Speaker 1: Right. The recording started. I'm gonna call the regular board meeting for February 26th, 2025 to order at five 40. If everyone would please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. Speaker 2: Cassie, would you mind? Yes. I pledge Speaker 3: To flag of the United States of America and to the Republic. The Religiou stands one, one Nation under God, indivisible, with the routine of justice for Speaker 2: All. Please Speaker 4: Remain standing for a moment of silence. Speaker 2: For what? Speaker 4: Thank you. Speaker 1: Thank you everyone.
Alright, where is my agenda? Speaker 2: I'm getting mine. Okay. Speaker 1: Onto the agenda. Are there any changes to the agenda? Speaker 4: There is one for the consent. You want me to hold Speaker 2: That? Speaker 1: No, we'll get to that in a minute. Speaker 2: Okay. Speaker 4: That's it then. So there are no changes Speaker 1: To the agenda? No changes to the agenda written. Speaker 5: I'd like to throw one out there. Okay. Because we just recently received information from legal counsel and we're hearing public comments still. We received a ton of emails from community members and because we don't actually have the final draft sitting up here right now, I don't feel it would be practical
to vote on the policy tonight without digesting everything. That and seeing a final draft of that policy gives us a little bit more time to reflect, get legal counsel's opinion on it and give the community one more chance to take a look at what our final draft would look like before we actually do go to vote on the policy itself. So I would move that we would table the action item 4.3 for the next board meeting when we have all these people here to do this and, and put something together. Speaker 1: Sure. I think one of the things I value what you said. That sounds great. I think one
of the things, you're a little ahead. We might come to a spot where we're not ready to vote on something anyway, but Speaker 2: Sorry, Speaker 1: I don't see any reason personally. I mean, I would definitely listen to anyone else to modify the agenda. I think as we get into discussion, if at the end of the day we cannot, is is fathom on? We got have fathom up, right? Yep. Speaker 2: She's up. She can't hear. That's what we're trying to figure out. Okay. Let's wait until Speaker 1: She can hear. Yep. Yep. My bad. I should have verified she was on. Speaker 2: Let's use microphones. Oh,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have you maybe repeat that when they get Speaker 2: It's on. I unmuted it. Okay. Speaker 1: Can we ask her? Yep. Speaker 2: What I'm Speaker 1: Doing right now. Okay. Thank you. Speaker 2: Oh, she's logging up trying, trying to log back in because the interpreters can hear. So does anybody have a good joke? Speaker 1: I'm gonna probably back up and I'll go back up and I'll ask about the agenda again and make that, that way that one can hear. Okay. Speaker 2: We're all Yeah, Speaker 1: On the same page. Speaker 2: Okay. I'll, I'll just wait on the consent though, since it's gonna come later anyways. Is that okay? That's okay. This, Speaker 1: Sorry everyone, Speaker 2: So it, Speaker 1: This isn't awkward or anything at all. Speaker 2: Well, that's why I said does somebody have a joke?
Speaker 1: I think what we're gonna do, I mean we have our, we have four. Yep. We're gonna, we're gonna mo mo motor our head and when she jumps in she Speaker 2: Says she's trying to log back in. Okay. Speaker 1: I don't wanna keep everybody. Okay, so I mean you, why don't you repeat that again. I'm gonna say are there any changes to the agenda? There are. Okay. Thank you. Speaker 5: Alright. My motion would be that we, because we've recently received information from legal counsel, we're still hearing public comment, receiving a lot of emails from other community members. And because we don't have final agreed upon language yet, I don't feel it'd be practical vote on the policy tonight
without digesting everything, seeing a final draft of the policy and giving us more time to reflect and get legal counsel's opinion and also give the community a little bit more time to provide input on whatever we come up with at the end of this discussion. That's my motion. Speaker 2: Okay. Speaker 1: I'll entertain a second. Speaker 2: All right. Moving on. Speaker 1: Public audience, a few welcoming notes. The board's meeting time is dedicated to a strategic mission and top priority focus area. Public participation is an opportunity to present brief comments or pose questions to the board
for consideration and follow up. Each person is asked to focus comments to three minutes. The boundaries are designed to help keep the meeting focused and in no way should limit conversations beyond the board meeting. Please be aware that any individual, student or personal matters are considered confidential under Colorado law. It is out of respect for the individual students and staff that we ask for these conversations to be held in executive session. Insights are needed and welcome, and the board encourages you to meet with the most appropriate person among the district's. Many leaders over the past several weeks board
members have dedicated significant time to this policy, engaging with parents, students, educators, and community members to ensure all perspectives are heard. We have reviewed state guidelines, consulted legal and education experts, and held extensive discussions to carefully consider this issue. While public input is invaluable, we must also balance it with the board's responsibility to address other critical matters tonight, including employee benefits and the superintendent search in accordance with district policy. Public comment will be limited to 30 minutes.
However, this issue has been given significant attention on our agenda and we encourage continued engagement through written comments and direct communications with the board. Our first speaker this evening will be Ashley Stall. Speaker 2: Do I have, I just Speaker 1: Let, let Ashley get up there. Speaker 2: Okay. Speaker 5: Just for the record, I'd like to just say that because this is an important topic and I've mentioned this to, to people on the board to written and I, I just like to say that I think that this is such an important issue that the best decisions are made from people with all voices
and all at the table. Many people are on the list that we haven't heard from. I'd like to give 'em an opportunity to speak, understand where you're coming from, but that's, that's my position is that I'd like to hear from everybody. Speaker 1: Thank you Scott. We have your time. Ashley, whenever you're ready, start. Go ahead. Speaker 6: Board members, my name is Ashley Stahl. You all know me. I'm the executive director for PFLAG of the Roaring Fork Valley Cook Inclusive and the founder of our new queer resource space in Newcastle. And we're now at the third and final reading of this policy. And at this point, there's no excuse for ignorance. You've met with stakeholders, you've heard from students,
parents, teachers, mental health professionals and civil rights advocates. You've even met with a young trans boy who's currently unhoused because his parents found out about his gender identity. You've been given every opportunity to understand what is at stake. If you move forward with this policy as written, you are making a choice and you need to be prepared to take responsibility for what comes next. This is a deeply complicated issue and one that has sparked overwhelming public interest. But as you can see by the size and composition of this room tonight, it's one side in our side opposing mandatory notification that has consistently shown up and been here engaged in this discussion.
That's because while this policy will only directly impact a small group of students, the harm it could cause is immeasurable. Many of the people speaking against this policy tonight will be personally affected or their people in their lives will be personally affected by it. And that's why we're here because this is not some abstract debate for them. This is their lives, their safety, and their future. Yet Britain, instead of respecting this public interest, you have taken steps to limit public comment. The last board meeting, more than 10 speakers were allowed to share their voices since changing the policy
to limit speakers, the board has never once silenced any community member until now. And it's clear from board communication and, and from Scott's comment tonight that this is not board consensus necessarily. That there's a dissenting opinions on the board. You're actively trying to prevent people from being heard. And I also have reason to believe you don't wanna compromise on this issue. That even the most basic safeguard to protect vulnerable students is too much for you. So I ask why. Why refuse to consider solutions that could prevent harm? And more importantly, what are you going
to do if a child gets kicked out of their home because of this policy? If a student is hurt or if God forbid one of these kids takes their own life, will you be the one to take them in? Will you be the one to sit with them as they try to pick up the pieces of their life? Will you be the one attending their funeral? Because I'll tell you who will be there it it's me and it's all these people in the room right now. We're gonna be the ones who are, are left to clean up the mess. The ones who've been begging you to listen. So the board has an opportunity tonight to is approach this issue with nuance to ensure that no child is put at risk
and that's what good governments looks like. That's what the community you, you serve expects from you and you have a choice and you can take the time to get this right or you can knowingly pass a policy that will cause harm and spend the rest of your tenure justifying its consequences. Thank you. Thank you. Stacy Adler. Speaker 7: Hello Speaker 2: Stacy. Speaker 7: My name is Stacy. I use she they pronouns. I'm a parent of a trans teen and a second bonus trans teen is living with us previously from the RE two school district. When my child was in middle school, a neighbor
of the same age took their own life. They were just coming out as trans to school and parents, and shortly after that, my child came out to me as trans and changed her pronouns but didn't change her name. I asked her many times if she had considered a new name, but she said she hadn't come up with anything yet. While this was going on in the back of my head, I was always just wanting my child to be happy and express herself however she felt most comfortable. A bit later I got a call from the mom of a friend of my child reporting
that my child had a new name. My first reaction to this was being hurt and a little bit sad that she didn't feel comfortable telling me. I thought I was such an understanding and accepting parent. Why wouldn't she be comfortable telling me? I confronted her about it and she said, I tried it for a bit and it wasn't right. About a year later, she came up with a name that she currently uses. I'm telling you this as an example to show that even if a child has an accepting environment, these changes can be hard. A child needs time to work through things with their peers while they work through confusing feelings.
A child spends at least eight hours a day at school. This may be where they feel the most comfortable trying out new ideas. While I agree that a parent has the right to know about school related activities, some social aspects of school don't need to be immediately reported before a child is ready. My goal being here today is to urge you not to make a blanket policy for a small population that can lead to direct harm of the family unit. This can lead to mental, emotional, and
or physical harm to the child and possibly worse. Thank you for your time. Speaker 2: Thank you. Our next speaker, Jamie LaRue, can you tap on that microphone real quick? Hit the button on top and Speaker 8: Might be on mute. Might be on mute. Speaker 2: Connect to Speaker 8: Now it's off. Speaker 2: Okay. There Speaker 8: You go. How's that? Thanks. Okay. Good to go? Yep. Okay. Well thank you so much for the opportunity to speak to you. My name is Jamie LaRue. I work in rifle and I've hired many RE two students and I have enjoyed every one of them. As a supervisor, I recently went
through training about harassment. Harassment is defined by law as a form of discrimination. It encompasses a wide range of behaviors that demean, embarrass, or humiliate people. I learned that employers under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act are legally required to provide workplace free from discrimination and harassment. There are various protected classes among them, race, color, and national origin, but also included as sex and under sex. We were advised that affecting the work environment to people who may not conform to various sexual stereotypes is illegal.
Supervisors in the institution as a whole are held accountable for such discrimination. My comments are very brief. It just seems to me that if adults or students working in the community can be assured of freedom from discriminatory treatment because of issues that really have nothing to do with the legitimate employer interest, is it really such a radical idea that RE two students should be afforded the same respect? It isn't my job as an employer of RE two students to enforce stereotypes. It's just to fulfill our institutional mission. Similarly, isn't it the school district's job to educate students rather than to police
and report them for any sign of gender non-conformity speaking as a father of a four fourth grader who decided he wanted a different name one day and eventually did the paperwork to formalize it, I just wanted to remind us all that children too have rights, children too have dignity and they value the support of the adults in their lives. Thank you for the opportunity to share my perspective. Speaker 9: Jess Eden. Speaker 1: Jess Eden. Speaker 2: Eden Heeden, Speaker 1: H-E-D-D-E-N. Hi Jess. Speaker 10: Jess Heen for Speaker 1: The record, Heen Heden, Speaker 10: And I'm gonna say it again. So my name's Jess Heen, I live in New Castle
and I am a parent to two kids. Thank you all for being here, for listening to these comments and for your time and commitment to the school board. I know this, this is like maybe not the most fun way you wanted to spend your Wednesday night and committed to the schools that our kids attend and making sure that they're thriving and growing and learning. If you did not know the mission of re two states that we're striving to provide engaging, authentic and rigorous educational experiences in a safe environment. So part of the work of carrying out this mission is
recognizing that con, the conditions that kids experience outside of school have a significant impact on their performance in school. The board has often championed support programs for kids that need those extra supports. So like free school breakfast and lunch for folks that have trouble, hard time affording food. We recognize the importance of Spanish speaking staff for kids that grow up in homes where the predominant language is Spanish. We have afterschool programs for kids that their parents can pick them up when the school day's over. So the goal has been to support the varying needs
of kids so that they can learn. That's ultimately what we're trying to do here. And I would propose that this policy is no different than a lot of what the board has advocated for in the past. There's a group of students within our community that need specific support, and this support should be advocated for without causing more harm or putting them in danger. By opting into language that parents will be notified of any name or pronoun changes jeopardizes the very safety that the A CA was set up to protect and will have devastating impacts. We cannot ultimately be sure of the home environment
that any kid is growing up within. So I urge you to pass a policy that will consider the nuance of each student's situation. Even if this policy only impacts a small portion of the school population, I'm not willing to put the safety of these kids at risk. This policy exists in its original form to ensure that queer and trans kids have engaging authentic and rigorous educational experiences in a safe environment, which is in exact alignment with the mission of the school district and the board. The people you see here tonight advocating for the use of May in this policy is
because we understand the dire consequences of notifying parents without a student's consent and are passionate about the lives of young people in our community. I'm asking that you pass the name change policy as written by CASB. Speaker 2: Thank you. Thank you, grace. Grace VAT Smith. Speaker 10: All right. Hello, my name is Grace VAT Smith and I am a seventh grade math teacher here at Rifle Middle School. I have been working for the district for nine years, and I'm just here today to say, share some of the insights I've learned from and about my students. So middle school is a time of self discovery. For many students, this means testing boundaries
to understand the rules and consequences. It means trying on different identities, whether that's an athlete or an artist, or a bookworm, or just something else entirely. It's a time for first experiences like joining a school team for the first time and exploring new friendships. Middle school is designed to be a place where students can safely figure out who they are with the support of caring adults who guide them through that process. If teachers are required to notify parents whenever a student asks to be called by a different name, we take away that sense of safety. We remove an important space where students can explore their identity and feel supported. In doing so, some students are still processing their
feelings and may not be ready to have these conversations at home. For them, school may be one of the few places where they can be honest about who they are without fear of rejection or harm. One of the most important questions that I ask my students is whether they have a safe adult in their lives, someone they trust and can turn to when they need support. That person could be a parent, a teacher, a coach, or a mentor in the community. Ideally, every CH child would feel safe going to their parents, but in reality, that is not always the case. Teachers often become that trusted person, someone who listens without judgment
and helps students navigate difficult emotions and experiences. If we are required to report every instance of a student requesting a name change, we risk losing that trust. Some students will stop confiding in us altogether, leaving them without any adult support. At the end of the day, my goal is simple. As a teacher, I want my students to be safe, happy, healthy, and sometimes I'd like them to learn a little math, but I worry about the students. I worry about the students who would lose a critical layer of safety and support if this policy is passed. With the requirement of notifying parents all the time,
instead of making a school a place of fear and restriction, we need to ensure that it remains a place where students feel seen, valued, and supported as they figure out who they are. Thank you. Thank Speaker 1: You. Danielle Cordova. Danielle Cordova. Speaker 2: Is she in person or Speaker 1: On Zoom? She's moving her way up right now. Speaker 10: Good evening, board members. Speaker 2: Good evening. Speaker 10: Hi, my name is Danielle Cordova and I have three children in the district. As a parent, it's important to me to always be notified about anything concerning my child. My husband and I are solely responsible
for our children's wellbeing. Over the past month, I've received over 20 notifications from the district about things like my child's attendance. If they're sick at school, they're missing their bus pass, school events, progress notes from teachers, field trips and more. I appreciate this communication and the level of detail it provides. So I'm left asking if the district can notify me about all these things. Why wouldn't I be notified if my child wants to change their name at school? This is a huge concern. It's wrong for the district
to make a decision without involving the parents. We cannot afford to have situations like what happened in the Jefferson County School District. If a child chooses to transition and only wants to change their name at school, this can harm their mental health and the trust between them and their parents or guardians. Relationships are built on trust and transparency, and without open communication, this bond is broken. Honesty creates a safe environment for children to express themselves, but it also enables parents to support their children in a healthy and informed way.
Parents need to be kept in the loop to help with their children's emotional, physical, and mental wellbeing. Transparency, leadership means proactive, consistent communication. That's why adopting the revised a CH policy that states that parents will always be notified is the best decision for everyone involved. Thank you. Speaker 1: Thank you. Speaker 2: Carol O'Brien. Thank you. Speaker 10: I am Carol O'Brien. I'm from New Castle. I'm speaking today as a parent of three kids. So I believe I can say with some authority that parenting is hard.
I had just turned 19 when my oldest daughter was born. Still really a kid myself, and I didn't have a clue what I was doing. The only thing I knew for sure was that I would love and protect this beautiful tiny human with my life if necessary. But that love was no guarantee. I would make good decisions as a parent. And yes, I made mistakes. Some big ones so big in fact, that my daughter wound up leaving school and basically living on the street when she was 16 years old. I hadn't listened to her to what her actions were trying to tell me.
I didn't think about what she needed. I only thought about how I had to protect her to get her to behave, to bring order out of the chaos she was causing in our family. And my decisions were motivated by fear. Fear of her being harmed, fear of losing her. And it shatters me to think about how easily we could have lost her because of fear and lack of understanding. We were lucky. We've all made it through that. And yes, I still made mistakes with the second and third kids, but they were different mistakes because they were different humans with their own unique personalities.
When I hear what some people are saying about wanting to require parental notification for name and pronoun changes, I hear fear and misunderstanding of a very nuanced and complicated issue. When someone says, I don't co-parent with the school board, I hear fear and I wonder just how would they respond If the school did notify them their child wanted to change their name or pronouns, would they respond with love and understanding or would they respond with fear and possibly anger? How does that child think their parent would respond?
If someone says they don't co-parent with the school board, then why do they need the phone call? Shouldn't they have already known this about their child? Wouldn't that child have already confided in their parent? And if they haven't, why haven't they? There is a saying, it takes a village to raise a child. That doesn't mean you give up parenting your child. It just means you have access to other more objective and cooler heads than your own to help you make really important decisions. As it was originally written, the name change policy says the parents may be notified. This will give a trusted teacher or counselor, not the superintendent or DHS, the opportunity to talk to the child
and evaluate whether or not they feel safe about telling their parents and to support the child through that process. If they do decide to tell their parents a policy of mandatory disclosure would be a bad policy, and if mandatory disclosure results in even one child being harmed either emotionally or physically, it would be worse than bad. It would be tragic. Speaker 2: Thank you. Speaker 1: Randy Murr. Randy Murr. Speaker 8: Good evening. My name is Randy Mer. I'm the Fourth generation, or my grandkids are the fourth generation
re two school students here. Family's been in school here since 1936. The common thread, I guess, amongst all those generations is that we love our kids and we think that it's, we, we want the best things for him, I think like everybody else here does. I think with that God almighty, he created this family unit, which is this perfect of thing that, that, you know, with two parents and, and looking after kids for their best interest kids
as they're growing up, they don't have the knowledge or the mental maturity to make decisions for themselves. And that's why God created parents so they could make those decisions for them. And if you look at kids, the Mayo Clinic says that the human brain isn't even really mature until the age of 25. And so, you know, if you look at our laws, how our norms in society are that kids can't make a lot of decisions until they're 18 or 21. And there's a reason for that
because they don't make good decisions. They, they base decisions upon a lot of emotion, which is just normal behavior of, of children. Anybody that's ever raised a teenager understands that. I, I appreciate all that the board has been doing and I think some good common sense decisions that you guys have made. And I would just ask you to make another one of those common sense decisions that it, it needs to come down to the parents. The parents love the kids. They know what's best for their children. And I would just ask for you guys to, to craft that policy
that that gives the, the say so to the parents because they love their kids and they know what's best for 'em. And I appreciate all that you guys are doing. Thank you. Speaker 2: Thank you. Speaker 1: Brandy Drake? Brandy Drake. Speaker 2: Is she in person or on Zoom? Speaker 1: Zoom. Speaker 11: I don't know if y'all are able to hear me. Speaker 1: We can, Brandy, go ahead. Speaker 11: Okay. Okay. Thanks for taking the time to hear me. I know that there are many that wanted to be heard and so I hope to not squander this chance to speak with you. I'm nervous. And Randy, I appreciate what you said. I actually, I know that everyone is here
because we care about protecting the health and wellbeing of children and teenagers. I'm a local mom, three school aged children. I'm also, I'm coming to you mostly as a physician. I'm a nurse medicine doctor here and also palliative medicine. And actually I'm the fourth generation in my family that live here in Garfield County. My kids are fifth generation. We attend R one schools and that's why I'm here as a physician. 'cause I care for kids all throughout our entire valley. I'm concerned about use of that word will and this proposed policy that mandates it as opposed
to allowing the school to work carefully with the student on finding the safest, most dignified way to involve their parents or guardian. I think it's human nature for us to want things to be black and white and simple. And we want all children to be in homes like Randy described that are safe and have parents that are affirming. And we know that that's not always the case. I think what I thought would be most relevant maybe to share is a little bit from my world of medicine. Similarly to what Jamie said in the medical world, we understand that children have rights and those rights do change based on the maturity of a child.
While it's true that that frontal lobe ist fully developed until mid twenties, that doesn't mean that children have no rights and that the maturity sensibility of a child is zero. We use in medicine, ethical framework nicely be highlighted from Victoria Miller at Case Western. It shows that when we're thinking about the capacity a child has to make a decision, we, we take into account for factors, of course, the first one being the child's personality maturity, emotional state. We then consider the parental situation. We talk about what the clinicians are doing.
In this case it would be a teacher, counselor. And then of course, what are the situational factors? I just shared this again from I think the educational world and the medical world have some similarities, but maybe just share that we in the medical world, really think carefully through, through those rights of the child. I'm asking again, I'm here to try to protect children and I'm asking that you not harm this very small but very vulnerable whole group of children under the guise of dental rights. Thank you so much. Speaker 1: Hannah Sgu. Hannah Sagu.
Speaker 12: Hi, my name is Hannah Sgo Speaker 2: Sgo. Speaker 12: Sorry. Saga. Oh, it's on. It's off. Is it? Can you hear me? It's good. Okay. Hi, my name is Hannah Sgo. Thank you for taking to an into account the community's input on this policy. By now, I hope it is abundantly clear that this is an incredibly complex issue, and I appreciate the time that the board is taking to carefully listen and learn about how to best support vulnerable students in implementing this new policy. I urge the board to consider a more nuanced policy that takes responsibility for the consequences it will have on students' lives
by not requiring mandatory parental notification. I'm a cisgender woman and I have some dear trans and non-binary friends. I know that sharing their chosen name and correct pronouns with others is a deeply personal decision that each has taken their own time and form to share. I urge you not to rip control over that decision away from young people who may already be struggling. Schools at their best should be safe places for students to be their most authentic selves. Not every student has a safe environment at home. And you've now heard from others comments how that is often not the case for trans students.
I hope that it is your intention with this policy to make re two schools a healthy environment where students can focus fully on learning because they know that they will be honored and respected as their full selves at school, regardless of whether they are safe and accepted at home. If you enforce mandatory parental notification with a high burden for exceptions, you would be actively turning your schools into an unsafe and discriminatory place for trans students, putting them at risk for abuse at home. As well. I strongly discourage you from placing an undue burden on any individual such as the superintendent to prove
that students have an abusive environment at home. In order to avoid parental notification, schools should simply trust students to decide if and when to tell their parents about their gender identity on their own time, not the schools. As a cisgender woman, I can never know what it's like for my gender not to match what the world tells me it should be. The best I can do is listen to what trans folks and their allies say they need to feel safe and supported and do whatever I can to meet those needs, especially if failing to listen would put them at risk. Thank you for taking the time to listen
to the community's comments and take into account our feedback. As you make this serious decision, I also urge you to take the time to hear from more than just 10 of us, and I urge you to listen to what trans folks and their allies are telling you that trans students need as if their lives depended on it because they do Thank you Speaker 9: That, Speaker 2: That they do. And I had that. We have five minutes and 30 seconds left. Heather Ky Hm. Hello. Speaker 10: Hi, Speaker 2: Heather. Speaker 10: Well, my name is Heather Fitz. I have six children in this school district. I, my approach is by law, all this policy is based,
it's unlawful considering the current executive orders put in place. I did send an email in case I didn't get a chance to speak. I hope that all of you read that and can cross-reference the laws. This policy is based off of House Bill 24 10 39, and that is based off of Title IX of Education Amendments of the 1972, which has been rescinded and revoked. There are also, this is listed in three executive orders that I referred to with you guys.
Furthermore, the legal references at the end of your PDF file for this policy change, they, most of those laws go off of executive order 1 4 0 2 1, and that has been rescinded as well. So there's no law allowing this policy change currently. So it's against federal law. Federal law is not going to back any state law that you think you're following because these state laws have been revoked. Theres all the executive orders.
Also, I just want to, I think everybody speaking before me have reference to the psychology of these children and that this is dangerous as damaging to children as it might be for a teacher to perform poorly at teaching, reading, math, or history. The effect of being a poor mental health professional is more dire. It's well documented that children displaying confusion of their gender and identity are most likely suffering from serious psychological conditions such as depression,
anxiety, self harm, suicidal. Only a trained professional can diagnose gender dysphoria. Children, teachers and staff are not therapists. They cannot self diagnose. Teachers cannot self diag, cannot diagnose this. And social transitioning is part of diagnosing this problem. They're not therapists, they're not professionals. They teachers only get pop psychology and one day
of professional development sessions. They encourage them to probe into a student's psyche to uncover and address trauma. There's a reason why medical ethics prohibit the practice of therapy by unlicensed and untrained individuals. Educational staff do not have Informed the parents. Thank you. This, this isn't your place. Speaker 1: Thank you. Down. Calm down. Calm down. We have time for one more. Hannah ausa. Yep. Yep. We'll give her the time and then we'll just go real you. Yep. You've got your three minutes, Hannah.
Speaker 10: Thank you. I appreciate it. Good evening Board directors. Thank you so much for listening to everyone here tonight. I appreciate you doing this. I am advocating for the CSB language using May in form. It does still leave the option open for parents to be informed. However, it does involve nuance and that little bit of gray air that will protect kids. So there's three points I wanna make. One has been already made multiple times tonight. There is a chance for danger to children if their name change is brought
to their parents' attention before they're ready. And I'm gonna share a little personal story. This wasn't about a trans friend, but when I was in high school, my best friend was kicked out of her home by her father because she was dating a boy outside of her race. He didn't approve. And I was the one that she called sobbing. The night that it all blew up in her face. She was uncontrollably crying. She couldn't breathe, she couldn't talk. He was screaming in the background. I was the one that went and picked her up. We were teenagers, we were little. She's petite, she was valedictorian. This is like a really good student. And she just rushed out of her house into my arms.
She fell on me. Her bad. Her dad was still screaming, and her mom just stood quietly by, she never intervened. She never helped. It was a very traumatic event. It led to years of fallout with my friend and the relationship she held with her father. You know, that might happen. There is that chance, the CASB language at least gives an option to address if that might happen. The second thing I wanna bring up is in the abundant meetings that I attend, one of the things that this community really can't agree on is that we wanna support our teachers.
We wanna retain our teachers, we wanna attract teachers. We really wanna attract a quality superintendent. We have principals retiring next year. Is this the environment that we want to put our teachers in? How are they feeling about being mandated that they have to inform students', parents, and break that trust? Wouldn't it be a better environment to recruit teachers if we allowed them to focus on educating, which is in the strategic plan? And it's part of the thing that we all agree on. We'd like to be focusing on education. And with my final moment, and I'm saying this as a parent of two kids in our district,
I don't wanna be informed by the teacher or by any of you, if my children decide to change your name. And why is my opinion not any more important than some of the other parents here tonight? Please do not call me if my kids change your name. Thank you. And goodnight. Speaker 1: Okay. All right. We're going to move into our third reading of our policy a CA name changes. And we're gonna put 30 minutes on the clock if we would please. So we just know, see if we can get somewhere in 30 minutes and Yep. Can, should we throw some up? Throw it up there. Can you put the most
revised version up? Oh, I'm Speaker 2: Not sure which one that is. Speaker 1: Yeah, it's the last one to number two. Okay. A C, a name changes revised two. Speaker 2: So a C, a name changes revised two or a CA name changes. Revised. Speaker 1: I heard both. Speaker 2: I'm sorry. Speaker 1: Two. Two. Let's, let's start with two. Let's start with Speaker 2: Like the second one down. It's going down the list. The first one is the original. The top three are the newest. Speaker 1: Is that, Speaker 2: Yeah, the first one is the original. The second one is revised. Is, yeah, it's like red and highlighted.
Speaker 1: I don't think we did very, Speaker 2: Or it's red says name change, Speaker 4: Revise. And as a two in parentheses. Speaker 2: Yeah, I clicked on, I just didn't know if it was marked on the file. Some on the one document here. I don't see it. Scroll down. It's all in red. Yeah, Speaker 1: But I don't see that where it says something about the superintendent, Speaker 2: That that's the one that's one down. Yeah, the one with the this with the highlighted piece. That'd be the third one. Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the one I'd like to see. Speaker 2: Oh, the Speaker 4: Third one down. Speaker 1: Yeah. I'm sorry. Speaker 2: The one that has the, it says 2025. Speaker 4: It says 2025 on
Speaker 2: It. Okay. That's the one from S on there. That Speaker 1: Was language from the lawyer. Speaker 2: Gotcha. Okay. Please. Speaker 1: And we, we will start our time up when you, when you get that up. We'll restart the time if you would Speaker 2: You want me to restart the call please. Speaker 1: Alright. So I have, we've heard from everyone, the big topic of discussion is a may or a will. We've been talking about those two terms and what they mean. So if we could scroll down a little bit till we get to that area. We haven't changed any of those things right in here. Speaker 2: Scroll Speaker 1: Down just a little bit more. Would you please? Speaker 2: Perfect. Speaker 1: Yeah, that's pretty good. Speaker 2: Okay. Speaker 1: Open discussion right now.
We have it written as will be notified of the student's designation of a chosen or preferred name. The superintendent shall be informed of all designations of a chosen or preferred name for use at school end during enduring extracurricular activities. And the only exception to the parental notification requirement shall be if the superintendent reasonably determines that information informing the student's parents that the designation could subject the student to abuse or neglect. In which case a superintendent shall cause a report to be made to the Garfield County Human Services. Speaker 2: Okay. You want No way. Okay. Okay. I'll,
Speaker 5: I'll throw my opinion out there on that. Yep. The, I think it just kind of passes the buck from the, will be notified period over to the superintendent notifying human services and then human services notifying the parent. Because if human services department is notified Nearly every single case, they're going to then investigate and contact the parents, say that they're under investigation for whatever you wanna call it, abuse or neglect or whatever. And that's gonna make 'em mad. It still has the same effect the, the student's choice of
name or whatever is going to be reported to the parent. So I would recommend additional wording in there that would say something to the effect of if, if deemed appropriate. And otherwise, the district team can work with the student develop to develop a plan for notifying the student's parent or guardian. But the Garfield County Human Services does not have to be notified. So there could be additional wording in there. And I wanna make it clear that we're not trying to keep anything from the parents. 99% of the time the parents can, can be there and helpful
and, and know that, and hopefully, like was mentioned earlier, the parent will already know. The student would feel comfortable talking to that parent if they trust, if they have that trust relationship and everything like that. At least I hope that would be, I know some of my kids would probably not, but I think that we still need to have that end around, that keeps the child and their wellbeing, their health and mental and physical wellbeing safe. And, and that would be that we work with the student to figure out a way to bring the parents into this choice.
But then we go ahead and honor the, the name. We honor their, I don't know, fear, if that's the right word. And then we work with them to get the parent notified, but we don't have to notify DHS. Speaker 1: You know, when we talk about student safety, when we talk about student safety, we already have protocols in place. We always seems like the argument against will is always safety. Anytime a student would say they're unsafe, that's always elevated regardless. So I don't know why in this case, now all
of a sudden when someone says they feel unsafe, we're gonna keep that internally. I think if someone says they're not safe, we are not trained for that, that would be then referred out. And it's, you know, we hear it a lot. Everybody has done it in here. It's the straw man argument. Correct. It's the extreme. If we want to blank, make a blanket statement to protect a small percentage of students, we're also making a blanket statement that all parents are not gonna be accepting. And I don't think that's fair. And that is the argument how the pendulum always swings both sides. And that makes sense to me. The will, I think sets the tone that May,
doesn't have, may has this ambiguity that it could go on forever. In conversations I had going through this policy, some people could believe that might last two years, if a student at a sophomore decided to change his name for two years, it would be okay for the school, in their opinion and their opinion that for two years the school would go along with that because the student wasn't ready to speak to their parents. To me, that is way too long for something like that to go on. My concern there is how does that then affect,
I don't understand how anyone would think that's gonna help the student later when the parent finds out from parent teacher conferences that the name is different. I don't know how you think when they get home. That's gonna be good. That, that, that concerns me. If we want to refer to places that have made many some facts. The Trevor Project, we've all heard it. What's the number one thing the trans students going through this need is family support, the number one thing. But for some reason the people in here want to cut that out.
That, that concerns me because no one has ever said our goal should be, even if we used May to get to, yes, no one has ever said that it's always, it's gonna be May. And then I, I'm really concerned with what's come out of Jeff Co. And if I would tell anyone to search Jeff Co and see how much drama they have in their district. But just recently, once again, a counselor, a teacher, and a principal took it upon themselves to make that decision to what they did.
Not in this case with, with, with a name change. But once again, took a student's word for it, which I wanna believe in students too. That's why we need to put steps in place to verify what students are saying. If every student said they didn't care for their, they refer to their parents and we just took that we're, in my opinion, once again, we're given a teacher, a counselor or a principal to keep a secret between three people. If someone in our school is telling a student, we can keep it a secret. That's a problem in my opinion. Speaker 11: May I speak up? Can you guys hear me?
Speaker 1: Yes. Oh, sorry. Fathom. Forgot you Speaker 11: Were on there. That's okay. So I Speaker 1: Got excited Speaker 11: There. Hi everybody. I, I am the one that initially made the decision or the, the recommendation to change the may to will. The biggest thing first of all was, was May. And like Bri had alluded to, who gets to decide and determine when it is okay to contact parents. The other thing that I heard is that public comment this evening is that people are afraid
that it's gonna be the teachers anytime that a student wants to change their name based on their gender, gender identity. Okay. Okay. Mike, is that me echoing or? Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. It's pretty rough. Speaker 11: Sorry. Speaker 1: Keep talking. Just keep going. Keep going. Speaker 11: Okay. I'll, I'll keep talking, but I don't believe, I believe that there should be a group with this student that works. If the student wants to change their name based on their gender identity.
It is not up to the teacher at that point to immediately call the parents, which is kind of what I was hearing. That at that point it needs to go to the administration of the school and the administration of the school along with the student and maybe an outside resource, whatever that may look like. We need to work out a plan to contact the parents to inform the parents. Again, I believe that everything that I have heard is that parents are bad. And yes, there are some of those out there, but I would also like to argue that most parents are gonna have the best
intentions for their children. Are we gonna make mistakes? Yes. Yes, absolutely. My kids did not come out with a manual. I did not get a parent's manual the first day I became a parent. And we're all trying, so are kids. Middle school is hard. High school is hard for many different reasons. And, and we all need our resources together, which includes the parents as well. Speaker 1: Thank you, fathom. Speaker 11: And, sorry, I forgot I was looking back at my notes. We as a board, we live, we live in the world of policy. It is the policies that we set as a board that help dictate
and work on the procedure in the schools, which is where all of our wonderful team is. So it is up to our team based on the policy that is written to work on an SOP as standard operating procedure. And if I, I, I'm afraid that that may of, may, that standard operating procedure is going to be different across the board. Be different across the 10 schools, be different across which her teacher hears it or hold this. This will help us, I believe Stay consistent.
Speaker 1: Can you talk about the cash warrant? Go ahead. Speaker 13: Okay. I think this is working during public comment. It was, I heard basically about the same undertones as what was mentioned. One speaker mentioned fear that we would be operating in a fear-based model. I would argue that that's exactly what the other side is going towards. Now, the fearful of the possible harm of a child. I mean, we all came, we all ran for this
because we wanted to take care of kids and help kids. If, and it doesn't change that when the absolute best structure for student's wellbeing is their family. There's no doubt none Speaker 14: To Speaker 13: Read this. And the thing with, and you know, I would like to say it's, it is unfortunate when a compromise is viewed as failure from both sides, we compromised. I'm, I'm fine going back to the will with nothing.
Absolutely no cutouts. After speaking with everybody, after listening to stakeholders, I co I agree with the compromise of a carve out of an exception. But to have that viewed as a failure in the eyes of the opposing viewpoint is unfortunate. This is governing. Nobody ever gets exactly what they want. We are, and I've heard it before, we are to govern for the entire school district and that the entire school district cannot fit in this room at one point. None of us and anybody, anybody, assuming that we are up here and we want to be responsible for a children's
tragedy is no a children's tragedy. It would be what? Death. Death. Oh, children's death. Okay, so risk. How much risk do we put children on when we ride the bus on I 70? What? Statistically, statistically speaking, Speaker 15: Hold on, hold on guys. Hold on, hold on. Don't do it. Hold Speaker 13: On. And this is the point. Compromise is views as as viewed as failure. And I'm fine going back to the hard will. Speaker 16: First of all, I am a
strong will. I feel like we have been advocating and advocating for parent involvement, trying to be transparent. And if we hide anything from any parent, whether it be that the kid got a bad score on a spelling test or reading has dropped, or we know a change in the learning area, which that's what we're here for is the education of children. Yes, we notify the parent. I mean, I had a parent contact me tonight on Class Dojo
regarding my son. They notify me if they know and send something's different with my child. There's parent and student communication. I don't see how this policy is any different. And I believe we should notify the parent I wish have educated myself. I feel on both sides. I have met with groups of people regarding the support of trans and trans transgender, sorry. People. Humans. People. People. Yes. The transgender people, community as well
as the other community members that believe in parenting rights and advocating for parents. So I just went to Google today and searched it and I said the pros and cons or what is, you know, what, what is my exact question I put in here? Parent involvement with transitioning versus non-parent involvement. And this is what the first thing that pops up is research. Research strongly suggests that active parental participation during transition is significantly more
beneficial for a child. So choice district reading what it said on the policy, I would like it to say will, however, I would like an aca a dash r, which is, I always get this wrong, is it procedure regulation? Regulation regulations. And in that we would put how we would do this, our steps and protocols that we've already gone over. If there's immediate red flags in communicating
with a student and there's danger, maybe I would like in that dash r policy to have an outside, outside resource mediator, whether that be MindSpring or Aspen. Hope one of those to be present to mediate. Not necessarily a teacher, not a counselor in our district, not a superintendent, but the parent, the child in an outside resource center to get them the support that they need. That somebody that's educated and capable of doing that.
But I really feel like we could move forward with the policy as will notify the parent. And then also applying the dash R for regulations that we could work on next that would go with the policy. Speaker 5: My final comment would just be that I appreciate everybody being here tonight. You guys have taken time outta your day, your evening family time, everything else to be here and give us your thoughts. And I, I really do appreciate that. Again, I wanna say that I don't want to cut out parent support. The guys, all of you who are here and who are, who are mentioning all this, you care.
Obviously you care or you wouldn't be here. This is my opinion for those very slim minorities that aren't like you, that aren't involved, that aren't caring, that don't support your children, that might put those kids in danger. So that's why I would like to have a second route to give the school district a way to keep those kids out of that danger and make sure that they're going to be okay. It's not against what you guys are advocating, really. It's not. I ask you a question on that. Speaker 1: When, when you want to put the May
and you want to protect the student, which I'm hundred percent for, how long are you willing to let that go on in the school without a parent knowing how long is up to you? What do you think? I Speaker 5: Think that we use professionals who might, you know, trusted professionals within the district, teachers, whoever that were, that have the confidence in and the trust of that student to work with them. I don't have a timeframe written because each kid is different, so I don't have one. But that's my thought. Speaker 1: Without, without utilizing outside resources,
I'm gonna ask our district without utilizing outside resources, who in our schools that, that we employ is qualified to do that? No, no, no. Hold on guys, don't guys, hold on. If you get, if you get involved, if you get involved in this conversation, come on. Look, I, let me ask the question, counselor, who do we, who do we have in our school? That's guys, if you don't Speaker 3: Qualified, Speaker 1: Hold on guys, please. The chatter. The chatter. Come on. We've done great. We're we're, we'll get there.
Hold on. Hey guys, I just want to know because, because one of the, one of the concerns is if, you know, once again, we've talked about, we all wanna protect the student for sure. So the question would be who do we get involved to help? Who, who, who, who, who, who do we utilize Speaker 9: Inside Speaker 1: The district? Yep. If, if we didn't get involved with somebody else, who would be, who would that be? Speaker 4: Clinical? I, I would say that it is not our responsibility to diagnose any child at any time. But I think that when you utilize those people that have become trusted with that student
and work closely with that student, then they bring forward at least a trust. Yep. And an expertise as far as the relationship goes with Speaker 1: That student for a bond. The bond. So utilizing the bond that the student has created with a teacher or counselor. But really, I mean, at the end of the day, we need to get some outside help because that's outta the scope of what we do. Yes. Speaker 5: Guidance counselors, Speaker 1: Our guidance counselors, Speaker 5: Our our counselors, Speaker 1: Guidance counselors, Speaker 5: Our guidance counselors. We're not talking about medical or mental, we're talking about guidance. Speaker 1: That's a debate in itself Speaker 5: To take them into that process of, of notifying
and bringing the parents in. Not, we're not diagnosing anything. Right. We're not diagnosing anything. We're just using our guidance counselors to help that child formulate a plan to involve family members parents. I'm not asking the counselors to do something that that's outta their scope. Speaker 1: You know what, what, sorry, I go on. I I I'm gonna get, Speaker 13: So some people though would, would say, me, I included saying that is not the lane of the guidance counselor. All professionals in our schools, there's a, a line that there must be a teacher student relationship.
There has to be. And once we see it crossed routinely for the negative, whether it be teacher student relationships outta school, again, the Jeff Co case, I, I I I, I guess my my point is, I, that's not the role of anybody in our school. That's my, that's my argument. They're not, they're not professionals. They're not, they're, I mean, they're, they're guidance counselors. They're, they are a trusted person. Sure. And I think maybe that trusted person comes up in the dash r that ca
that Cassie was mentioning. But how I, I guess how do we, I, sorry. How do, how do we engage the trusted person and, and all of our district resources when really that's, again, that's not our thing. We're education. We're, we're not, we're, we're, we're to steer kids into opportunities that fit their careers, to fit their, their, their interests, to fit their aptitudes. And I'm gonna refer that yes, there are outliers and a minority of parents
that it would be detrimental to the student. That's why I was in favor of a compromise of some sort. I do agree that maybe CDH or HHS, we, we address that in the dash R because it would just be a, they would just be notifying and like you mentioned, that we were just transferring the notice to them. So I think we need to, we'll, we'll address all of, a lot of the procedure around this in the dash R, but I mean, my bottom line is the vast majority
of students are better when parents are involved. Speaker 1: You know? So one of the things like chance of saying, and we wanted to reiterate is just like what Fathom said, the the develop, the, the will is really the tone we want to use in the dash R, which would be the pro the procedure, which means once this information that a student's wanting to make this change, also, one of the big things, we don't wanna leave that pressure on a, a teacher, a seventh grade math teacher or a counselor. We need to elevate that to get the right people involved
because it is a serious thing. You know, what happens to that seventh grade teacher? Sorry, I'm, you said you were seventh grade. Sorry, I don't even, not even mean it for you, but anyone who, and we keep wanting to talk about that extreme, the death of a student. I'm just as afraid of a death of a student because we hid it, we hid it from the parent, and then now the parent found out later on that we've been doing this for four months. I'm just as afraid. So that's Speaker 2: A good parent. Speaker 1: Hey, hey, once again, once again, I'm not that, I'm not, that I'm not their, I'm not their family.
I'm not their parent. I'm not their parent. So the best way to, the best way to stay out of it is if a student wants to make that change, we slow the process down, we slow the process down. Hold on there, Ivy. Hold on there. Hold on. You're right. It's not, it's not the school. It's not our business. It's not the school's business. It's not, it's 100% not. That's why, that's why as a district, we want to provide the resources to those people, the resources that we have in our district and in our community. We know those people. They're out there.
That's the people we want to get involved. You're right, Ivy. Kids, kids, kids. So that's one of the challenges is how, how old can a child be? We want to talk about children or students can make this decision and avoid consequences, but we're letting them make an adult decision. There's consequences to that. And part of that is letting your parents know if you're brave enough to tell a teacher decision. If, if you're brave enough to tell a teacher, a counselor, 25 students, and then eventually a school, how can you ask us to, to hold a secret like that?
We cannot hold that secret. It's not fair. And that's where I stand with Will, and that's why we'll develop a dash r after that. Speaker 5: Well, I was just gonna say that my only comment and, and trying to figure out policy is that if we had a policy that mirrored the dash r, if they were kind of equal to each other with wording, that there wouldn't be any questions one way or another, and that it would be just a formality to put the dash R together that follows the policy wording all the way. So that's, that's why my input, Speaker 1: And I feel, once again, if we're talking about student safety and someone's coming to us saying they're afraid
that they could be hurt, we have to elevate that period there, that that cannot stay within the school. It's beyond it. I just wanna use an example here. This is our policy book. How many of these policies you think in here? You don't have to tell the parent. How many do you think are in this book? Zero. Zero. There are zero For some reason, we wanna make this one be the lone wolf. I just, so all we're wanting to do is be able to put that in there and work with the student like we do on so many of these other policies. We want to put it in there. But otherwise that policy, that single policy is gonna be
outside and it's a real outlier and it just doesn't make sense to me as sitting on this board to do that to our community. Speaker 2: If you wanna work, say okay. Yeah. I mean, anymore let women go before Speaker 1: Any anymore. Speaker 2: No fathom. Do you have anything? Sorry, I'm pumped up. Don't Speaker 11: Forget about the only, only thing that I wanted to add also is, as Scott alluded to it as well, is that the policy of the dash hand in hand, and yes, yes, yes, they do. But, but I do believe that the policy needs to,
the dash R means to be written based off of the policy. The policy policy is the umbrella, I guess if you will, of the dash R. The dash R is written by, it is written by staff that have to live this every day and then also comes together with, with our approval as well. And then it is also there for public comment as well. So again, again, I've said it before. We live in the world policy and it is the procedures, the Dashs, that is
what the schools look off of. And if our policies are vague, the Dashs are gonna be vague as well. Speaker 1: All right. I think we've exhausted it. Can you put up that the a CA name changes 2025 please. Again, this did come from our attorney who gave us this language to allow for the dash R and allow for that opportunity to get more people involved. So it's not just between one or two people in our school, in any of our schools.
We do trust the superintendent to make those choices. And we feel that anytime we're hiring a superintendent or the existing one we have can do that for us. So if there's nothing else, I'll, I'll, I'll entertain a motion. Speaker 13: How do you wanna word it Speaker 1: That the prove a CA name changes 2025. Speaker 13: I, I'll make a, I'll make a motion to approve a CA policy. A CA Name changes 2025. Can I get a second please? I second that Speaker 1: Roll call please.
Speaker 13: No, Rachel. Speaker 1: Aye. Speaker 13: Passco? Aye. Jenkins? Aye. Can't see. Speaker 11: Aye. Speaker 13: Okay, Speaker 1: Here's the, here's the process. Alright, we're gonna go ahead and take a 10 minute break and we'll be back in 10 minutes. Can you put 10 on the clock please? Can I see us? Oh yes. Our next thing is the consent agenda. Are there any changes to the consent agenda? Speaker 4: There is one change. So on the consent we need to remove the 19th bullet down. Oh boy. You don't necessarily need to count that far. But ultimately to have Devin Spalding hire Dominique St.
Pierre, she was already approved for hire on February 12th. So that's just really a redo. So we just need to remove that piece. Speaker 1: Okay. Speaker 13: So Speaker 1: We're still hiring the person. Speaker 4: She was already hired. Yes. Already hired. Okay. Speaker 1: Yep. Yep. Can I get a motion? Go Speaker 5: Ahead. Go ahead, go ahead. I would move to approve the, amend the consent agenda as amended. Speaker 2: Okay. One second. Speaker 1: Ms. There second roll call please. Speaker 2: I'm sorry, just a second. I was looking. No problem. Make sure we got the right. Yeah. Aye, Speaker 1: Aye Speaker 2: Aye, aye, aye.
Aye. Yes. Thank you. Sorry. Copy of I vote. Speaker 1: Alright. Could I get a motion to approve the February 12th, 2025 board draft board minutes. Speaker 2: I'll make a motion to approve the Speaker 17: February 12th, 2025 Speaker 2: Draft board minutes. I second that. Aye. Aye. Asco Aye. Jenkins? Aye. Speaker 1: I I was gonna say, I think I, we've Speaker 2: Got it. We're good. Speaker 1: All right. Our first up for governance discussion items is collaborative solutions. Step on up guys. Welcome. Speaker 2: I'll pull it Speaker 17: Up. Sure. Speaker 2: Thank you. Oh, Speaker 17: It's sit between you guys.
Speaker 2: Ice machine. Speaker 17: Good evening everybody. Can you hear me okay? Yes. Mic on. Great. Speaker 2: Turn. Turn the mic on though. Speaker 17: Turn it on here. Yeah, we turned Speaker 2: It off. There you go. Speaker 17: It's about to pop out. There we go. We're good. Speaker 2: Okay. Speaker 17: Hi, my name's Bobby Otti. I'm the broker consultant for your school district. I work for Willis Towers Watson and have managed your program that you have currently through CEBT for, for many years. And I've been at passport meetings about the same time of year. A couple guys from the Collaborative solutions is here also. So I have a presentation about eight slides of material
to kind of lay the groundwork and help explain the rate renewal. And then I'll turn it over to collaborative solutions to, to tell you their solution. So, and when I got here, I couldn't find a parking spot. I thought all these people are here. I wish it wasn't from, it wasn't from me. So I thought, I thought Devin had organized the biggest birthday party I'd ever been to tonight. Tonight is my birthday. Happy Speaker 1: Birthday. Thank you. Speaker 17: Thirty, thirty six. Nice. Switch that around 63 today. Speaker 1: Congratulations. That's awesome man. Yeah, Speaker 17: So, but I am happy to be here and,
and happy to serve your district and your employees. So why don't we jump into the presentation. Speaker 2: It's Speaker 17: Up. There it is. Alright. I'll walk you through the rate renewal, how that's calculated. Give you a little one slide of background on CEBT and then we'll talk about some of the value added benefits, which I think if they're more fully utilized, could help control some of your claims utilization. And then we'll talk a little bit about strategy and some of my thoughts and then I'll turn it over to these guys. Okay. Please ask questions as we go. There's no need to wait, wait till the end.
So again, your benefits are currently through CEBT. That is a large self-funded governmental health pool here in Colorado. It was founded way back in 1980, which is when I graduated from high school. Maybe it wasn't that long ago. So 1980, it was founded, it was started by seven school districts. Actually, as it grew, it opened up to other public entities as well. So, but it is self-funded just to provide health benefits and dental and vision in life for public entities Here in Colorado. The key is the economies of scale. Self funding's a great solution when you have enough
economies of scale and have enough covered members. So in this trust, you are one of 450 public employers. About 99 of those are school districts in boces, 37,000 total members. About half of those come from school districts. And the trust, and again, economies of scale is the key to help keep fixed costs down, such as stop loss such as T-P-A-P-B-M, that's prescription benefit manager fees and things like that. The other key to having belonging to a large pool is the spreading of, of risk claims risk. The, the larger the numbers, the more steady
and predictable claims can be. Although this year claims have been higher for the trust overall as, as well as for your, your district. So the trust is very financially strong. It has all the reserves it needs for incurred but not reported claims. We call those run out claims plus a plan stabilization reserve in case claims end up being a lot higher than expected in any particular year. So next slide. Alright, so this slide, these numbers are all about your district. Okay, so there's the last 12 months of January of 24 through December of 24. And that's the 12 month period upon which your rate
renewal is based. So there's the months, there's your medical enrollment. That enrollment number is employees, does not include dependents. Contributions is the total amount that the district paid into the trust each month. When I say total, that's both employer and employee dollars together, paid claims, those are medical claims. Then there's RX claims and then there's total claims and then there's a column for loss ratio, which was total claims divided by the contributions for that month. Ideally, in a perfect world claims would be 91.5%
of the contributions. Cbts fixed costs that cover stop loss and other fixed costs for third party administration are only eight and a half percent. All the rest of it goes to claim. So that makes 91.5 perfect. And every box that's read up there is, is not only over 91.5, it's over a hundred percent. You had some unusually, I don't wanna say you had unusually large claims. You had a, you had more claims than normal, that were larger than normal. You didn't have huge like million dollar claims or things like that if you were wondering.
But consistently high claims, consistently high loss ratio, that's what leads to a, a higher than average rate renewal. I will tell you that the, the 12 month loss ratio is 118.1%. If you had been self-funded this last year and funding at that contribution level, you would've had to find another 18% from somewhere your general fund or wherever. So this would would not have been the year to be self-funded. Your rate increase that you'd be facing probably would be 30 to 40% based on this loss ratio.
Okay. So I I, I know some people are real big on self-funding. I love self-funding. This trusted self is self-funded, but it only works if you're big enough and you have a lot of money set in reserves for when things go the wrong direction. You can kind of weather the storm. So, alright, next slide. Similar slide, but this one's dental. I won't spend as much time on it. The numbers aren't nearly as big. You have a good blend of what I'll call good months and not so good months. Your total's not bad. I don't have my glasses on, but I think it's a little over 92%
and you can live with that slightly over the, the break even. So the rate increases only 5% for, for the dental vision. There's two lines up there about vision. Look for the green box, that's vision. The loss ratio is very low there and there's no rate increase for the vision. Yeah, so, so medical is at 16 and a half. I'll show you in a second how that's calculated. Dental was five, vision zero and life is zero. Alright, so here's the math. And if you could zoom in more on the right side of that screen for your rate renewal.
And every employer group within CEBT works through the same math to determine their rate renewal. And everybody falls into one of the seven categories down at, down at the bottom. So it starts with your, your claims and your contributions. And there's that 118% loss ratio. I think you all know that your district employees have access to the CEBT health centers, one in rifle, one in Glenwood Springs. There is a cost to those and the cost that CEBT has of running those gets allocated on a per member, per per month basis.
And members would include dependents. So that's sort of your fair share or pro rata share of the cost of the health center. I can tell you it saves a lot more dollars than it costs, but that does need to be added into the equation. So the loss ratio now is run up to 1 21. And then one of the, the beauties of being part of CEBT is there's kind of an internal stop loss that CEBT uses. And for any claims that that go above a hundred thousand dollars, CEVT says, well let, let's look at what your rate renewal would be just on, on the gross dollars.
And then let's also see what it would be if we threw out claims over a hundred thousand. I, I should have said that differently. Claims dollars over a hundred thousand. So the first a hundred thousand stays in anything above that comes out. You had almost $2 million of claims that exceeded a hundred thousand dollars. And that is not because you had a couple million dollar claims. You had a lot of claims, but two, three, $400,000. And I'll tell you in the trust overall, the biggest difference year to year was cancer. The trust overall, not, not just your group,
but overall had 13 cases of cancer that were between 200 and $500,000. This last year was 23 cases, so it was 13, it went up 10. The cost per case didn't change much. It actually went down slightly, but the incidents went way up. Same thing with heart issues and same thing with infections. Those were the big three that increased in the trust and fairly typical of, of yours as well. Some of that is cyclical, kind of comes and goes. Other of of it is just a little bit of bad luck for a year or two.
Yeah. And when I say bad luck for the people that have those conditions, it's a serious, serious issue. But if you're just looking at the numbers and the health plan, it, it comes and goes. And some years are better than others. So, so when you throw out the large claims like CEBT does, that drops your loss ratio, a couple of categories you would've ended up in the 22% category, which is still far better than a self-funded increase of 30 to 40%. But drop throwing out your large claims, drops you to 16.5%. And that is what the medical renewal increase is.
Now, I've been doing this with CEBT for 20 years. These are the largest increases that I have had to deliver in all those 20 years. And I work with the other schools in the area out in parachute, and I'm with Roaring Fork again, Aspen joined a few years ago. I worked with Eagle schools. They're all having the same kinds of problems and the same kinds of rate increases. Yours is not an outlier by any means. Is ours, Speaker 1: Is our 16.5 lower than others or does it seem to be about in line with all those Speaker 17: All, all the ones I just mentioned are somewhere
between 16.5 and 22. So I mean, all right there you're, yeah, you're at, you're at the low end of that, but it's still a high number. Yeah, yeah, right. Okay, so medical, 16 and a half, as I said, dental, five vision zero, life zero. Any questions about how that is calculated? I know sometimes the, the numbers, maybe it's too much detail, but when, when you get a rate increase that's over 15%, you need to understand why and you need to know what's going on. I mean, alright, what can you do? I mean, that'd be the question I'm gonna have. Speaker 13: What you mentioned, ca cancer cases went from 13 to 23
Speaker 17: In the trust overall. Not, not, not just your group, right? No, that, that would be outrageous in your group, right? Okay. Right. You, you may have had two the year before and now you had three, but they were more of the a hundred thousand dollars flavor than the the 200 to 500 Okay. Inch. Yep. Yep. Next slide. A couple benefit changes that I, I did want to mention some of these kind of speak to, to how the CEBT board is trying to improve benefits, find ways
to help members get better care at a lower cost. And, and one of those is this infusion care program. This is a, a program kind of center of excellence for people to get infusions. This doesn't affect everybody in your plan, but now they would have the convenience of having those at home at a much lower cost to themselves and to the plant. So that, that's a good thing. The second bullet is, if you've ever been on certain drugs that are a little more expensive, they often have a manufacturer's copay card with them. And if you've used those in the past, you're, you're familiar with it.
And historically that might knock the member's copay down to five bucks or 15 bucks a month. This new program members, most members will end up paying zero. This is only for certain specialty drugs will end up paying zero. So it helps the member, but it also maximizes the use of these manufacturer copay cards to help the plan. And that makes the numbers smaller in that one column for RX claim. So that's a, a, another good kind of drug cost management program that CEBT has implemented. And then tele telemedicine,
the people on high deductible health plans, the IRS rules are on those plans that if you, if you seek care before you've met your deductible, you have to pay something they waived that the feds did during covid for telemedicine. 'cause they wanted those people to, to still be able to use telemedicine and not discourage 'em. Covid kind of, kind of fortunately ended and moved on and, but the feds kept kind of renewing this exemption for high deductible health plans to use telemedicine for no cost. And they let that expire finally.
So the point here being if, if people have a, a telephone conversation with cbts Teladoc or telephone conversation at the health center, if they're on a high deductible health plan, then I have to pay the, the 40 something dollars. So just re-implementation of something that was always there until covid hit. So, alright, next slide. Some of the value added benefits of CEBT and we will really hit this hard along with your HR group at open enrollment, these value added benefits so that members see the value
and they can save money and it can help the, the health plan save money. The biggest is still to, to improve utilization at the Marathon. CEBT health clinics that I mentioned in rifle in Glenwood Springs. You, your group has very good utilization on those, but we could, we could improve that further. Especially helping people manage their chronic diseases, which is where most of your claims costs come from. Healthcare Blue Book is a great online tool to help people find better quality, lower cost care lantern. Now I, I mentioned the at home infusion therapy,
but Lantern also handles a concierge service for surgeries and it'll help people find the best docs and the best cost for surgeries. And both of those will help lower the cost to the employee, which is great lowering their out of pocket, but also lowering the cost of the health plan. Okay, just drop down to Teladoc, that's on the, in the middle on the right. That is pretty self-explanatory. Maybe many of you, many of you have used a, a telephone session with a doctor for sinus infections or other things like that that can really save the member and the plan money. Modern Health, the box in the
middle is a fairly new program. CEVT implemented to give people more access to mental health issues. You probably all realize if mental health issues are not taken care of or addressed, they often turn into physical health issues. Either eating disorders, drinking disorders, just things that, that then lead to other problems. So if we can give people the resources they need, catch it early, it'll help hold down health costs in the future. All One Health is the employee assistance program used to be called Triad. You all have had that for quite some time. Bottom left is, is UMR. That's who processes your claims.
They also have a, a cancer resource service to help people that have get a cancer diagnosis, find the right care and help them through that whole process. And then there's also a maternity management program that there's far better outcomes when expecting mothers use. Use that program. OMA Disease Management Program, they'll, they will help if you are a diabetic or pre-diabetic or you have cardiovascular issues. They help you manage those conditions. Again that all of this is at no cost to the employee.
So, so a lot of great services here that you get with your CEBT package. If you, if you became fully insured, which we have looked at in the past, but it was far more expensive, you would get some of these built in but not all of them. If you went self-funded, you would have to purchase each of these separately. Alright, how are we doing? Let's move on to strategy. Okay, so at 16.5% what do we do? Why are we on an island here? And we talked a little bit about that already. You're located as you know, in an extremely high cost
of care area, one of the highest cost of care areas in, not only in the state but in the country. And that Northern Colorado is also very expensive and Wyoming's very expensive. And so the cost of medical services are increasing and so part of it's general inflation and as we mentioned, you're not alone. Other school districts and other public entities are dealing with the same issues. It's just I think a little bit harder for schools 'cause funding is so tight here in, in Colorado. So, you know, one thing people can do is, is consider seeking care from lower cost options
and certainly in the front range, the Denver area where there's more competition costs are lower and that's true to some extent in Grand Junction, but most people would rather keep their care local. So you don't have to drive, you wanna stay in the local community and that's understandable. So we need to increase the use of those value added benefits that we just talked about. And as I mentioned, we at Willis Towers Watson will partner with your HR people here at re two to really push the education side of those, those benefits and and increase the use of the health center. I'm sorry, what's your strategy to increase those value added programs? I think the best thing we can do is remind people
of them at open enrollment and then maybe through monthly or every other month newsletters highlight one or two of them. It's kind of too much to digest all at once. The best we can do is hope that employees remember, oh wait a minute, there's some surgical benefit. And, and then they either call CEBT or, or check the HR website. We just need to have something trigger for 'em that, oh I think, I think we have something special. Let me check. So does that answer? Yeah. Okay, next slide. I think the next one might be my last one.
So you know then as your consultant, I'm asked by HR and collaborative solutions, what, what do we do now? You made plan changes not too long ago. Plan changes meaning move to a higher deductible, higher out of pocket. Right. And it is very difficult on employees when you do that year after year after year. I'm a big proponent of changing every once in a while, but once in a while is every three, four years, not every year. So, you know, with PPO eight, high deductible four, those have pretty high end deductibles out of pockets.
My recommendation was let's hold those if we can. Don't change plans every, every year. And the school district and particularly collaborative solutions said maybe we need to look at the contribution strategy and what we're contributing for the employee versus for the spouse versus for the children. And let, let's focus on, take care of the employees, take care of the children where we can and then, and then see what we have remaining to take care of spouses and you know, you gotta put, pick your priorities and put the money there. Right? So so, so that's kind of the recommendation,
basic recommendation that I had there from Willis Towers Watson. And with that, if, if there's other questions I'll take 'em. Otherwise I'll take a back seat and let these guys I've heard tell you what they came up with. Speaker 2: Scott, any questions for that guy? We actually, Scott and I actually sat in on the hrv. Oh yeah, that's right. That's right. You guys are okay. So we kind of all of this. Well Scott's our resident resident. No, that's why I was like Scott Speaker 17: Saying I hope I said everything the same way. I know it's Speaker 2: Like this was way faster job. Speaker 17: Well Speaker 2: And I think we asked a lot more questions then.
So. You did. You Speaker 17: Did. That's okay. Alright. Is that it? Yeah, Speaker 2: I think so. Speaker 17: Maybe we should switch chairs. Speaker 2: Whoever's going Yeah, Bobby working with that. I'll, yeah. Oh okay. Oh Speaker 18: They're making me Speaker 2: Read a slide at it. No, I don't wanna be in the middle. Alright you guys. Speaker 18: Alright, well hi I'm Aaron Herm Miller, a fourth grade teacher at Wamsley. I'm also the fourth grade and fifth grade instructional coach there. So I'll be helping present for collab solutions. Speaker 17: And then my name's Anthony Ortel.
I'm a sixth grade teacher over at Rifle Middle School and I'm the president of West Garfield Education Association. Speaker 2: Great. And Devon Spalding, director of Human Resources. Alright. And yep. Okay. Speaker 18: So the first thing that collaborative solutions decided to do was create a benefits philosophy. Kind of a guiding light for us to remember our goals, what we value when we have to make some of these tough decisions. 'cause in the past it's just been, we've had to discuss them just to highlight a few things and Bobby kind of said some of them 'cause we did take some of his advice to heart. First our goals, the two big schools we had were supporting
our staff health and then enhancing retention, good benefit plans can do that. Then we kind of created a PRI prioritization list of like what do we need to look for first when we see like big rate increases like this. The first one was making sure that our plans are affordable. We don't wanna put a plan out there that nobody can actually even afford that would not be productive. And then kind of like Bobby said too, where do we put our contributions from the district to help our employees the most? So number two there a says focus on the employee plans first and that they're well supported because we need staff health.
And then for two B it was address the needs of children and then finally if we can address the needs of significant others in those households as well. And then I think kind like you said at the bottom there it says actions educating staff I think is the way we get this numbered down so that they utilize plans better. I've been doing this for three years and I still get overwhelmed by hearing all the things that happen and if I never had to use it I would forget it. And then it's hard to remember when it's time for that.
Yeah. And so this is kind of our guiding light for benefits. And then on the next slide, just to include it because it kind of goes along with benefits, I mean it's in that realm is compensation. So we did create a compensation philosophy as well. Benefits is kind of included in that compensation package. But we do kind of think of them separately because when a lot of people think compensation, of course they think how much money am I gonna make? But we wanted a guiding light on that too and a list as well so that we're, when we're making those big decisions, we're considering this while we're considering benefits
because we know what money we use for benefits now can't be used for compensation. And so again, there is a list there for us to consider and that will be the next list that we look at when you know we're done with benefits. Speaker 2: Thanks for the heads up. Yeah, Speaker 18: This is just the scope of work that you guys, you know saw at the beginning of the year. You see that there's three tasks ahead. Wages of course that's that compensation philosophy, benefits, our benefit philosophy will be talked about here. And then communications you did have four tasks within the wages so you kind of see what's coming. And then within be benefits,
we really talked about contribution percentages and how can we best utilize the money that we have to keep people healthy. So this is kind of our like current situation. If you look at the gray box, that's what we did for employees and benefits this year. And then if you look at the bottom, I think it's the third number from the bottom, that 6.2 million, that's how much it cost the district this year for benefits Speaker 2: Or last year Speaker 18: Estimated. Estimated per sir. Thank you. And then if you look at above that gray box, there's kind of a, a breakdown of where the money is going. If you'd scroll just up a little further
Speaker 2: Up Speaker 18: Up, sorry Theresa, a little bit further. The top of the slide. All the way to the top. Oh thank you. So there is an estimation of 40.7 million for salaries and you have para, there's where the benefits also are and then there's our total fiscal year for, for this year, correct me if I'm wrong. Estimated Speaker 19: Yeah. By year end. Speaker 13: What was the same figure last year? Speaker 19: What we spent last year in 24? Speaker 13: Yeah, what was budgeted for last year? Speaker 19: I don't know. I don't know. FY 24. I'm not sure.
I'd have to on that 6.2, wasn't it 6.2 just over six? Speaker 13: No, for the total like on the top you, you mentioned salary and benefits of Speaker 19: Yeah, so on on that page we blew it up and so that for fiscal year 25, so that's 24, 25 the school year that we're currently in. And they, you just saw this in in the budget recap is where we're currently trending and then where they estimate it to be at the end of the year. And obviously it fluctuates a little bit because we have people drop off the plan and come on to the plan. And so it's, it's a total year recap.
And so that's where in your scope they actually can combine para Medicare and benefits. So there's one line that says benefits when you look at the overall budget. And so this is drilled down even further. Speaker 13: So I guess my question I'll clarify is basically your 25 total benefits, what was our, do you, are you aware of the budget? What, what it was last year? The benefits salaries? Yeah, benefits 2324. 2324. Yeah, we, Speaker 19: We spend, I'm not sure I'd have to be back on it. I mean I'm sure I could look it up for Speaker 13: You. Can you get back to us on that? Yeah. Speaker 18: And then if you go to the, the top
of the orange box right above it. So just reiterating we have a 16.5% increase because of that 118% loss ratio on our claims. If we were to do nothing and just keep the plan the same, the number then for benefits estimated goes up to 7.2 million, which is an increase of 724,000 for next year, which we know is probably unrealistic. So then we have to look at our philosophy and with that in mind, if you go to the next slide,
we had to keep the district's contribution strategy in mind. The current strategy for using our district money for contribution was contribute as much impo as possible to the employee employee plus tiers. We used the high deductible plan as like the base to determine contribution rates and then we kept that contribution rate kind of the same across all the tiers. So all the plans got kind of the same contribution rate and we did not contribute to a health savings account. What we're proposing, our changes are still using the high deductible plan as the base for contributions. But now we're gonna focus a lot of the contribution on
employee only tiers and then employee plus children tier, kinda like Bobby said, we have to start considering where we, where we wanna put our money for the benefit of the, the employee and then contributing the most of the high deductible plan and then evaluating how much contributions we can make appropriately to the PPOs and insurers sevens because those are more Cadillac type plans. So here is our recommendation for this year. We wanna maintain the same plans, the high deductible plan, the PPO eight, the year is seven. There will be some contribution changes to that.
The Delta dental has the increase, the district doesn't contribute to the dental, the employee takes that on. That's never changed. And I mean vision is the same and there's no increase anyway. So it's the same to the employee anyway. Our recommendation is that we do start contributing to an HSA for people on a high deductible plan and that would be 50 a month per employee. Aflac would stay the same. We don't contribute to it, but we offer it. We would contribute more to the premiums of the high deductible plan than the other plans because those are more Cadillac type plans. And we would continue to contribute to the employee only
and employee plus children premiums. But we would discontinue contributing to non-employee spouse premium contributions. And you'll see that on the, on the next slides. And this is kind of exciting and actually some really good news. Aflac is allowing us to allow part-time staff to enroll in Aflac products. Again, it's, it's no hit to the district but at least now part-time staff can get some come coverage from the district at a lower cost to them. I like that. So I mean that's pretty cool. Yeah. Speaker 2: Alright, Speaker 17: So with the new strategy, this is the plan design that we chose.
So as, as you can see we we're keeping the, the share seven, the medical high deductible health plan and then the PPO eight. One thing that's important to note is that we decided to contribute more to the high deductible health plan and a slightly less to others. So if you look at the high deductible health plan, the district would contribute 88% to the cost. And if you look down at the PPO eight, the district would contribute 82.9% of the cost. Again, the, the high deductible health plan would come with a $50 monthly contribution by the district to an HSA
and, and one of the biggest reasons why we chose this is because like Aaron was saying, the PPO plan is kind of like a Cadillac plan and this comes with a higher loss ratio. Speaker 2: Alright. Speaker 17: And then if you want to go to the next slide please. So this is the medical contribution and cost change breakdown highlighted. You can see the new amounts for the 25, 26 school year in green is the district savings. And then in red is the increased costs. We do estimate that three quarters of the PPO enrollees will move to the high deductible health plan due to affordability
because it's a, it's gonna be a lot more affordable than staying on the PPO plan. Speaker 1: So just to clarify, this column, 25 dash 26 employee cost change $1,231, that is, am I reading that Speaker 19: Correctly to some of the, yeah, so each tier, so you'll see, so the employee pays 110 on E only. So, and then the employee plus spouse, we don't contribute anything to the spouse. So now they're looking at like $1,155 a month. So it's not bimonthly, it is a month. And then $508 for employee plus children
because we are contributing to those children. And then e family is 1005 67 because we contribute to the employee and then the child. So we, we take whatever we contribute to that child and apply it there. And then whatever the spouse's cost is, we don't contribute to that. And so they're kicking in that amount. And then we do have the two EEE families. So that was a new tier that was brought last year. We have a lot of staff that have spouses that also work in this district. So giving them kind of their contribution as well. So we are contributing to that.
So both employees work for the district, they get their benefit, we cover part of the child's contribution. And so that is why that family tier is less. So they're at $619 a month Speaker 13: For that. Can you, can you highlight where we're at on this Speaker 19: Thing? Yeah, so what he was referring to is the middle plans. So the high medical health plans, the middle one. Yep. And then 25, 26 employee pays. Yeah. So you have a really large version in your packet as well. So if like Speaker 13: You're struggling Yeah, I was having issues with it. So you're okay. That is a ton. 1500. Yeah. Is that monthly?
Speaker 19: It's per month, not biweekly. Yep. And so over here, like you can see how much it increased total. So the, if you go all the way to the right, you can see 25, 26 total monthly cost. You can see for family it, the total cost of the plan without any contributions from either side is $2,611 because we got a 16.5% increase. So that went from $2,611 to, from $2,241. Speaker 13: That Speaker 19: Was a huge increase. Speaker 13: What would, what's this huge increase gonna, I can't,
I can't see it being good for our recruitment. Yeah. New personnel. Speaker 19: Yeah. So the BA the big pushes it's mortgage. Speaker 13: It's a mortgage payment, Speaker 19: Right? Yeah. The big pushes is right, the employee is covered. Covered as, as much as possible. And then the children, right, because they, they can't get a job, right? They, they can't access insurance outside of the district spouse possibly, you know, has a career, can go get insurance outside of the district, what have you. So that was kind of the strategy that collaborative solutions try to address. Speaker 13: How much more so to move those numbers,
like I'm looking at the middle plan ee EE plus family total monthly cost 26 11, everybody there. Yep. How much more input would the district have to do to see that number start coming down? Speaker 19: I mean just dollar amounts like, I mean you would Speaker 13: Just, so, so we, so we would switch it out dollar for dollar. Speaker 19: Yeah. We would just keep contributing more dollars. Speaker 13: So if we wanted a thousand dollars off of that, the district would have to input a thousand dollars per enrollee. Speaker 19: Correct. Which our bottom line. So if you went back to that, the total cost of that plan, you know right now how it sits.
We are looking at that large six, sorry, that's why I had it broken down 'cause I knew this question was gonna come up. So that base number based on with our estimation of who's gonna stay on the plan and that's like if everybody stayed on some type of plan and we kept the same kind of, that's $5.7 million that we contribute right now. You know, without that it's, we're at 6.4 million alone and if we did nothing and we stayed contributing how much we are right now and taking on that load that was $7.2 million and that,
and you guys just saw, you know, last week around the budget and we were look, looking at that, you know, annually the, just the regular 2% steps, steps and lanes cost us $1.2 million. So to make sure that everybody keeps increasing their salary every year, which is part of our compensation philosophy costs $1.2 million just to do that. That's not changing our base salary schedule. That's not changing out district experience, which are part of our, you know, our compensation philosophy. And so that's why we always also reminded everyone of the,
that the compensation comes next because if we can save a little bit here, could we put more money back into people's pockets with salary in some kind? We did that $50. I know it's only $50 they could pay for their spouse's deductible. What have you with with that HSA, Speaker 1: How much is that? HSA gonna cost us a month. Speaker 19: So $50 a month per Speaker 1: Employee. You got a thousand employees. Yeah. Speaker 19: Times. So Speaker 13: 50 depends on who's gonna enroll in the HSA plan. Okay. Only the HDHP can then. Speaker 19: Yeah, PPO eight cannot. Which one?
Speaker 13: Middle one? Speaker 1: The middle one is the high deductible is the one that we're putting the HSA? Correct. Speaker 13: That's $50 a month. Yeah. Speaker 19: Yeah. So per employee. Yeah. Speaker 13: And last year's enrollment was that, so you're a hundred plus Speaker 1: I Speaker 19: Just wondered. Yeah. So you had 258 lives right On E only 32. I see what your spouse, I see Speaker 1: What you're saying. Okay, Speaker 13: So five. Speaker 11: So on. Speaker 1: Oh shoot, forgot about. Hey Speaker 11: So on the two employee family where there was the estimated enrollment is 14, is that 14 family?
Like 14 couples? Correct. I guess, sorry, Speaker 19: 14 and then the three, right. So there's these three. So we estimate, right, the only three will stay and maybe all of 'em will move, but so it could be 17 Speaker 11: Then that would be a hundred dollars a month, correct? Correct. Speaker 19: Yep. Speaker 13: Is this good's that, is this good? You're the expert, you're the insurance. I see these numbers all the time. Yeah, I just consistent Speaker 1: Obviously with the 16%. You know, we're just talking about this and you guys did great work. I mean awesome. I love that you got something for some part-time people. I think we brought that up last year a little bit
and you did that man. I've just, you know, obviously we wanna do everything we can, but like what's, what's our plan? How do we get, how do we get that down? I mean yeah man that's a huge hit to somebody and like what are we promoting to, you know, health wise, right? Like holistic health to help get that down. So we do, we pay Speaker 13: For memberships. Speaker 19: Yeah. So that's, that's a really good question. So our last slide is like what do we do next? And he talked kind of about that. I don't think you guys get all, even though you have the emails, maybe you
do 'cause it goes to all staff. But we launched a benefit campaign in, in February, our benefit specialist is Chris Reem and we've partnered with Will Towers Watson. And then our amazing leaders actually spent a lot of hours brainstorming how we can do this. This is, you know, yes they are both retiring and they really cared about the future. They understood that this isn't gonna affect our rates come this next year, however it is gonna affect the next two years. And so we sat down and kind of talked about all of our different strategies,
how people get information. 'cause we struggle with this, with parents, with students, with staff of like how do you get them to read it? How do you get 'em to utilize that? So our big campaign, if you've gone to the restroom here, you're gonna be very annoyed that you can't look at the mirror. But it is a, a poster of like think before you seek, right? And so thinking about, you know, do I need to go to the ER because I just cut my finger or can I put a bandaid on it and you know, can, if I have a cold, can I call Teladoc and and spend that instead of an office visit that costs money.
Do I need to go to my primary care doctor and look at that preventative measures instead of having a heart attack, whatever, whatever, what have you. Because I haven't addressed those underlying health issues prior to me needing to go to the er. And so that's a lot of the campaign that we are pushing. One of the big changes is during open enrollment we typically are what's called a passive enrollment. And so that means that if you choose, you don't wanna change anything, your benefits just roll over year over year. You don't have to come see us, you don't have to log into the portal. We are no longer doing that. And we are doing an active enrollment.
So we are deploying one HR staff member, one member from Aflac and one member from Wills Towers Watson. And scheduling, we are gonna be there before school, so seven o'clock in the morning till you know, 5, 5 30, 6 o'clock, however late we need to stay and to try to meet every staff member. We're going to every location and department and we're talking to them about, you know, how did your year go talk to, you know, okay, are there situations that maybe we could help guide you any future care? We're gonna have professionals that help staff with utilization.
We're also going to look at supplemental plans. So here's the idea, you know, I can't afford to put my spouse on here. Can we look at adding a $25 accident plan from Aflac that helps pay them while they're out of work? Can we help them with a hospital addendum plan? So those are less affordable, you know, than the medical plan. And a lot of our spouses, especially not to pick on males, but don't necessarily go to the doctor all the time unless it's an emergency anyway. So is that an alternative for them? And a lot of our Aflac plans do have what's called a, a wellness benefit. They get a kickback if they go and do their well check.
So they're still getting that access to a well check and getting our local resources. One of the other one is around imaging. So we are partner with partnering with the, the local business in our area that actually does lower cost imaging, which is in Glenwood Springs. So, and we have our blue book, which is part of our value added benefit to try to encourage staff to price out their care. If you have all seen in, in the news the hospital transparency bill. So they have to post their prices so we so staff know what it's gonna cost when they go get care.
So that's part of it. We're really trying to engage. I will say Krista has been in this district along with myself for three years now. So we are building those relationships with staff. So they do call her now to say, Hey, you know, I have this, what can you help me? Kind of trying to really continue those benefits. We're really trying to be more visible in the schools and get help from our collaborative solutions members to engage in in their healthcare. I will say Anthony did a really great job of pushing to our local community, like our page of, hey,
rates are going up, we're gonna have open enrollment. It's not looking really great and, and not trying to hide that everything's sunshine and rainbows 'cause it, it's not and you know, you can't help but people getting sick. However, we can help them make better choices or get through things in, in a better manner. You know, you're always gonna have some type of claims because people are going to get cancer, they're going to have babies, which helps our student count. So hopefully we, you know, we get some more babies out of the deal. But so, and then trying to partner with our local healthcare providers, that's an initiative
that we're getting help with CBT is how do we partner with these local healthcare providers to get the cost of care down? Is there some type of negotiation we can do? And so those conversations aren't going to stop. And I just want to say that our administrative team and our broker have done an amazing job of supporting us in that and making it a point to this work is gonna continue. It's gonna be hard and it's gonna hurt, you know, for a lot of, a lot of staff. And I never wanted to see rates go back this way the year before I came here.
It was, these were the rates that we had the year I came in was when the, the funds were found. We were able to raise our, our base salary schedule. If you remember that Brittany, you were a part of that big raise and those benefits. So this has happened before and unfortunately we just can't afford to cover it fully anymore. Speaker 2: Yeah, I know this is, we're addressing the year and the year ahead, but has there been a trend where they go up and then come back down the rate? Or is that like wishful thinking, like is
that totally like it just keeps going up, right? Like the mark, the housing market sometimes can take a dip, you know what I mean? Right. Like Speaker 13: I guess some people overall get really healthy over the next three or four, Speaker 17: Right? I don't know. You, you could go back to years where rate increases are mid single digits, maybe 4, 5, 6, but it's not gonna be, this year was 16 and a half up next year might be 10% down or 5% down. I think the best we can hope for and, and Scott with you being an industry you could comment as well, you know, the best we could hope for is
that it gets back down into single digit rate increases. But that's still an increase. That's not a decrease. Okay. And I think that's what you were asking. Speaker 2: Yes. Yeah. Thank you Speaker 13: For that. Guess that is one thing to take into account is that insurance, the insurance part of the benefits package is going up every year. Every year. You know where the steps cost us. We know what it costs us every year. 1.2. That's challenging. Speaker 19: And, and that, I mean, when we came into the negotiation, we started earlier, right? That was our huge goal at the end of the year last year is how do we start earlier so that we can get a benefit package
and a salary schedule out so that when we are trying to recruit staff, we, we have real numbers and we can get contracts out earlier to secure people. And when, when we went to that, I, I will never forget you said when are you stop coming to us with an increase and Yeah, I, we really tried, you know, and so this is one of those is we're, we're not asking for the district to kick in anymore for this part, but we are looking at other ways of how do we help supplement that on the other side with salaries because we have, we have a lot of staff too that don't take our benefits completely.
You know, I will be very transparent, I am very thankful that my husband works for a municipality that only employs 200 some people and I'm able to be on their plan that's more vulnerable than this one. So we have a lot of staff that would benefit from the salary kick in as well. And that includes a lot of our part-time staff. 'cause we have a lot of those staff too. So we have to think of that whole picture of, of salaries. So, Speaker 13: So for clarification, I asked recently about what we spent last year. It was 55.1 million and this year it's 55.8 from Jason.
Speaker 19: Oh, total? Total. Speaker 13: And that's from Jason online. 55.1 million. 55. But we spent what we budgeted, that's what we spent, that's an expenditure from last year and this year's or 24, 25 fiscal year 25, it's gonna be 55.80 Yeah. Speaker 19: And just like a reminder on the, that benefit breakdown is the para. And I think that's what a lot of people forget is that we have to by para, because we don't contribute to social security is 21.4%
of every staff member's salary in a retirement fund, which is absolutely amazing. We have staff who are retiring and, you know, they know that their money is there versus social security. I mean, that's always up in the air. Who knows if it's gonna be there, right? And so that's a huge benefit that it doesn't pay off right now, especially if you're me. It's gonna be wild till I get to retire. So I'm not gonna see that money for a long time. However, this district has contributed more in three years than my previous employer did in seven years. And so that's, that's huge. And we, we kind of forget about that.
Speaker 1: God, we gotta, we gotta shine a light on that, you know? I know it's so far out there, but boy, that's when you need it when, you know, and you just don't think about it till you're, we, we Speaker 13: Did three times more in one year. Speaker 19: Oh yeah. In seven years. Yeah. So where I previously came from, they didn't ma I mean it was up to a 3% match Yeah. On baseline. And you had to get to that 3% match. And I was in that organization, they were non-profit too. For 70 years I was there and I barely, it's, it's kind of like Trump change now. It's kind of laughable what I get now. So That's Speaker 13: Good.
So we're hiring, we're hiring 21. Speaker 19: Oh, that's good. Yeah. I mean, I don't know. I mean, you all are in the private sector. How many places contribute to a retirement account like that? Speaker 13: Yeah, I need to talk to my wife about that. See if she'll start writing me a check. Speaker 19: And I, we don't wanna discount either that this is absolutely going to be life changing for some staff. And we know one of the, you know, we talk about the story during cs about, you know, the Medicaid dollars have also been cut. So how many people lost access to Medicaid this year? You know, their kids got kicked off of Chip. And, and that was super unfortunate.
We, you know, we support all those staff and that's one of the other things that we're looking to do with partner for those staff that are, you know, looking to go on the open market because sometimes they can get a cheaper plan on the open market. And so, you know, the previous employer that I had was Mountain Family Health Centers, and they have an enrollment team that helps with that. Our county does a really great job of helping staff get on the open market. This would be a life event for them, you know, getting off during open enrollment. So we do have some local resources to help staff look at the private market, look at, you know, do they qualify for Medicaid, Medicare type things.
And so that is another resource that we will be taking with us when we go with these benefit plans. We're not gonna just leave them out there with no option. Speaker 13: I'm sorry. I think it, I, I think I can speak for a lot of people saying a, a professional, a teacher could possibly be on Medicare or Medicaid. I mean, that, that's, I don't know what this cut off. Sorry. I mean, just, it just, I I think it just speaks to the system. I don't, I don't know. That is crazy. And I, I think that that needs to be addressed somehow because that, that's amazing.
Speaker 19: Yeah. And, and our, the Medicaid part to, to your point is our paraprofessionals work, a lot of 'em work 153 days a year out of like a 260 day calendar. And so you think about if they're working 29 hours per week, 153 days per year, they, you don't, they don't have that much. So their annual salary is in, in the range of 22,000 to 30. Right. And so that is a little bit different of why they could qualify for that. Okay. Speaker 2: So, Speaker 19: So the rest of my slides,
sorry, we were kind of a downer. Not trying to bring the that down. It's just kind of our res summary of what our recommendation is. Right. So our current plan cost is 6.4 million. We're looking, our proposed plan would be a cost of 5.7 million for the 25 26 school year. The savings to the district is 796,000 estimated rate. And looking at, you know, how with that savings, not asking, you know, for the 6.5% increase from the district still contributing, how can we take that savings in into our next negotiations with salaries?
Speaker 2: Okay. Any questions? Speaker 13: Great Speaker 1: Work, guys. I mean, I know that's a tough one, man, but I appreciate you guys putting in the effort. Speaker 13: We vote on this next time. Nope. Speaker 19: You gotta vote tonight. Speaker 13: I talked about this funny, funny, funny, Speaker 1: Have you guys already done your, most of your work already put together for your recommendations? When we talk salaries, Speaker 19: They, we, we talked about it with the scope of work and like during all of these conversations we said, okay, keep in mind all of these things. However, if we have this decision then we know, okay, this is the pot of money that we have to work with.
Our next meeting is March 7th, 37th. Yeah. It's the beginning of the month. Yep. And so we will have that piggy bank, Jason, you know, Jason will be able to say, okay, this is kind of what your budget is, this is what you have to work with and what we'll kind of know where, oh, some of the grant cycle is. Obviously the long deal doesn't come in until May, but we know where some of those fixed costs come from. So we have a lot of the work there. But what we will do next is the story, right? Is you hear this person, you know, is unable to make the rent because you, you, you know, those types of things.
And then we will go into the IBB process of what our priorities are so that we can look at putting that package together. Speaker 1: Will you guys present to us then in March though the last, the last board meeting in March? Correct? That's the plan. Speaker 19: So that's the plan Speaker 13: Is, sorry, go ahead. Speaker 19: No, that that's the plan. Speaker 13: Anything else? Speaker 1: No, I was just, Speaker 13: So is, I know sometimes we work with deadlines, especially coming with open enrollment and all of the things. I would just like to convey my opinion on eventually seeing a compensation presentation that involves salary with benefits.
Because that gives us, I think it gives us a more, a clear picture of exactly what we're being asked where, I mean, we're asked to spend $56 million and I think it would be a lot more beneficial for me if I saw those presented together. That way I can take into account, you know, where, where we're at. So I can see and agree with the decisions you guys bring forward and also know that, and this is a $6 million bill,
but I would really like to have the time to discuss it with the CFO prior to voting on it. I know we're up against, up, up against the deadline, but if we could work towards that in the future, that would be great. Speaker 1: Yeah, it'd be nice to have just somehow in there, just that one more meeting, you know what I mean? Just to, you know, even though we saw it, you know, we all kind of knew it was coming and under, I think we've been talking 16% for a while, you know, so I, it's not like out of the blue by any means, but it would be nice to at least kind of be able
to walk away for, you know, and then come back and do it. Whether I know the challenge of trying to present 'em both together 'cause we want to get this one squared away before we can see even what we can spend. But it's just tough when it's all in the presentation and then the, you know, the action on that kind of money. But, Speaker 19: And we, we have discussed with Will Stars Watson, they do, you know, they have their board meeting in February, the first part of February. We have talked about getting an estimated rate renewal, but that's not gonna be completely accurate. Right? So if we could bring that in December,
we get an estimated right. And see kind of where we're trending and so then we can say, well, based on where we're trending, this is kind of our recommendation. And then we, we can continue those salary negotiations because fact of matter is we're four of us are going to a recruitment fair with a couple hundred candidates this Saturday. And so we have, we don't have, we still aren't even close right. To having those and we can't do anything about that. We can't do anything. But that's right now is when staff are, are looking is in March, March, April. Right. Because non rules are coming, new grads are getting ready to be hired.
And so our, we've gotten a little closer 'cause the last couple years we didn't vote on a salary schedule until the end of May. And so benefit, same thing. We didn't have those till end of March. And so we're closer to that goal. And we did, we did put together, just so you, so you kind of know when we, we did the story is we had that scope of work and we did have Jason say, what is it gonna cost for steps and lengths? We had that 1.2 million, right? What is it gonna cost if we ask for 10 years outta district experience for classified 15 years outta district for certified,
you know, that's gonna cost $500,000 for us. Right? We also talked about the tiered system, part of a three year strategic plan. How much is that gonna cost? District pay, license, renewals, test fees, certifications, how much is that gonna cost? And then what savings of is if there's some of that savings, could we give like a, a bonus? Obviously we can't change our steps because the state's never gonna give us more than 2%, you know, things like that. But can we top off our salary schedules kicking them up by a thousand dollars that would cost us, you know,
another $1.2 million. Right? So we did know all of those numbers coming in and that negotiation. However, if we presented these packages together and you said no to one Yeah. That would then skew our salary portion. So I mean, I would love to continue this conversation with all of you of like, how do we even get there? Because if you say no to one, then the other one's off the table. Yeah. So they, I don't, I don't know how you do it and I don't know if you have any expertise of like working
with other districts how you even get there. But Speaker 13: I, I think I, I understand the complexities of it. That, that there's a lot there to it. It's just within like our two, two by twos, we get a lot of information, whether it be with curriculum or or with finance. We, that's when we can really dig into it. And where I've really had success, understanding certain models and if we were able to dig into it together just might be more fruitful for me. And I understand the complexities of it. I think we work towards it.
And again, maybe as close as we can. Estimations are fine as long as they're within a margin of error. But Speaker 4: Really, and I think keep in mind too that we spent about 82% of our overall budgets. Yeah. What Jeff and Jason have presented over the course of the last three years, 82% of the total pie goes to salaries and benefits. So if you start there and you start chipping away then at your non-salary pieces, your capital projects pieces with John and his team, and Speaker 13: It's really important we spend this money efficiently.
Yes. We don't have the luxury of, you know, vaults full of cash. Speaker 19: Right. And, and I think a good opportunity is we do have our HR board committee, you know, Cassie and Fathom do sit on that. And I don't know if like it would be worth like, can you guys rotating through, but I think one of, we have standing agenda item right now, and I, one of our plans for next year is our standing agenda item is looking at where our loss ratio is. Are we doing really well in some certain areas? Are we not doing some well, you know, like where are the pain points that we're seeing in these trends? And so then that gives you guys an idea,
again, a better idea. Okay, this is where we're kind of trending, this is where the healthcare cost is, right. We always look at a, a certain percentage for cost of healthcare overall that we look in the calculation. So maybe that's how we work towards it too, is that that's a standing agenda item. So you guys are kind of appraised of, you know, where are we headed? Is it getting any better or not? And so then we can keep that estimation ahead of schedule. Speaker 1: Yep. Sounds good. Speaker 13: Like it. Speaker 1: Okay guys, thank you very much. We really appreciate it. Oh, did you guys have a question? No, I'm good. No? Okay.
Speaker 19: Yeah, I think it was Speaker 13: No. Oh, I'm sorry. Sorry guys. Sorry. Speaker 4: Excuse. You don't see her pictures? Speaker 11: No, I, I, I did wanna say thank you guys for working on this and I, I do appreciate the fact that I, I, I know that I've stated, and I think we've all stated at one point I wish we had endless amounts of money in that proverbial money money tree, but we don't. So I really do appreciate you guys looking at all aspects, our salary and stuff too. And then definitely think it would also be important, we had done that compensation sheet last year of
what we pay out to benefit salary as well as I think that's so important to see with the changes in these benefit plans as well. Speaker 2: Thank you Speaker 1: Guys. Thanks. Thank Speaker 2: You. Speaker 4: Appreciate. Yeah. Speaker 1: Thank you everybody. Okay, we're gonna keep pushing on. Speaker 2: All right, Speaker 1: Go ahead. You sure? Go ahead. I mean, you can take, Nope, we gotta keep pushing. Pushing. All right. Next up you can step out real quick. Go Speaker 2: Ahead. Speaker 1: Next up McPherson and Jacobson regarding the superintendent search. We're inviting Ken Sall up and Christie Centerra.
Okay. Where did I do my book with all of that stuff? Speaker 2: Yeah, Speaker 20: I lost a board member though. You want us to wait for your other board member? Speaker 1: No, why don't you just go ahead and get started. He's, he'll, he'll catch back up. All Speaker 2: Right. Speaker 4: He's pretty good. Speaker 20: He, he's good to catch you up. All right. Yeah. Well thank you. Yeah. My name is Dr. Ken Attal and I work for McPherson Jacobson in this, with this hat on helping you all find a superintendent. And Speaker 4: And I'm Dr. Christie center and I work for IR McPherson as well. Speaker 1: Welcome. Speaker 4: Thank you. So we did the application process
and have been working with you guys since actually the end of November. And we've been recruiting candidates earlier tonight. We did meet in executive session to review the candidates. So now we will turn it over to you before we do the rest of the items that we need to clarify to discuss the candidates and make a motion to who you'll select as the finalist to bring forward. So we'll turn it over to the board for discussion, Speaker 1: Honor candidates, talking about the candidates. Speaker 2: Alright. Speaker 1: We have four candidates. Speaker 4: I wanna say you guys did an amazing job sifting through all that was presented. That was a lot.
And I'm thankful we didn't have to go through all 18 or how many ever there was, if I can say. There was a lot. And I feel like we have some very strong candidates and I appreciate you guys putting in that time and doing that for us. I think it has been money well spent, hopefully not speaking too soon. Speaker 1: Would there be any way, if you guys could pull it up quickly, kind of what the requirements that we were looking at, just so the people in the audience and just, you know, come to some of the kind of
Speaker 2: Requirements Speaker 1: That Speaker 4: Yeah. Requests or Speaker 20: Your, your job job listing, job job requirements for the posting. Speaker 1: The term doesn't seem to hit me right now, but just so everyone knows, kind of what we were looking for is way, Speaker 20: I don't know if you, there you go. That'd be Teresa want it. Okay. Speaker 13: Thank you Theresa. Speaker 2: Like, Speaker 1: So, yeah, so this just has a little of the candidates, certain backgrounds we were looking for that we thought would be important. And we got some of that information from groups also that we collaborated with to come up with this list. Obviously that's kind
of more personality down there at the bottom. Then we had some additional requirements kind of looking for that ma 10 years leadership experience, three to five at a district office. Oh, I guess, yeah, Speaker 20: Little typo there. Yeah. Yeah. They weren't required to have individual health insurance. Yeah. But after the last presentation Speaker 1: Job guys, we slid that in. Speaker 20: What the heck? Yeah. Wishful thinking on somebody's part. But yes. Speaker 1: So yeah. So we, we once again got a lot of input to try to come up with that and we met, we've got people with those, those requirements.
Okay, so what's it look like when we need start talking about these guys? Speaker 2: That's Speaker 13: Always cool. Wow. That was cool. I know Speaker 1: I've done that a times, you know, when really as you, what I felt sitting up there and visiting with these guys and then, you know, we had an opportunity where we learned a little bit about the, the candidate. We had a discussion about just, you know, the resume and kind of their paper packet. And then we got to see 'em do a video where they answered three different questions. So you kind of saw whether kind of how they, you know, handled that. We got to kind of see who they were and everything Kind of got that feel too, you know.
And the, the help that McPherson Jacobson put together was really taking a very large pool of people and kind of dwindling it down. So, gave us four candidates want talk about 'em individually. Speaker 13: Sure. Speaker 1: Or somebody help me out there. Speaker 13: I guess we're kind of, this is all new to every, all of us. So I don't know how we, Speaker 1: We Speaker 20: Don't really know Speaker 13: What, no. So no, there are the, in my opinion, there were four very qualified candidates. It's, it's amazing the differences that four people That major in education,
it's amazing the differences there can be, it's amazing how many certain personality traits translate through the computer screen or through the tv. Like you can just kinda see how, how they are. I tend, I, I like the honest just, you know, just calm. There's a lot of times, and Heather can attest to that, that you need to have a level head and sometimes smile and wave. I think it's very important to have a candidate that knows when to speak and sometimes and understand and be humble enough to understand
that sometimes there's just nothing you can say to make the situation better. We saw situations this, this evening, like that that, and the job is difficult, demanding. I asked you guys about their kiddos if they had kiddo like kiddos at home. 'cause I, I see Heather's, it would not be feasible for a family, not be feasible for a mother or a father too if they wanna be involved in children. So, and just the, the, the mental strain of it all. Oh
Speaker 1: It's not an easy job by any Speaker 13: Means. No. So I just thank you guys for rounding up. Four very qualified candidates and I can't believe how hard it is not to start saying their names. So yeah, you're doing a great job. Thank you for following the rules. Yes. Sorry, I, yeah. Speaker 1: Is there, of the candidates, I guess another way we could look at this, of the candidates that were presented, is there one that we could, you know, they said obviously we want a nice pool of candidates.
Four is a really good number. But is there one of our four candidates we feel we could remove? Is there one that we would move it down to three? 'cause obviously the districts, you know, part of the thing we're gonna discuss is bringing 'em in, visiting with them, is there one of the four that you could remove? That way as we progress and we talk about how we're gonna meet these people, whether it's a meet and greet or a community forum, obviously if we could dwindle it down, there's more time for each one of these guys to visit one-on-one with our community. Scott, would you have any, is there one of the four
that you think maybe you would pull out? Speaker 5: Me first? Speaker 1: Yeah, you looked at me. Never make eye contact. Speaker 13: You're right. Speaker 5: I think that obviously again, thank you guys. That was fantastic. Good meeting. All of them are very qualified. I would, I would probably, if I were going to, to have to eliminate one, it would be candidate C in Speaker 13: My opinion. Speaker 5: But again, all that's a tough decision. But I would go to A, B and D for our finalists. Speaker 13: If you Speaker 1: Were looking at, if you were just thinking, yeah, you would pull one just to Yep. Any ideas? Anytime you'd like stand
Speaker 4: I would totally keep Okay. Speaker 1: Speak up though. Speaker 4: Oh, be loud. Sorry. I just put a MIT in my mouth. Thanks Fathom. Speaker 11: Okay. Speaker 4: I'm a little hesitant on keeping a couple of that have made other arrangements or have been selected by, they haven't made 'em, but they've been selected by some other school districts. That makes me a little nervous that we get our hopes up and then they pull out, you know, 'cause they're going a different direction. However, we hire first
before the other two school districts. So I'm a little more at ease with that I guess. But that is kind of a red flag for me. So I would more lean to those two candidates. Maybe not bringing them on if we wanted to stick to three instead of four. Just in case they are like, oh, sorry, I'm gonna go this way. Speaker 1: So is there one of those four, if you were gonna dwindle one of those two guys or two people down? I'm just, just, we're just talking. Speaker 4: Maybe candidate D just because of D. D. Okay.
Just because of the size of school district that he's been involved with. Speaker 2: Okay. Speaker 4: You're doing good in the transition part. That might be a little, I just see, I mean we're a big district. Yeah. We got a lot going on. We need a qualified person. Yep. Yep. So I would lean more towards A, B, D. Yes. Speaker 1: Yes. Yeah. Speaker 4: If we didn't keep all four Speaker 1: Fathom Speaker 11: I I, I would like to speak, first of all,
I really do appreciate all the hard work that you guys have put in and the meeting with our as well. All four were great having two in this election group. The two, I mean it tell that at least we were all on the same page. That they're great candidates as well. I would have to say, if I were to take the down to three, would I, I would keep CND and I would. Speaker 1: Okay. What are your thoughts?
Speaker 13: I mean, Speaker 1: You don't have to eliminate one. Speaker 13: I, I I really, Speaker 2: I Speaker 13: These are the four that made it through their screening that checked all the boxes. Yep. I really think that four is a good number. I really think that that's what they chose. That's what that, that out of all the candidates out of 18,
it was 18 total candidates. These four were the ones that checked all the boxes. And I think, I think it would be imperative for them to be all finalists and we get the community import that Speaker 4: We all had to choose one. Speaker 13: You didn't have to. No, you didn't have to. Oh, Speaker 2: He looked Speaker 13: At me. So don't listen to instructions Speaker 4: Very well. Because I was like torn between, if I had to choose between two and I couldn't. Speaker 13: I just think, I just think, 'cause we have the committee set up that I think it'd be, it's gonna be to go through the process.
I mean, this is a process and we might be surprised at the outcomes. We might be surprised when, you know, and it might limit it down to three very quickly. We, we don't know. Yeah, no, I get it. I, I don't think we limit us at all at the beginning. Speaker 4: Yeah, I agree. That's Speaker 13: My opinion. Okay. Speaker 1: I just didn't know if all of a sudden through that conversation, if two people or three of us would've said something, you know, but obviously not. We're in different areas. I think they're all four great candidates. And I, I would agree with chance and you know, you guys that we should move all four
of these guys to, to finalists. Speaker 4: Yes. So in that, Speaker 1: Is that what we vote on? Do we vote on Speaker 4: That? Yeah, I have the Speaker 13: Verbiage. Yeah, go ahead. Speaker 1: And I think, hold on. Speaker 4: As long as Adam's good. Speaker 1: Is there another piece of that we need to go through before we touch base on that decision? No, that's our next step. That's next step. That motion. Speaker 4: Do you guys understand why we're saying I'm candidate A, B, and C? Yeah. Does everybody got that? Okay. I didn't, I wanted to make sure. Okay. These guys understood why. So, yeah. Okay. We're good. Speaker 1: Okay. So, so far away Speaker 4: I make a motion to bring in candidates A, B, C,
and D on March 6th and seventh for interviews. Speaker 2: I wait one second. Speaker 1: Chair, can we get a roll call please? Speaker 2: Aye. Speaker 1: Aye. Al Speaker 4: Aye champion. Speaker 2: Aye. Aye. Aye. Speaker 1: Okay. Speaker 4: And then now we list, now you need to say candidate A is. Candidate B is, wait, I do not wanna say Speaker 13: You better say because of, I'm Speaker 4: Gonna Speaker 13: Conversation. He's got the, I think we randomize that and just list the four because we, these two had said,
well maybe we're leaning against, oh you know, I mean I, and maybe they weren't the false premise that Speaker 1: Just don't read, just read them random. As long as you list them. That's Speaker 20: What, what's random's a list. That's fine anyway. Oh, just randomly just, okay. List Speaker 4: True. Okay. Thank you. Chance we have one candidate, number one, Matthew de Snyder, second candidate Dr. Drew P Adams third candidate, Mr. Kirk l bang Hart.
I want say, and number four would be Mr. Timothy g Ren as our final four candidates coming to interview March 6th and seventh. Invited to interview that are invited to interview March 6th and seventh. Okay. Alright, Speaker 20: Now your honor. Speaker 4: Awesome. We're awesome. Thank you. And thank you for your time earlier today as well as going through the process. So our next item that we'll go through now, it's pretty much just logistics of if you want to invite, involve the spouses or significant others in the interview process
and have them come with them When you look at that, well expenses are right below, so we'll kinda lump it together. So travel is usually 70 cents per mile that they're reimbursed. There will be nobody that'll need to fly in rental cars, anything like that. So it'll just be mileage, lodging has already been booked. Thank you Theresa, for all your work on that has been done. So there wouldn't be any added expenses to bring the spouse in on that. The only item that there would be is if you choose to have per diem paid to the spouse. But we do think it is important for the spouse to come and join them. So
Speaker 20: Yeah, I, I guess I would just say it, my experience having somebody's spouse come to the system knowing that that's a commit, a family commitment to your point, chance a little bit and knowing what the family's getting into I think is very important. So I think inviting them to be a part of that be whether you do a dinner or whatever you decide to do. I, I just think that's a very valuable thing for you all. One to get to meet them and then for them to meet your community because they're gonna have an opportunity to be around. So I, I just think that's a wise thing for a system to do when they're bringing in a new superintendent.
I would agree with that. Agreed. Speaker 4: Agreed. Speaker 20: Do we need to vote on that? Speaker 4: You don't need to vote on, it's just coming to consensus with when we talk to them tonight or tomorrow morning, the four candidates you selected as finalists, we will offer that. If they can come, they can come. If they're working, obviously they won't be able to join, but we will offer that as we go through. There are certain things that the spouse does usually attend, that kind of the meet and greet. They're there with the community meeting 'em and if the board chooses to go to a dinner, they come. Other than that, during the interview day they're on their own just exploring and out and about.
So they're not in attendance to that. So you just have kind of that idea. But we will invite them and we will let you know what the plans are of each of those candidates if they're bringing 'em. Okay. So if the spouse comes now travel expenses, like I just said, 70 cents per mile, is the board good with paying that for the candidates lodging, as I said, there's already booked 'em at the Hampton incorrect and already has that. The Hampton. The Hampton. And so that'll be paid upfront by the district's. No reimbursement. The food per diem is usually done at the
federal amount with breakfast. 16, lunch 19 and dinner 28 per a lot of things won't be Yeah, per meal per person. So if the spouse is paid per diem, it would be those different meals. Breakfast is provided at the hotel so there would be no breakfast. Lunch for the candidate will be provided at the interviews on the Friday and dinner with the board whichever night we choose to do it. So the candidates would, it'd be less than a hundred dollars that they would get for dinner. We usually do recommend to boards just to have them be paid per diem
and not have to deal with three receipts from the accounting side of it. It saves more money in that than it is with an accountant having to do all those receipts. So that is up to the board on your thoughts on that. Per diem? Speaker 13: Per what's? Per diem meal? Speaker 4: It's $16 for breakfast, which would actually never do. Oh Speaker 13: I think per diem I think daily. Yeah. Speaker 20: Yeah. It's per meal. It's per meal. That's the way they break everything down for educators and governmental employee. So Speaker 4: It's better than our, Speaker 21: The night rate on our policy for Speaker 13: Kids. And that's industry standard. That's you? Good federal
Speaker 4: Rate? That's a federal rate. Speaker 13: Okay. Speaker 4: Yes, yes, Speaker 11: Yes. And the mileage, the government or the current rate as well? Speaker 4: Yes. 70 70 cents per mile. Yep. Okay, awesome. Thank you on all that. So when we're looking at the schedule and finalizing the schedule, Theresa can you pull that up? This was just a draft. I had a draft of three and I had a draft of four. Theresa has a draft of four that we can go ahead and pull up. What the board really needs to decide on this is
what time you want to start the groups. The stakeholder groups will have an 45 minute training prior to. So keep that in mind. So if we're starting at nine o'clock with interviews, the stakeholders need to be there at eight. If you wanna start at eight 30 then that would just push all that forward with the board. So it's up to you guys on what time you'd like to start. Usually we do have, Theresa's already worked on this as well. A light continental type. I don't know what all you have arranged so far for breakfast. Yeah, Speaker 22: Breakfast is continental pastries, fruit, water, coffee,
kettle for tea, that Speaker 4: Kind of thing. Just more of a socially type thing for all the stakeholders. The candidates generally don't come until closer to the interview time starts. But just for that. So what time would you guys prefer to start? And this is on the seventh? This is on the seventh? Yes. Speaker 1: At the district office. Speaker 4: And it's up Friday. That's to be determined. So we'll tell you's that's where Speaker 1: Later. Speaker 4: Okay. Yep, that's on here too. Speaker 1: If they start at nine, start actually interviewing at nine, they should be all wrapped up about four 30. Is that that Speaker 4: What? Yep. Depending on how long we have for lunch.
But with everything with the stakeholder groups reporting back to the board for the candidates. So it'd be about four 30 Speaker 1: Guys. Okay. With them starting at nine or do you want to push it up 30 minutes? Speaker 23: The debrief or the training of the other people, that's a little early. Speaker 1: That puts them even there. We start at seven, nine is nine. Okay. Nine. Okay, you're up. What do you think? Yeah, I think nines. I think what your, your schedule right there looks fine. Okay. Speaker 4: So we'll do that. So with that schedule we will go to how you guys wanna do the stakeholder,
not the stakeholder, excuse me, how you want to do the board dinner. If you want to do a board dinner, if you wanna do a meet and greet, if you want it to be town hall style. So we can do those a couple different ways. You can do the meet and greet town hall, hall style first and do that and then take them to dinner on Thursday. Then they just have interviews on Friday. Or you could do a board dinner on Thursday just to kind of kick things off and just do the board dinner, do interviews. And then on Friday after their interviews are done, do a meet and greet in town hall.
Pros and cons to both ways. If you chose to do the town hall meet and greet after the interviews on Friday, it really wouldn't allow you time for an executive session to talk. So everything would be moved to Saturday. So that's up to you guys on how and when. You don't have to do a dinner unless you want to, but it's kind of a nice time to, Speaker 1: I, I'm leaning a little more when we first talk, doing some type of meet and greet or town hall on Thursday. Let 'em kind of see the place a little bit and then maybe go to dinner, kinda get to know them a little bit more than they're going through their day.
We have more time with them. We just kind of just get a, maximize the time to helpfully have go into that executive session Friday night is what I'm thinking. Are you okay with that? Speaker 5: Just make sure that we have enough time for the meet and greet where the community can be here. Yeah. Not at four, you know, three 30 or four but closer to five 30 or something like that. Speaker 1: We're gonna have a late dent. We'll have and it'll be Speaker 5: A late dinner. Speaker 4: Be late dinner looks like. That's fine. And do you wanna do that meet and greet as like a town hall style where they're all together and if Ken
and I are here we can moderate it and they can all be asked the same questions. Or do you just want it an open meet and greet where people are free to come and ask them pretty much any questions that are appropriate Speaker 13: That way It's, I I like that way because it's more manic but sometimes you get talkative. I'd like everybody to be able to have a chance to ask a question. It comes sometimes if it was more, if it was just kind of the mingling, you might get a couple real chatty Cathys over there that take a lot of time. So I'm, I'm, I'm for one of the moderated town hall types.
Yeah. Just to keep it efficient and keep anybody that wants to can ask a question. Speaker 1: Would it look a little like the town hall? Let's say we had to start the town hall at six Would from five or you know, four 30 to six, could that be a little community meet and mingle? Yeah. Yep. Yeah. I mean that's seems to be, yeah. And then the town hall two hours. Would the town hall be two hours? Speaker 20: I'd give you an hour. I don't know if I'd go two hours. 'cause then you, you, most of the restaurants won't, Ryan won't stay open long enough for you to eat. So that Speaker 1: That could be true too. How long did you guys do it for rifle high school? About an hour. So it was an hour.
Speaker 20: So do a town or do a meet and greet four 30 to six, then do the town hall six to seven, then go to dinner. Speaker 13: Yeah. What if we do the Speaker 4: Five to six meet Speaker 13: And greet four to five 30 and then start town hall at five 30? Speaker 1: Well, once again, I think one of the biggest concerns is, I know we did have a Friday. Speaker 13: Friday. Everybody get every here off work. It is Speaker 4: Friday. Speaker 13: I agree it's Speaker 20: Thursday, it'd be Thursday. Speaker 13: Thursday Speaker 4: It's on Thursday. Thursday, yeah. And then Friday is, Speaker 1: I think we just give a little, if you guys will just give it a little bit more time before that. What time did you guys do the one for Rifle high school? Do you remember?
Speaker 4: I think you're probably right in the ballpark. We wanted to give parents enough time to get off work and Speaker 13: Yeah. So six, keep it at six. Six. Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah we can, so Thursday, Speaker 13: So like a five to six Speaker 1: And then four 30 to 6, 6 7, 4 30 to, yeah, somewhere in there. Four 10. That way maybe some staff would be, have a little freedom to get over there a little bit early to meet with them too. 'cause we definitely want to get there. So yeah, four 30. Speaker 4: So four 30 to six for meet and greet. Yep. And then six to seven for a town hall style and then dinner after that. Okay. Alright.
So just wanna go through, just so for the transparency, Speaker 1: Adam, is that all right with you? Speaker 4: I, I forget she's there. Speaker 13: I'm good with that. Okay. Speaker 4: Okay. So then going back to this time, we'd need to post, if we do, after the team reports, the a and B team reports go into executive session around five 30. So then that would need to be a documented so that we start a meeting would start at usually about 10 minutes before nine. So the board can do everything. They can call to order, do the pledge, everything.
So the first interview can actually start at nine. So the board meeting on March 7th will need to officially start at eight 50. Okay. And then, you know, this can be posted, we'll fill in the names and do all that. And then at four 30 that agenda would need to say to go into executive session until however long the board chooses to meet that night. Okay. Generally we do recommend also of an executive session on Saturday. Whatever time you wanna start to have that posted too. If you can come to a consensus and a decision on Friday night, awesome. If you can't and wanna sleep on it and think on it
and really process everything, we do recommend having one on Saturday. That way you can come to that meeting. You can always cancel it if not, Speaker 1: So, okay. So should we go ahead and schedule that? I mean, so yeah. Yeah. Is 9:00 AM okay for everybody on Saturday? If we have to do it? Speaker 4: Yeah. Which we would need to be here at like 8 45. Ready to roll by eight 50. Yeah. And you want the executive session to start at nine o'clock? Yeah, I think so. Okay. Speaker 1: We're halfway through. We're Speaker 4: Getting there. We are. All right for the interview questions, just so everybody is aware of how those came to be. So they're all set and ready to go.
They're from the survey that you guys completed and did, we took the questions from there. All the groups that are interviewed, the board has their interview questions. The two stakeholder groups have their interview questions that will be asked during the interviews. So those are all set. Does the board part of the contract included the criminal and background checks of all the candidates? Do you wanna go ahead and pursue those? Yes. Okay. Yes. So we'll get those going tomorrow. We'll reach out to all the candidates for that and we should have that information then back by the time we interview
contract information and discussions. We'll just move that to the March meeting. As we've talked about. Just to clarify too, the interview, the board is truly the only group that does the interview. The others are more like stakeholder feedback groups. So there is time on that schedule. They will do their questions, they will provide notes. The group will come to a consensus, they will write it up. There will be a point person on each of those stakeholder groups that then we'll share that information with the board. It'll be written out. You guys will get all that information.
So you know that and just that's clear on how that goes. That makes sense. Speaker 5: Don't meet with them, just have a summary. Speaker 4: They will come in like if this is what it was and debrief. Yep. And debrief. They will tell you the pros and the areas of concerns and you'll get all their notes from their, the questions and stuff they asked. You'll also have those for executive session. And we just, we also wanna clarify, as you know that the board does have a right to do their interview in private. We do not advise that by any mean because if the board holds their interviews in private
of the candidates, it always leads to like questions of why. So we don't But the board does have that right. Per statute. We recommend that you do it in public and that is my assumption is that you do wanna do it in public. But we do need to confirm that. Speaker 1: Yes, yes. Speaker 4: Thank you. That's much. That's same as some Speaker 1: Other paperwork. Speaker 4: Yes. It's just transparent and you want as much transparency as you can. So these are public meetings, all these interviews, anybody from the public is welcome to come and sit just like they are tonight and listen to the interviews.
They don't, you know, ask questions anything. But they're welcome to come and listen to whichever interview group that they want to listen to as they go. They don't, like I said have input but it is a public meeting. Speaker 1: Then we will We'll we've got, we're gonna push that out to invite as many people. Speaker 22: Yes. Speaker 4: Do you want Speaker 22: To invite them to the board meeting to listen to the interviews as well? Speaker 1: Sure. Speaker 22: Okay. Speaker 4: Then we need to decide where we're going to be. Which was chance's question earlier. As Theresa has been our backhand on so many things.
Thank you so much Theresa for all your work and getting things done. The locations that we currently have for interviews on the meet and or the meet and greet in the town hall Thursday and Friday evening. We can be at Rifle High School on Friday. We can be at Cole Ridge or Rifle, huh? Oh, rifle Middle School or Rifle Middle School. Colorado Mountain College is both the district office has tons of things going on. So we can do it at same venue if we choose Rifle High school. If we wanna do one at one high school and then go to another place, we can do that too.
That is up to the board for location. Speaker 1: I was, I really enjoyed when they did the town hall style at Rifle High because it had like an auditorium. Yeah. Auditorium. Yeah. So I think that'd be like ideal for Thursday if we did that there and then from there we could go to and then set and then Friday. I mean I think we have to showcase Coal Ridge. Speaker 4: Cole Ridge is, yeah. Maybe the li can we use the library upstairs or is that gonna be Speaker 1: Too small? Oh yeah, I guess that's would be the question. What area Therea, which one do you think would be better of those two schools to do all this stuff? So Speaker 22: For the interviews you'll need four spaces. You'll need a board interview room, interview rooms
for the other two committees and then like a green room and a space for lunch. So what we could do is we could do lunch in the library and use three classrooms down or have four rooms downstairs as kind of that interview room. Go upstairs for lunch and then come back down for the, to finish the interviews. What would you think about that at college? Yeah, I, I think it's important to both schools. Yeah, I think so. To get Speaker 1: Outside, do one and one over there. Yep. If they want to be there. I think so. Good with that. Okay. Thursday and Friday. Change the schools. Yeah. Yeah. Speaker 4: Yeah. Doing both schools. I like the Speaker 1: Auditorium idea.
Yeah. That's about the best. Yeah. That worked well for which, yeah. Rifle. Speaker 20: Okay. So Rifle high school for the green meet rifle High school on Thursday. Cole Ridge for the Speaker 1: Cole Ridge on the day of the Speaker 20: Interviews. Sounds good. Interviews. Yep. Speaker 4: Okay, we got that. The only other two things are, there's a motion on the agenda later for outside of the contract for Ken and I to attend and keep everything rolling and moving and help you with executive session during the meet and greet. We do give out index cards where people can write the names on it and give you feedback too.
We take that back and type that all up so you guys have that going into Friday as well. So it's a total of $1,500 total. Not each of us get that total for that to keep you guys on track with everything. So that's an action item later to do. I think that's it. Speaker 20: That's all of it. Yep. Speaker 4: And I'm looking Theresa and we all three of us have a Google sheet, but I think, oh, tour guides. So on the agenda that we had up, we do need to set a tour guide. So we have the stakeholder groups, but there is a time for them to go around
and have a tour of all the district schools just to see the outlay of everything. And so that's an hour time in there and, Speaker 20: And as I walked by John, I asked him if he thought that would be a great job for him and he said yes. So if so we Speaker 1: Too, Speaker 4: We only need one oh Speaker 1: Wheel one, we need one. So they'll all pile in together, Speaker 20: Jump in a district card, drive around and see the world. And I think he probably knows more about your schools than a lot of people do. So, Speaker 4: So it'll be a, it'll be a block of time on their interview schedule. So it'll be John and the candidate. Yep. Speaker 1: Yep. That sounds great. Yeah, we definitely want 'em to see this place.
Hour doesn't seem like enough. Thanks Sean. There's much space. Thanks for volunteering distance. Is that enough? I mean that's, I think Speaker 4: It was voluntold. Yeah. Was that voluntary? It's, Speaker 20: We might Speaker 1: Have, I think that night we tried to do that. Speaker 4: I was gonna say by the time Speaker 20: It's a fast drive. Newcastle. Speaker 4: Yeah. You can kind of quickly wave at the exit sign. So it's an, it's an hour and a half. Speaker 1: Okay. The tour Speaker 4: We might not catch, Speaker 20: But you can hit it. If we can't Speaker 4: Go a longer, it'll just lengthen our day. So I mean there's, we'll take a Speaker 1: Loop in the DR in the parking lot. Speaker 20: Okay. Yeah. Here's your school. This will they Yeah, yeah. You're not gonna get time to go in and visit. No.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 4: That's awesome. No, maybe Josh will like escort you like in front of you. Turn the lights on the rifle car. Okay. I think that is all pretty Speaker 20: Too. Speaker 4: Theresa, are we missing anything? But that's all I have on my list. You don't have the Speaker 22: Document in front of me, but I'm running through what we talked about earlier and I think that covers Speaker 4: Stakeholder groups. Speaker 20: Oh, stakeholder groups. There were some questions about how they, you got determined and essentially you had 48 people apply to be a part of that. And so what I did is I actually took that and created a bit of an algorithm that ensured that you had a community person that wasn't a parent,
a parent a classified as certified and administrative staff and a student and then just put 'em all in there and it spit those out. So they were randomly selected. We only had one student actually apply, but you had a second student who had called I think one of the board members and, and so we wanted to make sure you had a student on each group. So that's how we came up with that. So they're randomly selected and that's who they are. So of your applicants, Speaker 4: Have these been sent out and notified? We'll send those of, yeah, we'll send them out tonight or tomorrow probably 'cause it's getting kinda late,
but we'll send 'em out tomorrow of letting them know who has been and they are on board docs. But that's, we wanna make sure that the board is good with that too. Yeah. Speaker 1: Yep. Yep. We had nothing to do with those groups. Speaker 4: Yeah. Nope. We really didn't either. AI did it all for us. Speaker 20: I used a pretty cool tool to make it work, so That's awesome. Speaker 5: The Berkman questionnaire, is that gonna be done? Speaker 4: That is up to you if you want to do it. That's an additional expense. Truth and Speaker 5: Weaknesses on personality. Speaker 4: I think it is similar. Very similar. Speaker 5: I know it costs a little more. Speaker 20: It does. Speaker 5: We really get to know the person more
so in depth than an interview. Can't really hide that. So me, so say it again. Speaker 4: All your strengths, all your weaknesses right there. Speaker 5: What's that? Say it again. The, the Brickman personality questionnaire spits out a whole bunch of things. What kind of personality are you, type A B, you know, are you a driver, are you a whatever for different quadrants typically. And then how you might react or interact with other people who are opposite to that and gives you a really good idea of what kind of personality you're really getting when you look at all these people. Speaker 1: Berkman. Okay. Speaker 5: Burman. Bur BIRK. Yeah. Yep.
I Googled Burman and Speaker 4: It came. I did too. I well, I will. Speaker 1: I I have no problems with that. I, I mean I think those are awesome. Speaker 5: Yeah, I think Speaker 4: That's fine. I'm looking it up just for transparency of the cost. I wanna, it is costly. I can't Speaker 20: Remember what Speaker 4: It was. It is, it's in our, I feel like it's coming. It is in the proposal that as an additional expense. Remember Do Speaker 1: You have the back there, Speaker 4: Scott? I thought it was like 25 or something Speaker 11: And I can't remember. Is that cost per person or cost overall? Speaker 4: Yeah, it was cost per Per per person. Per person.
It's an estimated fee for the services. $700 per candidate and that's just a pass through. That's not a fee Speaker 20: To us. Well part of it is there's a scoring. Yeah. That's process in the back that we don't do. That's And how much is it? 700 per per, Speaker 4: I thought it was seven 50. And that's not us. That's just a wave through cost. That's what they charge for it. They do it. He's done PDPs before. Speaker 1: Is there another option for that type of test that, I mean that seems a little Speaker 5: Russell through Aspen Business Group. They've done those before. I mean they've, for a couple different organizations I've been involved with. I don't know. I'm sure assuming they
still do that, I don't know. Speaker 4: We don't use him. We use a different, a different communication tool. Oh, okay. That's a little bit simpler. But in the beginning years when I was a principal we did, they were called PDP profiles, which are personality profiles. That was about a 35 page comprehensive report on every single staff member lease to do across the district at that time. Speaker 5: Yeah. I don't know if it wouldn't hurt to ask Russell how much that would cost. Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean would that be something you guys would, could maybe find as an alternative or Speaker 20: He can look, we could definitely Speaker 4: Look into it. Speaker 1: Yeah, I know that's tough.
But I mean that other one's, that's pretty Speaker 20: Precise between now and two weeks from now that Yeah, pretty sure. Speaker 5: I know That's the only thing is it does take time. Speaker 4: Yeah. I mean it's really, it's Speaker 1: 28. It takes time. Speaker 20: Yeah. It's a long process for you to go through. How Speaker 1: Soon if we get it out to it? Speaker 20: Oh, it depends on what we'd get out to it. If it was this one, we could get it out probably tomorrow. Just Speaker 1: Say, Speaker 19: So the disc is $90 and you can take it in a day. They get their assessment back immediately and then you diagnose it with them. Speaker 4: Because the only thing I cannot confirm is that that is not part of their agreement when they completed their application. The beement is. So that will be up to the candidates
to do or not to do that. That was an agreement and something they agreed to do it when we started. So I just want their, that awareness. Speaker 5: Yeah. Just as I may be required to do it and they acknowledge on that. Right. Speaker 20: But Speaker 5: If we, give us your thoughts Speaker 20: On, but if we switch the assessment that cause Speaker 4: That problem, it's the switching of the assessment. Russell said that for Aspen Business Group, it's a hundred bucks Speaker 1: A piece. Can you tell us what but I mean is it the same method? I I Speaker 4: I, I don't know this one that they're talking about. I know I had done a similar, Speaker 20: I've never taken this one. I've taken a couple others that do exactly give you a great lens, a different lens
that it's not about me talking to you. It's about what I'm actually putting down and, and there's a lot of spiraled questions in there that can confirm bias and different things. I, I guess there's what I would tell you, you're gonna be, you're gonna be hiring somebody for a very important job. Yeah, Speaker 1: That's Speaker 20: What I'm saying. And you want all the information you can get, Christie said it earlier where you're, you're, it's a puzzle. Like you have, you have an application, you have a resume, you have their conversation, you're gonna get to interview 'em. But the more pieces that you have of that puzzle is helps you make a decision.
So Speaker 1: I think we need to do the, I think we should do that. The Burman? Yeah, I think so because it's already in there. I don't wanna throw a monkey wrench in it and I think it'll be valuable information to us. And they acknowledge they may be, Speaker 4: The brain fund is specifically Speaker 1: They click that box. They Speaker 4: All said yes. Right. Speaker 1: Okay. So yes, Adam, thumbs up. Okay. Yep. We, we'd like to have that assessment done. Okay. Speaker 4: Okay. Speaker 20: And again, we don't make any money off that we're not selling, but it is a pass through.
But it is, Scott, to your point, a good, I think a good piece of information. Speaker 1: So Yeah. Yeah. I'm glad you brought that up. Speaker 4: And I'm just going back through really quickly to make sure there's nothing else that they all said and it, that is specific to Brinkman is what the application says. Speaker 1: Stick with it. Speaker 4: And they did all say yes. Speaker 20: Perfect. Speaker 11: Will the assessment results be given to the board and to the community? Stakeholder groups or just board? Speaker 20: Just the board. Yeah, just the board. They, they wouldn't release that information to everybody else. It's not public information. Correct. Yeah. We redact the rest of it. Yes. So no.
Speaker 4: So we get it and the, the board gets it. Speaker 11: Thank you. Speaker 13: Awesome. Speaker 20: I think that's it for us. Speaker 4: And that is all that we have. Speaker 13: And the only other action item is he mentioned Speaker 20: Whether you want us to come back and, Speaker 4: And that's on the next Speaker 13: $1,500 for the remaining extra step. Speaker 11: Yep. Speaker 4: Do are you guys voting or did I miss, did I misread that? That you needed to also vote tonight on the person responsible to negotiate the Speaker 20: Contract? They do need to vote on that. Speaker 4: Thank you. Okay, good. I had it in the action items. It's listed Speaker 20: Here. I just thought it was third action items. That's, Speaker 4: It's the only item that I don't have
down the list. Yes, it's all Speaker 1: Good. Okay. So thank you. We've already done 7.1. So our action, our next active item is gonna be 7.2, which is approval of and Christy Center to attend and run all events for the interview process. Speaker 20: Yes. I would move that we have Ken and Christie here to run all events in the interview process. Speaker 11: I would Second. Speaker 1: Second. Do I get a roll call please, Sharon? Speaker 11: Sure. Speaker 4: Aye Speaker 1: Al. Aye. Speaker 11: Haskell. Speaker 4: Aye. Speaker 13: Kins you mean 1500 is the best you can do. Speaker 20: We don't set the rates. Speaker 11: Aye Jen.
Aye. Speaker 1: Okay. That passes. So 7.3 approval or personal? Personal responsible. Negotiate the superintendent contract. You said normally that's the president. It's Speaker 4: Normally the president. So what happens is in the executive session, after we select the candidates, the board, like, you know who you're gonna select and go forward at that time is there. And so you know their experience. So they will say, okay Ken, we want him, we know his experience. Here's where we're gonna offer, here's the range that the board president's allowed. So the board gives ranges
and whoever negotiates generally the president then continually contacts the board, updates them on how negotiations are going, what it is. So it's one person, but that responsibility is to continually share out with all the board until that contract's done. Okay. Speaker 1: Feel like I reach out to you guys quite a bit. So you guys all right? Yep. Okay. Can I get a motion on that from somebody Speaker 13: And I'll make a motion to hold on, Speaker 1: Throw my name Speaker 13: On that to designate board president Brit Fletcher as the designated approved person to negotiate SuperNet contract.
Speaker 4: I second that. Speaker 1: Roll call please. Speaker 4: Aye. Speaker 1: Aye. Speaker 4: Aye Jen. Aye. Aye. Speaker 1: Okay. And our 7.4 action item is the recommendation from collaborative solutions benefit package for the 25 26 school year. Questions, comments? I move Speaker 5: Reapprove that recommendation from collaborative solutions for the benefits package. Speaker 4: T-shirt size. The Speaker 5: 20, 25, 26 school Speaker 4: Year. Second. Okay, Speaker 1: Roll call Speaker 4: A Speaker 1: Back. Aye. Ask. Speaker 4: Aye. Jenkins. Aye. Jensen? Aye
Speaker 1: Guys, thank you very much for Thank you. Guiding us through this process. We really appreciate it. Hey, we're not, we're just getting to the fun part. I know, man. It just like Speaker 13: Now. Now it's, I mean it's felt for a long time that it was like slow, slow, slow, slow. Now it's like Speaker 1: Next Speaker 4: Week now it's slammed. Speaker 1: The next one's gonna go really fast. Next Speaker 4: Week. Yeah, next week. Speaker 1: Okay. Future agenda items. Thanks guys. Speaker 4: Thank you. Thank you. Speaker 1: Have a wonderful evening. Our next board meeting is March the, Speaker 4: You're gonna have a lot of 'em next week. So March 12th. Speaker 13: 12th. Our next regular board. Speaker 4: Yes. Yes. Speaker 1: Oh that's where I, now
Speaker 4: We're gonna Speaker 13: Have, Speaker 1: Yep. Speaker 13: Thursday, Friday and maybe Saturday. Yep. Speaker 1: So Thursday's just a regular meeting. Friday's? Nope. Speaker 4: You have Thursday, which would be regular. Friday would be, Friday is regular Speaker 1: With a executive session on Speaker 4: The back, executive session on the backside of that and possibly an executive session on Saturday. Speaker 1: Okay. So we're putting four meetings on the docket for next week. Speaker 4: We have to do, we just do one though in March because of spring break. Oh that's true. Yeah. March 12th is the only meeting. It's the only mating in Speaker 1: March. So when do we talk benefits or pay? 12th?
Speaker 4: No we won't. Speaker 1: Are we doing a special, Speaker 4: I think we when cs? I'm looking seventh, Speaker 13: So the eighth, our Speaker 4: Plan 12th I, I don't know if we can meet with CSS on seventh. Yeah, but we have some of the people on CS that are on these interview teams. We're gonna have to think about that. Okay. So maybe salaries. Well Speaker 19: Even like the decision, 'cause we were gonna make you vote that night. So we were coming forward with the discussion, the presentation of like, this is what, you know, we're trying to propose like can you consider all of this?
'cause we already did a lot of that prep work, so it's kind of why we stacked it the way we did. So that you had a some time and over spring break and all of that to consider to vote in April agency. Speaker 4: Okay. So I'm gonna put salaries on there. Salary conversation. Speaker 1: I think we should, Speaker 4: Yes. As a, as a potential discussion item but not a vote. Correct. We have JCI that we tabled for tonight. So I move them to the next meeting. I will confirm with John and JCI if that still is amendable. And then that night we were to do a str, the strategic plan.
We're at staff success at that point in the year. That's all I got. Speaker 1: Okay. And then we'll have to, we're gonna have to start out, we're gonna have to throw some policies in there 'cause we've got quite a few that we'll have to look at. At least try to find three. Well Speaker 4: Can, we're gonna have to start working on the dash or Speaker 1: Yeah. So we'll maybe talk a little bit more about policies on Tuesday in our agenda meeting and we can kind of determine what, Speaker 13: So about Dash, are we going to We need to get somebody, Speaker 1: Sorry. No, just maybe we'll Tuesday we can kind of, Speaker 13: Yeah, so I just wondered what I let think I that structure needs to be.
Speaker 1: I think, I don't know if we'll be able to touch that. No, no. The next one it might be way that way out but yep. I think it a little bit out so we gotta think about what happens in between. Speaker 13: I just think it's important that we do get definitely employee or staff involved. Okay. And agree. Brent, does Brent get involved in that? Yeah, definitely. Definitely. Yeah. Oh yeah, Speaker 1: That's gonna be, he'll vet it. There's gonna be a lot of hands in that one, I imagine. Speaker 4: Okay. And then the, the following meeting just so that you can kind of wrap your head around that. The, just because of spring break, the board meeting after that is on April 9th. So we'll have, it'll literally be almost a month
Speaker 1: Apart. Is DAC need to come last time? I don't, were they gonna come to the march before? Probably. So Speaker 24: They should finish bullying policy by then. I thought that the last two meetings, the bullying policy Speaker 1: Policy's tough man. Especially when you get that many, I mean, we're lucky there's just really five of us and you guys kind of ended up, I mean there there's a room of 20 trying to give their information a lot more difficult. I'd be, it would be tough to come. It's tough. It's tough. It's tough. Speaker 24: They'll Speaker 1: Get there but they'll get there. Okay. Any other things on future gens we have on the docket that we're right now?
Nope. Meeting debrief. Great job everybody. I know, I know that was a lot that we'd switched that up and stuff, but I think a great job everybody did. Okay. If there's nothing else, I'm gonna go ahead and I adjourn this meeting at 9:07 PM.