legal risk to take Yeah The only thing I would say to that is that we we do have a a good relationship with that charter that they are already an existing charter so they have a proven track record And so that's what I would use It's not a brand new school with people that we've never worked with
Director Thompson Yeah I think what I'm struggling with is you know if we're holding the first two applicants to the standard of sufficient support um and then we apply a different standard to a different charter school that that's problematic Um and I I'm concerned that that is bad optics Um additionally like you know I wasn't here for the last meeting so I didn't have the opportunity to ask uh during their presentation uh was how they generated letters of interest um because you
know I know I personally received an email about my own kids uh for this charter school and so I know that there was a a list that they sent out to the entire school district is what I would assume and that generated um the number of uh letters that they shared uh for this which is around 200 And so I just um with that said you know that that is at least a substantial amount of outreach um with little return in my opinion Um now I understand and I really appreciated the community
comments tonight Renaissance has built a beautiful community it is evident um not only by uh staff um and parents but I found what the students had to say tonight extremely compelling but I also feel like we have to do our due diligence as leaders in this community that while we have three amazing schools in front of us I mean that's why we're all struggling right now I can't imagine how difficult this conversation has been for Gordon Um we want them to succeed if they're going to open in our district Like we want them to be successful Um and I think letters
of intent is a low bar to prove that you can be successful in opening and having the demand that you need to be a successful school and financially viable Um again this is a hard criticism to give um because I have a very fond opinion Um but I feel like we you know our feelings aside and our opinions aside of these three very different uh wonderful uh schools with very unique curriculum um we do still need to be responsible about how we make decisions within this district and I
think it's only fair to apply the same standard across the board Director Meek Yeah And I'm I'm not sure we received any public comment from families on the wait list for the PK5 Did we hear any from the weight list Cuz I am sitting here trying to decide does it translate right Is is that a reason to believe that those numbers can be achieved But I I don't think we we heard from
anyone on that weight list So we did hear from um a future parent with young kids We did have one comment As I understand it we're on a timeline for making this decision Correct We once the application comes in we have to make a decision one way or the other essentially by today Correct Um I believe it's in Yeah June 1st is
it's in our LBDR1 I believe it's June 1 Yes Okay Is there any way to extend that deadline I mean we could we could vote on that as a board to table it until our next meeting I mean that is a decision we could make is it not The the deadlines are statutory I believe it would have to be mutually agreed upon between the applicant and the board So we would have to have that negotiated between both parties for mutual
agreement I am concerned about trying to write conditions on the dis without discussing them with them That's why I'm asking this question I'm not sure that I'm in favor of a condition of an approval with conditions or not I am afraid I am concerned about negotiating those from the dis and that's my concern If we weren't up against the deadline right now I might have a different opinion about that Um and but we do have my legal opinion about whether or not we
can do it but I can't give advice to I mean there are people from Renaissance here I mean I'm sure that they could make an agreement if we as a board decided that was the route we wanted to go Well are is the implying party here That's what I need to know Yes she is here Director Moore Mr Moer thank you for all the work on this Um I know that Renaissance Elementary the Magnus School is here in Castle Rock And I know that you
made a point and it's a fair point that you can't necessarily equate a weight list for that school to translate that those students would go to the new school especially when it's a couple years out from opening Um but it is an interesting argument um when there is that weight list Um looking at the numbers just so I understand this for the PK through 5 application they had
roughly 260 pieces of intent or interest or items of interest for roughly 500 estimated 500 enrollment maximum enrollment for that school So roughly half 50% or close to that Yes And then currently current enrollment for the K because they intend to be preK through 12 if if approved
Correct This school eventually or the between the two campuses My understanding on it would be the combination into one contract And so it would be a authorization of a the preK5 would join with the 612 under one charter contract And so it would be a prek12 one contract Yes Okay And they have currently enrolled at 440 of their planned roughly 669
Excuse me Does that sound accurate that they're for the K through or 6 through 12 campus The 6 through 12 campus they roughly enrolled at about 440 students of the al of the maximum 669 they could have I I don't know that offhand I they don't use our um enrollment tool So I don't know what their enrollment or weight list is at grade levels Okay Um M I get I have the option of asking Was there a site Thank you It's in here and
I the issue unless I um Thank you though Um and was there a site identified that I can't remember There's not a current site There was I believe three different acreage parcels identified but I don't none of that was binding It was we're looking we're exploring geographic area target you know targeting Castle Rock region looking at these types of parcels Okay Huh
Okay All right Thank you very much I'm sorry Um Council Cle I would just like to point out with respect to some questions raised related to the timeline question policy LBDR1 provides a timeline for the date by which a board of education needs to make a decision on an application And that date is June 30th Um it's on page nine of LBDR1 and it's item number
12 which states that the district's board of education will make its decision by resolution on the application in a public hearing upon reasonable public notice by June 30th consistent with Colorado law And that is the response to a DCSD charter school application procedure And it's my understanding that that application procedure would apply in this situation Director Thompson thank you Um quick question just to clarify uh they had mentioned the weight list
um that they currently have um or they're experiencing this year And what grades is that for They currently operate 6 through 12 Okay So the weight list for 6 through 12 won't translate to preK through 5 So I just want to make sure that we're really clear on that and that um if we're deciding to hold this this this school application to a different standard it's based off of um you know 200 and some letters of interest So again I'm just advocating for fairness um with all
of our applicants um and that we're holding them to the same standards Um just for clarity I think we were translating the magnet school weight list to this enrollment number Yeah and and may I sure I am not clear about the relationship between the magnet school and Renaissance RSS um I know that there's some relationship I know they have the same learning process can you explain that to me please I can do uh some so the the Magna school is again a K K6 there is an overlap at the six grade
level um one key difference that was discussed during I believe the capacity interview was uh the reading and the curriculum used So our current magnet school uses uh our district um our district wonders and benchmark and I'm not sure which one of those magn benchmark thank you uses Uh the proposal for the academic programming would be they would choose to use true e um literacy uh programming the curriculum would be e driven and not in uh that would be a difference
you know it wouldn't be aligned to the district where you have um at the magnet school a district operated curriculum set so am I understanding correctly there's not a onetoone correlation between what a parent might want at the magnet school as opposed to what a parent might want at the proposed expansion in terms of curriculum in terms of one yeah curriculum definitely not um expeditionary learning elements e elements I believe there would be consistency there There's differencing in in cost for to parents There's differencing in um number of of excursions or
voyages that are offered at grade levels But the the thematic piece of e is pretty consistent between the two So that did that lead in was that part of the consideration of part of your recommendation is the assumption that the weight list of Renaissance Elementary Magnet School will transfer to enrollment that disconnect in curriculum Was that part of the of the district experts consideration in reaching that recommendation I would say that was definitely considered by CART Yes Thank you Director Moore I'm sorry Director Meek So did I hear we have till
June 30th to make this decision And so would it make sense to table this till June 10th in order to allow further conversation on what conditions may be put before us instead of trying to hammer something out now And that was my question I just wanted to understand the what we would gain by tableing it So thank you for clarifying Just I would not feel comfortable voting on anything
that's contingent without really hammering that out and going into it with clarity All right Thank you Director Guyer I sorry if this is kind of a lawyer conversation Um the pluses of tableabling it are of course to allow us as a district to discuss what a condition what conditions might
be acceptable to renaissance Um and I would trust Mr Moer to have that discussion The downside of course is that we have to I think we would have to at least explain why we are considering this differently for Renaissance than we did for STEM Um I think that can be done but I think we need to be consistent in our thought process Um and also I mean the negotiation of conditions I think is going to be complicated Um and so I think I you know we're under we're under deadline June 10th
essentially our final call on this Um and I'm just I've got to say I'm going back and forth Um especially given recommendations from experts that I trust So the only way procedurally to do it is to table it I'm not saying whether or not I'm in favor or against that at this point All right With that I'll entertain a a motion of any sort There's leadership for you
I motion to table the decision around Renaissance PK through 12 application until our June 10th board meeting Can I Hold on I I I actually need to ask for a second and then we can discuss more Is there a second for that Second Okay Motion by Weer and seconded by Meyers for a tableabling until the June 10th Go ahead director Moore Quick question How would
the discussion occur Who would handle that discussion and how would that work Do we know So um if the board of education is directing staff to go back and create a conditional a a an approval with conditions resolution that would be acceptable to all parties then that would need to be a a direction to staff I think that would be the
um best way to do it Um I don't I don't know if council does that sound reasonable I believe that excuse me I believe that's reasonable Um there has not yet been action taken on the staff's recommendation with respect to this charter school So I think that if there is action to be taken at the next board meeting it would be consideration of both the staff's
recommendation as well as consideration of an alternative resolution Okay So then that that means we would be directing the district to come back with two different separate resolutions one that contains the um the current resolution and then another one that would have potential approval with conditions Is that correct That is correct Okay So do we want to amend the motion to
include the staff direction piece or do we do that second No there's only one motion I don't think it encompassed staff direction They can encompass tableabling it but not staff direction to work on it on our behalf I just want to make sure whatever we we vote on is correct So um do we can we can we amend the the well not amend but could we just add a friendly amendment
to the tableing with the with the ask that the district comes back with a separate resolution It is my understanding that you could amend the motion to include a friendly amendment if one of the board members elects to make that amendment to the motion Okay So would you accept that amendment Director Wineer What is the amendment to to ask the district to come back with a potential resolution Yes And would you are you also Okay All right So we have a motion on the table to table this until our June 10th meeting So
I will roll call this Um sorry Motion by Wineer second by Meyers So Guyger I I Meek So I think what I would add to this is encourage the school to do more research as well to bring back any data that could help us with decision making on the 10th Um and so with that I
Moore I Meyers I Thompson out of fairness and consistency in decisionm um and that we're not affording the same opportunity to our other applicants I'm a no Williams I Wineer I All right That passes 6 to one Thank you very much All right moving on to our next presentation Um I'm I think I saw Commissioner Teal here Yes And
um so we will go ahead and invite you up I just want to clarify that this uh presentation is for um the board of education to understand potential impacts uh that home rule would have and that this is an informative presentation and it's not advocating either way Oh and I also see Commissioner Van Winkle as well I'm sorry And then if you want to introduce I'm not sure who else is here Yeah All right Just
say go Go All right Hey folks I'm George Teal I'm one of your three Douglas County Commissioners I'm joined this evening by my colleague Kevin Van Winkle as well as the uh county attorney Jeff Garcia Uh the presentation uh Jeff is going to give will be the lion share of the presentation until we go to questions and attempt to answer the questions you have Uh I hope you will find this presentation as compelling as I found it and the facts that are within it Um uh I would
hope uh what you're going to see you know you're not going to see as advocacy These are the this is the legal analysis that um did convince the county commissioners to move towards the home rule process and begin it It is also the legal analysis that won the support of every county elected official in Douglas County I hope you will find it thoughtprovoking I hope you will find it convincing I hope you will earn your support I will tell you right now for the process but of
course uh Christie I I Madam President I leave that to you to have that discussion with your board Without further ado if it please the board uh County Attorney Jeffrey Garcia Thank you sir Thank you and thank you for having me tonight Um home rule is a um a big topic right now Everyone in the county is talking about it I think it will be a major change for the county a major improvement for the county but also a big change for the the state So I would like to be able to provide as much information as I can Um I think it probably will become a lawyer conversation but um
I'll try to keep it as uh entertaining as possible So as of today um there are only four counties in Colorado that are home rule counties Weld County and Pitkin are the only straight home rule counties Uh Denver and Broomfield are home rule city and counties the other 60 counties including Douglas County or what you'd call a statutory county or that is to say when the state makes a law it governs um Douglas County There are some definite advantages to becoming a whole county
Um it allows you to distinguish the county from the state allows the county to opt out of certain uh state regulations It does permit the county ret to retain all of the authority that it has today So if we became a home rule uh county tomorrow we would still have all the authority that we have to do all the things we do today You obtain authority that only exists for home rule counties You get to design the county government increase financial powers and create unique laws that meet the specific needs of Douglas County There are disadvantages Um it requires two state or two
countywide elections There is a lot of work and part of this because you represent so many families in Colorado in Douglas County Um you'll be asked to be part of this Um you'll have people come up to you because you interact with them all the time and they'll say what's home rule about and I have some ideas and I want to make sure my family's um being protected by this So you'll be asked to be part of this There is widespread misunderstanding The last time this was done was about 50 years ago This is not a traffic law or a a tort law that you see and use every day
These are unique laws that are rarely used and most people haven't seen them and most people that we talk to don't know what a home rule county is So there's a lot of misinformation out there If you go to social media you'll find all kinds of it Go on to any social media and uh search home rule and you'll find a bunch of halftruths I'm really happy that we have the opportunity today so we can find out a little bit straight from the law And everything I do today I'm going to site straight to statutes So if you'd like to look it up yourself you can Nothing that's being done is uh new or unique because of Douglas County In 1970 uh the state constitution was changed
um to allow uh home rules uh uh home rule counties and that's article 14 section 16 It prescribes a nine-step process and requires 21 members of the community to become charter commissioners and represent their um portions of the county So a question that we get pretty frequently is can this be done before the November election Yes it can be done before the November election This schedule uh explains that However it does create a huge amount of work in a uh period of time There will
be a big chunk chunk of time that will really be crunch time In the event that that doesn't work out you'll be able to move it to a separate special election But being uh conservative and thoughtful of tax dollars we are trying to get it involved in that uh November general election So there won't be additional costs nine-step process So the first two steps have already occurred on March 25th Um there was an initial resolution by the board of county commissioners um stating that there would be a June 24th uh election for home rule at that time There was
also a second resolution passed that divides the county When you're speaking to your constituents when you're speaking to your colleagues they may ask about the districts It's the same district you have for your county commissioner So if you're in district three you're in district three If you're in district two you're in district two for this You may have read in the papers and I'm going to talk a lot about things that you've seen in the news whether it's lawsuits were involved in or uh just news um that's out there that either of these were done in violation of the open meetings law That's incorrect We have a judge ruling uh came out last week that said everything on this
has been um above board and transparent and there was no open meetings violation So uh there will be a June 24th election I've seen a big pallet of uh ballots They're going to be mailed out next Monday On those ballots you're going to be asked two questions One should you create a home rule charter commission That's just the beginning of the work Then who should be on that commission So if you have someone ask you even if you vote no to the charter commission you can still vote for the the people that you like And there's going to be two sets They'll be at large and you get to vote
for three at large members Everyone in the county gets to do that And then the district you live in you're allowed to vote for six district members This is a little bit unique Some districts have uh 10 people running some people have 12 but you get to circle in 10 three for the at large Questions came about why do you want a uh special election Well first off the law talks about a special election It recommends it in the process But if you didn't do a special election you went uh November to November it would be a whole two years before you became a um a home rule charter
uh county And that being said our ch our leaders in Douglas County wanted to start the process They wanted to get the work beginning and they wanted to get the public involved So after the election and there is a charter commission seated they'll elect officers they'll adopt rules they'll schedule meetings All the meetings of the home rule charter commission are open to the public anyone can come in watch them debate watch them talk about the work that needs to be done talk about the things that are going to be added to the um the charter In subsequent meetings there'll be
a ultimately a draft charter created There'll be a document This document will be put in the newspaper It will be put on the website for the the county It will be put links to it will be on social media Those things are required by law We have to provide that notice so that everyone has a clear understanding of it And then there'll be three public um comment uh sections So even if you weren't one of the elected 21 or you weren't someone who was talking to the 21 you can walk into that room and have a conversation with the charter commission Um those meetings
can be 15 minutes Those meetings can be 15 hours Everyone in the county will have the opportunity to talk about what's going to be included in that charter One of the um interesting questions that we get is that when Weld County became a whole new county they had 36 meetings So the question is why are we only doing three Well that's the statutory requirement Today we did two I just came from one in Highlands Ranch but I believe this is our 16th or 17th meeting So getting to 36 will be very easy But things are different than they were 50 years ago when Weld County um became
a home rule count uh county They didn't have the internet They didn't have cell phones They didn't have Teams meetings They didn't have Zoom links There is already if you go to the Douglas County um website there's already a portal where you can submit ideas for this charter commission If you have something that's unique that is special to you or special to your constituents put it up there The charter commission will um hear about it Multiple on the same issue is a good thing They'll see that there's a need in the community Um they'll consider and figure out how to best incorporate that into the charter after there's a final draft after the charter commission has
put together the final version if certain legal requirements are met it'll move forward to the uh board of county commissioners and they will move it forward to a second election That final um charter will be voted on by the people of Douglas County It's not a menu You don't get to say "I like section A but not section C and D." This question will be do you adopt the entire charter if they it is adopted by the um majority of uh Douglas County voters it will take effect January 1st if it is in the general election So one of the bits of misinformation that we
hear a lot of is it really worth the work Are you actually getting something out of this And I'm going to talk about some of the different um authority and powers that the county gets but it is definitely worth the work but it is a great deal of work um explicit statutory powers exist So as I said earlier everything we're able to do today if we became a home rule charter uh county tomorrow we would still be able to do that In fact we're required to do it So we still have to have a sheriff's department we still have to department of human services planning those functions still
have to occur This is all about adding more the county being able to do more for its residents You get to uh develop the structure of government and then um the right to contract This is unique right to contract that the county doesn't currently have And if you read in the papers about two years ago we got into a little bit of a tiff with the um the state about whether or not our sheriffs could assist ICE And one of the things the question was is could we sign what's called a 20 uh 287g agreement which permits um our sheriffs to use their uh the jail and to cooperate and provide
information to ICE This would provide us a unique ability to contract with um the federal government Also under 3035201 there's 47 unique um uh bits of authority that exist only for a home rule uh county These are not requirements They are things that you can add to the the charter um that that we couldn't do today So these are things that we couldn't do um until we become a home rule uh authority Um explicit statutory exceptions So those are the things that we can do that we
couldn't do before these are the things that we no longer have to do So um one of the ones that um if you followed us in the news you'll see that we got into a um a legal dispute about um unionization of our sheriffs there was a a movement to unionize the sheriffs A part of that is a a law called COPKA and it moved the representation of the the sheriffs and the collective bargaining and the agreement of how to um who is the employer of the sheriffs to the board of county commissioners We didn't like that We have a really great sheriff Darren Weekly We thought he was the person who
should be in charge of that and we got into an argument with the state about that That argument is continuing It's cost us thousands and thousands of dollars My office was involved If we were a um home rule uh county we would just not have it The law says you don't have to follow this So implied exceptions You may have heard about this case in social media or on the news There's a case called League of Women Voters of Gley versus the Board of County Commissioners for Weld County And there was a disagreement about whether or not Weld County could use its own
means of redistricting Ultimately Weld County lost but it gave us a test And that's the really great thing It says when it comes to the structure of the county you can do whatever you like But when it comes to regulating internal affairs of the county you can only um uh address those things that are specific and within Douglas County So let's talk about the the the question in the room Could we do anything to regulate um the school board No because the school board extends beyond Douglas County right You have you have schools that are outside of Douglas County So we couldn't
do anything in that in the home world charter But could we within ourselves make commitments to the the school board or regulate the how the county interacts with the school board Yes we could Other one that comes about is a case called Glennwood v Glennwood And in Glennwood v Glennwood the question came about whether or not the state can tell you how to manage local affairs if you're a home rule And the answer was again no So the state can regulate things that are matters of state concern but local concern things that relate to Douglas County are there for Douglas County to
um regulate Now this is one I think is really important It's called it's discretionary authority It's those ordinances that don't exist at the state level So if there's no state law about something you can include it in the home roll charter This is really important when you think about things that are identity to Douglas County Douglas County has about 51% uh open space Open space is a big part of Douglas County We have a good board right now and they spend money and they buy open space and they present in Colorado charter commission but they can start with
whatever they like and they can exclude all of these or in garter commission but they can start with whatever they like and they can exclude all of these or include them all These are things that people have brought up in these kind of meetings Maybe we don't want a state minimum wage Maybe we want our own election laws Maybe we want um parental rights being preserved There is a road map So if the comment comes about that Douglas County is doing something unique we're not Nothing's being invented here The state has created since 1970 a road map of how to do this
Starts off with the constitution We have to meet those mandatory requirements Form and structure of government How many uh county commissioners are there Who's appointed who's elected explicit uh uh additional powers all those things that we couldn't do today but we could do tomorrow for your home rule those need to be in there Finance and debt opting out of state regulation and those discretionary uh things that make Douglas County um what Douglas County is how you identify that and how you preserve that I've heard this described as um a power grab or that it's a way to
consolidate power It it's really not It's actually limits the power of government and and requires government to follow a path that the voters of Douglas County have made for it And hopefully if this moves forward Douglas County will be able to identify what is important to it and preserve that And I think that's all I have I would um open it up for the commissioners to give a word or two Well thank you Jeff and thank you all for giving us a time I know is a very long meeting and you
are accustomed to those but this is a very important topic for the future of Douglas County Uh Douglas County not that long ago the school board really was well ahead of the rest of the county in adopting kind of Douglas County specific goals and principles and um boundaries I think our school district was formed like back in the 1950s or something which is well ahead Our judicial department didn't get started even off the ground until in fact when I was in the state house representative passed uh house bill 201026 to form a judicial
district specifically here in Douglas County Our health district didn't start until our county commissioners led the way and did uh create a health district specifically for Douglas County Our carro constitution has given us the citizens of Douglas County a way to further expand upon our um structure upon our independence and upon our vision for what we think Douglas County ought to be especially when it differs somewhat from um the policies coming out of Denver which I have extensive knowledge with Um I don't want to take a lot of time I do want to save time for
comments We do have Commissioner Abladen He's chairman of the board of county commissioners online and also want to thank Jeff uh forgiving of his time Uh Jeff comes to us from actually the city and county of Denver where he was the city and county attorney there Um of course one of the home rule municipalities and given the extensive research he has done on home rule He is the um foremost legal expert in the state of Colorado when it comes to home roll So I'm glad he's here And any question that uh myself George or Abe online can't answer um he again is the state's
foremost expert on the the laws regarding um home rule and what the constitution says about it So with that is there a way we could possibly get um Chairman Aen to address the board I'm not sure who runs Guys I'm online I'll test the mic right now You can hear me We can go ahead Okay great Well what an honor Thank you so much to the board of education um and all of the staff and and citizens in attendance I'm deeply appreciative of the opportunity to uh address all of you And I
have to admit school is out and I just made dinner for my kids and have a seven-year-old that needs a bedtime soon So we're doing a little bit of double duty tonight But just listening to your meeting um this entire time you all do such great work and are phenomenal servants and youres you make for the citizens of Douglas County all of you So thank you for that Um you know I try to keep home rule very simple and and first and foremost you know this board has had about 16 or 17 public meetings
uh very transparent accountable and trying to really provide that legal framework as objectively as possible and give every opportunity for citizens to ask questions and get those answered Um a judge has recently affirmed uh that all of those meetings have been perfectly legal and what we're doing is educating the public and giving folks an opportunity to do one very simple thing and it's called local control And so what I like to do is just pose the the rhetorical questions You got great legal background but to be very specific the question for our citizens and for
the board of education might be did we appreciate what the state did during the pandemic Did we appreciate and approve what the state has done with illegal immigration Are we pleased with what the state has done with property taxes And are we comfortable with where the state has been on homelessness and public safety So I invite you and every citizen to answer those questions for themselves But at the end of the day I just couldn't uh be more supportive of the leadership of Commissioner Van Winkle and particularly Commissioner Teal who has really spearheaded
this initiative and has been talking about it um for many years because again every municipality in Douglas County already is home This is not a UFO Um but it certainly does give u municipalities in the county a greater degree of of autonomy and independence and freedom when it comes to um that local authority So with that thank you again and I'll turn it back over to my colleagues Are you ready for questions You bet Yeah And I think the the one thing we're blessed to be able
to give a presentation such as this and take as much feedback as possible but really this all comes down to the voters The voters have two fully separate elections uh to say yes um to this to say who they want those 21 members to be to go away in the summertime like our founding fathers did and form essentially a county constitution and it is all up to the voters um at any point they can say no uh on June 24th or they can say no in November or they can say yes with that please
Yeah Okay first of all thank you guys for coming I know that we had you slated a little bit earlier and some of our conversations went longer so I appreciate you guys hanging around No that that never happens to us So um I I know you can't give us because the charter is not written like how things would work but I would like to know like the extremes of these specific questions I'm going to ask one around um safety and security I think we've heard a lot about how
this would impact safety and security within uh the schools and the second is land And then the third just sparked because you talked about uh union and so could could it either way yes or no I mean I don't need you to tell me you know what you want but just how it could go if those three things So the union safety and security and land All right Union unions Um COPKA the what was referenced by the attorney in the presentation that does not pertain as it will only pertain to
county employees because uh if I recall properly in the formulation of that law uh the schools very early opted themselves out of the formulation of that law as well as the universities So that law would not have any pertain uh would not pertain at all to any union activity in the county outside of the county employees Thank you School safety Uh what are your ideas It is something that we can
we already know that in our current environment we are able to partner with you when it comes to school security We partnered with you for the resource officers and we partnered up with you guys uh when it came to physical security of schools So what do you guys want And that'll be very important in this process Now um as as a person who is running to be on uh the uh charter commission I'm all ears I want to hear what your guys' thoughts are
Um uh I have nothing set in stone right now Uh for me I can't speak for the other 57 people that are running right now I think that is an excellent question to ask of them Uh and you know Ma Madame Meeks uh Susan you know I I believe you're running So that's a great question to ask Susan Um I don't know Um I'm all ears When it comes to land use uh I tell you what land use uh we do have in uh
enhanced powers under home rule that are granted under the Colorado state constitution Um most of that's going to deal with development I know there might be a question about well what about uh school dedications and everything Uh again I'm tell you what I am a charter school advocate My kids were charter school uh educated You guys were talking about Renaissance uh forming its uh you know starting another school My son uh completed his grade school years at Renaissance Magnet Uh I am absolutely an advocate for charter schools I'd be interested in hearing again from you guys
What are your thoughts and how we should have that integrated So I don't know if that really answers your question there Christie but I mean that's kind of the reality of where we are right now You can ask the individuals who are running where they stand on specific issues and I think you should listen very closely to those answers that are given because quite frankly June 24th is an election Anybody says "Oh it's a power grab." Yeah well you know what The votes are haven't been
counted yet That's the power grab by the people of Douglas County who will vote in this election So I would tell you those are the folks that you need to talk to uh and and get some of those specific answers You heard some of mine Thank you uh Director Moore Commissioners thanks so much for coming and I appreciate you Commissioner Teal and Mr Van Winkle and Commissioner Leaden um for being on the line to talk to us about this Um so here's the thing is you guys know me I know
you guys a little bit and I I'm a big fan of local control which I feel like this is a lot about what you're trying to accomplish and so I think we're aligned on that angle but at the same time I've been hearing what I think are kind of some just wild rumors and I know you hate wild rumors and I'm just like I'm just going to ask the question so we either can clear up or confirm or deny the wild rumors and I don't like them either But the the rumors that I've been hearing and I I'm only
asking because I've heard them more than one time and I don't know if they're they're true or not I don't I doubt they are but I just want to hear from you on this but one and I think it relates to Director Williams question a little bit about safety and security What what the rumor is that hey Tim if the commissioners get home rule they want to exercise control over school district safety and security which I've looked at the statute I can't figure out how that makes
sense but again I haven't looked at it from your angle Miss Garcia Um but again back to the local control thing Didn't make sense to me The second rumor was that hey the commissioners want to uh uh intercept or take control over land dedications from developers that typically in the current climate generally goes to the county and then from the county at some point to school districts for neighborhood schools that that might change and the county would control all that land And I don't know if that makes sense to you or if that's part of your what you've talked about or your thought
process but that didn't make a lot of sense to me because from from this board's perspective we want to make sure that you know we're you know we're you know we've been empowered by the stat by statute to make those kinds of decisions on what's in the best interest of our school district when it comes to sites for schools And we don't want to necessarily let go of that because that's it's an important responsibility and we we look at that We take that very seriously and we work very hard on that Spent a lot of time and hours on that The the the other thing was um the rumor
was hey we want to take the county wants to take over control of transportation which didn't make sense to me at all That sounded just kind of crazy too Um I'm sorry that's already been decided Uh we have control of transportation I mean in Douglas County school bus transportation like Oh no I've heard from the uh superintendent You guys can keep that School transportation Yeah So can you just answer those I mean I didn't know what was real or not It didn't make sense to me but I'm like I just want to find out So at least we're on the same page So totally unrelated to home rule Uh today we had the ribbon cutting for Lone Tree Uh excuse me for the Highlands Ranch Link Uh and and
Kevin you might want to talk about this uh once we get done Um guys uh Chrissy you and I have talked about it just a little bit I'll tell you what um we do have the idea of expanding this microransit solution across the county Um we would like to work with the school district moving forward that it might be a transportation solution guys That's a conversation we can have right now when your agenda allows We don't need home rule to do that We don't need home rule to have that question
Again I've talked to the superintendent I don't want school buses Um don't worry about that We won't be I I won't be I don't know about somebody else That didn't make sense I I won't be uh uh land use Guys I will tell you once again I am I am a charter school advocate It's been a part of my pre personal platform that if a state charter comes to the board of county commissioners and asks for a piece of land that has been dedicated for public use because that is the language in
unincorporated Douglas County It's not the language in the town of Casser I know I was on the the town the council of the town of Castle Rock but in Douglas County land is dedicated as public use It's always goes always goes on the map saying school site In the PD it's public use Uh I would like a school on that site uh if it's warranted but I do think there should be some kind of communication going back and forth between uh the school district and the board of county
commissioners in those instances because you know Becky you know what I probably get asked about a school in Crystal Valley Ranch maybe as much as you do I mean I get asked about it for the last 10 years and and I've never sat on this body So I I do think there is a place for us to work together on that and it could be defined in the charter What do what do you anticipate that looking like that Yeah And and madam chair and colleagues um I'd be honored to respond directly um to director
Moore's questions and yes we we absolutely know you Tim and are very familiar with that question I want to be very candid This is my seventh year as commissioner and I am so deeply proud of the work that you did this board did to partner after the STEM shooting We did work on physical school security mental health and SRO's and we now have the highest number of SRO's in the state by a lot Um I have been very frank with Superintendent Kaine and President Williams that on my watch
and hopefully on anybody else's watch coming after me uh a situation like STEM never occurs again And you all know we've been fighting tooth and nail to make sure that that happens Um you know this notion that that George shared is accurate We already can kind of do a lot of this without home rule Our legal charge is the health safety and welfare of 400,000 individuals So um at any point you know the safety and security of of kids is a shared responsibility that we have Um I want to be very direct You have a pilot for entryway security at the STEM school with a 96% approval rating
among staff students teachers uh and parents Uh I would love to see greater entryway security particularly when we just saw an individual a student uh present what appeared to be a bomb at Ponderosa High School and was thwarted Um you know that's public information You all have talked about it Uh we've heard about it quite a bit on the news but that's we're lucky and we're thankful that the school district responded so well but we might not be as lucky in the future And we owe it to the citizens particularly the parents of young students to make sure that the entryways
to all of these buildings are safe and secure Um but I want to be clear this would be a 21 member commission and that charter after drafted would then go to the people to vote on So there's a lot of steps before anything would happen But I'll just speak for myself Yeah Am I concerned about kids being safe in schools if there was a thousand% possibility Absolutely So where then in the CRS or in this charter statute that would the county have the [Music] authority related to that
particular issue say entryway security or security of schools school buildings Let me turn it to our attorney Jeff was actually the one that advised us a bit on that Jeff you want to share And if I could just before Jeff gets up I think all three of your questions revolve around the idea of jurisdiction which no matter how a charter is written um the county jurisdiction couldn't extend where it's not supposed to extend As in we couldn't go start bossing around RTD Yes sir We couldn't start bossing around the school district We couldn't start telling Loan Tree how they
ought to do things They have they are home rural and we would offer our a level of security on top of Douglas County that we don't currently have countywide But that doesn't give us authority to go into a school district an RTD a name it um an independently elected board and tell them what they ought to do any more than we can right now And and I agree with Commissioner Leaden We always and Commissioner Teal we always want to work together on these things but I just want
to I don't know how to say this the proper way but we want to make sure that we respect each other's elected position and jurisdiction to to make the decisions on behalf of their constituents And and in this particular case we share constituents and and I just I just want to make sure we're all on the same page Um I don't think anybody has doing the you know everybody wants the right thing for our schools I I don't doubt that for one moment And especially when it comes to safety There
are differing ideas on how best to spend limited resources to do that and what are the right tools and in what situations are the right tools And so um I just want to make sure I I just didn't think that when I'd heard that rumor that that part of it was legitimate It sounds like maybe it is So well you you got to remember it's home rule for the county will not substantially change the relationship between the county government and the school district I mean on so many matters we run strictly parallel Uh you know issues of curriculum issues of charter school approvals I don't know
I might have I might have voted with Christie a couple times there in that prior discussion in stuff like that Guys we we can't leave our lane to get into your lane We can't It's going to continue with home rule along that vein for so many items for so many of our items Um honestly guys uh uh you know uh President Williams you and I had a discussion at a meeting and it you kind of uh took me by surprise with your question because honestly um we have been focused on
so many other items that are well within uh uh the the authorities given that you heard from the county attorney under Colorado Revised Statutes It sort of surprised me your questions about well what what did what would it affect the school district and quite frankly I I was a little put on the back of my heels for about a week and I almost had to brainstorm Sorry for that I get it all the time Why should you be any different Uh so it's but I appreciate the the questions
Tim because it does go to actually some of the disinformation that we're hearing out there and I get it Home rule for county government I assure you is awfully broad and I'm talking about uh six and a half years on the Capser Rock Council where in the Capsrock charter our duties were very well defined very well defined quite frankly guys right now what Abe Kevin and I do it's kind of bumpers
and one of the advantages with the home world charter is uh duties and responsibilities for all the county elected officials can be defined uh in a way that quite frankly um they are at state level but they can be more defined under our own charter I I'm an advocate for passing home rule I'm an advocate for completing the process having a yes vote in November so that we will be a home rule county on January 1st of next year When that happens probably we lose New Year's
Day as a day off because I do believe it's going to be a requirement Abe Kevin me the sheriff the coroner treasurer assessor and we're probably even going to make Jeff come in We have to retake our oath of office because our oath of office right now is to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States Constitution of the State of Colorado So help me God We got to take a new oath to defend protect and defend the charter of Douglas County as written
by the 21 home rule commissioners this summer Um what that looks like at the end um I don't know I could tell you what I want to advocate for Um but I'd probably tip over into advocacy instead of information that you guys are looking for Uh so questions Director Guyger sorry Give other people a chance I appreciate Commissioner Thiel You've been very clear as as Commissioner Leaden What I've heard is that you Commissioner Thiel hope that the Home Rule Commission will give you
greater discretion on who to give dedicated school land to and that you would that would enable you to jump charters over school board over the school board if they were approved by someone else Did I correctly interpret what you just told me Uh I might advocate for something like that but I'd want to see what that looks like And by the way I'd want your input You know you described a situation that's seemingly completely out of bounds and out of control Um I don't think I've
ever advocated for anything like that Besides um come on Uh Susan you said it just a minute ago in the prior discussion a charter school comes to me and says "Hey we want to open a charter school right in the middle of Highlands Ranch." Kevin might have one opinion being that's from his district that's his neighborhood Me I'm actually going to probably ask a Becky Meyers question and say "Why not Crystal Valley Ranch?" You know because uh I'm moderately aware of the factors
you guys deal with I understand that Commissioner but you never have As a matter of fact you had an invitationonly local officials meeting on March 25th And as far as I'm aware nobody on this board got an invitation So if you're not going to ask us before why should I be confident that you're going to ask us after You know uh Brad that was a public meeting I mean it was on our calendar It was it as a matter of fact it was a normal meeting day for us So I mean I get it You're you're uh No
I don't get it Actually I don't get what you're saying at all because local officials invited and nobody here We run a billion dollar budget commissioner We are the biggest employer in the county You invited the town council of Sadelia but not a director of the school board I'm trying to figure out again You like to say you're going to cooperate with this but you also want a home rule charter that says you don't have to And that's where my concern is Actually it's not true Brad First of all there is no uh Sadelia Town Council Um it's not an incorporated municipality under
the state of Colorado Uh second of all um hey guys you know what When Christy came up to me and asked me the questions I was surprised What did I say earlier We operate in parallel don't we There's so many things that you guys do that we can't get in your lane So Brad hey man I'm sorry I didn't get you an invitation I'm sorry I didn't extend an invitation to to every one of you Um I I will certainly own that but it's mostly because honestly until Christy asked the question Um I
I didn't know I didn't know what home rule could do to the school district I didn't know what the school how the school district could be enhanced through home rule It was completely off our radar What I've also heard Commissioner Leaden say and he's been very clear about his opinions on school security and I think it's been clear what we think We've put bill we've put millions of dollars in our last two bonds for school security We've put millions of dollars in our last MLO for school
security I would point out the board of county commissioners opposed all of those elections Um and now it appears that Commissioner Leaden hopes that Home Rule Commission can come in and tell us how to spend that money to protect schools I hear Jeff say that I have on here that they could that a home rule commission could no DEI That's all that's in there You going to tell us how I will tell you we have celebrations of diversity We have an equity policy that we worked on for months
We are inclusive of everybody that wants to come to our schools And I see you come to us with a PowerPoint that says part of what the home roll commission could do is eliminate all DEI in Douglas County That seems like it's not operating parallel to me That seems like you're telling me how to police my school district that I was elected to serve So that's where I have these concerns I didn't write your PowerPoint but when you come in and say no DEI I'm trying to figure out how you're going to make that policy run in my school district And I'm not trying to be
possessive There are seven of us here We try to make those decisions together But what it seems like is that you and Commissioner Van Winkl and Commissioner Leaden think that with the right home school with the right home county home rule charter you can take that over and that concerns me Well I do support homeschooling However I appreciate the question uh that's implied there because uh I Yeah you saw it Uh that would apply to county government as far as DEI That applied
to county government Again guys I don't understand what in Colorado law allows us to trip into that administrative world for you guys I've never said that Brad And Commissioner Teal I I'm going to pause you just for a second if you don't mind Obviously your leadership is profound on this One of the benefits of having the county attorney uh presenting objectively is to give us exactly that answer that I think um perhaps the board of education has an appetite to hear Um we missed a
bit So I might ask Jeff once again if you'll uh approach and maybe answer the question of the board of education around specifically what a home rule allows the county to do and not do um factually so that we can just get a clear answer Sure Absolutely And I thought I had said that So first off going back to that slide I said those were comments that I've heard at meetings like this I did not say that that's what the county was doing It's not what I've um ever heard anyone running for the charter commission saying but as I said this is the 17th time I've given this presentation and those are things that have been said um with regard to um what uh can be done
um it's elaborated in those those four sections of of powers that I discussed But as Commissioner Van Winkle has repeatedly said that it it doesn't permit uh the board of county commissioners to come in and tell you how to run your your your school district or or tell you who to employ or those things Um and with regard to the few things that have been discussed in this meeting those powers already exist So with regard to the questions that um the other members of the board have asked those those those powers exist they don't need to come from home rule So what this
is addressing and what we came to do was provide you education and ask you to be a part of this because you represent a significant portion of um of Douglas County and you represent a great deal of families and children Um I think it's really important to think about the future of Douglas County a as it gets older and as we we change our demographics because Douglas County currently is the safest most prosperous um healthiest county And we want that to be a county for families And when I talk about families I'm talking about the people in this room who you represent
Yeah and and director Geger I really do respect and appreciate the comment but would answer by just saying if if this board of county commissioners did not care about our partnership with the board of education we wouldn't be talking to you right now Um you wouldn't have heard a rumor because you wouldn't have had the conversation that I had with the superintendent and President Williams um that may have started that rumor Um we I've been very direct and upfront I think our board has we deeply care about each of you and your leadership is significant I think
that's exact for is your wisdom input as we move forward Director Meek thank you very much for being here today and uh providing this information If we could look at slide six it has the schedule with the steps and the dates and it's a pretty aggressive timeline Um I'm Let's see There you go
So July 8th would be the first charter commission meeting and then by August 12th all the public meetings need to be completed So is there a draft ready to go for the 21 commission members to start from or Yeah is there a draft already available Uh I'm not aware of one We have had talks about um having the county attorney prepare one You heard him say a little earlier maybe we take
and do I one time said we're going to copy and paste weld counties He got really offended He said he could do much better than that Uh we may have uh actually I would like to have the charter commission start with at least a boilerplate of a charter you know um a part if you ever pull open the Cass Rock charter or the Parker charter the second half is all finance and budgeting it's all and it's all the same with some idiosyncrasies and some details that are off but it's all the
same because it's all dictated by law that it has to be in a municipal home world charter I believe if I understand it right we're going to have something very similar to that And so a lot of the information we'll find in either Weld or Pitkin County will will be what we're going to probably use Um we are collecting ideas right now guys You heard from the county attorney We have a portal on the on the website Just go to douglas.co us Go up to the to the search bar on the upper right hand side and put in home rule You're going to have an information page then
And one of that is tell us your ideas So we're already collecting ideas from residents about what should be in the home rule charter So yes ma'am I do think we're going to have um anything from a very rough draft that's light light on details but a good boilerplate to um maybe something with a lot of details from our residents to start with on July 8th And the 21 individuals when
they get together to talk and work and create this those are publicly posted meetings And what rules exist for those 21 members outside of those publicly posted meetings Are two members allowed to get together and talk Five members allowed I'm just kind of curious what the law states I mean some of that is going to probably be can be dictated by the rules of the 21 Jeff can you get us uh get us uh some information in terms of what constitutes uh uh uh an invocation of
the sunshine laws with the 21 member body You bet So um the open meeting laws would apply Um so there is a very high likelihood because the amount of time you have and the amount of work you need to get done that you might be broken up into committees or you might um uh divide up work or you may even be given work to take home and work on and then bring back Um but open meetings um kora all those those things that um exist for a government body would exist for this body as well So when those members are meeting outside of the full meetings they need to be posted as well is
what I'm hearing So the so there's transparency if it's three members of greater earth That's correct Under Okay And you know George I appreciate you sharing your views on the land dedication because that really is probably one of the top topics that I know I've heard questions about from the community And I I think you've been really clear that what you as one individual would like to see is the ability to move what could be district dedicated land to other public uses I think that's
what I heard And so as board members you know it's really our job to analyze the risks associated with the land dedication process and any kind of reinterpretation with that Um and how can the school board be engaged in conversations with the charter development beyond just the board going to the website and posting ideas Well one of the things that the president and I talked about is um a liaison Obviously all these are going to be public meetings Quite frankly if you
as a board decide that you want to divide up and assign members to different let's say we do pursue different uh committees subcommittees of the 21 you guys want to divide up and assign a board member to each one of those committees Um uh let us know Don't let us know I mean again it's um you know it I don't know how to express the fact that we're going into a very public process
We must allow public comment Guys speak up And not only that but a couple of you have my cell phone number So I mean um now that assumes I get elected This is an election coming up on June 24th you know Uh hey Director Meeks I wish you the best of luck but I I need the luck too Um because I'm running an election that I do a aim to win Kevin is also running an election as is a uh we're
going to try to win But guys there's nothing set here beyond what the whims of the electorate are So quite frankly guys uh you tell me I mean I'd love to have an opinion from the school board on what the approach that you guys would like to take If it's that you don't have a board approach and you guys are sort of the sup in the software industry we have the phrase super users Okay super users are the ones that are in the software all the time even before you go live with it If
you guys want to be the super users on um the uh charter commission uh I'm in favor I don't know if everybody else on the 21 would be in favor but I'm very much in favor of having your voices included I guess the second concern that I would just really want to raise is you know the governance philosophy that really encourages pushing legal boundaries Just some of the language I've been hearing really sounds like potential lawsuits are going to happen Um and so on your
disadvantages slide you may want to consider adding some additional areas that I do think could be seen as disadvantages Um we often as a board are caught between state federal now could be local and and as a charter could be pushing boundaries and making things um be really legally challenging for us to navigate And so I would think the increased legal costs could
be something that maybe is a disadvantage that could be added to the slide I hope you'll pardon me for saying you just express a very uninformed opinion I mean you just you just expressed a very uninformed opinion You said a charter could make legal difficulties for you That's not my goal That's not anything I've been focused on you guys kind of need to fill me in on how that's supposed to happen So the statement you just made director is just profoundly uninformed Unless you
have plans that you just haven't told anybody yet on how you're going to interact with the county as you continue as a school board member it's just a profoundly uninformed comment because uh the the legal issues that have been brought forward by the county attorney We are entirely focused with our relationship with the state We're not going to go on a a a uh litigation spree with our municipalities We have zero plans to do that We have zero plans to
go on a litigation streak with you guys We would like to start pushing back on unconstitutional laws in the state of Colorado So George let me inform you a little bit I'm the only board director sitting up here that served precovid during COVID and now post covid I sat through the public health agency dismantling and then having regulations put in place that contradicted other legal regulations I've experienced what this looks like and so I don't appreciate you calling
me uninformed I think I have a lot of experience and can speak to potential challenges that could be faced through this process And that's why I think going into it really relying on others that have expertise that can help you formulate a charter to the best ability or to create a charter that can be put before the public so that our community has an opportunity to vote on that but I don't appreciate you calling me uninformed Actually director listen you you're a candidate
for the home world charter commission as well You have that opportunity to get your name out you have that opportunity to win a seat on the Home World Charter Commission and you have an opportunity to be a part of of shaping it I guess I'd rather I obviously I'm a guest here Um I would welcome your comments on what you would like the home world charter to look like as opposed to uh very vague and quite frankly uninformed assertions of risk that are not backed up by the facts
Director Thompson All right Thank you guys for being here and appreciate the presentation So um uh I'll just start off with first and safety was one of the first topics that was brought up um and do a shameless plug for uh traffic and pedestrian safety as one of my personal top concerns Um you know safe routes to schools for our kids So I would of course I'm always going to throw that out anytime we hear anybody listening Um especially sidewalks uh that lead up to all of our school buildings would be amazing Um so uh moving on past that uh you know we um we talked
about land use a few times and I know that you shared your opinion and um your uh your support for charter schools Uh it's shared I think this is actually a very charter friendly board Um we had a difficult decisions tonight Um but where I'm kind of landing with that is I I do understand the very extensive process that the district undertakes when it comes to making decisions about uh land and future planning sites and our our long-term plan for the for the district Um and
so I think what I want to bring up here is that uh for those if the home rule passes and for those who might be listening that end up serving on that um my ask is to really understand the process that the district takes in making those decisions Um especially when we send our letter about um whether or not we're going to use land or not and just understanding how that whole process looks and the implications it has on the district um if land is given to someone else Um so that is my uh
humble ask in this situation Um one of the things that I just wanted a little bit more information about uh you touched on it a little bit here and actually we heard it in public comment tonight I believe it was David D Carlo that brought it up Um and you touched on a little bit if you feel like the if the law passes with the state that's unconstitutional Can you just walk me through uh that process like what that means with being a Okay thank you You're get you get where I'm at So Sure Sure I just want more clarity No I like the question So um I think we should talk about
how it works today and how it would work in the future Right now we've had laws that were passed that were unconstitutional and we've had to challenge them So um and for the legal cause question it's my office right So when we we have to sue the state it's it's my office and um they pay me whether or not I have to sue anybody So there's no increase in that Um but to that end I have to I have to go and I file something with the state saying this is illegal I have to file in uh Denver District Court which puts us at a slight disadvantage And then we go through the process of
um motion to dismiss So the first thing they'll say is you don't have the right to to sue us You're a statutory county You have no standing to sue us And most of the time we get dismissed um sometimes we don't but um for the most part we lack the standing to make the argument about whether or not we can uh disagree with the governance of the um the state because we've submitted to the state We have said we are going to be a statutory county Um by contrast tomorrow we're a home rule county and first if it's in our charter that we are not going to do something or
they pass a law that's different than our charter I'm not suing them they have to sue us and they have to make the argument that this is a mandatory function or this is outside of the scope of what we're allowed to regulate and so they have to argue standing and I get to file a motion and dismiss The burden is shifted and it makes it much easier to be the one defending your standing versus the one saying no they have to change They have to come to us and say we have to change One of the the interesting things that I liked about um Weld County in the case I mentioned their law
that was ultimately challenged existed for 47 years before it was changed So there's a period of time where it may not be challenged at all The state may not have the interest in it So just them changing a law doesn't change our charter They have to come and and make us change our charter So it's them coming to us instead of us going to them And it's a huge advantage from a legal standpoint Is there any um implications with the how the school district operates or with any like legal concerns or or issues that might be similar Um I mean I don't know that I 100% understand
the question I'm just curious like does it change how like the district would operate and for legal issues is I think she's asking like can we tell them how do they operate No No And no I'm thinking like um if we're a home rule county right like how that extends like with legal implications for us Is it keep it everything the same or is there also some other type of power that is provided to the school district because we're a home rule county Well I I think that it goes back to some of the questions that we've um been asked about how this could be beneficial I I think it can define
relationships So there there's been a question about how the relationship exists between the county and the school board I think relationships can be defined I think roles can be defined I think you can put those guard rails on the county regarding land or regarding budget or commitments that they make in the future Um but I don't see unless there's an affirmative choice by the county or these 21 commissioners working with the school board to introduce new um regulations or new guidance or a new relationship If if you're not in the charter which I I've in all those meetings
that I've had that list up of just ideas that I've heard putting the school in the charter has not come up in the 17 meetings I've heard until today Okay Um understandably understandably that you guys would bring it up It hasn't it just hasn't been a topic up until now until the president uh approached me and asked me Guys it board it really just wasn't an issue So it's not a surprise that it's coming up for the first time Okay Um and then uh in layman's terms can you just explain to me
how the structure of the commission So there's a lot of members right And is it like it's majority vote Is it they decide what that if it's majority like simple majority or if it's a larger majority for specific issues Like how does that work out So in the drafting process itself it will be the uh you need to get to 11 to have something put in Um but um that being said it all still goes to the voters So if there's something put in that's very distasteful and it's again it's not I like this section but I don't like that section I I think there has to be a thought and and there'll be
something that the 21 have to decide about what they can put in that's going to pass So if they put something in that's very negative or is going to be a deal breaker you know those issues that might bring that up they they're they're hurting themselves on all the other good things they could be doing So I do think that there'll be some um politicking for lack of a better word exchanging or thoughtfulness in the drafting about what can pass because just because someone wants it or just because 11 people want it and it hurts the chance of the whole charter being passed I think that will come into play but that's a lot of guessing going forward because we just don't know who the
21 are or necessarily what the issues are Okay So it's like just trying to come to a general consensus to pass something Okay Well and I I'd love to just be just very candid with you all Um I I know it's late and I really appreciate the questions and the comments from my colleagues but it really is a question of of picking your poison Um and it goes back to that issue of both both our board and yours Um we have struggled under the leadership of the state of Colorado Um from a
school finance standpoint you all don't really do great uh under that math And Erin has done a great job of explaining that I still don't have it fully down in my mind but I close enough to know that um it's not easy for you all and budgeting is very tough And for us whether it's public safety immigration public health um you know I I I'm a commissioner who's been around for seven years pre- pandemic pre- stem and it has been very tough getting those measures passed I testified at the state about school security before Senator Van Winkl before he was a commissioner um and
was told that if we increased school security in the way that our citizens expected it would be a pipeline to prison Um you know you fast forward to today and I think that that history shows we we made the right decision I often say Douglas County is healthy wealthy and wise And I can say that because the metrics demonstrate this is the best school district in the Denver metro area And that's because of the leadership that you all represent Uh it's the healthiest in the state It's the most prosperous per capita per capita So um I think that is what we share in common
as boards Um I'm not going to say that this isn't an opportunity for the citizens of Douglas County to have more local control It is more power to the people of Douglas County Absolutely So the question before you is the same I posited at the beginning Uh do you feel better under the leadership of the state or the leadership of local Douglas County government Okay Um we we just we need to wrap it up So I'm going to give Director Moore a quick question and then Director Geiger and then we'll have to wrap it up Just more of a comment gentlemen and I so
much appreciate all your your time tonight and I have a great deal of respect for you guys and what you're trying to do for our community and what you do day in and day out And I think what you're hearing at least speaking for myself is just a group of folks who don't really have a good feel for what the charter means in relation to what we're responsible for in the school district And so that's why I think there's so many questions because we really aren't sure what this means and we're not sure what since and you know and since the the idea of the charter is coming from our
local elected government I think what we're what we're lacking is a good understanding of what's the intent of of our local elected government with this charter if you know all the the elected officials or you know at least candidates um on the charter commission um you know what is the intent and I think that's where we're just lacking an understanding and I think that's what we're we're kind of just seeking is hey help us understand of the 47 different statutory
possibilities that could be in the charter under each you know under those generally what what is the intent what do we want and you guys have explained a lot of that and I I apprei appreciate a whole lot of that or appreciate that a lot You know there are some questions about how does it impact the school district and I think we have a little bit of clarity and some of it I'm not sure if we do or not I I I mean some of it I understand way better and I and I appreciate that And I think again speaking for myself all we want to do is do the right thing for our individual constituents
And I know I mentioned before we overlap on that and we want to you know have the right lane and so that we're doing the right things on behalf of each other because I do think because we overlap it is on behalf of each other and um I think that's what our communities expect Um and I and I think we just want to just understand it so we can you know do the right thing for the right reasons You know it just really boils down to that And um I I I just want to make sure you
know we are partners in whatever we do moving forward not adversaries partners just is as we always have been because we we all do I think care about our community and we all want what's right for the right reasons and we want what's best for our community So please don't leave here tonight thinking we're adversaries just because there's some tough questions It's really just because I don't I just think we don't understand enough At least I didn't So I appreciate that If I may let me just respond to uh kind of kind of your comments Uh Tim um guys ending bag fees at the
grocery store We get to do that on home under home rule I want to do that Transit oriented development It is written in the enabling leg legislation does not apply to home rule counties I want to evade those regulations as is allowed by law And then uh land use I I know we've touched on land use when it comes to school dedication Guys the state legislature is encroaching on local
government's ability to decide their land use How we do our zoning how Castle Rock Town Council does its zoning how Parker does its zoning has already been encroached upon Under home rule we will be able to retain control of our zoning under current law Every year laws are written in the state constitution that accept out home rule counties because they don't want to deal with the city and county of Denver and their lobbying They don't want to deal with Weld County and their lobbying
I want to join that club Okay And and that was the first time that I knew we could get something going was an issue dealing with uh grading gravel roads How many of you guys like really worry every day about grading on your gravel road How many of you drive on a gravel road Plenty of other folks here in this county drive on gravel roads We ran a bill It it was already set to exempt out home rule counties I wanted to get Weld County on board I had to tell them "This bill doesn't apply to you Can you stop resisting it Get on board because it's our bill It came out of our public works
shop." So Christine when you approached me at that meeting and you you knocked me on my heels and I was like I don't know What do you want to do It's because those were my focuses Tim Those are the things that I'm focused on Couple things have been added Everything we've talked about tonight guys Hey I'm happy to you know where I stand I'm happy to have the conversation You know Director Meeks I I Meek I hope you uh I hope you prevail I hope you join us on the Home Rule Commission and
we can hash some of these things out in the home rule commission I hope I prevail too so I get to be there But that's uh that's kind of um what's it about That's what it's about Director Ger the one area that I've had issues about policy We have certain state and federal laws protecting our students from immigration enforcement That's somewhat different than what you have and what the commissioners have said Do you believe that a homeroot charter would allow county commissioners
to overrule our policies regarding allowing ICE into the schools That's a Jeff question I that's a it's a good question Um I don't think that's another that's another question that has been asked until until this evening about um going into your schools and and overruling that decision Um I do believe that if there is a state law that affects only things that are occurring in Douglas County then it could be subject to this Um I don't know whether or not the state would
consider that to be a local affair to be honest Um and you're asking me to to to give you an answer to a question that I haven't really considered to be honest But um would we be would we even go after that I don't know You'd have to ask the 21 If the 21 say yes and I have to we have to make a decision Mhm Would you agree with me that there could be a situation where the Douglas County taxpayers are paying Philiser No And you Nope And our state and our county commission to litigate
that lawyers got to get paid Now I'm a lawyer I'm not necessarily opposed to that but I don't have a bunch of extra money in my budget for litigation There would be no additional cost for me I don't know about Mr Wiser Well again we're all taxpayers paying every one of those three people Correct Yep And let me tell you a little bit about that So we've had six lawsuits against the state while I've been the county attorney Um and in that time I would have gotten paid the exact same amount And during that time I have failed and I've lost some of those lawsuits Not all of them but some of them
And I'm in a very fortunate position because the board of county commissioners didn't get upset with me because I failed Didn't upset me because I lost what they got upset with or would would get upset with me they haven't is if we didn't fight and if we didn't have issues that we thought were important to our residents that we were willing to stand up for and this right here commissioner Thiel talked about why it was important to him and some of the things that may have driven him to this from from if someone asked me I would like the tool I would like the tool to win those challenges right do you understand my concern about that I don't have I mean our budget's a
billion dollars but it's spent every minute We've already been told very clearly by our voters they don't like us spending money on those kinds of fights So I understand your county is willing to spend money to litigate I understand the attorney general if they're defending state law has to litigate I don't want to get in the middle of all that Do you understand why I have a concern about that sir Well then don't get in the middle Yeah Well which one should I follow If you say one thing and the state says another what am I supposed to do Well if I could interject I mean
Director Guyer I know we're limited on time and want to be just again very direct and candid Let's be clear this is PAOS and we don't want to get into politics Um obviously there are those that want to raise a boogeyman around uh immigration enforcement in schools but I I'm certain that you have been assured as has your superintendent both by the county and by your sheriff um that that is not a focus nor an issue for us Our focus is on dangerous gangs like Train Daywa that are
engaged in human trafficking of exactly those kids that we're both trying to protect So let's let's be very clear um about the public safety issue and not raise artificial straw men to you know create emotion around an issue that's truly not an issue And and to Commissioner Thiel's point um we've never had a conversation about trying to go into schools on immigration enforcement I understand that I don't know what the 21 will do I'm done All right Thank Thank you guys very much for coming and being here tonight and staying so late We appreciate it And
um I know we're not taking a vote tonight on anything related to home rule but we certainly appreciate the presentation Castle Rock uh did do a resolution in support of the home roll process It passed unanimously We would ask the same of you as we ask the same of all the municipalities that we will be talking to Thank you very much for having us in uh can't express uh and thanks for helping us spell the rumors and spread the word Thank you guys so much Thank you All right
with that we'll move into the policy governance um section And as we are running super late I'm wondering if I would have any uh push back if we were to move items 26 and 27 to our next meeting What No objection Director Meek any so if if someone would be willing to make a motion to move move items 26 and 27 I would
move to table items 26 and 27 to the meeting in excuse me on June 10th motion by Moore second second by Geiger I Meek I Moore I Myers I Thompson I Williams I Winegar I Great So we will move items 26 and 27 Um uh President Williams Yes go ahead Just in regards to the
prior presentation on home rule Um I mean it feels like it's advocacy when we're being asked to support home rule And so I really do think we need to we have opened this up to advocacy I think we need a presentation on the 10th That's the other side of the argument And then I don't know if we as a board want to contemplate taking a position on it or not but I feel
pretty strongly that we had advocacy happening this evening Yeah So I would request I guess from the district is my opinion that we should request from the district what what our legal obligation is to that Not right now but just yeah before our maybe per before our agenda planning on Thursday Thank you for the question We will work on getting you an answer Thank you All right So moving into item 28 approval of superintendent contract open for a 10-minute
discussion So we spent uh a couple executive sessions talking about this as a board and I personally believe we ended up in a place that I assume all seven of us are comfortable with Um but obviously want to open it up to discussion Um I believe the superintendent if you just look at the the merits of what what we've accomplished uh since you've been here I have I I'm super
proud of of the work that we've done and you've been at at the helm of that So um thank you for that Anybody have any comments Great Well I'll take a motion Motion to approve uh the superintendent's contract as presented Second Motion by Weer second by Meyers Open for discussion Seeing none Geiger I Meek I Moore I Meyers I Thompson Uh I sorry I'm
not responding quick enough because I'm still processing the last uh uh presentation And uh I just wanted to point out um just through this process and for future consideration um when you know going through the negotiation process and the executive sessions that we have that we a lot more time um and that we're just sure that we've heard from every board director um and as we're talking through these processes and concerns because I still had outstanding concerns at the end of this process that um and I appreciate that you raised it um or you tried to address it with
me director uh President Williams Um it was past the negotiation period I feel Um so I didn't think like it would could be effectively addressed Uh but I do want to just raise that I do have some hesitation just from the process Of course uh I don't want to punish our superintendent and I don't want to um elude that this has anything to do with your performance So um with that said I will be a yes Williams I Wineer Um just I personally felt the process was fine Um not
trying to say you're wrong Thompson but just that I don't have any um concerns with it and I think our superintendent has done a fantastic job since she's been on here So I am very proud to vote I All right Then moving to item uh 29 the board committee planning for the 26 uh board retreat Uh July 26th board retreat Um this was requested by Director Meek So I'm going to let you speak to um what you hope to get out of this portion and what we're looking for Sure So we had
talked about engaging our board committees in the July retreat Um it's now the end of May so we may have an opportunity to have one more conversation in person with our board committees So it was really my hope for us just to be able to relay some basic information to our board committees about what we're asking of them and the expectations um for that conversation in July Um I know we haven't planned the board agenda for the retreat so it's a little bit of a
challenge Um talking about where this fits Um I did some research and I think in the past um the board committees when they have been engaged in the retreat have come in at the second half of the retreat after the board has had an opportunity to talk about the upcoming year um what they see as potential um priorities etc And then the board liaons would work with the board committees in the afternoon have an opportunity to have two-way dialogue and then
wrap up the day with them So my intent was to try to lock down any details that we can share with our board committees Yeah And um I would agree with that I I during my rough draft putting thingsish together I was thinking thinking that they would come in the second half of the day And I don't know if we want that to be four hours or three hours It's kind of up to us I um I was thinking for the last two to three hours and not necessarily the full afternoon but I'm open to
last time they did join us for lunch as well Yeah Director Moore I know we've talked about this before but you know we had the public comment about the DAC meeting access Should we at least talk about that a little bit so we're all on the same page because it may apply to other committees And I I I just I just don't know if it's the right place to do that but I just hate to not have some sort of answer to give back to the deck And I'm not even on the deck but I think we should So I would say that um we're talking about the board
budget at our next meeting and that would fall under the board budget So I would that's what I was assuming directly That was my hesitancy for pushing it because I did want to talk about it a little bit at that point Um and I mean just to kind of be transparent with my thinking um as one of the DAC leaison it's a continual request and the DAC is a different committee than the other board committees in that it has a direct responsibility to reach out to Sachs So our
other school accountability committees like part of its role is to engage the community And so it's I don't lump the DAC in with all the other board committees necessarily And um essentially if it's $5,000 for a 2hour um live streaming my thinking that I was going to propose is we do a pilot and we just take the first semester So we do August through December There's only four meetings
that happen for the DAC during that time frame because one of the meetings is virtual And so for $20,000 we could do a pilot program with live streaming DAC and then evaluate it in December Are we meeting our goals Is DAC actually getting positive feedback Is is it helping Is it worth the $20,000 that we invested moving forward So I was going to share that tonight during the budget conversation but I figured I would just share it now since Director Moore brought it up
Yeah Yeah So I I'm open to how whatever anybody thinks about when they should come during our board retreat in July I think if we can just come up with a consensus that would be great Director Weineer um I like the idea of them coming around lunch and then um staying for however long we think is good but I think if we tell them lunchtime So okay And as soon as we'll I'll do the agenda planning for that this week as well since that's for
um both the June and July So I'll have um a more definitive time but at least right now publicly um it would be around is lunch Yes 11:30 12ish Director Guyger one idea I had and we we can discuss this at agenda planning is that we could set 11 to noon for a board meeting with the chairs and vice chairs of the various committees and that would help us I think they could then tell us what else they think we need to address and then have lunch with everybody
and then break out and have our discussions with them Um you know that that's putting additional weight on I can feel President Gooden staring me daggers from the back of the room But I I shield you Yeah But I I I I think that's what something we could consider I think the leadership having leadership show up a bit early to have a discussion with the entire board might be helpful So a thought I have around that would be to do maybe a working lunch with them and then
the but the rest of the committees could come I do worry about taking too much time from what we need to do in the morning um uh to do that So I'm not sure uh if that would be okay with everyone else Director Meek tell me what Yeah What are the other topics just that we we know we need to address that morning Yeah so I wish I had my list right now Um we were going to discuss any changes to the
governance processes Um and so essentially some edits there and then talking about uh self-evaluations and how that's working um was going to be kind of lumped all together um into one That was the biggest item that that we were going to discuss So I just want to make sure we have enough time to do that So I know last time it was I know we don't have as much to do because we've already done a lot but certainly something there So and then also we would discuss
the priorities with the committees before they came That's um that would also be on the morning portion So I maybe we can say lunch and then Well I think we should feed all of them Well yeah No that's what I'm saying That's Yeah every I so just invite everyone at lunch and um we can work out the details Is everyone okay with that
Noonish I'll be able to tell you more on uh Thursday And the location is Stone It will be at Stone Canyon Stone Canyon Yeah Yep Okay with that we will move into board of education reports Uh the next meeting of the board of education is June 10th 5:00 p.m Agenda planning for that meeting is this Thursday May 29th at 2:30 uh at Willox And I think the last few weeks has been my favorite time of year every year and
that's graduations It feels like a culmination of everything that we put in work to do and I feel very blessed and honored to be a part of each and every one of those So congratulations to our graduates Um and I hope everyone enjoys their summer for those of you that get it So uh thank you Director Wineer Yes agreed graduations are wonderful and seeing every all the kids so excited and um looking so good in their graduation gowns is such an honor to be a
part of Um as far as I don't think I I've had any meetings since we last met or I'm sorry I did have one It was FOC I'm staring right at it Um and uh we got presented on the third quarter actuals and um also on the proposed budget Um mostly questions around unassigned um balance and just what that should look like And um we told the committee that most likely the board has
been talking about having that be a priority for next year is determining a good unassigned balance Um so that's something we can talk at the retreat more about Um the unassigned balance what that level should be that's ideal for our district And then um the full-time employee ratios um to students was presented on It was a um just something that the committee was curious on when with declining enrollment what that looks like and they did a great job showing that Um and then
yeah we have our um budget coming up So the FOC is working on a memo on that um currently And since we are meeting on Thursday again they're going to finalize it and send it to the board to review um because they send a memo on before we v vote on the budget every year So look for that And that's all I had I don't I don't remember which side I started on last time All right great
Director Moore thank you Um really just have to report on the graduations Um the Thunder Ridge so far Castle View Plum Creek and um Renaissance Secondary School And I just want to say a couple things First they all were different and they all were amazing I cried at every single one And I don't like to admit that publicly because I don't like people think I cry but I couldn't help it be choked up by the optimism that the kids had for their future the parents had for their future
the excitement on their faces and the excitement from the schools and the administration They were really proud of these kids and they always are But it every time I see it I'm just like the stereotype we think about or you can get lulled into thinking teenagers are you realize aren't aren't very accurate at all Amazing kids They're badasses for lack of a better term the student speeches fabulous onarget entertaining inspiring fun amazing And I got to I'm just like I
can't like these kids are some of these are really good public speakers at 18 years old Impressive Just amazing But the the one takeaway that I had was every single one of these graduations the kids took a lot of time to spotlight the teachers and staff and administrators that got them there right And they love these people in these schools These kids love them They gave them gifts They showered
them with praise They recognized them They cheered for them Their families cheered for them And that tells me a lot about how much effort every one of these schools the principles the staff the teachers everybody puts in to helping these kids succeed It is you can you I don't know I don't know how to say this You just wouldn't I don't know if you understand it till you see it and you watch what these kids say and how they say it and how much love they say it with Just that's what made me cry That part was what made me cry So appreciate Erin that your people made me cry Hope
you're happy Hope you're director Geiger Um I've done six graduations now Uh bridge which is always unique and fascinating Um Sky View and I want to reach out to them I was the only director who was there They're always wonderful They're always very welcoming Um one of the strange one of the amazing things they do at at Sky View is they announce the saludiatoran who's number two And it usually starts well with this is somebody with a 427 GPA who's taken seven AP classes and won the state
title in fencing and you go that's second place and then they introduce the validictorian It's like oh wow Um Sky View is always very welcoming and thank I it's outdoors We have different venues We have different times Um Red Rocks turned out to be great for both Mountain Vista and um and Highlands Ranch Um and Castle View Castle review that night was also good I heard Um I did a Ralph calculation I think I shook 714 hands um over the week I'm still a
little sore I won't lie to you about it Um but I agree with everything that everybody else has said It's an amazing experience Um I'm not afraid to admit that I cry at every single one of them Um I'm always impressed with the speakers always impressed with how much they think they know at 18 Um and all the on the worldwide wisdom that they impart which is fascinating to watch So um I did attend that director Moore was sick I attended the long-range planning committee meeting on May 7th Um they are focused on getting the master capital plan done It's very close They
are finalizing their presentation letter and they will see us in June for approval of the master capital plan Once again great deal of work goes into that both by staff and by the LRPC Um and it's I think one of the discussions we're going to have and that they're going to ask us to have is it has gotten pretty big Um and that it may be appropriate for us to start thinking about a report on capacity enrollment decline at one time and a master capital plan as to
capital needs at another time and that those those topics although related might be best presented separately Um and they're discussing that and they'll come to us about that Um had a long discussion of the final approval of the meant update that you saw tonight Um a lot of that came a lot of that presentation as brilliantly done as it was by staff was improved by LRPC and their questions and what they wanted to do Um they voted for their new operational procedures They're pretty straightforward Um had a good update on CART uh and actually would have finished
early if the long- winded board of education director hadn't taken up the last 20 minutes Ms Lees will be punished at an appropriate time Um it was an productive meeting They're uh you know they do a lot in May and June and they'll be here in June to tell us about it Um otherwise I think boy that sounds like enough Great Director Myers Wow Well congratulations to all the graduates I'm just going to ditto Tim and everyone that's set up here This is a favorite
time of the year is our graduations and all the kids and even actually knowing some of them I want to say thank you to Renee for going to the library ready set read with me It's hard for me to believe there's a decline in enrollment We had over 500 kids that morning come babies little ones and the library is giving out free books We got a bunch of stuff we gave out from Douglas County many of them that compleimemented our district They they go to some of the pre preK programs It
was just astounding to see that many people come through and um I think that's all I did Director Thompson Yep So I have shared sentiment about attending graduations They definitely are the highlight of our our time here and I agree They're great public speakers It's very meaningful It's inspiring I always feel really refreshed after listening to them um present lessons learned in their um high school journey and how um it really still applies to all of us So I really enjoyed
uh attending those And I I wanted to call out the hope graduation They do this recognition of students who are first time uh first generation graduates Um I love that part Um it's amazing and it's nice to see that these opportunities are available to students to be successful and graduate high school as well as speaks to their perseverance and their dedication to their own education So um with that uh the other thing that I attended and I actually wrote
it down so I could be concise So um Senate Bill 25200 it was a bipartisan bill It recently passed the Senate and the House with overwhelming support and my son and I had the opportunity to attend the signing I saw superintendent came there Um and this bill makes modifications to the read act and it requires dyslexia screening in schools And as we all know screening is not about just identifying students at risk of reading failure It also enables our educators to pinpoint gaps and specific foundational literacy skills that each student needs to develop to become proficient
readers And so um I just want to say how grateful I am to our locally elected legislators in the Colorado House and Senate who vote and spoke in favor of this bill I also want to thank our bill sponsors which include Senator Culker Senator Malca Rep Hamick Rep So um and their passion to address literacy Um it was moving Um their personal statements were moving and I think that passion was very contagious Um I also want to give a special thank you to our very own DAC chair Julie Gooden who worked tirelessly to push this bill across the finish line Um I want to say
thank you to all of the families and advocates who've supported um increasing our knowledge on dyslexia and the risk of reading failure and also helped increase our own empathy and understanding through those dyslexia simulations that we were able to attend um at our winter retreat I also want to give a personal thank you to DC Kid to Amy thank you to Kristen and thank you to Mary Beth and also a personal thank you to all of you guys for helping um not only the students within our district but also for helping my son and me as we're navigating this journey I am really
overwhelmed with how supportive our community is And for any other families that are hoping to understand dyslexia better I really encourage you to ask for and utilize supports that are here in Douglas County School District as well as reach out to those community supports such as DC Kids to learn about what's available within the community Um and then of course uh since we're on the topic um a thank you to staff We had um I had touched on it briefly in a previous meeting when we met with staff about um some of the future goals with not only screening but interventions within the
district and um one of the mentions was looking at summer programming to support literacy uh for our students that what happens if we identify them it's the end of the year then what and so staff is looking at like what kind of summer supports we could provide and which is exciting and um when I was at the signing uh St Rain actually offered for us to come see their summer program So they have a summer program where um they use as not only an opportunity to build literacy skills for students
but also it's a training opportunity for new staff And so they extended an invite uh for us to see and learn from it And since um I know that that's a thought of our staff that maybe it would be helpful or to go see them see what they're doing see if there's ideas things that we like Um so I wanted to mention that here Okay Director Meek benefit of going last Ditto Um graduations were amazing They're always a favorite It reminds us of why we do what we do Um congrats to staff You made
it through another year Um hopefully people will have some downtime over the summer and rejuvenate Um I was going to spend time congratulating uh Director Thompson and Dak Chair Julie Gooden on all of the dyslexia work since you're both in the room here Um thank you so much for all that you did And then lastly congratulations to Dr Thompson on completing her doctorate degree So that's a big deal And that's it for me All right With that I will move into our last
item Move to adjourn Okay Second motion by Guyer second by Weer Guyger I Meek Hi Moore I Meyers I Thompson I Williams I Winegar I passes 7 to zero that the meeting of the board is now adjourned