Speaker 1: So we'll go ahead and call the regular board meeting Wednesday, March 11th to order at 5 31. If you would ple, please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag Speaker 2: Of the Speaker 1: United States of America Speaker 3: And to the republic for which, for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with, with liberty and justice Speaker 1: For all. And if you would please remain standing for just a moment of silence. Speaker 2: Great, Speaker 1: Thank you. Speaker 2: Quick, I get split up. I, Speaker 1: Alright, so onto the agenda.
I would take a motion to approve the approval of the March 11th, 2026 agenda. Are there any changes? Speaker 2: I don't. There was. Okay. No, Speaker 4: We do not have any, make a motion to approve the March 11th, 2026 agenda. Speaker 2: I second Speaker 1: That. Thank you Sharon. May I get roll call? Speaker 2: She will. You Aye. As both aye. Aye. Aye. Jenkins Aye. Speaker 1: Aye. Onto public audience. Did we have anybody for public audience? Speaker 2: Not tonight. Speaker 1: Thank you. So onto the consent agenda onto the approval of the February 28th, 2026 draft board minutes.
May I get a motion to approve the February 25th, 2026 draft board minutes please? Speaker 4: We do have one, one addition. Speaker 1: Okay. Speaker 4: We'd like to add the approval to apply for the Colorado School Health Professionals grant program for student wellness. Okay. Speaker 2: To the Speaker 4: Consent agenda. And you all have the white paper that was added to that. So we will be applying for that grant to continue some work that we're doing within Rifle high school and some other components. Speaker 2: So that's for the consent? Yeah, that's for
Speaker 4: For consent agenda. Great, Speaker 1: Thank you. May I get a, may I get a motion to approve the February 26th? 20 February 28th. 2026. Draft board minutes please. Speaker 2: Oh, I'm sorry. I That's, Speaker 1: Wait, one Speaker 2: Says 28 and one says 25. I know. And it's 25 guys, I'm sorry. I just realized mine schedule will be here 25 and it is, it was the 25th. Speaker 1: Okay. It is the 25th. Thank you. Speaker 2: Sorry. Tighten up Sharon. I'll make a motion to approve the February, 2020 or 25th. 2026 draft board. Speaker 1: Great. Thank you. May I get a second? I A second. Speaker 2: Thank Speaker 1: You. Sharon, may I get roll call please?
Speaker 2: Yes, full you aye abstain. Aye. Aye. Jenkins Aye Jen. Speaker 1: Aye. Thank you. Speaker 5: Quick question. Sorry. No. About this Colorado School Health Professional grant program. When is the deadline for this or when is the application deadline? Speaker 2: 30th. Huh? The 30th. Okay. It Speaker 1: Was the end of the month. Speaker 2: Yep. Speaker 5: And this is our only month in April? Yes. Or in March. Speaker 2: Our only meeting. Yeah. Speaker 1: Perfect. Alright, may I get a motion
to approve the consent agenda as amended please? Speaker 5: I'll make a motion to approve the February or March 11th consent agenda as amended. Great. Speaker 1: Thank you. May I get a second? I second that. Thank you Cassie. Sharon, may I get roll call please Speaker 2: For you? Aye. As aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Yes. Speaker 1: Aye. Speaker 2: Okay. Speaker 1: All right. On to discussion items. Governance discussion items CMC. Speaker 2: I think they ran into a traffic snap. Oh and they're on their way. They are on their way. Okay.
So should we, can we Speaker 1: Swap Speaker 2: Or do we need to amend the, I don't think we have to amend it. No, you can, as long as it's on the agenda items we're fine. Let's, Speaker 1: Okay now let's just swap. Okay. Let's go ahead and do outdoor education with Scar Parham Speaker 2: And Charlotte. Speaker 1: And Charlotte. Speaker 2: Sorry. Speaker 6: No worries. Speaker 2: Alright, Speaker 1: Thank you guys for being flexible. I appreciate it. Of Speaker 6: Course. Yeah. Thanks for having us. So happy to be here. My name's Scott Parton, I'm the program director with Garfield County Outdoors. I've been in the position about five years
and have spent about 12 years kind of working in the outdoor industry. Everything from back country hut, caretaker to river guide to wilderness first aid instructor, and kind of everything in between. And so I just kind of wanted to start and tell a little bit about myself since I see some new faces here along with that experience. You know, I, I just kind of wanted to let you guys know like why do I work in the outdoors? Why outdoor ed? When I graduated high school I went into the United States Army and did a couple tours in Iraq.
And when I came back from that, as you can imagine, had a lot of struggles kind of coming back to society and all that and was lucky enough that my brother brought me on a hut trip up in New Hampshire where I'm from. And it was the first time and probably about five or six years after I got outta the military that I was like, I feel kind of normal. Maybe there's something to the outdoors. So just kind of chased that down and it really became, you know, how I healed and kind of figured out how to take care of myself and be quote unquote normal again. And so on the other end of that, you know, I really wanted
to help other youth, other adults, other veterans get outdoors because it was so powerful for me. So that's kind of how I dove into the outdoor industry. And here I am about 12 or so years later. Yeah. And then we'll let Charlotte kind of tell you her story a little bit. Speaker 7: So I'm Charlotte Hanks and I'm the outdoor education coordinator. So I also have similar feelings about being outside. I grew up in Louisiana with a lot of different outdoor experiences. Graduated college and just took off and became a raft guide
'cause I was also still trying to find myself. And 15 years later I'm still doing that along with all these other things outdoors. But I kind of had a traumatic childhood and I think I resonate with being outside 'cause it also healed me. And I see that in other children and like just getting them in a space to learn something new and experiencing something different really means a lot to me. And it doesn't have to have an agenda, it could just be joy. And I think just getting kids to know that there's more things out there. Like a little girl from Louisiana never thought she was
gonna be a raft guide or be doing what I'm doing right now. So it's just when I'm with kids I like ask them about what they like and what they want to do. And it's not about what do you wanna be when you grow up, it's like what do you want to do for fun? What do you want to have bring you joy? And being outside is I guess our common, you know, ground for that. So yeah. And I have similar experiences, raft guide doing outdoor ed with kids in summer camps. Now I'm teaching wilderness first aid with Scott too to you know, just being in the back country and doing a lot of those kinds
of things also is like super special. And I hope to like inspire more women and young girls to do those kinds of things 'cause I feel like it's a lost opportunity. We live in an area that some people have never been to Rifle Falls, much less gone skiing or rafting and like if we could just expose kids just a little bit. Like imagine just like being in a library and like having that imagination but like having that also open that outlet for being outside and doing those things. So Speaker 6: Cool. So I thought we had a slideshow but you Speaker 2: Do. Oh you ready? Yeah
Speaker 6: You can hop right in. Speaker 7: And I was like I did not memorize all things. Speaker 2: Well Speaker 6: While it's pulling up, I can tell y'all a little bit about Garfield County Outdoors. So Garfield County Outdoors is funded through Great Outdoors Colorado or goco. And so GOCO takes lottery proceeds from the state lottery and reinvests it into different outdoor initiatives. It could be land acquisition, repairing trails, but they started a program called Generation Wild, which is a grant program that funds community level efforts to basically make it easier for folks to get outdoors is the simplest way to put it.
And so Garfield County Outdoors is kind of referred to as the generation wild community for Western Garfield County. There's actually 14 other coalitions like Garfield County across the state. The closest ones are over in Eagle County and down in Delta County. But yeah, backing up a little bit too. So it's not, some people automatically think that Garfield County Outdoors is a nonprofit organization 'cause it kind of looks and sounds like one, but it's really a collaborative effort between Garfield re two, Garfield 16 and CSU extension are sort of the core partners.
And then we've got probably about 10 or so kind of supporting partners that help deliver programming and that's organizations like Roaring Fork Outdoor Volunteers, Aspen Center for Environmental Studies, the Buddy program and kind of a handful of other ones. So really it's all of these folks coming to the table and agreeing that we wanna work together to get kids outdoors and going out and finding funding to kind of do what we decide as a group to get folks outdoors. So kind of looking at funding that's come from that grant program to RE two,
it's been a little over $900,000 since 2018 that have kind of come to support outed in the district and approximately like 20 grand or so of kind of little grants here and there to kinda support that, those efforts as well. And we recently received another round of funding that will go through 2030, which will be approximately $415,000 to kind of support what we're doing over the next four years. Yeah, so the coalitions look a lot different across the
state but ours obviously is very heavy within the school districts and that's kind of unique with some of the other coalitions out there. So they really look to us as kind of the experts of like how do you work with the school district? And that's kind of like one of our, our highlights of what we do. And last two big things on Garfield County Outdoors is my role. I kind of live in this gray area and people are like, what do you actually do? So it's kind of all over the place, right? Like I'm managing the grant that funds all this, you know,
building relationships, partnerships with those folks that I mentioned, finding other resources to kind of support getting kids outdoors and just building capacity for across the community. And if it's a good week I get to actually go outside and maybe go snowshoeing with kids or something like that. And then just since 2021 when we kind of started tracking all the participants across both school districts and all the other organizations, it's been over 35,000 kids participants in our programs. So when I started that's the, the sort of expectation they had that I'd be doing that. But Heather Ley who was the superintendent said,
we don't have an outdoor ed department. You're gonna build an outdoor ed department. I was like, all right, cool. That's what I'm doing. So I really kind of dove into that and that's what I've been working on over the past five years. And yeah, that was my first assignment coming in during COVID, which was a weird time to start an outdoor job. And part of that effort was kind of building a foundation for all the outdoor ed and, and what we came up with was called the ranger team. And so the ranger, the outdoor ed ranger team is basically at least one representative from each of the 10 schools kind
of sit on a design team for outdoor ed. So you know, we've come up with a mission and vision and kind of an outline of what all the outdoor programs we can build as sort of a, oh I forgot the buzz word, but kind of tied in experiences from kindergarten all the way through 12th grade continuum of learning. Continuum of learning. There we go. So yeah, that's a little bit about the ranger team. So we've been meeting for almost four years I believe. We've had some people come in, some people go out. But it's really been awesome to kind of build with that team.
And last thing I want to talk about the rangers on the next slide, a couple slides is you know we looked at kind of as a group like why outdoor ed and RE two and we sort of started those conversations at the same time as the strategic plan for the district was coming out. So we really looked at ways to tie the benefits of outdoor to their graduate profile. So I won't go through all of it there, but those are kind of the bullet points. We came obviously lots of ways to connect the outdoors to those outcomes that we want for our students. One of the things we realized is I'm only one person
and we have 10 schools and a lot going on plus with the grant. So I was able to kind of advocate to get some more resources from GOCO and that's when I was able to hire Charlotte about a year ago. And honestly has been a game changer and we've really been able to put all the planning and things that we've talked about in those ranger meetings where we meet once a month kind of into action. So yeah, that's my spiel. I like to call Charlotte my like hype woman because she gets really excited about all the stuff we're doing and so I kind of wanna turn it over to her to kind of go through some of the highlights since last
fall over the winter. Yeah, Speaker 7: Yeah. I just wanna touch on the continuum of learning and like what that means for us in the outdoor ed world. We want to build skills all the way from kindergarten through high school. So like you can't expect kids to go camping if they weren't exposed to that. So we're trying to like slow walk in and meet kids where they're at at a young age. And so we build skills every year that way when they get older and they get to these high school levels of outdoor leadership programs that we're building like the CTE pathways that they're like I wanna be a mountain bike tech,
I can go do that job right after I graduate. I wanna go work at Sunlight and be a ski tech. Like all those things start when when they're little like planting that seed and then and just like that small exposure to all those like a variety of jobs that they might be able to have one day. Like I used to think that it was silly that I was a rka but now I'm very proud of that because I'm a strong woman and it is a great thing to be to do. Like I like doing that in the summer and I have another job and I want kids to start to think outside the box and be like, I can do all the things that I want, not just, I don't have to just be in this one box,
I can just dip my toes on all the boxes. So that's like the thing about continuum of learning, we've been using that phrase a lot. So I felt like it just needed some explanation of like what does that even mean for outdoor ed? So with that being said, they hired me. That's a big win. Speaker 8: Know it's been, Speaker 7: You know, it's not always in your life where you feel like you fall right into the place that you're supposed to be. And I'm very proud and excited to be doing the work that I'm doing. So it's very fulfilling and I've learned that nothing lasts forever. So it's just like being present and being excited
and keeping that momentum up. Scott mentioned earlier that we received a new round of funding so that was a very big success for us because that allows us to keep doing this work through 2030. We had to be a little bit more creative with the funding but that's okay 'cause we're good at that. We did professional development for the Rangers. We actually taught our first wilderness, first aid class together to a group of teachers that signed up. I think there were eight people that came. Yeah, I think so. All of them excited about outdoor ed ranger or just like really wanted to be like I want to know more when I'm out with kids, I'm with their friends
and I mean we live in a place where you could just be biking or mountain biking, you know, or snowmobiling or any of these things that you do with your family and that those skills are so pivotal new community partners we have just finally made the dream come true like he said like trying to build out these equitable programs across the district. So every third grader got to go snowshoeing, every fourth grader got to go skiing. Like I won't take credit for the skiing, that's a program that's been ongoing for a while. But I also work at Sunlight and so that's been a really cool thing to see those come together and like making it better and like being involved in the lessons.
I got to ski with every single fourth grader this year and it was really cool riding on the lift and asking them questions and like telling them like was this really fun? And like giving them the pep talk at the beginning of the lesson being like, this is really hard, you've never done this before. It's really hard but we have strong legs and we can do hard things And it was just like made my winter because obviously there's not a lot of snow but being out there with those kids, they didn't know any different, they were just excited to be doing something new and I got to, I was lucky that I got to hang out with 'em. It was amazing. We got some outdoor classrooms
as you guys got to see tonight, that is like the most fabulous thing that they built here. And then, Speaker 6: Yeah, just one thing on the outdoor classrooms, like to me kind of starting from scratch, seeing a school go outside of the support that Charlotte and I kind of provide and find their own funding and on their own build something that's getting kids outdoors, to me that was like a huge sign of like, okay, like people are drinking the Kool-Aid, like they see the benefit of getting outdoors. So for me that was like really important to kind of see that start to happen. Speaker 7: No I think it's a, it's just a tremendous benefit
for the kids and the teachers. Like when I met with all the teachers when I started this job I was like, I understand your job is so hard. 'cause I also taught fifth grade and worked at GSES for five years and so I get it, it's the hardest thing you're gonna do. Being a teacher is the hardest job. You're there with all those little faces every day. But I was like, what if going outside gives you joy? Like I know it's really hard to go outside with a bunch of kids but like once you do it and you just, you know it's just gotta, you just gotta do it. It's kind of like ripping the bandaid off, let's go outside and do math, let's do these hard things. And model vulnerability too.
Like I think that is the special place for outdoor ed too is like adults can just be level with the kids. Like this is hard, I'm, I'm having a hard time too but we're gonna figure this out. And I think that is like the most beautiful thing about letting people, people be uncomfortable 'cause we don't like that we don't do that anymore and it's super special to witness. It's kinda my favorite thing is to let people be uncomfortable a little bit. But sorry to fall highlights, let's talk about all these fun things that we did. We pretty much reached every grade coming in the spring too.
So I'm pretty excited. Four out of six fifth grade classes went rafting in the fall and two more we'll have the opportunity to do that in the spring. So that means every fifth grader will have had the opportunity to go raft. Fourth grade, all the, I think there were five outta six or four outta six elementary schools went to East El Creek and did a geology class with ACEs. That's a class that CVE was doing. And then we just branched that out 'cause that's the, that's the part of the year that they're learning about geology. Third grade we introduced a new trip to them.
They all get to go to the Paula Schuss Wildlife Foundation if you've never been there. It's super cool. Another avenue though to, to share with kids about you can work in an industry that's maybe you're not a vet, maybe you're a vet tech or maybe you volunteer 'cause you dislike animals and you get to see a fox and these animals are there and they're rehab them and the birds are there and the kids all got to go every third grade as a, there's one school that didn't get to go this year, but the goal is that these will be the staple trips that they'll continue to go on. So they'll be looking forward to being in third grade
and going to see the fox and the birds and all the things. It's just a really cool place. We did a stargazing night at Highlands with first graders. They were learning about astronomy so we kind of just piloted like what could we do with first grade at the school? It was an after hours thing. The librarians came, they read books, we did rotations, we had burgers and they did s'mores and they had this stargazing app. It was amazing. It was like a super success. Each kid got one ticket to invite one grownup that they wanted of their choice to come to this event. So the kids just thought that it was like a little bit,
it was for them, you know, they knew like this is about me. And it was just, it was really, it was super fun. Riverside Middle School got to go camping at Rifle Mountain Park and then seventh grade from both middle schools got all got to go to Hanging Lake. That was a huge effort and a lot of time and a lot of hours out there. But it was so cool to see the kids and some teachers that were like, this is really hard. And like back to that vulnerability piece, like carrying water and telling the kids to like it was just such a cool thing to see. Seventh and eighth graders from Riverside went to Mount Albert.
They also didn't summit 'cause it was raining and it was lightning and it, they learned that like you also sometimes don't always get to succeed to the to the max. Like learning how to turn around and be safe and like not calling that a failure, but just like the learning process of all those choices that had to be made. We are still working on our CTE pathways with Coleridge and that is moving along very successfully right now we're starting the CTSO, which is the students kind of like a student council, but for CTE it's gonna be really awesome.
And then we also kind of did that same stargazing thing. We said let's do a community event. So we went over to the Silt River Preserve and we hired a telescope to come and it was open to the community. We had s'mores and we got to see all kinds of planets and galaxies and it was really cool. And we had probably about 50 people, yeah, four years show up, a couple liaisons came with their families. It was just a really cool, small, successful event. Doesn't need to be big. We just wanted to just do something to see how can we do this again and start reaching out to community members
and like getting them involved and getting them excited about what we're doing because we really need them to push from the outside to encourage these things to continue. I think that's it for that slide. Speaker 2: Few more Speaker 7: Winter, all the fourth graders got to go skiing. Third graders all got to go snowshoeing with ACEs up at Sunlight. A babish, that was really cool. They do an animal exploration thing. Riverside also went snowshoeing, one of their groups did. And then lots of the fly fishing club did a bunch of things. And then I talked about earlier we taught that wilderness first aid class for the ranger team
and a few teachers that signed up and there's just some photos, all these things. Speaker 6: We just wanted the clues and photos. We have a ton of photos and we have a monthly newsletter that comes out, like from Garfield County Outdoors. So if you're not getting that, let me know and make sure that gets to you. 'cause there's a lot more detail and cool pictures in that. Yeah, Yeah. And then kind of last but not least, just a little bit about what we're kind of working on the rest of the school year into the next year. I'll let Charlotte talk about kind of elementary a little bit.
But at the kind of middle and high level, we're gonna really try and put our effort to creating those like whole grade experiences. Kind of like the hanging lake hiking trip that we took with the seventh grade we talked about. As well as really supporting Coal Ridge and their C-T-C-T-E pathway. That's outdoor recreation leadership. So really trying to help them kind of develop that. 'cause honestly that's like the final step for all this, right? Is we want to get youth that want to go work in the outdoors. So, and then just trying to continue
to support the outdoor clubs, like the fly fishing club and the rock climbing club, those outdoor clubs that might not happen in school, but they're definitely getting kids outdoors and getting 'em opportunities to be in the outdoors. And then kind of on like the community side, you know, one of the things that we talk about a lot and we use the skiing today is an example. It's really great that we'll get that fourth grader up there to try skiing, but they might not have the resources or the ability to keep skiing if they love it. So how do we, how do we grow the programming
to get families and other folks out there to kind of support the continuation of that love of the outdoors. And so one exciting thing that's happened, just an example is we've been meeting with the CMC folks that kind of put together the community classes. We're hoping to kind of do some sort of family outdoor classes where maybe they meet in a classroom on a Thursday night, talk about what to bring on a hike and then the next day we will go hike, hanging lake or one of the other really, you know, famous hikes in our area as a family. So yeah, I personally, that's like a really big opportunity
for, for growth and what Garfield County Outdoors does. And yeah. And then Speaker 7: I could talk about that forever though. Yeah, well in the elementary level. So we talked, we talked about all those things that we did. And then upcoming trips are that the first graders are gonna go over to the river stop. So that's all first grades are gonna go there. The Paula SCH Wildlife Foundation is gonna bring the birds there, two of the birds. So they're gonna get to do watershed education, get to see the birds and do like a scavenger hunt around the pond. Second graders are going over to Silt River Preserve
to do a program with ACEs, exploring ecology. We worked a lot with High Water Farm recently, like just con continuing to build those relationships with collaborators. They have a really great youth program in the summer. They're still looking for kids to join that. And so we're trying to figure out how do we support them and get, like, they don't know how to get the kids, but we have access to them. How can we get kids excited about farming and then encourage them to go over to high water and check that out as an opportunity to get paid to have their first kind of working job. And that work-based learning is just that hands-on anything that we can do.
That's really what I mean. That's our goal. You know? Go Speaker 6: Ahead. Yeah, well that's, that's pretty much what we've got. I will say like each one of these things we talked about, we could probably take up a whole meeting just talking about it. So that's like a really broad stroke. And I think the last thing I'll say is like we're, I'm just so incredibly thankful for the sport that the district has given us because we are living in this kind of gray area where we like kind of work for the district, but we're kind of doing this other thing and like without that support, like this just wouldn't happen and super thankful for that.
So yeah, I guess that being said, any questions, comments, anything like that? Yeah, Speaker 1: I have a few. Speaker 6: Sure. Since Speaker 1: Nobody else is speaking up. First of all, thank you for your service and your time. So you did, so you did mention a program with COLERIDGE and their CTE program. The C-T-E-S-O. Speaker 6: Yeah. Speaker 1: What does that stand for? Speaker 7: Career technical Student Organization. Organization, I think, yeah, Speaker 6: I think an example would be like FFA for Ag. There isn't really one for outdoor kind of rec
yet, which is kind of exciting. We get to kind of build that a little bit. I think part of the requirements for CT is they need a student Speaker 5: Organization, correct? Correct. Speaker 6: Yes, it Speaker 5: Is advisory. Advisory group made up of community members. Yeah. Part of like the found, found the benchmarks needed to be met. Speaker 6: Yeah. And it's like there's the, the, and Jacob Pingle obviously like the expert and we work with him a lot, but there's that board and we've gotten some folks like fly fishing guides, search and rescue folks, Speaker 7: The CEO of sunlight and Speaker 6: Sunlight.
So kind of from across all those industries kind of sitting on that board. But there also has to be like a student organization. And I know Joe Luby over there who has a fly fishing club, they're looking at ways to kind of make that the, the student club to kind of check that box and move towards certification. So yeah. That's awesome. Speaker 1: Were any of the seventh and eighth graders who didn't get to Summit Mount Albert want to go back and try to do it? Speaker 6: That's a good question. Speaker 7: Oh, that is a good, we should just like serve it. Speaker 6: Yeah. Speaker 7: Yeah. I mean I know they were disappointed I wasn't there, but we talked to them beforehand. I packed all their, packed all their food for all the trips.
So I got, if I couldn't go, I was there like as they were getting on the bus and talking to them. And I know a lot of the kids, I coached softball and volleyball and I'm pretty involved with lots of families and so I'm like, it's gonna be fine. You guys are gonna be great. You know, but it's just that unpredictability. So I'm sure that some of them probably like at least got to taste what, like, oh, this, this is what we were gonna do and I want to go do that. And you know, there's a lot I I've never climbed to 14 or, and I live here and my daughter's climbed one before me. So it's like those little things that like, hopefully people just get the excitement and be like, I do want to go back and do that.
You know? Speaker 1: That's, that was my only other question. Anybody Speaker 5: Else? I I have a bunch, but go ahead. Do I Speaker 1: Go for it? Speaker 5: Do it. Speaker 9: I went to school at Rifle Middle and when I went there a million years ago, we had a summer program where we trained with, it was all, it was just a ladies mountain climbing group. I've never done it before. Just moved to Colorado. I'm like, I can't, maybe I can do this. Anyways, we trained all summer long and we summited sopr
and it was one of the most amazing experiences of my entire life. So I applaud you guys for doing that because I, I, I think, I think you guys understand the impact that you're making, but these students will remember these experiences for a lifetime. You're, you're either starting something or they will look back on it fondly and go, I really can do hard things. Like I really can do that. I Speaker 7: Really can. Yeah, Speaker 9: I really can. And I, and I, I I love that your point. I think it's so important for us to be encouraging the, the young ladies that you're not excluded from this because, because of your size, because of your gender,
because of a million other things. Yeah. Not excluded. So hats off guys. Amazing Speaker 5: Work. Thank you. I think first of all, Scott, thank you for your service. Where at in Louisiana are you from? Is Charlotte? Speaker 7: Oh yeah, I'm from Lake Charles. Speaker 5: Is that northern or southern? I, I just know people in Northern. Oh, okay. I like, I like the analogy. A couple questions. You mentioned 35,000 kids have been affected. Is that statewide, I'm assuming? Speaker 6: No, that's, so that's participants. So there could be kind of duplicates in there, but those are just numbers we've tracked for participants since 2018 in
Speaker 5: Garfield County. And yeah. Speaker 1: And is that including the buddy buddy? 16 Speaker 6: And Yeah, that's like buddy program ACEs re two, Garfield Speaker 5: 16. There might be some duplicates in there, but that's, Speaker 7: Yeah, but that's, Speaker 5: That's, Speaker 7: We do a lot of counting and tracking though the other day we just went through every field trip and every number and every adult. So it's pretty, pretty close. I would, I'm pretty proud to say that it's probably pretty close. Speaker 5: We Speaker 7: Took a lot of time doing that. Speaker 5: Well, I'm really happy to hear that funding is taken care of through 2030. This program is, I think, crucial to our little, our kiddos, right?
You guys, I, I I hope you understand the kids that you guys are impacting right now are probably the hardest hit for, from COVID, right? Like the third, fourth graders. And to get them out, to get them. And I let I, I say this at every, any time I hear somebody say teaching the kids to do hard things and we can do hard things is amazing. Like life is not gonna be easy all the time. But we can do it. We can persevere and victory may not look like what you initially set out to do. So just teaching 'em those life lessons, man. And, and I,
I can definitely see why you call her your hype lady because her, when her enthusiasm is contagious, like you, you can tell that you, you just have a passion for it and both of you have passion for it. And I really appreciate that. If there's anything we could ever do to help support you in any way, let us know. But I do have one question. What is the number one hurdle you face in managing this program? Oh, Speaker 6: You know, that's funny. As I was thinking about this earlier, I was like, Speaker 5: Besides money, I was gonna say besides money. Besides money, because that's a, yeah, I, Speaker 6: I would say it's just like balancing all the needs. 'cause there's, everybody wants this
and there's only so much of us that sometimes it's hard to decide like what gets, what gets the attention for any given week. I'll say like when I first started it was very overwhelming 'cause it was like everything was on fire. Like where do you start? And like as time's gone on, we've gotten better at it. But it's still like you, you have to kind of put stuff in a holding pattern and that doesn't feel good to not be able to do everything all at once, I guess. Speaker 5: Yeah, sure. Speaker 6: I would agree. Speaker 7: I mean it's, my opinion is a little different. I agree with this as a hurdle, but I do think my personal hurdle right now
that I'm seeing is that people are still nervous about doing it. I'm still getting told no, which is okay 'cause I'm trying to meet people where they're at. I'm not gonna force people to go camping. But they have to do one hard thing to see the, the benefits of this. And I've done it. I've lived and I went camping with fifth graders and seventh graders and all the kids. It's exhausting. But there's those little moments that you hang onto. It's just like being a new mom. You're like, don't wanna do that again. But like, you remember the good parts, like it's a good comparison. You know, you're like, I don't remember not sleeping. You know, it's just, and that's for me, I'm like,
I wish I could get them to be as excited as I am, you know? But it's like, how do I, we're I'm trying to do this all these different angles of like, how do I get you to want to do this? I can't force you to do it. And that's tricky. But I like the challenge. Speaker 5: But I think you're doing it by your enthusiasm. Like it is like I don't undersell that. It is contagious. I, I feel it sitting here. So just keep it up. That's what I would say. Speaker 7: He's saying he wants to go on the next seventh grade field trip. There's three of them coming up. Speaker 5: Lemme check my schedule on that. One more question. It's okay. You coordinate at all like with the BLM
or US Forest Service offices in the area? 'cause I'm just saying I know they have a lot of resources as far as like range conservation or archeologists or ecologists. A lot of things outdoors. A lot of, you know, Colorado River Valley Field offices in silt. Yep. You know, they do things from Kremmling to Junction. I mean it might be a great resource and I, I would, I know some people, I know the directors of both the Forest Service and or the district Ranger. So I'd love to put you in touch with them if you're, if you're ever interested. Speaker 6: Yeah, absolutely. Forest Service for sure. I would say we got the end of the works. Yeah, Speaker 5: Yeah, Speaker 6: Yeah.
We've had like conversations but we haven't like, hasn't connected in the way Sure. That Speaker 5: It probably, it's it's one of those things. Yeah. What what do you do first? There's so many things to do. Exactly. Speaker 6: Because it's a, it's a huge opportunity, right? Yeah. So Speaker 7: It's like we have lots of puzzle pieces laying around. Sure. And they're all there in the wings waiting for us to like, you know, put 'em together to put 'em together. 'cause we were like, Speaker 5: Have you climbed the mill tailings pile yet? Remember that like the uranium mill daily. Don't do that. Speaker 10: I'm Speaker 7: Just saying that Speaker 5: Don't take that. That's like what, like all the old timers talk about, I remember, I Speaker 7: Remember climbing the uranium Speaker 5: Mill daily on Highway 13 Speaker 7: Fall
Speaker 5: Space. Speaker 11: Don't do that. Yeah, Speaker 7: Let's don't do that one. Speaker 6: Add to the risk management. Speaker 11: I did see that We're hitting elementary all the way through high school. Do you guys do anything with our preschool programs? Speaker 7: I actually did talk with them a little bit recently. They are curious of what they can do. We sent, I sent out some information 'cause it's kind of one of those things. It's like, oh my capacity is so limited but I can give you some resources. I can give you some ideas. There's this really great thing called the a hundred things to do list. That's the generation wild. And they came out with like a younger level of like, just like some quick little things to do.
And I sent them all those packets and stuff to just be like, I just, you gotta, you gotta start this on your own and I'll, I'm coming back around one day when I have some more time because it is true. I want preschool to be able to go do more things too. Speaker 11: I think it would get 'em excited for coming back, you know, kindergarten. I mean I already know they're excited to go to kindergarten, but it's like, who, what? Remember those people that came like Yeah. Yeah. You know, just the excitement of it. Yep. 'cause like Chance said, your excitement sell. So, Speaker 12: Because I, not necessarily a question, but,
or maybe this seems like it's something that we can plant seeds in at the school and it sounds like what you're already doing, but I know your resources and time and is is then. But this seems like the, the schools could grab onto this and run with it a little bit. Right. And I guess maybe exploring there of I, I guess I'm not exactly sure where the resources come from on your end versus the school. And as far as chaperones or like when you put together a seventh grade trip, how much
of that is your time, energy and maybe budget for food. You know what, whatever that might be. But is that something that I know the PTA that I'm on, we would love to, you know, fundraise and fund all, you know, we, you know, our PTA funds all the school Yep. Field trips. I don't think there's any money that comes out of the family pocket for any school trips. Speaker 7: Yeah. I mean I think every trip that we plan is pretty collaborative. Like we go and meet the teachers, like for the seventh grade hanging. Like we went there, we met with the, with the team of teachers that was going, they
were like telling us what they needed. We said this is what we need. And then we were able to get, you know, the forest service did come and actually do a fire presentation, a soil presentation and talked about all that stuff. And so there are like, it is a, it is an effort beyond us, you know. But I think PTA was on our list. We, we have a list of like who do we ask for things and like we just haven't made it there yet. Yeah. But it's coming. That's like, yeah Speaker 12: PTA is a good place for it is think it's resource you of both funding and volunteers. Right. So Speaker 7: Yeah, for sure. Yeah. I know and it's true. Some schools are just really, you know, excited
and then some are kind of like, ah, still hesitant but go ahead so you don't lose it. Speaker 6: Well I was gonna say like the kind of what the strategy that I pursued is like when I first started there was like maybe three schools that were like really excited about outdoor ed. And so I was like, okay, I gotta get them the resources so everyone else gets jealous and wants to do it too. And so slowly we've built up that it's worked kind of community of folks that's really excited about it. So. Speaker 12: Cool. Good on that. That's awesome. Speaker 6: But there's still room to make people jealous. I don't know for sure. Speaker 12: Yeah. It just seems like that's something that I'm, I'm sure there each school that has, there's probably somebody they could probably latch on
and just, you know, be stoked on totally running with it, you know? Yeah, for sure. Kinda of stretching your resources that way. Speaker 6: Absolutely. So Speaker 12: Absolutely. Cool. But fully support what you're doing and thanks for doing what you do. Speaker 1: Thank you. Appreciate Speaker 6: The Speaker 1: Support. So one last thing 'cause you guys don't have enough on your list, so, 'cause we talked about it a little bit with Shine the Light with Wamsley and what they're gonna do with the students to kind of get through that summer slump. Mm. And so a lot of kids when they're outside of school who don't, I mean we live in a wonderful area where there's so many opportunities to do things outside.
And I think I saw coming home in a folder last summer, a device free summer from you guys. Maybe I might have dreamt that department a couple years ago. Tech Speaker 12: Department. Yeah, I'm up for it. Speaker 1: Right? Yeah. Speaker 7: Yeah. That was from the tech department. It was a couple years Speaker 1: Ago. Okay. Speaker 7: But Jen Wild has Speaker 1: Their Speaker 7: Own marketing team that really does some cool stuff. Like they had this whole campaign for Christmas. It was like, give the gift of outside, but it was like a stick was the gift. And it's funny, right? But then you think about it
and you're like, no, that's, it's that simple. You know? And so then for the, over the winter too, they did those certificates. Like did you go stargazing with your family? Did you go skiing? Did you go watch? Did you go see? You know, it just was like a list of things and the parents could print off a certificate. So at the stargazing night that we hosted, we printed all those off and gave 'em out to the kids that were there and they could like sign it that they did that thing and it had Wilder is the mascot and he's like this big Yeti mountain goat thing and he's like on all the flyers and like we got to meet him recently and I was very excited. I took a picture with him. But we're trying to get him
to come to the silt park that's getting built is being funded by GOCO outside of us. You know, they do a lot of land conservation and park stuff. So we are really working on trying to get wilder here so we can have a little celebration. That's awesome. But yeah, they have, I mean they have a lot of stuff too that they can send out for kids. Speaker 1: Okay. I, I just, just something to so that they're not inside Totally playing video games because, Speaker 6: And going back to the question of like what's the, the biggest hurdles, right? Like I have a summer programs kind
of written on our board in our office and that's like one of those things that there's a huge need in the community for camps and opportunities like that, but we're just not, not there yet to go down that road. But it's a huge need in the community. Speaker 9: Yeah. Scouts would be a really good partner for you. Speaker 6: That's a good idea. Speaker 9: Because they actually do camps in the area with the jolly. Okay. Yeah. So they're already doing some of that. You guys could expand on that. Speaker 7: Awesome. Talked a lot about summer camp and Fridays. People are like Friday programs, Friday programs and it's just, it's tricky 'cause it's like how do they get there? Transportation probably is like the number
one thing outside of school. Yeah. 'cause it's easy. Kids come to school every day, I can meet 'em here and take 'em outside. We got buses, we got people we're, can do all the things. But outside of school, how do we get them to still be engaged? And transportation is like the number one thing. Even when we talk with cmc, it's like, oh we wanna take these people out to Rifle Arch, but like what if they don't have cars? So then how do we get them out there and like trying to figure that out, you know? Speaker 2: Yeah. That, that would be difficult. Yeah. Speaker 1: Thank you guys. I'm thank you guys for your time and your excitement. Thank you. This is awesome. Welcome. Speaker 2: Thanks. Forward. Thanks for the attention. Thanks for having us. Thanks for, yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I'm excited on. Thank you guys. Keep Speaker 2: Thank Of course. Hey, can I have five minutes? Get my computer? Yeah, my computer. We take a break or Okay, don't have time. Speaker 13: Yeah, Speaker 1: Just a quick fight. Chance needed to go get his tinker. CMC Thank you guys for being flexible and I'm glad you guys made it all good. Speaker 13: Thank you. Well good evening everyone. I'm Tinker Duwell, vice president, campus dean at Colorado Mount College rifle. And this is Mandy Dovey, she's my hype person as well,
as well as an assistant dean of Speaker 1: Assistant. Everybody needs a hype person Speaker 13: And we represent a large team CMC team. You all are on the team too that are not with us because we are on our spring break this week. So other folks we might brought, brought along, we, they're having some time off. Some of us are holding down the fort and we actually had RE two Brain Bowl was on campus today, so that was very cool. Watching the seventh and eighth, eighth graders show their stuff. So that was earlier today. Okay, Ms. Teresa, We do have a PowerPoint. And so what I'm gonna start with is just a little bit of an overview of CMC as a whole, for those of you
that may not know the entirety of the, the scope and history of who we are and then more into kind of all the ways that we're working together. And then we'll go from there. So confirm enrollment, Colorado Mountain College, that's what we're gonna talk about. So Colorado Mountain College began in 1965. It was a couple of mountain communities, Glenwood Springs and Leadville to be specific said, you know, we should have a college here. And so they rallied a bunch of people and came together and decided to locally support it. And that history has continued. So, Theresa, next slide actually where we are. So it is focused on the needs.
We have 11 campuses across eight counties and about 75,000 square miles. We are locally controlled. We have a nine member board of trustees who are elected. Next slide. That's our footprint. So you can just get a sense of where we are. Dillon, Breckenridge to the east and we are the western frontier here in rifle. Stretching up the tibo. And then our latest edition is, so the Sali campus down there. Next slide. So more of the overview. We are dual mission. What that means is that we confer certificates in like welding or photography
or certified nurse aid. We also have GED classes, ESL classes, then certificates and also associate's degrees. But we are also able to confer a limited number of bachelor's degrees, which allows us to then provide bachelor's that are very community focused, such as nursing, teaching human services business. So we're able to do all of those things across the spectrum, which really meet the needs of our community. We have about 14,000 students across all of our campuses. We have the lowest bachelor's degree tuition in the state of Colorado. We'll talk a little bit more about that more later. And a lot of scholarships.
So over lots of millions of dollars of scholarships are awarded and 85% of our students graduate with no student debt. The ones that do have student debt is very, very minimal. Next slide. Those are some of our academic pathways that you can choose from. Let you look at those for a moment. Again, the dual mission. Within those expertises, there are certificates that associate's degrees and also bachelor's in some of them. Okay, next slide Theresa. Okay, so CMC faculty credentialing. We are credential our faculty through the higher learning commission. And there's two types of credentialing. The non CTE is things like your humanities, your science,
your math, your psychology, all of those. What you might think of traditional classroom courses. In order to teach in one of those, you have to be one degree above what you're teaching. So to teach bachelor's level courses, you need to have a master's degree. Our CTE programming doesn't necessarily follow the same rules and it shouldn't because in order to know what's going on under the hood of a car or to weld that beautiful bead is not necessarily the same as having a master's degree. You may have a master's degree and have no idea what's going on in that car. And so you're not gonna get credentialed. However, if you do have extensive industry industry
experience, you can. So why I added this slide is because we actually have a lot more flexibility in CTE credentialing oftentimes than you all do because K through 12, excuse me, by and large, requires a bachelor's degree. They have kind of, CD has opened some things up a little bit, but the CTE world is still making that kind of difficult. So by virtue of the way that we can credential, Robert Schure and Jason Schu are at automotive and welding faculty do not have bachelor's degrees, but we are actually able to employ them as full faculty as they should be. 'cause they're both very skilled in those realms.
So I just add that and you're gonna see throughout the presentation, I have notations of some of your strategic priorities. This is one where we're very much on the team of making sure that our, our faculty are where they should be in doing a great job. Okay, next slide. Just to note also your strategic priority of the partnerships. This is a glimpse, and I'm sure I've probably forgotten somebody, so I'm not saying this is completely comprehensive, but these are some of the local entities that are either serving on our advisory boards to give us the expert opinions on what we're doing with our automotive program or our carpentry or our welding, as well as individuals
that sit on our advisory boards. I already said that. But also they are offering oftentimes internships to our students. And that's just a listing of some of them and some of those students are high school. So just a kind of an example of some of the places that we all network out to connected to your partnerships. Okay, next slide. So capital investments, I'm gonna hand it off to Andy. Speaker 14: The money, the the fun. The fun stuff. So we in the last three years have invested over a half a million dollars in traits and that comes in form of tools and machinery.
Also improvements to the learning environment. So some of the equipment that we've brought in. So we brought in two lifts. We had to bring in electricity. Our, our new plate toy is down in the corner. That is an alignment rack that is an $80,000 piece of equipment. Big O Tire is over the moon that we have this piece of equipment. A lot of their techs need that information. So this is exactly what they have. So our students coming out of our program,
they can walk in making 40, $45,000 because they've had experience with that piece of equipment. We have a beautiful plasma table that's a 30,000 in dollars piece of machinery. And then the bottom right hand corner is our mobile classroom. So that is our welding truck. And our students get to go out on job sites and actually get to weld and do projects. Just a couple of weeks ago, they were doing some fabrication on a pottery kiln. So it was pretty cool to see those guys in action.
We've got some great partnerships. We only want the best for our students. So we have Milwaukee, we have Snap-on Hunter, those are Lincoln Electric. Those are, you know, those are the epitome of tools and machinery that students need to know coming out of this. Speaker 13: Okay, next slide. Okay, so now the rest of it, we're gonna talk about this College pathways and or career pathways and college readiness, which is one of your focuses and is one of, is what we do. So here we are. This is just some trends
of concurrent enrollment enrollment over the past years. If you look to the far left side, that was 2015, over to there is 2025. We've more than doubled the number of students we have participating in concurrent enrollment over the past 10 years. Sorry, I can't read that. What's the number? It's, it is 180 9 and then 360 8 is on the right side. Okay. Speaker 14: You said that's dual enrollment? Speaker 13: That is, yeah. Dual concurrent. Yeah. And so concurrent enrollment. Dual enrollment, we will use those terms interchangeably. And just to take nothing for granted, concurrent slash dual enrollment is when students are taking
a class and they're earning high school credit and college credit simultaneously for the same course. But those are the same thing, dual enrollment and concurrent. Correct? Correct. Okay, Teresa. All right. So we have students that are college graduates or graduating with a college certificate even before they graduate from high school by virtue of our graduation ceremonies at the beginning of May. And you all have yours at the end, but we actually do have a ceremony. We'll make sure that you're invited and you're welcome to join us. These are some of the top graduates. So there's a lot of students that get that nurse's aid credential followed by basic welding.
And then the welding design. And then those last two are automotive courses, carpentry, construction. You'll see that this is since 2022. We have added carpentry. Construction. Those numbers would also be on there too, if we had numbers in 24 and 25. Okay, next slide. And here's the breakdown of the schools and chance. You probably can't see and I could list. So just some highlights. Coral Ranch is on the left here. So all told students completed 67 courses, over 1400 total credits that they've earned that include students that come over to the rifle shop
to take automotive courses, the personal care assistant and then, which is kind of a precursor to getting that CNA credential students that are also getting the CNA phlebotomy is another option. Basic welding and welding fabrication design. And then early childhood education. We have students learning as well. They're also students that are taking college math, which are either getting up to the levels where they can step into college or they are already taking calculus training courses. Meanwhile, rifle high school of 65 courses completed. Total just over a thousand, 1015 credits earns.
They're also doing automotive courses, personal care, assistant nursing, basic welding, and the fabrication. We have some few students there that have actually gone so far as to take some pipe welding with that certification. Also phlebotomy. And then the preschool teacher. Teacher and then the N-C-C-E-R core, that's the carpentry. Construction courses, which they get their safety certificate and are just moving a little farther with each passing year. Also, college math and writing is there as well. So our students, just to kind of get a sense of where they are and what they're doing, we have a lot
of different ways that students are accessing it. We have students that come up to our campus and are taking like the CNA courses or English courses or classes in our biology lab on campus at CNC. We also have students that are taking classes in the high school, if you'll remember that credentialing slide. If someone has a master's in a particular subject area, they can teach for us. So we have Paul, Paul Harvey, for example, at Coleridge High School, has his master's degree in history. So he's teaching CMC classes at Kohler High School during the course of the day. We have Spanish classes, we have, we have Tabitha, we have Tabitha.
Tabitha Math is contributing to our college readiness and math. Yeah, so those are happening by high school teachers teaching in the high school. We call those our embedded courses. We also have some of our faculty that come down to the high schools and teach biology classes, math classes also as well. And then we have the students that are taking the classes in the shops up at the rifle high school. So it's happening all over the place. A lot of different ways. Okay. Next slide. All right. So in addition to students getting these fantastic opportunities, they, our families are saving an enormous amount of money.
It's pretty great because the students are not, are not paying for that. So there's just some numbers. So the left hand column are the number of credits earned. We saw that on the previous slide. So at Rifle High School, 1410 coleridge 10 15. Those students, if they were to go to C-M-C-C-M-C and just pay out of pocket, the tuition that that would equal would be 150,000 for those rifle students. Coleridge 108,000 district wide, over 259,000. I will share though too, that you all are actually not paying this total amount. The district is not paying
because by virtue of those embedded instructors, the students actually don't pay tuition for those classes. So this isn't, for those of you that are calculating, this isn't out of pocket, not your know, you have to think about these things. Okay? But your families are very happy and those of you that have had students or will have students recognize this, okay, I crunched some more numbers. So you have the CMC in the middle. Let's say your student wants to go to mesa. As they, let's just say all these students took their credits. That would be the MESA equivalent rifle High School would've saved 458,000, full age, 329,000
because that MESA tuition is $325 a credit. But wait, there's more. Next slide. If your student were now over in the fourth column, there are the numbers. If they went to see you Boulder. So 857,000 total savings. 617. For those COLERIDGE students, let's just say that this is a Harvard student, which we actually have a Coleridge High school grad that is at Harvard. If they were just paying out of pocket over $2,000 a credit, if all of those students cashed in their CMC credit so to speak, it would be over $5 million savings
that our families are realizing from being able to take CMC courses. So thank you. Leave that slide right there. Yeah. So thank you for your support of this. I mean, you know, you probably know individuals in our community that have taken CMC classes, but also this is the savings that our families are realizing by virtue of this program. And that actually, we can leave that up there. 'cause my last slide just says, we are open for your questions and ideas and thoughts and wonderings and great ideas. I'll, I'll send the presentation to you. Thank you. So, so the floor is yours. Thank you for your time. Anybody Yeah. Where
Speaker 9: Is the disparity from the credit, the credit hours earned between the two two schools? Like what, what, why is there such a big difference when those numbers Speaker 13: Between, let's see, so the rifle, it's because, well one of them is carpentry. Right now it's only rifle rifle High school students take that. Is that correct? Speaker 14: It's really hard for the COLERIDGE students to come over and participate with Speaker 13: That. Although Coleridge has a net num more credits. And that might just be because they have, they have the history, they have the Spanish, they have, it's just kind of dependent on which faculty are
available in which schools. Speaker 14: And it's kind of the tell of the two schools too. Right? The rifle high school is really geared to trades. The, those are the students. So that's why you're seeing larger certificate earners with Rifle High School coleridge. They're taking more of those guaranteed transfers. Yeah, Speaker 13: The general education liberal arts courses. Yep. Yeah. Thank you. Speaker 5: One second. What do you guys, so that was last year. So 67 students last year at Coal Ridge 65 last year at Rifle High School.
Are those numbers trending the same this year? Speaker 13: They're a bit higher. Yep. Yeah, we're still calculating 'cause we're this week. But yeah, Speaker 5: I understand as far as 1400 credits. And so the 2,415 credits earned by re two kiddos last year, we on trend to surpass that this year? I believe so. By what percentage do you think? Gosh, would you estimate? I, I'm, I'm not putting Speaker 13: 'cause we're having more, Speaker 14: It's probably pretty close, but I feel like the students are becoming more savvy. I feel like the messaging is really
reaching down lower to those grades. And the counselors are working very closely with our concurrent enrollment coordinator. So we'd, we'd have to follow up with you. But we are seeing a, a steady tick up. We're definitely not seeing any dip. And they're realizing they are saving money. These kids are pretty savvy. They are, are, they are getting the memo of I don't wanna have a lot of debt and how do I get there? Parents are becoming more educated about concurrent enrollment as well and really supporting their students in
taking, you know, these college credits. Speaker 13: Okay. But I will say any those numbers stabilizing is in part gonna be due to capacity. So we have biology classes at Coleridge High School, for example, and they're, they're completely full. So at present there's no way Yeah. With wait list. So there's no more to go, there's no way to go higher with that. The same with our welding classes. So a lot of them, there may be more demand. We just don't have capacity at presence. Okay. Speaker 5: So going through, and thank you for pointing out that we weren't paying that amount. Yes. But where I, I guess this partnership,
I think everybody here understands that to educate kiddos takes money. So where do you, or how, how does CMC recoup that investment for 2,415 credits? I, I don't foresee you guys just giving 'em out for nothing. Speaker 13: Well, we really kind of do. We are property tax funded, so we are not, we're not motivated like a lot of other colleges are, where we are really tied to tuition to do what we do. We, our property tax supported most recently, thank you all for your support is seven C passed, which allows us to float our mill levy and to, to basically take control of our own destiny.
Some changes had been made where our Denver legislators said we need to put a cap on it, which didn't make any sense for us whatsoever. So we're able to take the money that we receive and really decide what we do best in the communities. So yeah, different approach. We have a lot of freedom with Speaker 11: What grades does the concurrent role enrollment effect? Does it just juniors and seniors? Or can it start younger? Yeah, Speaker 14: Freshmen Speaker 11: And freshmen. Freshmen all the way Speaker 13: Through. Yeah. They have to test into the academic classes. They have to pass an ACCUPLACER or have an SAT score. But we do have some that are more kind of entry classes
where they can, they can try 'em out. And it's really great. I'll share too is that they're earning these credentials and these college certificates. But for some students it's also like, they try it out and they build confidence and realize, well, I, I can do college. And they maybe didn't think that they were able to prior to taking those courses. So those are other celebrations. So we can, Speaker 14: Yeah, that is a couple of fun stories that we had out of our, when we first launched our carpentry. 'cause those, a lot of those students were sophomores, you know, and they're taking this college course and then they're like, oh, well this is college.
Like, okay, maybe I could do this. And then some of them did reach out and take a college math or a college English, which was pretty cool. Like, just giving them that boost of confidence that I could, I can do this even if I am thinking that I'm a trades. You know, and that's really the message that we're trying to change around trades is it's post-secondary education. It's, it's no different if you're going into biology or if you're going into electrical, it's post-secondary. So it's not one's better than the other. So it's really giving them a great boost of confidence
Speaker 13: To move on. And then it's just great. I mean, you perhaps have encountered them as well, but the students in the, that are auto techs are our graduates in the schools. I mean, we have like teachers that are here, we, you know, at the hospital. And sometimes it can be sort of awkward if they're like, Hey, I know you happened more than once. But it's very cool to see the, the results of our graduates as well that come through concurrent. That's great. Speaker 12: Sorry. Speaker 5: Yeah, no funny story. I, you were speaking softly back in the back and I couldn't, but you were talking, I assumed I found out
and I assumed later you were talking about phlebotomy. Yes. But it heard like, it sounded like lobotomy. That's Speaker 13: What I heard too. And Speaker 5: I thought, I thought they outlawed that. Yeah, Speaker 13: We're bringing it back. Steve, did you have any questions? Speaker 12: I'm, I appreciate what you're doing and I guess I would look and it's a, you know, how do we expand these programs? I know we're, we're talking a lot about CTE and how do we get more in that? And I know, you know, capacity's a limiter.
I know it's, I know the answer is, you know, money from one side or the other. But, you know, I guess that's what something that I would love to explore here in the next, you know, near future is, you know, how do we get, if we're maxing out our welding capacity, how do we get more welding capacity or, you know, fill in the blanks, you know, for, for all of these programs and, you know, kind of strengthen this relationship and, and expand it for all the reasons you're talking about. One and one of the biggest thing, you know, you send the kids to college and they realize that they don't like nursing or teaching
or filling you any other, I think learning what you don't like for free at a young age is a great lesson. Right. Just as much as it is to, you know, find your passion and run with it. So, but so I, whatever we could do to expand more of this, what you're talking about. Speaker 13: Thank you. Yeah. And I'll share, no promise is being made yet, but there is explorations of expansion of skilled trades in our area for both concurrent enrollment and traditional, possibly was a construction project, something like that. So I'll keep you posted, which then would expand
possibilities for that. Speaker 12: Right now it's basically shop space. Speaker 13: I would, yeah. And we are, it's elbow to elbow. Yeah. So, and then go ahead Speaker 5: In welding. And those are expensive trades to teach, right? I'm a, I'm a fabricator welder and, and I actually employ a couple of your enrollees. Thank you. And it's amazing the knowledge they do come out with. I mean it's, they have a lot to learn, but they, they understand the basics and, and it, and it's, I think what we talked with Jacob last meeting was it's, it's important to learn
what they don't like at this age is what they do. Like we see so much of student debt and I'm a big proponent of, like, my generation I feel was kind of sold this bill of goods of like, you have to go to college to be worth anything, anything. Luckily I didn't listen, but that is, that is true for some people. Of course. What that's what they wanna do. But a lot of people too, I mean, there's a lot of great options that you guys can help, you know, share, share, shine the light on. And again, in this community, and it's a great service space.
The trades are just very expensive to like get into like, you know, I mean you, you, you, you signed the checks for the equipment and it's expensive. But anything we can do for space, I, I would be open to exploring. Okay. Speaker 13: And I will, just to share with both of your points about trying things out. So with the credentials we offer with the welding, with auto, with the early childhood education, the CNA, the Spanish, it may be a career path for them, but even if it's not, we now have more individuals in our community that know how to belt that, know how to weld, that know something about fixing a car that know how to take care of little people and our elders
and are potentially moving towards being bilingual, which are pretty great. Just life skills to have. So, Speaker 14: And our instructors finally call it knocking the green off of them a little bit. Yeah. Speaker 5: So Speaker 14: They're, they're coming out, you know, with, with some good skill sets and hopefully durable skills. Our instructors are pretty strict about that. Like, you arrive on time, we're here to work. You know, we don't have cell phones out, you know, that eye contact when we're talking the handshakes, they really run it like you're, you're out in the field. And I think I, I hope this students
that you've gotten, you've seen the fruit of that. Speaker 5: Yeah. They know. They, they understand. I think anything for a high school kid to be jumping with a group of 40-year-old men that on any given day might hate their lives. It's kind of a rough awakening. It. I I, I love having 'em around. They're fun. Like, it's fun just to have 'em around. They, they make me laugh sometimes. They make me shake my head, but, Speaker 13: And they can do hard things. They Speaker 5: Can do they, their eagerness, I guess they, they're just wanting to do better and that, that's amazing. Speaker 1: Sponges. They wanna absorb as much as they can.
So no thank you guys for giving us all that information and all those numbers. And it is pretty awesome to see the things that we can offer our students here as well. Partnering Speaker 13: With us. Speaker 9: Before you guys walk, can I ask one more question? I know in the 10 year plan that the airport is actually building out right now, they are looking at an aviation mechanic program. Where are you guys at with potentially being, being supportive role in that? Speaker 13: Yeah, we have had preliminary conversations about preliminary because it is the 10 year plan and there's no like structure. Sure. But we have definitely spoken about that
and what that could look like in the gentleman, Sam, Sam Carver, who's the lead up there, has, has some previous experience in Florida of working with community colleges. So we have started those conversations and are very interested in it. Speaker 14: T awesome. Yep. And there's already a curriculum, student learning outcomes ready to go for that. So. Right. Because Speaker 1: It Speaker 13: Just matter where it would happen at this. Speaker 9: Well I, I think he's got, I think he's got the space allocated in that 10 year plan. So who actually knows what that, what that looks like in eight and a half years. But it looks like he actually has the, the space
and the, the preliminary plan to at least build out that, that mechanical area. Yeah. Speaker 1: He's got a space Speaker 13: Exciting that he's kind of, yeah. So preliminary. We don't have our next action steps, but we have been in conversation. Speaker 9: Excellent. Love that. That's Speaker 1: Exciting. That is exciting. Speaker 5: I was, I was amazed. I've always been amazed at how, how crucial that airport is to this area. We don't see it. It's so busy. Especially in the summer, during wildfire season. I mean there's, Speaker 14: Well they're gonna have the temporary closing Aspen of Aspen, Speaker 1: So that's get Speaker 14: Deferred again. Yeah. Yeah. It's gonna be busy. And I never realized how busy it was
until started working at the campus. I'm like, my gosh, really busy up here. Speaker 1: Right. Thank you guys very much. Thank you. Speaker 13: Finally we come bearing gifts. So you get to pick if you want your CMC trucker hat or if you'd like a little stainless steel lunchbox. So Lunchbox. Speaker 1: Lunchbox. Okay. Lunchbox. Anybody wants a hat? Lunchbox? I didn't know we were being, I would thank you Mary. Lunchbox. Lunchbox. Speaker 13: Lunchbox. Speaker 1: Lunchbox. Thank you. Lunchbox. Lunchbox for Speaker 9: Me please. Speaker 1: I'll take a hat. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Thank you guys so much. Thank you very much. I have to make sure my son doesn't, this one. Oh, I didn't realize it was branded. The rifle camp. He took my cup. You got, that's awesome. Pretty cool. Even got utensils. I got that. No one wants, I wear my ridge sweatshirt track mate on Saturday and I get it. But I have, I'll let you manage that. Thank you. Thank you. Alright, moving right along. Collaborative solutions, benefits, recommendation.
Hi. Hi. Just you tonight. Yes. It'll be me because after this we're gonna go straight into the calendar recommendation too. So if you wanna have everybody join you, you could. Oh yeah. Come ons. Everybody's we're gonna slide on in. This is cute. Speaker 13: Alright, so for our benefit and compensation recommendation, there's no new information that we provided you all. So if you remember back to our last meeting, our
WGEA President Caitlyn Wood and, sorry, Daniel Speaker 1: Westerland. Speaker 13: Daniel, yes. Daniel Westerland. Sorry. Sorry Daniel if you're watching this. But Daniel Westerland presented to you all and we talked about that we got a 13.5% benefit increase. The committee met and we found the, the best solution between the district and our staff trying to make the most minimalistic impact to our staff along with bringing compensation at the same time. So this is the first time that we have brought them as a package together. And so we are just seeing if you guys had any additional
questions, any feedback that you heard from the community, any feedback that you all had. And then later in the meeting we'll be looking for action for you all to vote and approve our benefit package and compensation. Speaker 1: Any questions? Something? Speaker 2: Hmm. Speaker 12: I guess, is there one thing that stands out to me, I guess in the, for what it's worth or maybe something look into next year or whenever we do this again, but is there a desire or for a, maybe a higher cost but higher, like a better healthcare plan?
Like I know it would cost more with lower deductible, but might be more out of pocket max. And I'm thinking with if there's people with ongoing health issues or, the one thing that stands out to me on the benefits package is there's just no lower deductible plan. Speaker 13: Okay. So like going back down to like a PPO five or a PPO four or Speaker 12: Something like that. Yeah. You know, with the more out of pocket, you know, just to have an option for more of a Cadillac. And again, it, it's like, I'm just curious of what, if that's something that the staff would value or if it's, Speaker 13: I, I certainly, I think if that was some
of the feedback from staff that they were looking for, that we could consider that that is part of our strategy of why we kept the PPO eight. You can give huge thank yous to Krista Reem, our benefit specialist because she did get some of that feedback that there were staff that really needed that plan that paid a little faster, was a little bit better of a benefit. And so we kept that as an option so that it's kind of that buy up option. It's not a ton better, but it is at least a little bit better with that lower deductible. So I think if we continue to go get that feedback, I mean we can always add that as a plan.
It's just of how much it would cost people monthly. Well, Speaker 1: And I think will, it's Tower Watson al always too. They look at what people were signing up for, what people were looking for. Absolutely. When they present their plans. Speaker 13: Yeah. Well and what our, what we can afford. Right? So we have to keep increasing our deductible because of the premium amount because we, you know, have to cover a certain percentage and that is the a cost the staff into the district. And if it's out of reach for our staff, then we won't have anybody on the plan. Things of that nature. Like we tried Sure. Seven we only had, you know, a maximum
of 17 throughout the year and Oh wow. So just like what is the highest utilized plan they really, really like, it's kind of taboo to have anything over three plans offered. So we try to stick with the maximum of three. You actually have to get special permission to get outside of three, so. Oh, is that right? Which that just confus the staff because that's a lot of options. Too many options. Yeah. It's like when you go to like a restaurant and there's 50 pages. So shoot. Any other questions or input? All right. No, I think we've been brought up to speed. Yeah. Okay, great. I appreciate it.
I'll turn it over to calendar. Oh, the excitement. Speaker 15: Okay. Speaker 13: You go and Devon scoot out. Oh, strawberry Water. It's good. She's, I'm just moral support. You're good. Speaker 15: I know she's just moral support. But you might wanna say something. Okay. So as Collaborative Solutions does, every year or every two years we get together and come up with a few surveys to figure out what are the needs, what are the wants and where we're at with staff, families, and community.
And it's always a deeply personal topic. Yes. And unfortunately, you know, those can bring up situations where not everybody's happy. So we're trying to do our best. That's why we did a couple of different surveys. First we wanted to start with that survey of figuring out are people truly wanting to come back to five days a week or are they not? So we asked teachers, staff, parents, guardians,
and students actually were involved in this as well. If they, how they felt about the four day week. 85% of the survey participants said that they wanted to remain at the four day week plan. The 40 week calendar that included staff was 92% parents and guardians were 80% and students were 90%. Then. So with that being said, then we went back to asking the questions that are always out there and we did it a different way 'cause we're trying to figure out how to reach people on
where they're at with what they want with the calendar. So in December, 2025, we asked about the interests and their priorities with what they had within creating a calendar. One of the big things is that we started, we wanted to Make sure that in the past, one of the popular priorities was to be out by Memorial Day. So we put that as a major question and we asked the stakeholder holders after that Was a, a priority list is to put your items in a order of importance.
One of 'em was add 15 minutes to the school day, add a school day on a Friday in the fall semester and in the spring semester, go to school Monday and Tuesday the week of Thanksgiving. Begin the school the second week of August. So August 2nd or August 2nd, August 10th, 2026 and August 9th, reducing the length of Christmas break. Getting out before Memorial Day was then again proposed as not a priority for me and my family.
That was a pretty good high percentage. And having President's Day off in February. So the top response was that getting out before Memorial Day was not a priority. 52% of the people selected that either one or two, followed by begin School week's. Second week of August was 39% add 15 minutes to the school day was 31%. Go to school. Monday, Tuesday of Thanksgiving is only 22%. President's Day off 20%. And at a school day on Fridays 20%
and reducing the length of Christmas break was only 5%. Speaker 2: Not surprised on that one. No. Speaker 15: So can you say that Speaker 2: Again? Speaker 15: Do you want me to repeat that? Yeah, please. Yeah, Speaker 2: Absolutely. Speaker 15: Well I know I was looking Speaker 2: At it, sorry. Speaker 15: Here is, here's what in order of percentage begins school. The second week of August Yeah. Is 39%, add 15 minutes to the school day, 31% go to school Monday, Tuesday of that Thanksgiving break, 22%. President's Day 20% add a school day on Fridays
20% and reducing the length of Christmas break of 5%. Speaker 2: I'm following now. Okay, thank you. Speaker 15: So after that survey, we then built several calendar options that we felt that would meet the variety of those needs. We cut the down, we did a vote, and then we cut it down to three option A, B, and C. In the survey, a total of 891 people took the survey. 4,411 were the parents. 399 were staff out
of approximately 875 and 11 community members. Those are the ones that finished the survey. There were quite a few that started it but then didn't finish it. When we got back those votes, there was not one calendar that actually had a high majority of the votes and high meaning more than 15 to 20% higher than other another calendar. Speaker 1: Were they all pretty stagnant? Speaker 15: Mm, they were close. Within 13% was two of 'em. Speaker 1: And nothing was over 50% Speaker 15: And nothing was over. Yeah. So
we did then have our collaborative solutions, people and principals then reach out again though to re-ask the questions on what their priorities were. Again, it came back with the full week of Thanksgiving. Memorial Day week wasn't, and we had kind of a, a 50 50 of the start date. So some wanted the 17th and some wanted the soft the tech. Correct. Speaker 1: Yes. Speaker 15: So
we put together another vote with Collaborative Solutions and came up with what we felt was the best option that met the most needs that we can possible. And that is your calendar. A you have calendar A for both the 2020 6 27 year and the 2027. 26. Speaker 1: 27. 27. 28. Speaker 15: 27. 28. Sorry. I've been teaching preschool for a long time and it's already seven o'clock, but I did get the grass outta my hair. So this is the calendar that we would like to present
to you and if you have any other questions, Speaker 1: I appreciate your guys' work. 'cause I know getting, getting people to agree, especially when there's something this, this important to them is, is definitely hard. So I know you guys do not take this task lightly. And it is definitely, Speaker 15: And and we're, we've tried in the past and we've tried this year too, is to also get that education out there of why the calendars may fall the way they fall
of the options that we provide. Because we have to have a certain amount of days. We have to have, you know, we don't have to have breaks, but we try to break it up to where it's not just all the breaks in the beginning and then we're all dying at the end. So yeah, trying to meet those needs is not always easy. But we, we do our best. Speaker 1: I I would, and I, I don't know how to solve this problem, but I mean 411 Parents slash Guardians that took the survey and we have how many students that this affects. So, I mean, I don't know how to get more people
to take the survey. Speaker 15: And this is my second time doing the calendar with Collaborative Solutions and we reached out the first time and did library education where you build your own calendar so they could see, you know, how hard it is. And it's not easy. We had you guys build a calendar and I, I don't know how much more we can do to reach out, but we just keep trying just to, you know, bring those questions out and the what to know and that kind of stuff out into the community. But yeah,
Speaker 11: I know you did ask, it says on your little presentation thing that you asked, is it a, what is not a priority for me? Did you ask what were priorities for families? Speaker 15: Yeah, the, Speaker 11: Did I miss that someone Speaker 15: No, it's, and I will say some of the people thought our fir our second survey No, our, our second survey was a little confusing because we wanted to have you rate them. So instead of just saying what is your priority, we wanted you to rate the options that are,
Speaker 11: But it was then not a priority. So that, so Speaker 15: That was just the Memorial Day question. Yeah, the Memorial Day. Yeah. I Speaker 16: Got this. Yeah. So the question was starting with the premise of we're trying to get out by Memorial Day to try to do that. What are the things that you would, would prioritize to do to make sure that we get out before Memorial Day? The last option was, I don't care 'cause it's not a priority for me, but the rest of them were yeah, add 15 minutes to the day. That's my top priority. To get out by Memorial Day or take the two days and go to school during the week of Thanksgiving.
That's my top priority to get out by Memorial Day. The majority of the people who answered that question didn't care whether they got out by Memorial Day or not. That's what made that particular question so significant to us was that we were working under the premise of everybody wants out by Memorial, but apparently that is not true. That's maybe the people that were talking to us. But when you put the survey out in the field, Speaker 11: I'm just wondering if it was misread. Yeah, I I really do think that maybe it was maybe misread or misunderstood just because of the wording.
Just a thought. I just, I I think coming at things with a positive, like if we were to get out of Memorial Day, what would be, you know, the top five things that you would be willing, you could still have. Yeah, yeah. Just coming out a more positive way instead of not, not like Right. That we're taking something away from their child's education. Because I think like when somebody sees that, what they're not gonna get, it's kind of like, oh, I don't even want to do this. I thought this was a priority. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It just kind, it's just a mental switch for some people. Speaker 5: Sorry. No, Speaker 11: No, you're good. Speaker 5: Calendar is not easy. Okay. I'm gonna, I'm gonna preference pre, pre, pre, pre preface, preface, preface my comments, acknowledging the couple facts. Calendar's not easy. There's 850 plus staff, you're trying to get, you know, 4,000 households. Give or take some to respond. How many, how many surveys were sent out total to the parents for this district? What? Every parent, okay, so 4,000. So 4,000 households.
Right. And you've got 411, that's about 10%. That's on the parents. And I'm gonna say that right now, that's on them. They've gotta step up and they've gotta take part in this. Yep. And I'll tell everybody that I have no issue with that 3 99 staff. Just quick math. That's about 40, 46% of the staff heavily weighted towards the staff, which is okay. I'm glad you came with a, came to us with a suggestion. But I am gonna say a couple things. I, I know this is not easy, but it's still, this is my second time with calendar and I am still perturbed that nowhere in this is student achievement. Even taking into consideration.
It's not even mentioned in your, in your, in your thing here. Now I understand why we do it. I understand the staff's gotta weigh a bunch of things, but I, that's my only issue with this entire process. I'm glad you came with the preference or a suggestion because that makes it easy for us. You know, we want, again, I'm not, this is no detriment to the staff. I'm not saying Yeah. Anybody's doing anything wrong. It's just what I see as a community member and as a father. I would really like to see that exalted above all else is student achievement. Correct. Not comfort. So that's me.
Speaker 15: No, and I, I agree. I agree. That's why I do believe last year, last year, the last time we did the calendar, we did actually do some research on whether four day or five day has any effect on achievement. And what they're seeing is it does not. Speaker 5: Okay. It depends on what study. 'cause I've done a lot of research on it because I've been a proponent of this and there's some things I've learned that I've been, I was wrong on and I'll admit that. But there are still a lot of studies that there's reasons why we do four days. And I'm glad that our staff likes it and they're glad that our, it seems like our parents like it.
I talk to a lot of parents that love four days a week. They love the scheduling, they love having their kids. I I get it. I just want to be absolutely, positively sure that we are not hindering our kids. That's it. That's it. That's what I wanna make sure of. And now I will keep saying that until I'm off this board because Speaker 15: We're here for that and I totally understand. And what we could do is actually go back and find out right now, you know, what are achievement percentages and how is it, is it going up? Are we going up, you know, every year with the 40 calendar,
we could definitely go back and even find that information out. I Speaker 5: Think we're going up and I mean, that's a testament to the teachers, right? Yeah. So then my next question would be, man, imagine if we had an extra day a week and imagine, you know, so that's just kind where I'm at. So, Speaker 15: And the extra day a week is actually, so it'd still be the same amount of days and the same amount of contact hours. So that wouldn't change, Speaker 5: But they'd be closer together. Correct? I, I have, I have a 15-year-old son. Okay. It takes him till Tuesday afternoon for him to tell me anything is going on at school by Thursday, he's ready to be out. Okay. So really you got in my, in my experience,
and this is a lot of what I see is, is you have contact True, true contact the student Tuesday, Wednesday, and they're ready to be outta school Thursday. And then, so you have two days a week is what I see. Yeah. And, and now bring the statistics. I'm, I'm more than willing to change my mind if presented with the evidence. I just want to be sure of that. Like, we're not hindering our kids, right? Yeah. Oh yeah. That's why we're here. Yep. And and it would, it would be awfully insane for us to encourage kids to do hard things every day, but we're not willing to. Yeah. So,
Speaker 14: And some of the research that well pile up numbers. So I did a lot of research. Yeah. As a math teacher, you have numbers. Yeah. My finding was that four versus five, it didn't really come down to that. It came down to number of minutes. So school districts who had five days and went to four days, but con cut their contact minutes, their achievement went down. Okay. Schools that went from five days to four days, but did not cut their contact minutes in a week. Achievement stayed the same or it didn't drop as drastically. It pretty much was level.
Speaker 9: How is that impacted though, by age group? Because I know the elementary school kids as we're talking about education and really building that strong foundation and the love for learning, an elementary school child is not as capable of sitting for a longer day and retaining all of that information like a high school student is. So if we're talking about developing a deep foundation, are we providing the best possible environment for those younger kids? Speaker 14: Yeah. And most of the research that I write, it was like district wide. So they didn't break it out by grade level. Speaker 9: I, I'm also with chance on this, that if, if,
if given the opportunity, if, if the board were, were developing a calendar, I also would be voting for a five day, just because I am, I'm here to improve education and provide those resources. Comfort is secondary. And I, I know staff doesn't necessarily want to hear that. And I, and I absolutely appreciate that because we, we value all of you. So don't, please don't hear that you guys are secondary. No, it's just that I, I I think honestly that we can all, even on both sides of this table say that we've come here
to this room to make sure that education is first and foremost. And, and really how collaboratively do we make sure that that is what we achieve when we leave here. Speaker 5: I agree. I I have a benefit question though. Speaker 13: We're Speaker 5: Past that. I'm just, sorry. I wanna thank you for the work you guys have put in on the calendar that Yes. I can't even imagine wrangling all that. So are we, what changed from the process of last year's collaborative solution? Like recommending programs the first time
to this year's? What I want to, yeah. Like, has, has there been like better buy-in from the staff? Has there been better like participation in cs? Speaker 13: So I think in collective, we were set out over the last, like the last three years, benefit education was at the forefront. We knew benefit behavior and participation and utilization. It takes about three years to change behavior and to increase engagement, right? This April, I will hit four years with the district. So my first year was just really like,
we were right at open enrollment. So we didn't really make a huge impact in that first year. So from starting with educating collaborative solutions as a committee and knowing that committee members change over frequently. Like, this is Tabitha's last year, but we're gonna twist your arm to, you know, come back again. But we have turnover. However, when you have committee members who stay, but then once they go back into the buildings, like Mr. Aaron Hilmar served on the committee and now he's a principal at Grand Mesa, he can still impact staff because he has that knowledge. So by educating those community members on the process
of benefits from going out to bid to utilization of like, how do you use your benefits? How do you understand your benefits? So we started with that, right? Three years ago, this last year, we did a huge push with education, starting with our open enrollment. It was an active enrollment. So everyone had to actively be electing their benefits. They had to sit down with us, get to know our benefits and engage in that process. The other thing was, last year, you all know it was kind of a, a difficult conversation talking about like, we went to a huge increase and that got people's attention.
We thankfully got to come back down on some pricing. We, you all spent into the deficit to try to protect some of that costs last year for our staff and for our district. So that happened. The other thing is we started with benefit tours with Krista being the benefit specialist. She not only went out for benefits, but also questions about payroll and things of that nature to bring back to the district office. But doing some of those tours. And then we did a secondary listening tour that said, okay, you all got educated on what your benefits were. You've been using your value added benefits.
Now this is the reality. This is the trend of where cost is going. Wa tradeoffs was our first stop and it was a mandatory meeting, which was great. So all the staff was in here and they were engaging in the conversation. There were staff who had our benefits for a really long time and had still had no idea. They were like, well I never had to use 'em, so I didn't know about that. So we did kind of a two-pronged approach where we did some listening tours. So I think staff were prepared, they were more aware of their benefits, they're engaging a little bit more. So I think building relationships is what really changed, right?
We've had a consistent human resources team and a consistent leadership team at Collabor Solutions. So that makes a difference that you're seeing the same person, you know, and you're building those relationships. It, it's gonna help you with education and engagement. I think it's the same thing with our teachers. If we can retain our teachers, you're gonna have, you know, my, both of my daughters had Ms. Berry at Grand Mason and they were so excited to be there and you know, you, you just build that under the door. So I think that's what changed. Speaker 5: Okay, good. Yeah, I just don't want, I, I want the staff to be overall happy.
Right? You're never going to please everybody. Of course. But I don't want a repeat of last year. Speaker 13: Last year. Well, and I think what's really helpful is I think our collaborative solutions team really understood the assignment when we said we need you to engage with your staff. Like you are your best person to go out. They don't see me every day. They see all of them every day. So please try to engage with your staff so they're aware of what's going on. It's not just an email that's coming out and a flyer and whatever. It's an actual person that they know and trust that is giving them the information's.
Just the, not just the HR lady where they're like, you're just telling us what we want to hear. Speaker 5: Right? Speaker 13: 'cause they don't wanna hear from me. So Speaker 5: A lot of important work. Speaker 1: Yeah. Any other questions? Okay. Thank you guys for all your time and effort and not only benefits and salaries, but the calendar as well. So we know that this is, we discuss it a lot too, even when it's not a calendar year. Just 'cause Speaker 5: Waiting for the next one. Yeah. Thank you for doing two years. I'm glad we, Speaker 13: And a huge benefit, just so you all know, having benefits,
compensation and calendar. If this all goes, we get to get out contracts to our staff the earliest we've ever done. So this is a huge win. We're gonna secure staff faster, get paperwork out, we're able to roll the payroll year so we're not slamming and getting into the first weeks of school. So thank you very much for speeding up this schedule because it helps out finance. Jason seems really excited and HR long time. Speaker 5: Let's excited. Yep. Speaker 17: Excited. Speaker 5: I want you, I want you to understand Thank you guys for all the work.
I, yeah, I ask the questions with all respect, you know, if necessary I try. Oh yeah. You know, I'm not trying to be rude or anything, I just, oh, no questions. So thank you very much. Yeah, you're welcome. Speaker 1: Thank you. Thank you guys. Thank you. Speaker 2: Okay, Speaker 1: So on with that is our government governance action items. Is there any more discussion or anything regarding the things that we're voting on tonight? Okay, so, Speaker 11: Okay. Can I vote on benefits even though I wasn't at the presentation? Speaker 1: Yes. Okay. So I would take a motion
to approve the CS collaborative solutions benefit recommendation. Speaker 5: I will make a motion to approve CS benefit recommendation. Speaker 1: Thank you. May I get a second? I'll second. Thank you. Sharon May get roll call please. Will Speaker 2: You? Speaker 5: I have to abstain Speaker 1: On you. You have to recuse. Yep. Recuse. Speaker 2: Yep. Thank you. Speaker 11: Aye Aye. Speaker 1: Aye. Speaker 5: Aye. Speaker 1: Aye. Okay. May I get a motion to approve the collaborative solutions calendar recommendation as presented? Speaker 11: I make a motion to approve the CS calendar
recommendation as presented. Speaker 1: Thank you. May I get a second? I'll second. Thank you Sharon, may I get roll call please? I'm Speaker 2: Just check will you, aye Speaker 11: Aye. Speaker 1: Aye. Aye. Speaker 5: Aye, Speaker 1: Aye. Alright. Future requests. Speaker 11: I did have a request. I had D Squires from the Ride program. Reach out to me. Steyers. Sorry, your mom? Yes, yes. Your mom. She reached out to me and asked if the board would be up for or willing to come out to the ride program on April 7th
with Elk Creek Elementary from 1230 to two 30 to participate with the teacher and help with the kids and just experience what the Ride program is doing with the kids. Is everybody here familiar with the ride program? It's like a horse. So it's, it's the riding. Mr can you wait? She can explain it. It's, yeah, it's, it's riding Come disabled. Explain it. Speaker 15: I'm so glad I don't have to explain calendar. Speaker 11: Explain it. This Speaker 15: Is a wonderful program. So Riding Institute for Disabled Equestrians is a program
that started in 19 92, 93 by my mom and my dad. It is a program that utilizes equine assisted activities to enhance children ages two to 101 with any of their abilities. We always call 'em their abilities that they might need assistance with. The horse does all of the work the student is on for approximately 2240 minutes, whether
or during the spring and fall, we have actually two different sessions. Spring and fall are there sessions that work with our school districts. And our summer program is the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday program from eight, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday program from eight to five that does the 20 minute hourly sessions in the arena. The school district spring and fall are, is a lot of social emotional building, a lot of groundwork, a lot of activities that help with behavioral issues.
And some of also the SSN programs come, they get to also do a lot of groundwork with them as well. And by that I mean they'll lead the horse, they learn to trust the horse, the horse trusts them, they go over obstacles and then sometimes they are able to ride. Those are our spring and our fall. So you would get to see the students that are involved, you know, from Garfield RE two that are involved in the ride program. The summer program is actually more extensive. We usually typically have about 85 students.
And again, like I said, we range from age two to 101. We service the Veterans home and Ed Moore, grand Valley, whatever, you know, whatever you wanna call it. And they also come, we've got statistics where they sit or stand, they do a lot of brushing, crossing the midline. It's almost sometimes better than their therapy in that room. And, and then some of them also get to be able to ride the horse themselves. So if you can't tell, we have a great passion for a ride.
I do. My mom and dad do. And if you wanna see something that's amazing. It's actually amazing in a way where it's the volunteers. We have young high schoolers, middle schoolers that come and are a part of our family for the rest of the, our, their lives. And the impact they have with these kids, these students is amazing. And what it makes them, how it makes them feel is great too. So it's not just always about the student, it's about the family. Speaker 11: Yes. Everybody. Speaker 15: Sorry. Gosh, Speaker 11: I think, thank you.
Dee was reaching out just to see if the board would be willing to come and do, we noted as a workshop or something to work with our students in our district to see what services they are offering to our students in our district so we can have a hands-on experience with it. And it is, like I said, elk Creek Elementary on April 7th from 1230 to two 30 if anyone would be interested. It's a Tuesday. It's Speaker 1: A Tuesday. Yep. Speaker 15: And the Elk Creek Elementary students are awesome. Sorry, I'm partial teacher Elk Creek.
Speaker 11: Yeah, I, amen. Speaker 5: Yeah, I do. I would, I will try. I mean it's almost a month out but Speaker 11: Yeah, Speaker 1: What can happen between Speaker 11: Then? And I think that if we get it on the calendar now, maybe Tuesday You said it's Tuesday, it's 1230. April 7th. 1230 to two 30. Speaker 5: 1232 to, Speaker 11: Yeah, Speaker 1: I will be there. Sharon, can we notice that? Yes, Speaker 11: Thank you. Speaker 1: And Kirk and Jenny, you guys are more than welcome to come. It is fun. I have seen it. My son volunteered Speaker 15: There last summer. Oh my goodness. He's adorable. Speaker 1: It's on camera so thank
Speaker 11: You. Am I good to let her know that we would be coming a group of us? I don't at least don't think everybody was a hundred percent sure about their schedule, but it sounds like, but yeah, just like were Speaker 1: Interested. Speaker 11: I mean we'll Speaker 5: Try, I don't know, you know, Speaker 15: If not, pick another date Speaker 5: Middle of the day. Speaker 11: Yeah, I can try to make that work. I think that, thank you. Speaker 1: Thank you. Speaker 11: Thank you for the information. Speaker 1: Any other future requests? That was a very impromptu presentation so thank you. Yeah, and it's, it's nice to see too. I mean it is one of our community pillars, so making sure
that we're involved, involved with the community. So it's nice to see that in action. Speaker 11: Yeah. Okay. Speaker 5: No we got, we got what salary next Speaker 1: Sal? We just approved. Well we got, it's the budget, benefits and salary we approve. Yes. It's gonna be the budget next. It was all next. Speaker 11: It was all one benefits and salaries. Right? Speaker 5: We're done. My work's done for the year. Speaker 1: Nice try, right? Quite, quite the opposite. No. So we'll have the budget review next month as well. Right? Would your or well
Speaker 4: Ation, Speaker 5: Yeah. Kirk is there something you would have a request you would like us to hear about? Speaker 4: No, I, I think we, we have, we have stuff that's already Speaker 1: In the works. In the works Speaker 4: So I would ask, I don't have anything additional to add to our plate at this point. Speaker 11: Okay. Where's our next meeting? Speaker 4: Spring's a busy time? Speaker 1: Yes. Yes it is. And our next meeting is eighth April. April 8th. Yep. April 8th at Cactus Valley in silt. So we'll do shine the light there. Yep. How many Speaker 5: More schools do we have?
Speaker 1: That's, I believe Cactus Valley is our last, last one. One. Speaker 9: Those two in the border. Speaker 1: Cassie's got the board report. No, no. Megan. Megan. Okay. Speaker 11: Let, there's board report this Speaker 1: Month. Yep. So Cactus Valley is our last school. Everything else after that's gonna be the at the do. So the HI Speaker 11: Know your board report next meeting Speaker 1: The H save and if it's all right. And then onto the meeting debrief, if you guys wanna take a few minutes
and fill out the questions. Make sure that we did everything that you felt we should. Yes Speaker 5: Madam. Speaker 11: It's we just benefits on the same, Speaker 1: Do we need to Speaker 11: Make the notion and revoke salary and benefits? Speaker 1: You don't mind just No, not at all. Add compensation to it. That would be appropriate. Yep. Yep. So if we can get so to go Speaker 11: Off. Speaker 1: Yep. So the collaborative solutions benefit recommendation as far as the action items, it should have been benefits
and salary recommendation. May I get a motion to approve the collaborative solutions benefit and salary recommendation as presented? Speaker 9: I make a motion to approve the collaborative, so solutions benefit package as Speaker 1: Salary, Speaker 9: Benefits, benefits and salary as presented. Speaker 1: May I get a second please? Speaker 2: I will. Second. Speaker 1: Thank you Shannon, may I get roll call please? Will Speaker 2: You? I cuss, I hasco try to, Speaker 1: Aye Make Speaker 2: Sure it's on there. Haskell. Speaker 1: Aye Kyle Speaker 2: Aye. Jenkins. Aye. And
Speaker 1: Jensen. Aye. And it is a tough word to say. It is. Okay, Speaker 4: So I missed that. Would Megan motioned and who seconded? Megan and Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaker 4: Alright, thank you. Speaker 2: Yep. Yeah, make sure it's on there. Speaker 1: Thank you Devin for pointing that out. That was Teresa. Thank you Theresa. Speaker 2: Saving the day. Speaker 1: Yep. I appreciate that. What? Speaker 2: That we didn't fill Speaker 1: Well it was just listed as benefits. Not as benefits plan salary. 'cause the presentation has benefits and salary. Yes.
So, okay. Speaker 2: Alright. Speaker 1: I just go with Speaker 2: It. Speaker 1: Whatever. Alright, so, and again, just so you guys are aware, when you guys do fill out the meeting evaluation, it does not fall on deaf ears. Kirk and I do go over it when we do set the agenda. So these are things that we definitely wanna make sure that we make the meetings, make, make the most of our time and they honor our time as well. Speaker 5: I didn't know Kirk was reading it. I'll really fill it out this time. Speaker 1: All right. So feel free to get those to me when you guys are are done. And with that, we will go ahead
and adjourn the regular board meeting for Wednesday, March 11th, 2026 at seven 30.