##VIDEO ID:IKz88zRE6So## okay it is Monday January 13 2025 I call this Elizabeth School District business meeting to order at 6: p.m. can I get a roll call please director Booth here director Calahan here director Olson here director pal here and director wer here okay stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all okay I move that the board approve the removal of agenda item 9.1 from this business session meeting on January 13th 2025 second any discussion okay can I get a roll call director Booth I director Callahan I director olid I director pal I and director Waller I okay motion approved that is that approval of the so is that the agenda with that with that removed okay next up I move that the board approve the minutes from the January 7 2025 meeting and the the December 16th 2024 meetings as presented second any discussion on those okay can I get a roll call director Booth hi director Kahan hi director Olsen I director pal I and director Waller I okay motion approved when was a special meeting I know I took me a minute I'm like wait it's May 15th oh yeah that's right we did have one okay um next up we have our Communications and we have our early childhood Showcase with director Karina do okay well Karina's coming up I just want to say Karina has just been an amazing addition to our team um we did not have a district coordinator of our preschool efforts um and so Karina became our district director in March of last year um and has just done an amazing job at at at organizing our preschools ensuring that we have a consistent preschool program across the district has started an infant toddler program and I won't steal any more of her uh but we are just so lucky to have her so thank you Karina well I did start off saying it started in March sorry but it really allowed me the time to get to know the schools and get to know the program and really see those areas of already great things we're doing and then some areas of improvement that I feel like I could Branch together and why I was here um biggest area we really saw was an INF and TOD their program um the needs for our community the needs for our faculty members really just needed right and so over the summer long summer uh I was able to work with facilities and convert our opportunity building um to two classrooms um this allowed us to have an infant classroom and a toddler classroom we serve 6 weeks to 18 months in infants 18 months to 3 years in CS and I'm really happy to report the open doors September 25th um is when we open the doors which was really exciting a little bit longer than what we wanted but we opened and we really excited um I'm excited to report we are fully enrolled in todders a weight list already that is growing so um infants we're at six students with a capacity of 10 so we're getting there we're almost there as well with that enrollment we have 50% of our community members and 50% of Faculty which I think is a great balance to be able to serve our community and our faculty members within our district um looking at the needs though of our community I'm noticing to fulfill those last enrollment we really need to extend our hours and so recently we have decided that we're going to extend our hours by an hour to allow more community members to serve within that program and I just think they're not being able to get back in time um to be able to utilize that amazing program and so we are extending hours to what um for we're going from 7:15 to 4:15 to 7 to 5 okay yes great and with our current enrollment and our lovely wait list we are working through a grant currently to expand and add a second toddler classroom so we will acquire the other side of Technology at another toddler classroom with that we're going from 20 students to 30 students so adding 10 with the goal of expanding more but we're going to do this um our goal is to receive that Grant in April again I work through the summer preparing that classroom we open in August um long-term goal is to continue to work through being open year round to continue to serve even more community members because they don't have the summmer off um with that um we are working um to do an article um Jeff and I met and we're working through different aspects and I'm working with Nikki quinby um to create an article to really utilize that resource within the community um and really get the visibility out there because I think think that is something we're still improving is getting that visibility out there of this program and I think being able to do that within her article will be really beneficial and then um over the summer so looking towards um our preschool program now we had a large number of Faculty to hire over the summer um I did all of the job fairs and we were very successful and I was able to fill 20 positions which was huge between the infant and toddler and the preschool so it was a large amount to fill and we did fill all of them which was very very successful and very exciting um to really just build that strong ECE program but with that became all new teachers who needed um much professional development and so I really took this year to develop um a high strong quality team of professional development with that being said we have our Fridays which is an amazing opportunity for our teachers in the ECE to get high professional development which hasn't been so much for the ECE teachers and so I've brought in other professionals myself and done every one Friday every month both schools have came together which is also something that has never happened which I think is pretty unique we're one District we should be together to build one strong program and so I've been really proud to pull everybody together and do those trainings as one team it's been a lot of fun um we have also doubled our family events for our families there wasn't much going on to bring that home to school connection and so I've able been able to do more family events one at running creek has been a winter showcase one at Singing Hills has been a family movie night that they did in the gym which was lovely our site director dressed up as the Grinch and took pictures with all the children which was really neat um to be able to do these events we had our first ever fundraiser that just focused on the preschool families um it has never been done where it's just been the preschool in the last few years huge success our family supported that fundraiser we're able now to have even more family events and that's what that money will go towards as well as I'm super excited maybe just because my daughter is going to be in graduation this year but we have a pre prek graduation happening at both schools that'll be a full graduation in the gym that families can participate yes so excited that that money is going towards something right back to our families um at the end of last school year running creek did their Colorado shines rating which they received a level five which is the highest you can get which is pretty amazing um they work very very hard and they're super excited to continue that care and that quality through this year running through or Singing Hills is currently a level four they expire in April so they'll be going through their rating I have no doubt that they will be just as amazing they're working very very hard um I have brought in a professional development coach for them just to help them really get ready for it which has been really neat that I was able to use a grant for um with this rating it really just showcases the high quality care that our preschool has brought to our students and so it's something to be really proud of for both of them four and five is what you want to shoot for so pretty exciting for both of them um with this being said another huge showcase is our teachers credentials this year most of our teachers last year were either a level two to three or a level one or not even rated in their credential this year they are all a level two to a level four which is lead qualified or director qualified which is also really something to be proud of that we have higher qualified teachers within the ECE field um through Colorado shines to achieve those they need to be taking higher qualified professional development ECE courses and their hours of experience so it's really showcased what they can do and bring a high quality care for our children um currently running creek is sitting at 54 students uh Singing Hills is sitting at 74 both of them have a capacity of 80 so Singing Hills is right there they're right there um and running creek is still growing we're continuing to still have enrollment um I have three families that should be coming in so and then um the last thing that I have is the schools have really the site directors have really partnered with our principles to really make sure that we are setting the foundation for them to continue through our district fantastic yes good great great questions wow you been a busy lady I have but it's good for me I don't have any questions but I have to say I've heard from a lot of Staff members that they are super happy with what you've done so far and I've heard nothing but great things thank you no it's been a lot of fun so I tell this to a lot of people that brought back why I did EC to be here again so it's been fun perfect thank Youk you appreciate it okay next up we have principal Michael C freed to give a rce showcase good evening everybody hello I don't know how you can follow that is that mic on we just yeah that mic wasn't on darn it oh I didn't even notice hold it there there we go yep so I got to log in here real quick is that on the right that's what I'm seen it was before go I enjoy my opportuni to come and talk about running creek cuz it's an amazing place it's really a wonderful School great community and so I enjoy my time coming in and talking with you and sharing the great things are happening at school um running creek staff wearing our district shirts there we go and uh we have 291 students in the kave 5 and I thought it was 52 but now it sounds like we already grew a couple students in preschool at 54 so we're growing and 65 staff members so it's pretty exciting crew this year to work with we're doing well and today was a lot of fun um but we do a lot of things for the staff we try to they work hard you think about a teacher's life and what they do every day um their days aren't really like clocking in at 8 and clocking out at 3: they're out working in the mornings they're working at nights they're working on weekends and we try to recognize that and bring things to them and have some fun and we have a treat cart that the office will go around once in a while on weekends and hand out some treats to the staff let them pick some things and just a good feeling in the building when you do some things like that and recognize the hard work they're doing in the building and so in the office really loves doing that getting out of the office too was a lot of fun Carla and Paula doing an amazing job but the treats are cool um I thought did I skip the slide here may not instruction things going on in the building lot of really good things going on in the building we're really focusing on our instructional time we are only given so many minutes a day with these kids and we want to make sure we're using those minutes and so we got a lot of things going on here we got music Kevin working with the kids if you ever get Mr Walsh's room in music and they're really engaged having fun in music we have fifth grade doing some local politics working on what favorite cookie they had during the elections and it was really cool uh we have small group instruction and we have really small groups with the fifth grade working on some math here and so we really want to work together engage our kids in some instruction and quality instruction together and with the teachers one of the things we just did today this was really cool we had the planetarium from CU Fisk planetarium I don't know if you're familiar with them but they came in and visited us today at running creek and it was a lot of fun uh it was for the third fourth and fifth grade and so they to come set up the portable um planetarium in the gymnasium and the two presenters are really excited to come to Elizabeth they were just pumped and then they got the kids in this thing and I went in there too and checked it out and it was really cool to sit in there and look up I just love planetariums you ever get in them and the feeling here was really the kids were just excited and so we had a really fun time today with the see you here at our school today um just wanted to share that experience it is on Facebook and if you want to check it out it's there um Lots going on in the building um it's really important to get the know community and what's going on CU we are a community school and uh we have certain field trips that are done at each grade level Kinder go always goes to the fire department they always go to the police station and it's a lot of fun to get out there in community and the community really enjoys having the children come out and visit those uh Services here within our community and these are just some pictures from that time visiting and seeing what the equipment's like getting to meet the personnel and enjoying the interaction with the kids um we thank the fire department police department hosting our kids they did a great job first Creek uh first grade went out to l Creek Farm uh I had a really good day they spent a whole day out there enjoying it and seeing the animals and seeing the whole thing out there at the farm and enjoy excuse me enjoyed their day out there and um really enjoyed it it was a lot of fun in the fall so really important to get out and see the community second grade went to a park I I didn't know much about it this Four Mile Park and I don't know if you've ever heard of this one but they really enjoyed it and uh you can see they got to look for some gems there in the water like paying in for gold there and really got into that piece the teacher said they really enjoyed it we're hoping to find something and uh no one came back with anything in that I'm aware of but they had a really good time uh out at the in the community at the Four Mile Park third grade they were working on their Kinder reading buddies so we got uh third grade going over to the kindergarten rooms and working together with the kindergarteners and you can see here a couple third grade students reading to A small group of students there uh some books and uh really engageing with that and being really good role models for kindergarteners they see how important reading is and how much they enjoy reading this is a lot of fun to read each other so you're enjoying that fourth grade we have uh this year what we call our win groups that's a second dose of literacy we're doing in all grade level K through five and we do a lot of small group instruction and wi stands for what I need and so we have that going on in both elementaries we work together to implement that this year within the schools here's small grade small group here in fourth grade working with one of our teachers and we use a program called Spire with the small groups and it's going well first year it's you got some bumps but we're working those out as we go along fifth grade when you know they're learning what it means to be a fifth grader what does it mean to be a member of the community they're out doing some service here Civic service and so they spent one day out cleaning up the the grounds around the school and um bringing some pride to the building and making sure it's clean and um they enjoyed it I don't know about picking up trash but they know it's brings some pride to the school it looks nice so I appreciate their work on that uh we all had the Halloween and the Fall Festival big big event at Renning Creek um if you get a chance to come on over and visit U most teachers did dress up I did dress up and had some fun it's just amazing to see how my parents if you come in the building during the Halloween uh parade the walls are just lined with family members that come in and just excited to see their kids and then we do a parade of all the great preschool through fifth all the way around the building and it's just so much so much fun and uh just something we do together as a community and um so was very successful this year and we got to do some Fall Festival activities along with that Veterans Day um honored our veterans myself a US Army veteran and I appreciate and get to know other veterans within the community and being honored with them and we have a great group of veterans in our school and very proud of what they do we uh had a ceremony um I think was it Rhonda you I just there and thank you for coming to that and honoring the veterans then we had a like a breakfast got an old breakfast for them in the cafeteria spent some time getting to know them walking around and and their children got to spend that time with them in the cafeteria so it's pretty cool one of the other things we did this year so far is our food drive and uh really got into that again this year last year it was huge again this year and we and all grade levels participated um this year uh we gave the top two classes of choice uh either a pizza party or a root beer float because last year believe it or not if you were the first highest group you got the pizza party and the second group got the root beir floats well a lot of classes want to be the second group because they want floats but you can't pass up so it was it was good feedback from the kids so we gave them the opportunity to choose what they wanted between the two and they both went with r root beer floats and uh so we appreciate that um what they did um but great job giving back to our community again um we had our spell and beef before winter break and Mara from fifth grade was our Mara Jones from fifth grade is our person from running creek they will be doing that this week and Wednesday is the District spelling me here at the the middle school so well I'll be there and hoping she does well and does well for us but I know they'll all do well but we got spell be and we're excited about that um talk about community and we are Community School we I I am so impressed with our parent Community uh what they do for running creek they're always engaged they're there they're asking what they can do uh we have monthly meetings as a ptco every we have ours next week on the 23rd on Thursday it's always a Thursday and then we can do our sack meeting right at the same time and then go right off to deck that night uh but they're always planing ahead thinking what they can be doing to support our school what do we need what the teachers need or what can we do to build community this happened popcorn day when I first came to running creek I didn't know what to expect but now it's amazing what that thing does and brings the community together on Wednesdays and we have it this Wednesday so if you want to come by for a buck you can get a bag of popcorn and a dollar to wear a hat in the building and it's a it's a good fundraiser but it's also a fun event in the building the kids really enjoy it um but those things they do uh the bottom picture is from Dairy Queen we have Dairy Queen U Knights or some other places that host and give us a percentage and and parents really come out to those and it's a lot of fun to see them there um and we're thankful for Miss pulus who does serve as our parent on our sack Community sack accountability committee so um but that's just some of the things they do um Like Preschool we did a movie night uh back in before winter break and you can see in that one picture up there on the top that was in the gymnasium we set it up and they could bring in their own chairs blankets pillows and we had a movie and it was a lot of fun um and then the PTO set up or ptco set up a snack bar in the cafeteria and um it's just fun to bring the community together and there's them doing a hat popcorn they're making all popcorn in the morning and delivering all the classrooms and then there's our ptco big group of parents and I'm so thankful for them and what they do at our school but we encourage all parents to be in our building please come visit come help out in the building um another thing we do is our graduate profile it's a monthly focus and so we have a a assembly once a month to recognize those students on our graduate profile um teachers have resources help those students on that graduate profile each month this year we're giving out what's called a paw ticket and you know Jaguar has paw and they getet a paw a paw and then we do a draw uh every Friday for them and the kids really enjoy it this was a group of kids from one month right here and uh it's always fun to watch parents come in take pictures and be there and experience this excitement um we've developed our assembly a little bit more if you get a chance to come in and watch us we uh also engage uh the the teachers in in the assembly now we do a fun activity with the teachers and sometimes with the teachers and kids just to build that Bond and relationship with the teachers and kids from all the grade levels and so they did a rock paper scissor one last last month and it was really fun to watch the teachers and kids do that together and have fun so um school safety uh I appreciate all the work that Tyler's done and and Dan and putting together safety at our schools our person is Jeff toak he's really doing very well in our building we're very happy to have him there he kids love having him around he's done great keeping our building safe and secure he's very visible he's helping us with drills uh he's brought in some training on January 6 we did some training with safe to tell I brought that in and some other um events to help us understand and how to prepare and be safe in our building uh but that has gone well so I appreciate the work that Jeff has done and with the support of Tyler and Dan and others within the community um we have Diagnostics you know we have a beginning of the year already now we're at the midy year that has started as of today uh so the window to finish the mid year is between now and the 24th uh so we'll have have that data right after the 24th to see where our students at and how much growth they are shown at this time and watch them and see their progress um and then we'll do it again at the end of the year right around the 1 of May so uh communication um Jag tracks goes out every Friday hopefully you're if you're getting that and seeing the things going on uh Facebook's out there still BL it's growing following we're doing meet our teacher meet a teacher once a week we put out there trying to personalize who a teacher is you know a lot of times you just hear a name but you don't know who they really are and they're they're here in our community and so we we do a meet the teacher um putting out emails uh phone calls I try to do trying to do more phone calls um so parents hear my voice and get to know more about me too and so I do those um I like to be outside during drop off and pickup it's been really cold the last two days but I've been out there wearing my Buffalo Bills hat so I'm I'm good to go um but I enjoy being out there greeting kids in the morning and seeing parents and after school just being visible is important and and being a person out there and personal with them uh Class Dojo is used by the teachers it's out there too another tool so um my contact information yes there uh that is my cell phone I get a lot of parents I encourage parents to text me um that's the best way to reach me and for me to get back to someone I will re read emails and get back but text if you really need to reach me at night or weekend uh a text is the best and it's a great way to build a relationship with parents too and know them accessible through um text and email so that's what's going on uh at running creek um appreciate the opportunity to be here tonight so thank you this opportunity and thanks for the update I hear just Kudos about all of the communication everybody loves it well thank you appreciate it all right thank you I leave this m on you turn it [Music] off thank you okay um this is the item that board does not like having on the agenda we off January is a Schoolboard recognition month and I think it's important in school districts across state we have 178 school districts across the state of Colorado I think it's important in Colorado Colorado is a local control state which means that each district elects uh representatives from the community to make important decisions uh for its community and we have five members of our community who have stepped up and and been duly elected here in Elizabeth and this is our chance as a community simply to say thank you the governor every year passes a Proclamation and I know in the past I've read it and I won't read it again uh tonight but um I think it's really important just for our community to stop and say thank you uh to to these five board members who who give a lot of time and and get no compensation for this in fact often get lots of headaches um and lots of attacks for decisions that they make so I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you um we have a small gift for you that's uh at your uh table there hopefully some that will'll at least as you use those we let you know that we appreciate you and that uh uh you are thought of each and every day and so thank you thank you for your leadership okay next up we have um board member reports um I'll go ahead and kick it off so we had a break so there's not a whole lot to talk about but I can say I am looking forward to The District spelling be at the middle school on Wednesday at 400 p.m. um that's always a lot of fun and um I also want to mention that um we are having our first book fair of the Year February 6th through the 15th and it's our first book there since going out to RFP and engaging with Sky trees so I hope it's advertised far and wide to show support for our schools and our partnership with Sky Tree next um I want to take a moment after hearing of the passing last month of Bonnie Galloway a true pillar of the Elizabeth School District from 1984 to her retirement in May of 2009 Bonnie dedicated 25 years to shaping young minds as an educator leaving an incredible mark on countless students and colleagues her commitment to education didn't stop there she continued to share wisdom and passion as a substitute teacher from 2009 to 2015 Bonnie's unwavering dedication kindness and love for teaching have left a legacy that will be remembered for Generations please join me in honoring Bonnie Galloway for many contributions to her school and Community as a friend as well she'll be greatly missed go thank you I don't have anything um well I just want to welcome all the students and teachers back in our new semester I'm looking forward to it being a really great new semester here you stole a little bit of my thunder with the um um spelling bee which is this Wednesday as as Rhonda said um I I got to go to the running creek version you know they have each school has their own and then they all come up for the district one so that will be this uh this Wednesday and so I'm looking forward to that it's always pretty amazing to see what great spellers we have and these kids are all no nobody's forced to do this but we have a lot of people who participate in that so it's it's very exciting and then just last but not least um as I'm part of the Elizabeth Education Foundation and we do have um another fundraiser this month on the 21st at Chick-fil-A so go to Chick-fil-A that day have some lunch or some dinner and tell them uh that you're there for Elizabeth uh Education Foundation and they'll donate part of the proceeds so is it specific Chick-fil-A uh oh yes I'm sorry thank you I always forget that yes it's the one down by on Crown Crest Boulevard by the hospital par okay yeah thank you and nothing to report okay all right well my turn um few things I want to uh update folks on um last Thursday we had a snow day um and it was a rather frustrating experience I uh did send out an email to parents trying to explain what was happening Thursday is a late start for us um and we did have a little miscommunication because Legacy does not have a late start and and so that was a collapse in in my judgment I forgot that Legacy did not so we were uh knowing that we had some some cold weather and some snowf falling we thought that hour delay natural delay would give us adequate time to let the sun come up so that students would wouldn't be standing out at bus stops in the dark um and that that would allow us to have a normal school day um uh we had our our Lots cleared at 5:30 and our team is up at 4:30 in the morning on snow days to make sure that we can make the right decision we don't make those from our from our beds we we make those from uh our cars and make sure that we we know what's going on um 5:30 our parking lots were clear and at 5:45 the snow picked up and the wind and the winds picked up as well so um we had to call an audible about I believe it was about 6:15 and another hour delay thinking watching the radar and the radar showed that it would clear he does say that didn't happen either um and then about uh I think it was 6:45 or 7:00 we had a fire alarm at the high school that caused us to have to shut off our boilers um we had a smell of smoke that they traced to the boiler room um and so that was like the third strike to say okay we're not meant to have school today so I have to say parents were extremely um generous and follow that email um uh understanding the situation we were in but um we do try to make the call by 5:30 um we have dealt I would say in my time here we've dealt more with the residual of snowfall and snow Snow's Fallen the night before or or the weekend before and we've had to make that call um this was probably the first storm that we've had in process um as we were trying to make that decision so um again uh 5:30 is our Target date or Target time time we try to make that call so that parents have time to make decisions Jeff has done a great job and alerting parents the night before that hey there is a winter weather event coming we are monitoring we'll let you know by 5:30 so we do try to get parents heads up the night before um that we are monitoring a situation and we'll let them know so um again just to to outline that process uh we definitely were not proud of how things rolled out last Thursday but um under the cir IR stances I think we unfortunately did the best we could at that point I think Douglas County uh parents would have preferred the decision you made we did have two other school districts in in in our County who also had to shift from a late start to a cancellation so I think we were we had company there but I recognize how difficult it is for parents in that last minute change and so it's not something that I want to um cause for families um our teachers and classrooms are off to a great start it's you know it's nice to have that two week break but then to come back and to to get a new semester started and kids changed into new classes and and new master schedules done so I just want to thank our teachers and our administrators for for a great start do want to talk a little about an increased Focus um that we will have in the coming semester and in the coming years that's really around reading as we look at our reading performance you know when we look at our Colorado reading performance overall you know when we celebrate that 42% of our kids in the state of Colorado are proficient um that that's concerning and and and you know we compare ourselves to the state and we do a little better than the state and maybe we feel we feel good but but 42% means that 58 aren't and so um we are are increasing our focus on reading as many of you know in our community we have uh started some dyslexia therapy Pilots um this semester um trying to to to to touch some of our most effective affected readers students with dyslexia one and five students uh have some form of Dyslexia by by many research studies um some dyslexia can be can be overcome with with good instruction in the classroom some dyslexia is pretty severe and really need specialized instruction for students to be able to break the code and learn how to read and to to really be able to to understand um you know how to put letters together and and and break again break the code of reading and so um obviously before we can change that pathway for our district we've got to be ready to address the needs of some of our most severely impacted students and so we're excited to be on the track this summer we will begin training in five of our staff um to become certified acade academic language therapists uh we have contracted with a quality qualified instructor um who can train um CS a certified academic language therapist so next year we'll be able to spread that pilot that we started this year to both elementary schools and to um our Middle School um but we will we will increase our focus on reading increase the time that we spend on reading and increase our direct instruction on reading in the district because we have to do better we cannot continue to expect that students can read with with the with the results that we're getting and I think overall Statewide State's done a lot of focus around a react I think there's been a lot of effort but we've got to change the results you know effort without a change in results is nothing and so it's about time that we do something and so we're really excited about this we've begun to talk with our staff about our plans and some of the things that we need to do we really know that every child can learn to read we just have to accept the fact that we can't continue to do the same thing and expect different results and so um I want everyone to know that there will be some changes in our instruction changes in our programming um because it's necessary if we're going to be able to ensure that every child leaves our elementary school as a reader um couple of of positive announcements um our Chief Financial Officer has achieved her SFO certification which is a big deal for her um it's kind of like getting your doctorate degree but maybe not quite that um the SFO certification is granted to highly qualified individuals who fulfill multiple requirements including proving eligibility through work experience and education passing a comprehensive exam that tests competency and accounting and school business management topics and hearing to the association of school business officials International certification code of conduct and so um Rebecca Brooks our CFO has achieved her SFO certification um which we're really proud of her congratulations Rebecca congratulations to her she did say that I need to stay to be recognized and I told her no go home um she is working on our revised budget which you'll get in two weeks um for this year and then finally last uh we celebrated Mark oser last meeting who retired from the district after 27 years as our director of facilities we have hired Andrew Rodriguez who is our new director of facilities we featured him in our Good News Bulletin last week Andrew has done an amazing job on his first two snowstorms um to Qui to be able to really rally the forces he has uh worked with custodians and his maintenance team to really kind of reassign the duties within snow events and who doing what and and we actually had two very smooth snow events where buildings were cleared I would say to a really great degree um before students arrived and and obviously again in those events that snow continued to fall that we kept walks cleared even during those events so I really want to congratulate Andrew and encourage people to welcome him when you get to see him so then I'll I will stop so thank you all right great news I'm excited yeah excited about everything going on with the reading um okay so next up we have public comment so first up we have Michelle gazinski and just hold that down to turn thank you did the light come on I see number okay is that right okay there go hi I have a four and six-year-old Singing Hills Elementary in the preschool big fans of the preschool thank you for that presentation tonight I am asking you board to uphold The Pledge you took to be a school board member and the pledge you just reaffirmed to that American flag behind you it no longer matters what this book what's in the books that you took off the shelves are added to a list this lawsuit is now about you as government officials infringing on the First Amendment rights of kids and families in our community this board is not above the Constitution of the United States like it or not it's a fact that book bands never stand up to the Supreme Court this is a fight that you're going to lose no matter what side of this issue anyone in this room is on we all know that the First Amendment will always win this school district has had existing policies and procedures to review curriculum and I ask you to Simply follow those existing rules that have been here since before you all were here as the board there's no need to give hundreds of thousands of dollars to Slick lawyers instead of our teachers because of your ego and pride be the American Patriots we all know you are and end this lawsuits show the students that you do understand and support the Constitution and their first amend rights by taking responsibility for your mistakes just fix them John and Mike we've seen your common sense and Clarity for doing the right thing when you voted against the new Independence Charter you knew now isn't the right time for the charter and now isn't the time to fight this lawsuit I ask you that you stand up again Mary they're going to make a mockery of you and you're waffling about the books to ban this was dropped in your lap but you don't don't need to be the Martyr you can stop this Rhonda do you really want this lawsuit failure is your legacy of being the board president you can stop this Heather now is the time to tap the brakes don't punch the gas you can stop this I know you thought you were protecting kids when you made the list of books to remove from the library that no longer accurate children you're beholden to protect your own mission statement says you will provide our students with excellent and diverse learning opportunities so why aren't you doing that why would you rather throw a book in the trash than guide kids through difficult issues to prepare them for the successful future we all want our kids to have no one will think less of you if you step back re-evaluate what needs to happen the right thing stop fighting this lawsuit start fighting for our kids and teach them critical thinking skills that will serve them for a lifetime our kids are depending on you thank you we've been fighting for our kids all along yeah they're doing what they as we as them to do next up we have Travis Nelson hello everyone honor to be here tonight Travis Nelson I'm a Senate candidate first I'd like to thank all all of you for uh stepping up for your children here and their education and the students you know I know it's a thankless job sometimes and I understand that you guys are in a pretty tight spot with all this the fact that uh I'm here is a red flag of that I think um I'll contact you guys later on this week but I just want to know when was the decision to hire legal council made what's their name of your attorney I'm here not in a political capacity you know we're in a school board that's nonpartisan as far as I know what I do understand though is community members feel threatened and are taking students out of the school you know I know that you're dealing with financial struggles probably you know these kids leaving and the head count I wonder you know I took a look at the book one of these Pride Champion lgbtq rights you know we're in Elizabeth Colorado we're out in the country I see these probably Gathering dust on your shelves I don't see kids probably beating down the door to check out these books I'd be curious to see the the library card on those and see you know if they're even getting checked out I believe in the US Constitution in the First Amendment it's my understanding that this case with the ACLU that's another red flag that they're in it um could easily be settled by putting those books back on the shelves in the meantime I'd like to give the students of Elizabeth an assignment to uh read those books and weigh in themselves give them a vote even you know this could be a good example of teaching kids democracy but these kids read it and if they think it is inappropriate to have in school let them vote on it second to all the parents that have uh removed their kids here you need to be an example and bring them back you got to teach your kids to you know look at things themselves and think of what that does to this school district I I know you guys need those resources here sure you know I'm real I pray with you director Powell like before the meeting you know I'm a Christian I go to church I think probably 90% of us here in this room are but you know you say that prayer before the meeting versus after sorry can give me a couple of seconds I came a long ways and I just encourage you guys to uh try to settle this case you know there's let's focus on the students we got to put the students first and I think this is probably hurting our students here I challenge anyone that has anything to uh input you know I'm happy to listen to it they could reach me at Travis 4 color at gmail but i' just like to see this put to rest you all have a nice day and I appreciate your time thank you [Music] thanks I you next up we have Greg [Music] Lopez is it still on yes well I wanted to come here this evening and talk about the value of education and what it means to our nation as you know I just came back from Congress and if there's one thing that I will tell you when you walk the halls of Congress and you see our founding fathers and you read the Declaration of Independence and you read the Constitution I carry the constitution in my pocket because I do believe in the Constitution and I do understand the first amendment I think sometimes people neglect to fully appreciate what the first amendment is all about and the first amendment is really truly about being able to to speak about what is happening about what is happening in our nation and what is happening in our communities you know the educational system is what our founding fathers truly believed if we don't have a good educational system then our nation will become a non Nation our nation will become a third world country and so you are the vanguards you are the vanguards of our educational system as was mentioned earlier you were elected you were elected by the people of this community because they have faith in you because they believe that you will make good informed decisions you are not elected by a minority you are elected by a majority and so while there's voices that perhaps are saying you need to do something different I would encourage you stand tall be courageous be bold because our nation needs you our children need you because without education there will be no opportunity without education you will not be able to remove yourself from poverty and Achieve that destiny that we all say America's about this is a time for us to really stand tall and when you look at the books I would ask you to evaluate these books are they what are they teaching is this education is it really teaching opportunity is it teaching really critical thinking I think that perhaps there will always be a disagreement as to what a book should be teaching and what it shouldn't be teaching there's a lot of noise that you will be hearing we hear it in Congress every single day we hear it across the state every single day you go to the capital you will hear it every single day because this is about a world view this is not about what's happening today it's about what's going to happen in the next 10 years in the Next Generation and how are we going to treat each other and so I tell you that I will leave you with this first of all I want to commend you for stepping forward remember you were elected by the majority not the minority Stand Tall be courageous because this is what we need and as again you know I want to thank you it's appropriate that this is the month where we appreciate school boards I think you should honor that you should respect that and as I want to leave I want you to know that you know what for the last 6 months you were all my boss each and every one of us I represented you in Congress to the best of my ability so I do have a parting gift for you uh I've already given out some but this is a my congressional coin that I would like to leave you with and perhaps it will remind you of your efforts and your duty to Elizabeth School District so much appreciate that thank you [Music] GRE thank you okay next up we have our consent items I move to approve the consent items as presented second can I get a roll call director boo Hi director Callahan I director olon I director pal I and director Waller I okay motion approved uh next up we're moving to action items the first that we have is our second and final reading of new regulation aa- r- non-legal name changes for students I move that the board approve the second and final reading of new regulation aa- r- non-legal name changes for students second any discussion one thing I would like to say is thank you Mary for all of your effort that you all of your recommended changes I mean I just absolutely love it well thank you love it thank you very well put together all of the input she's good at Jamie put them all together okay thank you we appreciate it okay can I get a roll call director Booth hi director Callahan hi director Olson I director pal I and director Waller I okay motion approved next up we have the second and final reading of new exhibit aa- form to request non-legal name changes for students I move that the board approved the second and final reading of new exhibit aa- e - form to request non-legal name changes for students second and any discussion I U I just wanted to say I I the last little change I made on here is because I realized from the regulation there was an attestation that a parent should be making with regard to this and so I added in language both both into this one and into the next uh exhibit to so um thank you for adding those in and and that was kind of the reason that it so that it went along with that regulation more directly and I do want to say our legal council has conferred and and and agrees completely with all of these changes so all right can you get a roll call director Booth hi director callaham hi director Olson I director pal I and director Waller I okay motion approved and next up we have second and final reading of new exhibit ac- E-1 form to request reverting back to legal name St legal name for students so I move that the board approved the second and final reading of new exhibit aa- E-1 form to request reverting back to legal name for students second and any discussion on this one again thank you love it thanks all right can I get a roll call director Booth hi director Callahan hi director Olson hi director pal I and director Waller I okay motion approved our last action item is uh selection announcement of council for our current legal action so we have no motion tonight just an update and I am going to let Dan y I'm pleased to announce that the district has retained a legal team to defend us against the aclu's federal lawsuit challenging the board's decision to remove a few inappropriate books from our school libraries the the team consists of two law firms the first is Mitchell law Jonathan Mitchell is a US Supreme Court practitioner and the former solicitor general of Texas Mr Mitchell is an accomplished practitioner most recently securing a unanimous win before The Supreme Court returning president-elect Trump's name to the 2024 presidential ballot Mr Mitchell is currently defending a public library in Texas against similar claims and has offered to defend the district the Second Law Firm representing us is first and 14th this firm is based in Colorado Springs and specializes in constitutional litigation around the country taking the lead on their team is Albert County residents Julian Ellis and Laura Ellis we appreciate their support as well as other prominent members of their team the district has been overwhelmed by the outpouring of offers of support from several law firms and groups there are also a number of outside groups currently raising funds to support our defense while it is difficult to S quiet while the opposing side shares a narrative that is missing critical and accurate facts the district will respond to these allegations through our legal filings the first of which is due by Monday January 27th we want to assure you that we remain focused on our mission and vision to educate our students and prepare them to be successful citizens we appreciate the patience of our community and our supporters okay next up we have our um board planning and new business our next board meeting is going to be on Monday January 27th 2025 here in the um district office boardroom starting at 600 p.m. I have some new business as some of you know my Ms relapsed about 2 years ago at that time I had considered stepping away from the board but chose to remain knowing how important it was to serve the district during a challenging period however the time has now come for me to prioritize my health and place my trust in the board to continue its work with the same passion and [Music] dedication it is what the heart that I announc my resignation from Elizabeth School Board effective at the conclusion of tonight's meeting it was not an easy decision but health issues now require my immediate attention this year I'm confident actually all right where am I serving on this serving on this board has been a great honor together we've faced challenges celebrated milestones and worked tirelessly to improve the educational experiences of the students in our district it has been a true privilege to serve alongside such dedicated and passionate individuals looking back I am deeply proud of what we have accomplished together we became the only School District in Colorado to have an armed security guard at every school ensuring an additional layer of safety for our students we approved a classical Charter School offering parents greater choice in their children's education we implemented a parental rights policy to empower families and secure a well we secured a well-deserved pay increase for our teachers we have fought hard to protect parental rights and get the focus back on academics where it should be these achievements reflect the values and priorities of our community and I am honored to have been a part of them I want to thank each of you for the support encouragement and collaboration you have shown me throughout my time on the board it has truly been an honor to serve and I will always cherish the work we've done together and the progress we've made for our schools and Community thank you we love you he you and I have to say it has been an honor it has been an honor working with you yes indeed I mean we've been through we've been through some pretty ugly times but um we've been through some great times too and we've we've made uh we've just achieved tremendous things and you know there's there's more in the works so um you know we're we're turning things around and headed in the right direction and it wouldn't have happened without you wouldn't have happened without you I'm going to miss your thank you hether thank you okay well with that it is 7:01 p.m. and this meeting is a journey there get the wood