##VIDEO ID:LuTvQoOPUV4## the [Music] la [Music] [Music] n e [Music] [Music] a [Music] [Music] n [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] a [Music] [Music] oh [Music] n [Music] [Music] he [Music] a [Music] [Music] a [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] down [Music] la [Music] [Music] the [Music] oh [Music] [Music] n [Music] n [Music] a [Music] n [Music] n [Music] okay [Music] well good evening and welcome to the Board of Education meeting for gy Evan school district 6 today is October 28th 202 4 this meeting will now come to order please stand and join us for the pledge of allegiance to our flag iedge Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all Miss lemon will you call the rooll for us please director Zari pres director Bentley pres sorry director k Fitzy present director Mash present director Matthews present director Norwood director Sullivan present six board members present thank you Miss lemon well again Welcome to our Board of Education meeting we have um exciting meeting tonight and just want to want to update you on a on a few things uh as always that maybe people don't don't know or don't recognize and first one of the one of the key components of our strategic plan our i230 strategic plan is is to strengthen Partnerships and as a school district we could not do what we do without the significant Community Partnerships that we have and so this last week we got to open uh another Smart Lab and if you don't know what these smart labs are we have them now in all of our elementary and and K8 schools and they are the first step in our Career and Technical education piece that where students get to design robots and and do all kinds of other things I can't even really describe what they do but it looks like they're having a lot of fun when you see them do it uh and it engages their learning and their curiosity in a way uh well in a 21st century way and so but these smart labs are not something that we've necessarily been able to put in all of our elementary schools this is something our success Foundation has done along with other partners and this one we opened at Centennial and it was done by the success Foundation uh and also JB BS and JBS provided a lot of the funds for that for that particular Smart Lab and just want to say thank you to our community we have such a great community that partners with us in so many different ways and makes gives our students so many different opportunities in this school district and so thank you to those both the sucess foundation and JBS um and uh Centennial for hosting us uh also wanted to let everyone know about a piece of news and I think most of the people in the room know this but just to make sure that everyone knows that that um last week the Colorado Association of School Executives um that we call case announc that our own Dr derra pilch uh is the um Colorado superintendent of the year for 2025 and so [Applause] [Applause] and it is I I won't list off the list of accomplishments it's hard enough to do that every year when we do her her evaluation and list off just one year's worth of accomplishments uh I would I would be here all night uh if we listed if I tried to list the 10 uh years worth of accomplishments that she has in this District but I will just highlight uh a couple one our graduation rate has gone up 10 percentage points which is just almost impossible to do in those 10 years and um the number of schools that that are uh in priority Improvement or turnaround has dropped dramatically in her tenure and so um you know Dr pelch I get to speak what our our board um gets to speak for a lot of people right I mean that's our that's what we're elected to do to be the the community's voice into this school district and uh I will just say that on behalf of of our constituents I say this on behalf of our board and our district but also our constituents who we're elected to represent um you know we we are very proud and very honored to have you as our superintendent so congratulations it is a it's a tremendous honor well deserved and still in my estimation our students over the last 10 years have been the real winners so thank you those are all the announcements that I have tonight and I will turn it over Dr pilch to you for some recognitions of your own thank you president Matthews uh we're going to do a little superintendent honor role and I want to just remind everyone that we implemented this uh about a year ago in an effort to to give community and staff an opportunity to nominate others and recommend others and for us to recommend and nominate others for what we call the superintendent honor role so first I'm I'm pleased to announce uh Mr rich green our choir director at G Central High School so rich I know you're here you have to come up and stand by the podium will I talk about you so um you all should know first off uh that that rich was um recommended for the superintendent's honor role because he was recently interviewed and quoted in a national publication uh by the National Association of music educators around the importance of guiding student teachers supporting student teachers and mentoring young teachers um when they come into the profession and I rich I it you represent so many teachers in our system who do just that for student teachers and and beginning teachers early year teachers uh one of our reports tonight is on teacher retention and I think it starts with how we teach them treat them from the very first time they walk through our building whether that's du an observation of you or whether that's student teaching with you or actually becoming a colleague in a classroom near you but uh Rich you you've given so much to district 6 and to gy Central High School and and to the arts program You've Been instrumental in the growth and development of the the arts program at gy Central and just so pleased that you've given us the last 12 years and we're hoping you'll give us many many more here in district 6 um thank you for guiding the next generation of teachers and thank you for sharing your experiences with music teachers throughout the country uh thank you for that and I want to give you an opportunity if you want to say a few words um UNCC is why I came to Grey in the first place in 2001 and district 6 is why I stayed um so I've always seen my work as an educator um not just educating the students that are in front of me every day but um whoever comes in the door um or whoever is outside the door or whoever's outside the building and that um you know education is not just about about um our five to 18 year olds but it is a community thing and um UNCC has been so um instrumental in my growth and development as an educator and I'm so thankful for them um and for their preparation of me and cannot help but want to help them as well so um thank you also um for you know for encouraging me and all Educators to welcome in um future you know Educators into our classrooms and work with them and use our classrooms as lab space um as well and so we talk about Partnerships with the community and Partnerships with UNC is just so vital as well so I'm so thankful for the opportunity and thanks for the recognition [Applause] well I have two other honoraries tonight and I will just tell you that district 6 Educators and and those folks who support all of our students in the district have been busy getting a lot of accolades and recognition and so um we we will have more to come next month I am excited to introduce these two as a pair because they both received uh this recognition here just last week I want to invite Caleb Flores our director of secondary um multilingual Learners to come up please and then I'd like to invite Rachel hman who's our director in um our is our Wellness coordinator to please come up to the podium so you can just stand there while I talk about you a little bit okay so last week uh Rachel and Caleb both got quite a prestigious recognition uh they were recognized by bizwest for this year's 40 under 40 award for Northern Colorado and the B Boulder Valley regions um this is nothing to be taken lightly I mean hundreds of people are nominated for 40 under 40 they they really are they're looking for the stars in the Boulder Valley to Northern Colorado area um when they're they're looking for those 40 under 40 to recognize and so I'm so excited we have two of those Stars Among Us uh Award winners are typically nominated by their peers their employers um and then they're selected by a panel of previous recipients of the award so Stars identifying other stars to be recognized um which these two certainly are they're all as I said under 40 and they're making their Mark in their communities through professional success and through volunteer activities and so I'm going to talk first about Caleb you all may recognize him from last year when we recognized him here for superintendent's honor role for receiving that the prestigious milic Award winner um as when he was still a teacher at gley West High School but Caleb joined district 6 uh in 2016 and is is now the the secondary coordinator and I will just tell you we are so fortunate to have him in our district and that he chooses to be here in district 6 so congratulations to you Caleb and then Rachel hman Rachel is our District's Wellness coordinator and she has such a huge impact on our staff and our students through ongoing wellness events and and other challenges that they put out to the staff and I I think more than ever we know how important the health and well-being of our staff and students are and Rachel and her team this is the work they do um she's served on the district Wellness team for 12 years she's been our Wellness coord coordinator since 2018 I'm so grateful she's here I've learned so much from her um and and been privileged to be among her and watch her leadership uh with with other Educators in our district as as they're promoting staff wellness and we know if if our staff are not well our kids are not going to be well so congratulations to both of you I want to give you each a chance if there's a few words you'd like to say and then I have a certificate for you thank you so much I don't have a speech prepared but I just feel so honored to work in amazing department and nutrition services with amazing leaders there and then um to have this support at the district level is just such a a privilege and um I'm just I love love working here so thank you um thank you for the opportunity and just for the recognition tonight um when I got an email that I was nominated for the 40 under 40 I was like wow this sounds really prestigious I'm definitely not getting that so it was a really cool surprise but um you know to be a coordinator for multilingual Learners um is not something I take lightly and uh and yeah I'm excited to continue to boost profession and uh congrats Rachel and her Department as well congratulations [Applause] [Applause] congratulations to all of you and thank you Dr pill um next on our agenda is the approval of the agenda and so we'll need an action item to move forward I move that the Board of Education of GRE 11 school district 6 approves the agenda as presented second thank you both any discussion on the agenda I don't see any so miss lemon will you give us a vote please director Zari I director Bentley I director Campos spitzy I director Mash hi director Matthews I director Sullivan I motion carries 60 thank you Mr next on the agenda is our Council of student Representatives report and tonight we're getting a report from ECA uh Council of student Representatives member members uh as always we have uh two Council of student Representative members sitting with us and this is Miss Vegas and uh Mr Longacre and so uh is someone coming forward from ECA principal Bill Fern will take the lead on this for us all right welcome Mr Fern good evening president Matthews members of the board Dr pilch I'm Bill Fern I'm the principal of Early College Academy and it's my privilege and pleasure to introduce our two current members of a district of student council Representatives Miss Sarah Venegas and Mr Caleb mcdell here to present to you good evening faculty members and community members my name is Caleb McDowell and I am a proud senior at the school of Early College Academy let me start by saying it is truly an honor to be speaking in front of all of y'all today ECA has been a powerful School for students like me it has always promoted growth and valued the voices of students since my junior year I have become more more involved with the school participating in its student council and even having the honor to run for its student body president in ECA we aren't just encouraged to do well and prepare for college but we are also a part of that learning environment our voices matter and our voices can start the path to change not only does this feel like a really refreshing approach to the learning process but it's essential this approach is EA's main way of finding out how to grow and improve as a school and how to strengthen our community this openness to change has become my favorite part about ECA when I first entered this school in August of 2021 it did not look welcoming at all it felt like I was walking into a hospital you know it gave me a sense of dread for the upcoming year ECA heard me and it took these concerns and turned them into a road map to make the environment more comfortable for me and for other students hold sorry now we have new furniture we have newly painted walls we have new seasonal decorations and just recently they've started installing a new bathroom in order to be more inclusive to all students and yet there's still many more changes to come ECA has shown a genuine care for thoughts and concerns of the student body and it feels like we as students instead of just being there to learn have this sort of partnership with the school to help it change being at a school that Embraces change doesn't just impact me academically it has also inspired me to push for positive change taught me how to always be open to newer possibilities and I hope that the board will continue to support the adaptability and the spirit of ECA I would like to introduce my fellow ECA student representative Sarah Venegas thank you good afternoon afternoon everyone I am Sarah Vegas a junior at Early College Academy a school that not only has positively impacted me as a student but also as an individual I'll be sharing my experience at ECA and how our school has improved and continues to improve my first memory at ECA was my freshman orientation I remember when I walked in and towards the school and I contemplated if ECA was the school for me very similar to Caleb I felt like a doctor's office it did not give me that High School feeling and I was very worried I was worried that I would be alone and I wouldn't gain that High School experience everyone around me was talking about however it didn't take very long for my mindset to change being at a school that felt so connected with both the school and students and the teachers felt very overwhelming the community in support is amazing at ECA ECA is a school of opportunities opportunities for students to gain that college experience and more the school gives us the chance to get ahead not only to graduate with our high school degree but also gain those college credits to get a associates of Arts degree and an associates of science degree being able to graduate with a college degree is an opportunity unique to ECA which makes me very grateful to be part of such an amazing School although earning college credits does mean having college classes and that can get overwhelming however at ECA we have amazing support systems that help our students succeed at every level teachers are are very dedicated to a Student Success and our school also provides tutors and study groups so our students are able to balance both their high school and college classes an amazing example of this is our student support center where our tutors counselors dream team teachers and our special aded teachers can be found at all times in a single location at our school lastly in order to continue improving our school a few small changes that could be very positive is a new Marquee and a revamp on these signs in our 10th Street leading up to ECA thank you for your time and your attention are there any questions Mr long thank you for letting me speak sir um I just want to say as the president of council student Representatives I'm very proud of that performance just seeing that students in this District are motivated enough to go up in front of a board of really important people let's be honest and just speak with such profound like enthusiasm and interest like I just do it on my pencil just by how amazing that was that's amazing stuff to see have a high school way so great job I'm very proud of you too thank you thank you Mr Longacre Miss mesh um I was also going to comment on your amazing public speaking abilities I wondered if you have had a class or if you just um yes thank you for being very professional and um just something I've noticed as we get to hear from students from ECA um as some of you may know um ECA is 100% open enrollment meaning every student um makes a very um concerted effort or and and decision to go there so I just feel like um The Pride that I see from the ECA students is is just a little bit different I'm not sure what that is but um it's really it's really amazing to see you all embracing um that choice and and all of the opportunities that go with it so thank you for sharing thank you Miss Mash Dr Campos spitzy um so similar similarly to what uh Natalie said I'm so proud that that we offer ECA to our students um that it is open enrollment and you can choose to go to basically what's a public Prep School um to prepare you for college so excited that now um you're they're offering not only the associates of Arts but also the associates of science degree um that makes me really excited um and I was wondering one question about what's the average class size in at ECA for our freshman it's about uh anywhere between 32 at the maximum to like 15 or 16 thank you Dr Campo spitzy guys I I don't see any other further questions for for you all thank you for being here tonight and for presenting uh we certainly appreciate your time and taking time out of your day to uh to be with us thank you next on our agenda is our superintendent report so I will turn it over to you Dr pilch thank you president Matthews um I too want to uh the compliment for both both of you great job Caleb spoke to me in the hallway was was nervous about coming to the podium see it wasn't so bad right great job um I I'll just share and maybe you were going to share as well president Matthews that uh the two of us had an opportunity on October 17th to go and meet with the entire Council of student reps president Matthews goes every meeting about I I went um as as an initial meeting here this fall had an opportunity to hear from the students what's going well and what they really appreciate um and then they also gave me a little bit of advice and and let me know some things they thought we could do a better job on but I want to to share with you something that I heard across the board I think from you all one of them was choice and the the ability to choose a high school that really fits your your interests your needs your desires and that's what we saw tonight with ECA uh you're totally choiced into early college academy uh students also spoke a great deal about how much they appreciate the opportunities to take advanced placement courses and other kinds you International Balor and other Advanced courses and then the support they get from their teachers around those courses they spoke about how much they appreciate that and the preparation that their teachers uh support them with in getting ready for AP testing or IB testing was really good to hear that news as well um and then I I just have to say that overall I think the students um are a nice cross-section or a diverse cross-section in district 6 and overall they're having a pretty good experience here in district 6 and uh we'll I'll be back again to hear from them some more get get more input and feedback and and advice but really enjoyed the opportunity to meet with you all and and I'm looking forward to coming back again um I wanted to just say for a moment about the superintendent of the Year award thank you for your kind comments president Matthews um I I just want to say that this is a recognition of our entire community of of for all of us and all of the staff um people don't win Awards like this without having a lot of people who work very hard every day and who have committed and come alongside us as you said with business partners and and supported us with resources and programming for our students and then just the amazing dedicated brilliant staff we have in district 6 it's truly remarkable and um I'm so grateful to get to represent district 6 in this way and to represent Colorado in this way um and and um it is not an honor just for me it's an honor for all of us really all of us um we will do something people have been asking when you know when's the recognition when's the the celebration we'll do we'll wait until probably January to do something since it is the 2025 superintendent of the year um we we'll do something in January to bring folks together um in the meantime I I think there'll be um some sort of recognition at the Colorado school boards Association and then at the state um Colorado Association of School Executives um there'll be an opportunity there as well so I I feel very honored and I thank you and for all of you who have sent emails and text messages and positive social media posts I'm so grateful and so thankful and I I don't usually read our Facebook posts I just don't and uh Teresa Meers our chief of communications texted me and said you really need to read the Facebook post this is one time you need to read them um so thank you for that and and thank you for the time you put in on that um and then finally I'll just say that last week several of us got to be in the gley Central High School homecoming parade I'll let you guys talk about your experience there but it is so fun that in a community as large as gy and Evans that we still have a homecoming parade uh with with our original high school and our our our Traditions at gly Central High School it's really great to be there uh Miss zulaf thank you you so much for for you and your staff inviting us and including us it's it's really really fun to see a community come together as your community comes together for the homecoming so thank you for that and that is all I have tonight president Matthews thank you thank you Dr pilch next on our agenda our board member comments and reports and uh tonight we'll start with Mr oari thank you president Matthews I just have three things to report out uh this evening uh first I had the opportunity to attend the uh end of bond bash on October 16th at gy West and I wanted to commend both Mr Hensen and Dr pilch and also our Communications Department for the comprehensive report to the community on all the completed uh Bond projects and uh also the vision moving forward uh with our growth projections our community is growing and that was something that was uh reinforced at the both the Evans state of the city address and at the inaugural state of the county address both of which I also had the opportunity to attend and growth is a big issue and our school district is a central component of all of that I also attended the W Community Foundation spread the good luncheon and I've said it before and I'll say it again and again uh I feel very fortunate to live in a special place filled with people and organizations that provide so much support to others in our community countless lives of people and the W Community Foundation is obviously very very important to our students their families and our entire school district and I appreciate them finally I had the opportunity to attend both uh the the board visit to shashin Elementary and also the gy central homecoming parade as Dr peled pointed out both experiences were Exceptional from having two shashin students give simply an outstanding presentation on the AVID program at shashin and actually in our school district to riding a truck directly in front of the gc's international Club it's obvious that we have students that come to gy from all over the world and it makes our school district in essence an international place of learning so uh that's all I have outside of congratulating Dr pilch again for such a prestigious award thank you president Matthews thank you Mr oari Mr Bentley yeah it's been a busy couple weeks um I think I I got to go with door to most of those things uh the the end of the bond bash on 1016 at West was uh extra special though it just um uh we kind of came in at time of the board where we just kind of got all the fun parts of the bond we got we got our names on plaques and we got to do a lot of ribbon cutting and beam toppings and stuff so but um to kind of look back on it all and see how much they've really done it's truly amazing it's a landmark uh event for for gy and the school district and um a lot of Pride and and just watching step by step everything that was touched and and just a sheer amount of work that was done is is truly impressive and out of this world it's it's it's unfathomable really now looking back at it so great job to everybody there and congratulations on finishing that up um the Evans state of the city address is always good um you know we got a lot of of of uh students and and stuff there and it's just nice to kind of hear what they have planned for their their future too it kind of gets I I forget about it a little bit just cuz I don't go down to Evans very much but they they have a huge role in our community and and they're doing a lot of good fun exciting things down there for for their side of the Border um the inaugural state of the county event was was also very informative um that I'm glad they're doing that that was that was one thing that um seems like as far as me as a board member I kind of miss out on stuff at the at the county level we hear from some Representatives quite often but but to hear a comprehensive report like that was was very nice the the school visit to shaen was also fun um those are some of our favorite events and and kind of when we get to go in classrooms and see the kids and stuff so uh had a great time there the Smart Lab celebration at Centennial with JBS was was also good I think they said it was our 21st Smart Lab or something like that so um pretty pretty neat to see that the difference they make and the kids' eyes light up and how smart they are with with the you know Electronics like it makes you feel old real fast when you start seeing little kids playing with stuff that's smarter than you um the oilfield we have a rule of thumb that you have to be 10% smarter than the equipment you're operating and I can't operate that equipment I know that so I have to stay out of there um and then the same day we got to go to the world Community Foundation and it like Doran said it's really touching to see all the good things are doing and makes you proud to be part of this community to kind of see not just the district but the the just the community in general just always doing good things and giving back so pretty proud to to be a part of it thank you Mr Bentley Dr Campos spitzy yes so um also wanted to congratulate Dr pilch and wish her luck as you get to compete now for National superintendent of the year so I think you have a really good shot at that um wanted to wish everyone a Happy Halloween this week as well as a felos um they're backto back and um my kiddo I got to go into her class as a parent for the first time ever today and her teachers like I guess meaning by culture being by cultural means we're having a party on Thursday and a party on Friday and so they're going to have a lot of fun um this week um this weekend and I brought my blue book to remind everyone um this weekend I got to knock on some doors um I participated with the Colorado Statewide parent Coalition informing patient or patients I'm in my doct was informing uh community members about Amendment 80 um and just um trying to encourage people to register to vote who aren't registered um I didn't get to go to many events in the last couple weeks because of some other responsibilities and febal children um but I got to read eweek um Dr pilch if you don't know gives the board a Weekly Newsletter um where she informs us about the going going z um and was really ired by all the athletic participation our kids have had this fall um not just in high school and middle school but even extending down into fourth and fifth grade um lots of of our teams going to the state playoffs um so really proud of that um and then the senior event at UNCC called uh senior jumpstart um 178 of our seniors which is actually if you um look at the statistics from last year we had 1,458 seniors graduate district 6 last year so so um 178 new seniors this year got to attend the senior jump start event at UNC that's about 12% of seniors um and they were supported by the grey dream team gearup and D6 counselors and at UNC they um received information on the FAFSA how to apply to college um and other essential steps for for planning their post-secondary education so really proud of that partnership with UNC um to make sure our kids are ready to apply to college which it is the season now too so that's all thank you Dr Kempo spitzy uh Miss Sullivan um well I want to start out congratulations Dr pilch and one thing that I want to always um remind people of because I'm I'm just a big fan of this is your the CTE program uh that to me has been like the biggest highlight I think that I've um been a part of just to be able to see it grow but um also so um I want to thank you for the dedication you've done with the reaching out to businesses and whatnot and building the strong base that we have um we I do work at JBS for those that don't know but I think we had six interns that got selected to be out there and there's one going to be working in my department so these students are getting a real time real work experience um they're in high school coming out there the one that's going to be in my department will be working um a young gal will be working with Logistics and documentation so um I don't know if I would have had the audacity to walked in and and the strength and the confidence to be able to um pull that off but uh these students are are miraculous but it's uh it's it's a big contribution to what you've done with the way you've built the um the the good strong um connections we have with the students with the district because we do need that and that's a big part of um our students you know growing acade not just academically but also with their confidence and whatnot um the other thing I would like to mention is uh give a shout out to the uh marching band they did make it to State and um they are down at CSU at the uh Pueblo Stadium today and they've been competing all day uh the students came in um fourth place I think right now in the first run so they got uh invited back to do the finals so I'm pretty proud I'm going to give a shout out I have two kids there that are actually in the band One is um the drum major would be Tyler solivan he's a senior and then I have a sophomore CLA Sullivan and she's in the flag so um congratulations to the uh marching band hopefully they um take it to the end tonight thank you Miss Sullivan vice president mesh um I also want to say congratulations to you Dr pilch and um just this this award um exemplifies how you have built relationships with your colleagues around the state and have um collaborated I know there's many times during um during Co during snowstorms things like that where you collaborate with other other um leaders to find out what they're doing what's working um how you can improve and how you can help each other so and that's a real Testament to your leadership across the state so congratulations um the end of bond celebration was really really fun it was just amazing to see it all in one place um and I know Mr Henson's getting just a little bit of a reprieve now not having so many balls in the air right now um but it was really fun to be there with um the board who worked to get that on on the ballot and the board who worked to help through those projects and then um we get to experience the the fruition of all of that effort so that was a lot of fun um I also love the gy central homecoming parade and getting to wave all the little kids and I really appreciate getting to be a part of that and congratulations to the football team for their Victory on Friday as well um best wishes to all of the state teams um gy Central soccer Northridge soccer and I think we have two or three um cross country students as well participating so may they all be injuryf free and Swift um and continue with their amazing teamwork and I don't have a lot uh to add I will just thank once again our community and uh it really hit home as we as we did go through the end of the uh end of the bond bash and Mr Henson walked us through really five years worth of of work uh beginning even before 2019 and and some of the work that that went on and to know that we we were able to do almost $500 million worth of of work in the community and that's um because this this community believes and our students they certainly believe in our in our teachers and our administrators and our superintendent but but primarily they believe in our students and want our students to have um what they need to be uh to be competitive in in in this world uh in in a world that requires so much of them and where they come from sometimes uh places where they don't have as much um we we just cannot say thank you enough to this community for for supporting our students in that in that bond issue and hopefully uh as they drive by twion and and gy West and uh all the other different additions that we've done at at shaen that we we got to see and merer that we we got to see recently hopefully our community uh is also very very proud of what they see and so we certainly are and uh want to thank um Mr Kent Henson and and Dr pilch for their leadership on that and also great Partners in in The Well Community Foundation luncheon and to realize how how much this um how much we touch this community so one of the things that we got to say that for anybody that's not been they generally highlight some part of the artistic community and I've done that for a number of years and this year they focused on dance and there was a local dance tro dancing while we had lunch and as I looked at the dance troop uh I saw two different District six teachers and a lot of former District six students uh dancing and it just just a reminder of of how much um how much this District does touch our community and so very thankful for it and and appreciate it greatly that's all I have tonight we'll move on to our Innovation 2030 update operational and organizational Effectiveness recruiting and hiring and retaining teachers and so I see Miss Anette Overton coming to the podium welcome Miss Overton it's great to be here and I have the HR leadership team with us right behind me they'll be speaking as well so thank you um president Matthews and members of the board and Dr pilch um we'd like to update you tonight on our progress over the last 12 months regarding um organiz uh operational and organizational Effectiveness goal two the mission as you're aware the mission and the vision are what Drive our work and that's District Six engages every student in a personalized well-rounded and excellent education preparing students to be College and Career ready with that Vision describing um the district engaging empowering and inspires today's students in a partnership with families and communities to succeed in tomorrow's world and we also have these core values that we work with um uh that guide our work and that's We Believe diversity is a strength we commit to hiring and retaining quality staff and we commit to Excellence Innovation and continuous Improvement the four Focus areas that are listed here you'll see ours which is the um the organiz operational and organizational Effectiveness one the bottom corner and that reads um it district 6 ensures Innovation transparency and accountability to our community Through measurable outcomes and continuous Improvement that goal area that we're talking about is maximizing the recruitment and hiring and retention of all employees in the district so we're going to talk a little bit more about um the objective tonight and that's developing and implementing an employee retention program and Dr Matt Thompson is here and he is the one that's leading this work so I'll turn it over to him right thank you uh our retention objective includes outperforming the state a average retention rate as well as increasing our retention rates uh internally for all employee groups uh we indicated at last year's update that our outcomes uh did not compare like measures with what uh data is available from the state of Colorado so these outcomes have been updated to reflect more accurate comparisons between the state and our available data actions that support these objectives include Outsourcing our exit and stay interviews to a party identifying uh ways to better prepare support and appreciate our guest teachers celebrating our district six employees longevity with our pen recognition program uh developing a mid-level management program to grow the leadership skills of our operations employees and to provide career lad opportunities for all employee groups and improving mentorship for first year teachers teachers who are within their second and third year of teaching new to special education teachers and Future Leaders aligned with our community demographics so in short uh we're improving our systems of support for mentorship uh for all employee groups uh exit interview and Survey data reflect the favorability of V various indicators that motivate employees to return to district 6 such as valuing career growth opportunities receiving supervisor feedback being recognized for their performance and being treated fairly and sharing a strong belief in our district 6 Mission stay interview and Survey data reflect the favorability of various indicators that motivate employees to stay in district 6 such as believing that they're making a difference within their role in district 6 having a strong family feeling on their team valuing onetoone meetings with their supervisors and valuing their colleagues contributions to their team areas of improvement include improved training supervisor communication and valuing employee input and workplace safety contined leadership development clear expectations of our employees and improved Communications additional employee growth opportunities include uh regular promoting our qualified members of our substitute pool to full-time benefited roles across all departments encouraging classified employees to grow into certified positions while we work collaboratively with shows a positive upward trend for staff retention and in the most recent three-year period our district has outperformed the state average retention rate each year this year we've expanded our retention data measures to include all employee groups groups uh measuring from December 1st to November 30th each year this approach provides more information across the year rather than just the spring and summer hiring Seasons this most recent data set Compares disaggregated employee groups against the state our i230 retention committee will analyze this data to identify additional action steps again the blue bar represents our district and nearly every employee group District six outperforms the state with the exception of two employee groups office and administration and other specialized support providers we will conduct focus groups with the employee groups with the highest retention rates the lowest retention rates and groups where we fall behind the state this process will inform future action steps in our effort to continuously improve retention rates thank you and now I'd like to introduce Christina crane who will lead us through an update related to hiring thank you Dr Thompson and good evening Board of Education and Dr pilch the second objective under our Focus area is to hire a qualified and diverse Workforce that represents our community and to annually increase the diversity of employees to reflect the student demographics in district 6 in the past year the actions listed here have helped improve both the efficiency and the effectiveness of our hiring processes HR Personnel have trained hiring teams and new administrators on the hiring process and updated hiring checklists that are easily available to supervisors to walk them through the process from the time they identify an opening to the time they welcome the new employee to the team The Innovation 2030 hiring team also created a question bank for leaders that's searchable based on position or question topic or type and every interview is required to include a question relating to cultural responsiveness this year we expanded The Exchange teacher Visa program Beyond J1 visas by sponsoring a teacher on an H1B Visa which directly help us to not only fill a critical teaching position but contributed to hiring a diverse Workforce The Innovation 2030 hiring team implemented a survey last spring for new hires to the district and this fall we automated it to send out to our new hires a month or so after they complete the onboarding process data collected from from last year suggested that we had room to improve on our application process and our job descriptions data collected from this fall will be discussed on a future slide research shows that candidates First Impressions impact employee retention and so in an effort to improve their experience from the very beginning and in response to those uh candidate feedback items we streamlined the district six application process by removing duplication and eliminating outdated and unnecessary sections the team also continued the process of reviewing and updating district 6 job descriptions to make them more attractive to candidates and easier to read with an emphasis on simple language and accessibility that work will continue this school year with a plan to roll out new descriptions before the hiring season begins for the next year as mentioned earlier we've continued surveying the employees who recently experienced the hiring process and overall our new hires are either satisfied or very satisfied with the process we asked them about the ease of navigating the job board and website whether or not the job postings were clear and understandable how satisfied they were with the application process and how well the process and next steps were communicated and I would like to note that more than 90% of them said they would recommend district 6 to a colleague or friend as a place to work when asked about the most helpful parts of the process the most commonly cited aspects were strong communication the online systems ease of use and the report provided by HR and School staff comments indicated the hiring process was viewed as efficient and professional with some respondents finding it smoother and more organized than in other school districts we've received many positive comments and we know that we still have some opportunities to improve the most common frustrations identified by new hires were related to communication breakdowns the length and complexity of the application and difficulties with the online system suggestions from new hires included a need for specific communication concerning job descriptions benefits and pay with a few people requesting more robust orientations or training workshops on staff procedures District resources and benefits as mentioned previously the hiring team will continue reviewing job descriptions this year and we have a newly formed subcommittee that will be focusing on the onboarding process and how we can improve the candidate and new hire experiences this chart here highlights the work yet to be done but also gives us some reasons to celebrate District Six staff either align with or outpace the percentages of American Indian Alaskan native Asian black or African-American and native Hawaiian Pacific Islander students and are just slightly under the percentage of students that identify as two or more races the big work yet to come is to increase the percentage of employees who identify as Hispanic or Latino to more closely reflect our student demographics thanks for your attention to the hiring process Scott Gray is here tonight to share information on our recruitment process good evening uh I'm excited to discuss our i230 recruitment efforts our goal is to advance a comprehensive plan that builds a highly qualified and diverse Workforce reflective of the grey Evans Community this will help strengthen our schools with professionals who embody the values and the diversity of the folks that we serve all actions tied to the recruitment plan are designed to expand the overall candidate pool and enhance the diversity of those interviewed our human resources team in collaboration with Partners is focused on increasing the number of applicants and interviewees for district positions as we focus on recruitment we're implementing several initiatives to enhance our efforts we continue to attend recruiting fairs for all employee groups in Northern Colorado and Beyond and have expanded our job board postings to include handshake targeting recent college graduates regarding Community Partnerships and pipeline development we collaborate we've collaborated with local institutions including the noise scholarship program for stem Scholars and the future Teachers Conference with UNCC along with mock interviews for CU teacher candidates nearing graduation programs like the project teacher find exemplify our ongoing efforts HR Personnel are also involved in no co-works a joint initiative between Weld and larer counties focused on Workforce Development and reducing barriers to employment these Partnerships will help us grow our candidate pools and strengthen our recruiting network over the past 12 months district 6 participated in 16 recruiting events engaging in over 1,000 job Seekers and having more than 200 direct conversations with D6 opportunities these accompanying uh excuse me the ACC accompanying document for the board provides detailed information on these events and the outcomes additionally events like the D6 hiring fair and the back to school kickoff raised Community awareness for job opportunities across departments Ator attending the Immigrant and Refugee Center job fair and the accelerating diversity job fair expanded our ability to attract diverse candidates in August we hosted our largest hiring event connecting with 47 candidates in multiple languages we've also attended denver-based events such as the a AA aou career fear and uh to further broaden our recruitment these efforts have filled critical positions and Foster long-term relationships with future Educators and our support staff due to human resources staffing transitions in 2023 and 2024 are social media efforts did lose some Focus but we are now refocusing and exploring new ways to keep our content engaging staff surveys indicate that employees favor posts celebrating achievements as part of our new strategy we'll leverage these posts incorporating recruitment links allowing us to both recognize the outstanding work of our current employees and enhance our recruitment efforts to further strengthen recruitment expand candidate pools and build a staff refle itive of our community we continue developing Talent pipelines within our staff and our students starting in middle school we offer opportunities to explore District roles with new CTE programs creating Pathways for our operational positions project teacher find awardees can substitute or work as paraprofessionals while completing their UNCC degrees this keeps them connected to district 6 and encourage them and encourag them to build their careers with us our teacher Cadet program offers District high school students a hands-on experience in teaching and creating engaging classroom environments by working with younger students and classroom teachers they can see their impact firsthand uh we also introduced a paid internship for students in their second semester tonight I'm excited to be joined by our teacher Cadet program teacher Lauren app Lauren applehans um and she's going to give us just a little bit of uh information on that program Lauren hi good evening B of education in Dr Phil um this year I have 11 wonderful students in the teacher Cadet program and we are beginning our recruitment efforts for next year um these students and if you don't know that I'm I teach most of the or my other half of the day at gy Central but only one of my students is from gy Central they're all from other districts or other schools in the district which is super exciting that we have students all over the district being interested in teaching um most of them are interested in elementary which is a exciting so we're going to partner with Fred Charis soon to do some lessons there and then they'll be out in the classrooms starting in January to be there um in terms of demographics I do have um I have more males I have I had one male last year and this year I have three males in my class and are super passionate about being fourth grade teachers I have two males that are excited to be fourth grade teachers I'm like yes this is so great and and they're really excited and encouraged because one of them said this is a great opportunity for me to share my passion with other students he's really excited about history and he's really excited about Outdoors activities and he's really excited to just share that information with students I also have quite a few um students who are also connected within the district their parents either work within the district as well or nutrition services in some capacity and they're just elated to be out in classrooms and being able to work with students uh anything else want me share okay it's really excting thank you Lauren uh now I'd like to invite Cammy Clark to share her journey in district 6 a proud D6 Alum uh Cammy joined us as a mechanics trainee after graduation and has since earned a full-time service technician position C we come on up oh I got a little note that's cute uh good good morning I'm sorry thank you good evening Board of um members of the the board in Dr pilch sorry uh you know considering I have a Wen speech and debate it still makes me nervous uh my name is Camila Clark I want to start off by saying thank you for taking the time to hear my experience um about the automotive field it's very difficult to get into um I started I started this job when I was leaving High School um I was doubling up on shifts at Wendy's and Ross so it wasn't exactly Peak work efforts um I've been doing a mixture of school and work I'm actually late to school right now but I go to school after work every day um this provides me with an opportunity to work at district 6 um it also provides me an opportunity to get my education and my degree and provides a lot of Financial Freedom um the idea of of um introducing a college student into the workforce with actual Workforce experience um is to just take the knowledge from both school and work and just use them with each other I found that it's definitely improved my abilities and what I'm able to do um unfortunately I don't un I I don't agree with the um welcoming Community our the automotive field is very it's very distinctively awful to towards each other so I have not found my my community yet um hopefully with this job when I finish schooling I'll be able to find something that will actually um be more beneficial to my learning um and to my personal values uh while I do think it is a very important Mash of taking a a like a kid from leaving high school and helping them through college I do think there's a lot of stuff that needs to be improved um for someone to be able to come ably work in this field um there needs more training and more communication on management levels uh un less favoritism but other than that I am very grateful for having this job um again unfortunately I do not have the community that a lot of you guys have um and yeah thank you for letting me speak thank you Cammy our efforts have yielded positive results despite Nationwide hiring challenges D6 has steadily increased the average number of weekly job applicants over the past 5 years while at the same time reducing the time it takes to fill positions this success stems from our continued focus on social media presence participation in job fairs Word of Mouth referrals and the development of our recruiting pipelines uh pipeline projects uh to further broaden the diversity and increase the overall number of candidates applying to district 6 we've streamlined the application application process and reduced the required information over the past year these efforts have uh already shown immediate results with more applicants successfully completing their applications I'll turn it back over to miss Overton thank you and next steps we've talked a little bit about each of those uh steps in the previous slides but I'll just uh highlight those that we've got um enhanced mentorship programs that we're looking at um trying to introduce and invite people uh from all of our employee groups to come in and work with us learn get mentors so that we can um expand uh all of the support that they receive through this Mentor program um training hiring teams and unconscious bias that's a real important part of our strategic plan in our area and it's all of the hiring teams and and Inter and through interviewing that they understand and and recognize some of the biases that they may have and bring to the table and then streamline update the onboarding process that was um talked about and then we've got this this um third-party Beyond feedback um data that helps us Target our improvements and ways that we can make uh recruiting and hiring and uh retention a lot more effective uh for our work and Beyond any questions for our team first thank you for being here tonight and for for all of that information that's a lot of information for us to digest so I imagine we will have a few questions and looks like Mr aari is first thank you president Matthews thank you for your presentation this evening as well uh it is encouraging to see that 85 to 90% of the folks uh that are applying uh feel very satisfied or satisfied at least satisfied with the procedure and process I was wondering if you could address one more time the J1 Visa program and uh what the current status is I know I I can't remember was it last year that we recognized folks that had come here and just so what's the current uh status of that program sure we did we did make some in investments in a different style and I'll ask Christina GRE to come up and talk about those we do have 11 teachers with us on the J1 exchange program uh they typically will be here anywhere from 3 to 5 years so in this past year we didn't add any new J1 Visa uh we did add one H1B Visa candidate who um works at gy Central it's bringing up a lot tonight she's our Spanish teacher there at gy Central High School Dr kampos spitzy so you answered one of my questions I was wondering who the hb1 Visa was um uh the so just some comments so excited also about the 11 teacher Cadet students and the enthusiasm they're bringing and hopefully will you know um influence their peer group um to be excited about being teachers um and then just wanted to highlight um you know the the disparity between our students their cultural backgrounds and our staff um I believe it was about 64% of our students identify as Latin um Or Hispanic uh and only about 27% of our staff um and that is you know um certified and classified and so I think if we were to look at certified the numbers might be even worse um I you know in the medical field we as a Latina doctor we always talk about the statistic in medicine that only 6% of doctors in the whole country are Latinos um and that obviously doesn't match our country's demographic that's about 20% Latino now much more heavily Latino in gy Evans um so I was curious to look nationally what that percentage is of Latina teachers um and it's it's almost as bad as doctors so there's only 6% of us identify as Latino doctors and in the education field only 9% of teachers in the whole country identify um as Latin um when as I said the demographics just don't match that so um you mentioned there will be more work in being proactive about recruiting a a a teacher or teachers a teacher Workforce um that that shares those lived experiences and cultural backgrounds with our students I'm curious um what kind of things will be done differently than have been done in the past to try to prioritize this group oh thank you that's that's those are good observations and it's things that we talk about ourselves on our own team regularly uh we do uh expand we're extand expanding out this um bias training um the equity team is looking at that we also are looking at how to get uh cultural questions and um addressing some cultural work in our interview teams it's it's spread it's not a consistent across the board but we're working to get that um that helps them see um see a candidate in a different light sometimes whenever they are talking about culture rather than just teaching about talking about teaching or just talking about um any support staff environment but when they have the opportunity to really think and reflect on how they look at culture and how they um explore and um collaborate with people um from a different culture of theirs it really has helped um it's still a lot we still have a lot of work to do do with that so that's those are two things um we consistently our team looks at who is in um who are in our pools and um where we can um Shore up some of the C finding candidates for example looking at some of our programs for at the University level where they have um they have uh students of color um particularly um Hispanic or Latino they where they we're trying to find places that we can go and just build and establish relationships we don't have to always find people at that at those schools we may not want to find people that want to teach but we are there to let them know that there are other jobs that are available in our district that they can choose from um they can look at leadership positions that operational positions anywhere we can get more people of color to come in and represent those students that we have and then finding ways to take those those people to a new place whether they have a degree or whether they um have a new interest in in teaching and working with students side by side with students so hope that helps yeah it is you're right it has it is work that we need to do and we know that we know that M Everton um have a quick question I don't see any other questions from board members but um I know just a lot of our challenges have not a lot to do with us right that we we hit a particular um problem in the economy so we struggled for a long time just to hire bus drivers right because Statewide there was a a shortage of um people with commercial drivers license and then we had a a shortage of subs and I know recently we've been struggling with special education teachers and and trying to find special education teachers what's uh is there anything that should be on our radar coming up as you look out at the the landscape in the state and in the nation like what do you feel like the the next challenge is going to be or is or is there one perhaps there isn't no there's always challenges and that that happens over the course of 30 years that I you know 25 to 30 years that I've been in education there's always something new the thing that we're addressing right now around special education is trying to find out how um we can make the best Workforce for them and in that in that same um same vein we want to look at how we're making our Workforce better for all of our teachers but targeting um some of our clld work where are our clld teachers coming from how do we really make sure that our special education um all the area all the jobs in our special education area feel um supported and valued so I'm not sure that I could say that there's another one on the horizon we've got so much work to do with those two groups right there so okay yeah fair enough thank you Miss Overton sure any other questions from board members comments from board members I don't see any so thank you thank you all for being here tonight we greatly appreciate your presence with us next on our agenda is our public participation as a board we welcome the comments of community members and we are we dedicate a portion to each business meeting to provide an opportunity for the community to present brief comments All speakers are limited to 2 minutes for comments our board members typically will not respond but we may ask our District staff to do so all written testimony or handouts must be submitted to the board secretary Miss Amy lemon we ask all speakers and those in attendance to conduct themselves in a dignified and non-disruptive manner cheering SL snapping clapping and other distractions are not perm minute anyone who disturbs order may be required to sit down or to leave the boardroom speakers are responsible for their own speech and should refrain from profane and obscene remarks all remarks must be suitable for an audience that includes kindergarten through 12th grade students this board is committed to providing a safe environment where all me members of the school Community are treated with dignity and respect and we expect all speakers to exercise their rights speech rights responsibly uh with that read uh our speaker tonight is Miss Angelica Weiss thank you for being here miss Weiss and you'll have two minutes you've turned the mic off in this meeting for words that you didn't like yet I have a long list of teachers that could tell you that they have experienced way worse in the classroom with zero support from the way from the for the discipline from Administration you get to silence the public but teachers just have to take bad Lang and violent Outburst from students and I find that hypocritical the teachers do not feel comfortable asking for help from you because they are afraid of retaliation from the district they have seen what happens when their colleagues have tried parents are afraid to speak too I mean would you want to speak if you get called into the boss's office the next day because someone from the district called to ask you to stop or if you get threatened with CPS if you question what's happening in your child's classroom in my case Michael Matthews you wrote two emails to my church and to what you thought were my husband's superiors please let the listener understand that I had no time have ever spoken on behalf of my church or my husband or even mentioned them I'd like to know what Hoops you jump through to find out that information it was clearly done to silence me and maybe even to an attempt to threaten my family's Financial stability in this this is obviously a history of bullying that has been going on but anyone brings constructive criticism to the district I ask you how do you improve and grow if you silence teachers who are on the front lines the teachers I spoken to want to know why you get to turn the mic off for words that you deem inappropriate while not supporting them for things that are way worse that are happening in the classroom and please don't say that this isn't happening in the classroom because otherwise you'll be calling a lot of teachers Liars please be more supportive to the discipline issue that is in the classroom and reassure teachers that there'll be no uh no longer any more retaliation if they speak out and asking for change thank you thank you Miss Weiss next on our agenda is our consent agenda this is an action item so we'll need a motion I move that the Board of Education agreed have school district 6 approves the items as presented on the consent agenda and authorizes the officers to sign any and all contracts second thank you both any discussion on the consent agenda Dr Campo spitzy I just wanted to comment on how excited I was to see like 10 Avid men or tutors being hired so that made me happy that's all thank you Dr Camp spitzy any other comments on the consent agenda seeing none Miss lemon will you give us a vote please drari hi director Bentley hi director Campos spitzy hi director Mash hi director Matthews hi director Sullivan I motion carries 60 thank you Miss lemon finally on our agenda tonight is our superintendent's contract this also is an action item and we'll need a motion I move that the Board of Education of wel County district 6 approves the superintendent's contract Amendment as presented second thank you all um any discussion on the superintendent's contract I'm not seeing any but but Dr pilch does seem like an appropriate time to say um I mean this one our contract is pretty routine we've already done your your evaluation and nothing much is changing in this contract but um but since we do have the superintendent of the year uh we just say again uh how proud We Are and congratulate you again as we approve this contract Miss lemon will you give us a vote please director Zori hi director Bentley hi director Campo spitzy hi director mes hi director Matthews hi director Sullivan hi motion carry 60 thank you Miss Lem that is all the business that we have tonight thank you all for joining us this meeting is adjourned [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] a [Music] [Music] now [Music]