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Good evening and welcome to the work session for the board of education of Will County School District 6. This meeting will now call to order. Miss Lemon, will you please call the role? Director Azari, present. Director Bentley, present. Director Campos Bitsy. Director Mash, present. Director Matthews,
present. Director Norwood, board members present. All right. Well, thank you all for being here. Sorry we ran a little bit late with our executive session. Um, but there's only four of us here, so our board comments will go a little bit faster. Um, first on our agenda is to
review the calendar. We have a big celebration, Prairie Heights 10-year celebration. Please plan to be there. Um, as well as the Great Education Colorado lunchon and Miss Lemon will need RSVPs for that or I don't know. Is that has that boat sailed? We've already set the
We've already said Okay, that's a great event if you're able to come to that. And then we have our first school visit to Fred Chartis on the 7th at 12:30. Um that will be great to get to see what they're working on this year. Um and
then down towards the end of October, the Weld Community Foundation spread the good lunchon. That will also require an RSVP for Miss Lemon. If your RSVP has changed, please let me know. I have submitted that. Okay. Awesome. Thank you. Um, anything to add?
All right. And we will move along to our board member comments. Uh, Mr. Matthews, would you like to start? Gladly. President Mash. It's been finally we're starting to to do a few more more things. School's up in up and
running. We've had a couple of breakfasts that have been fun. the uh dream team breakfast always so inspirational to to hear from what they're do hear what they're doing but also hear from alumni and superintendent
was honored our superintendent was honored as the educator of the year well welld deserved um then also we had a breakfast this morning with the with the go and appreciate what they provide for the community but especially for for our
students and the ability for uh our students to have a role in that organization and the uh the young orchestra or the youth orchestra that they have. Um to get to hear from them just get appreciate so much the partners
that we have in this community and the way that they they love on our district and love on our students. So thank you Mr. Ozari. Thank you President Mash. I have three items to speak to. The first is uh I agree with um Michael Matthews on the
Gley Filermonic event. Uh it it was a very very well done event. I would like to thank the Madison administration and their staff also for making that school so welcoming and supporting the community members that were coming in to
see that event. Uh my second item is that I'm the board of ambassador to Centennial Elementary and I attended their family engagement night this past week. Uh that there were so many parents there I could barely make it through the
hallways and it was it was just packed. But what struck me even more and I and I hope this is happening throughout our community is the involvement of the community at the event. uh they were there to support the families and the kids like the Gley Filermonic. We have
local businesses and government organizations and nonprofits that directly help our schools with service and support. That night, um I spoke to members from the Gley Police Department that were there making connections, the Evans Police Department, the High Plains
Library District, Sam's Club, Sunrise Community Health, and the Ames Adult Education and ELLL Service were there. In addition, JBS, Chevron, and Welp Food Bank were all recognized for their direct support of that school. So, very
impressive event. Kudos to the Centennial folks for for making their school so welcoming. And finally, I had the honor to ride in the back of a pickup truck along with President Mash at the Gley Central Homecoming Parade.
And uh it was a beautiful day for the homecoming parade. But as uh President Mash knows, I'm glad I didn't fall out of the truck. It almost happened a couple of times, but I'm here to say it was great. We had to stand. We couldn't sit in the
back. That was make it a little more interesting. Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Bentley. Um, yeah, I also attended the U breakfast this morning with the GO and was just a great like Dorne said, it was a great event and very well ran and
u we we definitely are are very lucky to live in a community that's so supportive of all assets of our of our district. So, um that's about all I had. Thank you. Um I attended the um community council on education which is
our partnership with the chamber of commerce and our higher ed as well as district 6 and the focus was on direct admission to UNC. So that's a really exciting um kind of new pilot program. Um our rising seniors receive a an email
in the summertime. Um if they have a met that you know they're on track for graduation and their GPA is greater than 3.0, I know they have automatically been um admitted to UNCC. So, we're excited that this will increase interest,
enrollment, and even um I loved to hear um what's his name? I forget. I'm sorry. The man from from UNCC who was so passionate about Pete Lee. Yes. Um he's passionate about Gley, which is always fun to hear someone who is new to like didn't grow up here um to just celebrate
the the beautiful things about our community. But he was saying, "Of course, we would love all of our students to go to UNCC, but even if it just inspires them that they have been accepted to a university and just broadens their horizons and opens up that um possibility for them that they
could get into other schools as well. Um I just love that um bigger picture um celebration for our students. Um if they get into one university, the sky's is the limit." Um so that was that was a really positive meeting. Um, and then I
also was invited to speak to a career um, exploration class at at Northridge. I got to speak to three classes and just share about my career in nursing. And they asked really great questions, really deep questions. What's the hardest thing about your job? What's your biggest celebration? What would you
do differently? Um, things that I had not necessarily thought of for myself. So, um, and they were just really engaged and that was great. Um, happy homecoming. I think all of our high schools have celebrated homecoming in the last couple of weeks. So, um yeah,
just just fun fun fall time. Um getting into everything. All right, we're still we're we're getting there. We're making up a little bit of time. We would like to welcome our Fulbright scholars and um and hear about their experiences here in District 6. Thank you, President Mash. And uh Mrs.
Overton will join us and do some introduction to this. And while she's making her way, I'd like to just uh recognize Representative Gabe, excuse me, Ryan Gonzalez. I know Ryan Gonzalez, um who is here in in uh in our meeting
tonight. And uh Mr. Bentley and I had an opportunity to be a part of a an event a little earlier and um so I know you've had a long day, but thank you for joining us tonight. Thanks for being our representative. Thank you. We're um glad to be here to talk tonight about the partnership with
the Fulbright and with between Fulbright program and the University of Northern Colorado. That's an exciting program for them. They've had for 16 years now. Um they've hosted a cohort uh the this year currently they have 22 students and
representing 21 countries and so it's a wide group of people from across the across the globe. uh sec typically what they go through um and they'll talk a little bit more about that when they come up here, but they um go through uh six weeks of professional learning here
in Gley. So, they get a chance to really get a flavor for what's in Northern Colorado. Uh there's secondary teachers only from around the from around the globe. they it is a rigorous and highly competitive um group of people that um or the
application processes and then it their application has to go through the embassy and also then uh goes through fullbrite commissions. So it's it is an intensive program uh for them to get in. Many apply and few are accepted. So uh
I'd like to introduce Kate Pearson to come on up and Sergey and Raquel. Both of them will go through a Kate will talk a little bit more. Please come up and uh she'll introduce her team as well. Thank you. Good evening everyone. Thank you for
having us. My name is Kate Pearson. I am the assistant director of custom international programs at the University of Northern Colorado. um and I am this year's co-director of the Fullulbright TEA program. Um we are very excited to
be welcoming 22 participants from 21 countries. Um we are having them at three different uh district 6 schools this year which we're very excited about. We have representatives from Brentwood Middle School and Gley West
High School and we also have uh seven participants who have their placements at uh Gley Central High School. So, they're all very excited to learn from your teachers and the school communities and really get in and be a part of that. Um, they do their field experiences once
a week, every Wednesday throughout the school day. Um, they're paired with a a local host teacher and they get to co-e together and really, you know, learn from our school district, but also have our teachers learning from them. um which is just such a great intercultural
knowledge share that UNC is so proud to facilitate. Um we also have them doing four classes uh while they're on campus. So they take principles of pedigogy. Uh they take English as a foreign language,
social studies and education technology. Um, so our teachers are mostly English language teachers, but we also have a few social studies teachers from around the world with us, as well as one special needs teacher from Malaysia who is with us this year and is our first uh
special needs teacher in any cohort. So, we're very excited to have her learn from the school district and all of the offerings that you have. Um, so I don't think that there's anyone better to talk about the program than the participants themselves. So I am very excited to
introduce uh Raquel who is from Bolivia and then we have Sergey and he is from Latvia and they'll share a little bit more about what brought them to Fulbright, their experiences. Um for most people it's over a year um application process um and visa process
in order to take part in this program. um and a little bit more about what they're expecting to learn during their district 6 placements and what they're hoping to to give to their teachers in return. So, thank you so much for having us again this year. We're very excited
to be here. Um good afternoon. Um my name is Raquel Cru. I'm from Bolivia. Um I'm an English teacher in the rural area of Laas City. Um I am also a founder of Pankarita
which is an organization for empowering young uh people in rural area through education. Um I also do some projects in my country um social projects uh that are related
with education. Right now we are starting a project in Bolivia called Sheigro Sheits that is funded uh by the American embassy in Bolivia. Um I also uh participated in other projects. Um
I'm also um ambassador uh for Bolivia in a youth opportunities organization which is also organization for opportunities for young people and also I'm community leader in aspire leaders program which is also a program
uh from uh Harvard University uh in my country. So um well we are here in the fullbrite uh T program which is uh something really amazing for me. I've applied uh last year. It took me uh one
year to to be here and all the process it took me like one year. Um well uh some of my uh goals here in the full red program is not only learn but also apply all the strategies I
could um learn from my teachers, professors and also my uh with the teacher I'm going to be working in Brenford school and take it to my school in Bolivia which is as I told you is a
rural school. So we need a lot of uh things that we have to develop in my school. So this was perfect for me. I also um uh brought some strategies, English strategies um here. So I'm going to be sharing with
the with the teacher here in Brenwood. Um what I uh what I like I I would like to uh do also is to inspire young people in my country and also here because uh
many things uh can be uh possible if students um just put a lot of effort on it and study and also they they do it because I did it I did many things but
um um I was studying in a public school and also I studied in a in a public university. So uh I got here uh with many scholarships. So um I want to to
inspire young people that they can um they can uh like achieve their goals with their own effort. Yeah. So it's not just education for me it's also inspiration what brought me here to be a fullbrite to be in the fullbrite tea
program. Thank you. Hello everyone. Does it work? Yeah. I'm very grateful for being invited to this uh board um session. My name is Sergey Ianov. I am an English as a foreign language and cultural studies
and theory of knowledge IB theory of knowledge teacher uh in Latvia which is a small coastal country in northeastern Europe. Um yes and um I have applied for this program I think um one year and a
half ago in March 2024. So it took me one year and a half to get here. It's my first time in America. It's my first visit to the states in United States of America and uh and it's it's our well 10th I think it's 10th or ninth day here in America and uh yeah the emotions and
the impressions and the insights I get uh they are absolutely outstanding every day I learn something new about American way of life about how how um also how school districts how they manage and govern education here in Latia in
comparison we have a centralized education system. So here in America it's uh decentralized and school districts yeah get to decide on many things. So I'm getting to know uh your education system and also I was um sent
to I was allocated uh to uh Gilly West High School and uh which is an amazing amazing fantastic huge building with amazing students and uh yeah and fantastic teachers. Um we had only one day of field experience there. So, we
have five more days to go. Every Wednesday, we go there from 7:00 a.m. till 3:00 p.m. We fullbrite scorers, we uh we soak up the uh we soak in the uh all that we can get our hands to uh uh in our schools. So, yeah. And um um a
few more facts about me. This is the school where I work at in uh Latvia. So, I am uh the school situated in the capital of Latia Ria. So maybe some of you have been to that part of Europe. Um yeah, it's right in the middle in the
heart of Ria. As you can see, there are churches and towers in the background and historical buildings. Yeah. So it's a very well very pretty beautiful advantageous location for many of our students and our students are uh very rigorous and
high driven because our school has a special status of so-called gymnasium which is not what what what you probably have thought about. It's not a gym. Yeah. Because yeah in America gymnasium it's a gym place where people work out. In Europe, um even though the word has
the same roots, but in Europe, it has a slightly different meaning. Gymnasium is a secondary or high school that prepares students for academic uh uh for the academics for university. So therefore, our school is um mostly made up of students who are uh who are ready to
embark on this uh highly demanding journey and to prepare for universities. We're also required by the state to perform um slightly better than all the other schools which is a bit of a you know discrepancy but still yeah this is a place where I work uh at and um yeah
what brought me here uh what made me apply for this program for fullbrite uh teacher excellence achievement program is well first of all I would like to um I would like to um u better and improve my u teaching competence and in many
many different ways. by first of all by learning learning and maybe refreshing the theory which we can which which we do in the classes in the university. Yeah. In all those courses um and then also to getting this hands-on experience
in in my school in Gley West High School learning from the from the colleagues, learning from the other teachers also seeing and observing the classes and the students how they learn and what they learn and um and how the things are done here. And then also I hope to bring
something uh from my perspective uh to the school where I where I where I now placed at the Gilly West High School. Uh I'm I have really big huge plans for the classes that we will co-e with the teacher who was um assigned for me to me
and uh I wish to also try out some new methodologies, new methods in um in teaching English as a foreign language. uh as a second language in this case because yeah in in G really high school that's what the subject is called English as a second language. Um so yeah
those are my expectations my goals and I'm really looking forward to uh bettering my teaching competence and uh sharing something from my experience with you with with the co- teachers in gy west with the students and also
taking away from this amazing journey taking some insights methods ideas away back to Latia to make Latia uh at least locally well where I work in a place where I work a better case and um yeah, thank you.
Thank you both for being here and for sharing your your journey to get here. And so you're kind of at the beginning you have five more weeks here. Is that correct? Yeah. So like six weeks in the schools. Very cool. Um you will see you'll see them um all of
them will be coming to the next board meeting or the board meeting um October 13th. Okay. They'll be coming and um observing. That's one of the things that they do when they come here is to observe a schoolboard meeting. And so they'll all come that night. Nobody will be necessarily speaking, but they'll at
least be observing all the work that you all do. Um well, I'll open it up to questions. I'll think of some. I was um going to ask I think in the past we've asked sort of like what is and you're at the very beginning but um maybe one thing that
you are impressed with or that you hope to take back and then one one thing that maybe you think we could improve on and if it's too early to tell that's okay too. What? Um, well, one thing that I like
here from GI is that there are very friendly people. So, I'm going to take this also um many pictures because it's very different from my country. But it I uh learning a lot. Um I would like to
improve also um yeah as Sergey said uh some of the theory uh that sometimes we as teachers forgot forget. Yeah. Um and also I would like to improve that and uh to um go to
my country and also um help my my colleagues as teachers. Thank you. Well, I will take away a few specific things. First of all, I I will say thank you and excuse me way more often back in Latia because this is what I noticed here in America. People say people are
lovely and friendly and welcoming. People say thank you and excuse me way more often than in my country. Yes, that's true. That's true fact. Yes. And they smile more also. Here people smile way more often than in my country. This is those are the uh more kind of a physical cultural things that
I would like to pick up myself and take away. Yes. And uh from my teaching experience and from the classes which we have in the university. Well, I will definitely take away well I already I'm already almost almost finished my notebook. It's
already full of notes from the classes. So there are so many things which either as you uh as Rael said either we have forgotten as teachers from the university times what we learned the principles of pedagogy maybe some approaches teaching approaches and
methodologies. Yeah. Maybe we uh went heavy on one particular approach in our classrooms as a habit and we forgot about the others. So those things are definitely definitely will come away will be taken away uh from this experience with me with my notes and notebooks and notes from the classes as
well as uh yeah how I'm really curious. I haven't uh I haven't seen many classes yet in Gilly West but I would like to see uh as many as I can also taught and delivered by other teachers. I have my co-teer but he was uh friendly enough well he was welcoming and he offered me
to see other classes uh delivered by his colleagues in high school high school uh teachers so I'd like to see how um well what approaches and methods the teachers use uh what what strategies they employ in engaging students in motivating them
sustaining their motivation and uh giving feedback to them how strict or how mild they are in communication with the students how formal informal they are in their style of communication with their students. So all those things even though I do have my own um because I've been teaching for about five years I do
have already my own kind of established habits and styles back in Latia but still uh uh those things are uh they uh well you should never shut shut down your mind but be open to alternative
visions and ways of teaching which I'm really really hoping to get from uh my experience in Gley West. Thank you. questions from other board members. Sergey, you mentioned uh that you taught
theory of knowledge in an IB school. Is that correct? That's correct. Have you gotten to witness the theory of knowledge class uh yet at Gley West? And and how does the class compare? Not yet. Not yet. because the we only had one day there uh the first
introduction day when we uh had a tour around the school and I saw one class of ESL told by my co-teer and then we had a friendly chat with them um after the class. So that's all I got to see. So uh but I'm really hoping to see more and uh
I've been teaching T only for one year. I'm a freshman, a fresher. So, so I'm I'm I'll be glad to steal some ideas from more experienced teachers once I get the opportunity. So, maybe next Wednesday or, you know, in the following weeks.
Yeah. Will either of you have the opportunity to um observe or participate in any of the like extracurricular sporting events or um I was going to tell you, especially Sergey, this next Friday is the big cross town rivalry football
game. Down. Yeah, between Gley West and Gley Central, but um I know there's a lot of um athletics at Brentwood as well um to round out your experience. Well, thank you for sharing your perspectives.
Yeah. And keep doing it and um it's good for our kids to have you in working with them so that they can have they can see a more global vision of the world as well. So, thank you. Um yeah and please share
with with your host teachers as well things that you like the way you do in your country that we could also improve upon you know definitely the sharing of this perspective. So may I say something? Yes please. A few more comments. So basically what what we have planned and I've talked with my colleagues from uh the other
participants of this of this course what they're going to do with the students in their schools at the schools here in America. uh and um uh well uh obviously most of us will do a country presentations which is a very good uh which could be a useful way of
introducing the students to uh uh uh countries different from their own and cultures different from their own and this the phrase that you mentioned global perspective this phrase this key phrase is very uh frequent in the guidelines which we received from from
uh from Fulbright from Irex uh what is supposed to expected to do with the students here in America. So we are one of the outcomes for us is to uh uh show those global perspectives to the students and uh to show them that uh yeah uh um there are many different
cultures cultures out there and we are um yeah and they the students are now at advantage because we have come from all those countries from around the globe to um first of all to show our best intentions uh and to
yeah make our friendship between our countries, our countries in America stronger and to show the students the global perspectives on on the on the world. So yeah, that's what uh what we're going to do is to introduce them to our countries, our cultures. Um one one activity which I which I have in
mind is uh comparing contrasting European and American culture. So what we have or sharing have in common, what we share, what is different. For example, coins are different. Yeah. So in Europe on on European coins you have this digit uh how how how much the coin
is worth€12 in America you have other symbols and you have to read closely what it says there on the coin yeah so is it 50 p or something else it's a quarter which is quite interesting you know very small cultural observation that's cool yeah that's actually cool to
teach about those those things and one more thing which I have in mind is I have brought with me 44 letters from my students to American students. So I have asked three of my classes to write um uh rather informal friendly letters to uh
an American stranger. Yeah. Some students in American school. So they're going to uh students in Gy West are going to read those letters and they're going to respond to them. They're going to write them back to my students. uh which uh and those letters I will take with me back to Latia and um probably
even uh when I return back we may even uh um make a live session on Zoom for example via via Zoom between my school and and Gley West to talk about uh how we live in our countries, the way of life, our cultures and norms and morals
and values and hobbies and sports we uh we play and so on. So this those are the activities which I have in mind and many of my colleagues also they're going to do something similar. So thank you. Well well thank you so much for being here and best wishes in the next five
weeks and we'll see you at the next meeting. Yes. Thank you. Last on our agenda is our CASBY resolutions. Thank you, Miss Paul. Wow, a military stack. Thank you, President Mash. Dr. Pilch,
members of the board. Uh, my name is Nate Fall. I'm legal counsel for the school district. Um, we are going to talk through the Colorado Association of School Boards delegate assembly resolutions. We're doing this a little bit different. This is more of just a
fact info session. We didn't opine on a particular side opposition or support for any of these resolutions in advance of the delegate assembly. Uh there were a number of resolutions that were moved forward. So we're just going to I'm just
going to speak to those. Uh certainly if you have any questions, let me know. This is what CASBY is going to be moving forward. So, just as a reminder, every year the CASBY delegate assembly meets, they discuss proposed legislative policy action for the upcoming general assembly
session. These are usually pretty broad topics. Generally though, those resolutions are brought by school districts with very specific issues that their school districts are facing that they are hoping to get some bills forward in front of lawmakers uh to
hopefully make changes to the law for the upcoming year. But the delegate assembly does review those kind of district specific resolutions that are proposed uh and they can propose them as a body through CASBY. So, um, unless you
have any questions on that, I'll just get straight to it. Uh, if you go to the small packet that I shared with you, uh, starting on page five, you can see past 2025 legislative resolutions. The larger packet, these
were the proposed resolutions that the delegate assembly looked at. There's a lot more information on these past resolutions that you can refer to at another time, but I just wanted to share that with you in case you were curious and wanted to read a little bit more for
what they were actually reviewing. So, uh, legislative resolution number one is a pretty much an annual resolution that CASBY moves forward and that's essentially to commit to not having
unfunded mandates. uh provided upon school districts. So we know for example accessibility laws, this is not unique to school districts in Colorado, but this is certainly something that is unfunded, something that we've spent a tremendous amount of time and money working on to make sure
that our uh information communication technology ICT is accessible to individuals with disabilities. I can also speak to record sharing laws that were passed last year. Mandatory trainings, for example, are a common
one. I often get blamed for, which I'm okay getting blamed for all the mandatory trainings we have. But right now, we have seven, I believe, six or seven trainings that all staff have to take at the beginning of the year. And it's a huge headache to get the staff to
take all those trainings in time for school or find time leading up to September to get all those trainings done and that's just a huge hassle. So CASBY again year after year pleased with the general assembly to stop requiring these unfunded mandates. And that's
certainly something that I would recommend we support and something that uh as legislation or proposed bills are being pushed forward. That's certainly something that I'm looking into uh to determine whether or not those are bills that we want to oppose moving forward. Um I think another thing that's not
really included in this are timelines. This is something we haven't seen so much in the past, but usually bills will say by September 1st of the next year, you must do X or you must do Y. And that usually doesn't give us enough time uh to make sure that we're fully in
compliance by that date. And certainly something that I'll be looking at in future proposed legislation to make sure that we have enough time to catch up to any new changes to the law. And you can stop me uh as we're moving if you have questions. If not, I'll just
keep moving forward. The second uh legislative resolution two uh is really a voucher issue. Again, this is really what CASBY is proposing and they are opposing any uh school vouchers um or any legislation that expands voucher programs. Colorado is
not one of the states that has a voucher program. We know that there are, I think, 20 states right now that have some version of a voucher program in the United States. Uh CASBY has always been opposed uh to voucher programs and they
continue to be in this instance. Legislative resolution number four. This is coming from uh rural districts looking into the implementation of House Bill 251310. We know that was this changes made to the school finance act. Uh, a lot of
that came from last year where the general assembly extended the the time frame for when those full changes will be implemented into the school finance act. Uh, we know that our rural districts are going to be hit the hardest uh when it comes to these
potential changes. And so this resolution really, if you turn to the next page on page six, you can see exactly what CASBY's recommending. Uh and ultimately it's kind of a review panel to see how these changes to the school finance act might affect rural
districts the most. Uh and depending on kind of what impacts are made to rural districts um providing some forms of relief to rural districts in particular to ensure that they're still getting the funding that they need to support the students that they have. Uh given that
we know that in in some rural communities enrollment is going down. uh which is certainly a huge proponent of school the school finance act and so if enrollment is going down they're going to be getting less funding and these districts are already kind of struggling
with the fi financial resources that they have uh and therefore uh CASBY's aim is to make sure that those districts are still protected under local governance legislative resolution six this one came from uh Adams 12 just so you know and they're
wanting to modify mental health residential facilities law. Uh and so really what happened here is in Adams 12, I'm not sure exactly what town it was in, they opened up a uh residential facility for sex offenders uh very close to a school. Uh and that was of course
very concerning to the community in Adams 12. And so they want to make sure that there are safeguards regarding distance restrictions for um housing sex offenders. Again, this is one of those resolutions that's specific to a school district, but certainly I think would
benefit all school districts by having uh this type of legislation out there. And I know I'm moving quickly, but just in the interest of time, legislative resolution 7. This uh has to do with charter school appeals. Um, and this is
to kind of take some of that authority away from the state board of education, which currently kind of operates as a quasi judicial appeal authority for um, charter applications. For example, if a school charter if a group wants to open a charter school in a community and that
local authorizer denies that chartering um, request, then they can appeal that to the state board of education who can override the local authorizer. uh we are an authorizer in our community for the charter schools. We haven't really dealt with this issue. I think we have a
really great relationship with all of our charter schools in this community. Um but certainly this seems to be an issue because and and I just pulled some some data. This is from a chalkbeat article that over the last three years uh the state board of education has cited with charters on all but two
cases. Um, and so I think that for local governing authorities, this is becoming a bit of a concern that the state board of education isn't really taking into account that local control piece when it comes to making decisions that best serve that local community. Are are you seeing this um potentially
moving forward that this could actually be a thing that the legislators are going to be looking at? It's it's possible. Um, I haven't personally heard of of what school districts are working with, what specific lawmakers and what that law or
that bill might look like, but um, certainly uh, as with any case, I think local control is a major piece uh, in Colorado and certainly giving as much local control to you, the board of education, and making those decisions that best serve your community is always
at top of mind for CASBY. So, I wouldn't be surprised if we see some legislation this year or proposed legislation this year uh to address this issue. Okay. Uh again, this isn't necessarily something that we've encountered in this community, but certainly I know that
there are I think a Durango school district actually proposed this particular resolution. So, maybe something happened there. Legislative res. Mr. V, can I ask a question? Do we know where charter schools um are on this
particular piece of legislation? Um it's a good question. Yeah, because I know when we've when we've had um I'm thinking of the last instance where the school was looking at being chartered here, our greatest concern was
how it would impact our other charter schools. And so I I didn't know maybe how charter schools felt about about that. You know, I I you know, I think at least right now perhaps charter schools may not be super in support of
legislation in this regard, but you know, depending on how the partisan makeup is of the state board of education. If they begin to start siding more with local um chartering authorities more rather than the charter schools themselves, then maybe charter
schools will want local control, more local control, right? And so, you know, it just kind of depends on who's on the state board of education and who's making those decisions. So, I think right now perhaps charter schools might be really appreciating or the folks that want to have charter schools might be
really appreciating where the state board of education has been, but perhaps if there's a change in the tide, they might want more local control. Um, it's possible they might just want a whole different appeal process altogether. Maybe just a standalone appeal board
perhaps might be another option. I think our local charters uh they may differ than say the Charter School Institute on this or the League of Charter Schools simply because we're pretty saturated with charters and and to your point um
Director Michaels or Director Matthews uh excuse me um to your point it has typically been the reaction of our our existing charters that um they do not desire a greater number of charter schools. in district 6 because
they, you know, they they know we're pretty saturated with charters and to add another charter school would possibly pull enrollment off of their schools. So, they have they they they have been pretty content with the numbers of charters we have, unlike other communities where it's been very
difficult to get a charter school to open and operate in some of our neighboring districts. Gotcha. Thank you. But we can ask them. We can ask our charter schools. Yeah.
When there isn't currently legislation, this is a CASBY res resolution to pursue it. So, more information in the future. Uh, legislative resolution nine. This is an interesting one. I believe this is proposed by St. Rain Valley School
District to uh again restore local control over the uh professional practice component of teacher evaluations. They want to make it so that there uh is that boards of education, for example, can develop their own standards for
teacher evaluations because at least the current system was last developed. I think it was 2010 was when so Senate Bill 1019 is the current teacher evaluation system when that was developed. So it's 15 years old, right? Um and we know that it
there are some positives to the current evaluation system, but there are certainly some drawbacks to it. I think if anything they're just wanting to look at uh updating the current evaluation system, but right now the way they proposed it is to kind of allow local boards of education to develop their own
evaluation systems. I think that there are some potential challenges with teacher transfers from one district to another and knowing if they're effective in this school district, might they be effective in this other school district. So certainly there would be some guardrails that would need to be put in place, but I think if anything uh it's
just to put a an eye towards revising the current system for teacher evaluations and then uh under other legislative resolution 10, this is to establish nonpartisan elections for members of the Colorado State Board of Education. I
think it logically follows uh that local boards of education are nonpartisan. you all ran not on party lines. Uh but currently the state board of education for whatever reason does run on party lines. Um and so they would like to establish some legislation that would
make it so that state board of education members uh would also run on nonpartisan lines. And then the last uh resolution, this actually came on the floor, so I don't have a ton of information about it, but what I can say, and I'll just read it, is CASBY supports an amendment to the
Colorado Constitution exempting state money appropriated for school finance from local Taber reserve requirements. Um, so what I can say is right now there's a double Taber reserve. And so right now under Taber, the state of
Colorado must maintain an emergency reserve of at least 3% of it its budget, which includes education. Um, and then after the state appropriates these funds to local school districts, uh, districts must also reserve 3% of their budget,
uh, which includes the state funds that they receive. So it's kind of a double reserve, which could be up to 6% of a budget that you're receiving every year. And so they want to exempt that local that second 3% so it's not kind of a
double reserve if that makes any sense. Um I can get more information on that but that's the best I can do for you right now. Um that is everything. This is a pretty short list of resolutions. I think this really ties into that first one that we
talked about about unfunded mandates. I think people are getting a little bit tired of all the legislation that's been coming forward and kind of enforcing school districts to do this and do that and change um everything that we're doing. So um I think if anything we just kind of want to see a little bit less
legislation placed on school districts. Um I do appreciate that Representative Gonzalez is in the room tonight. I'm certainly willing to work uh with with you more this year um as we're seeing more bills come out. Um, and it's great just to see uh lawmakers here supporting
this school district. So, um, if we don't have any other questions, that's that's everything I have for you. Thank you, Mr. Fall. Thank you. All right, we will quickly debrief the work session and enjoy dinner prepared
by our nutrition services. Let's see. Mr. Chazari, would you like to go first? Sure. Again, welcome to the um uh scholars that have come here on the fullbrite. Uh it's it's great having you here in our community and we love
hearing your insights and u represent representative Gonzalez, thank you also for being here uh on the CASBY resolutions. I'm once again I'm glad we have an attorney because when he says he's confused with something, you know
where we stand. So, uh, you know, I look forward to hearing more about some of these and trying to figure out what they actually say. So, thank you, Mr. Matthews. Yeah, just again, thank you to our
Fulbright scholars for being here tonight. Thank you to Representative Gonzalez for being here. Um, I appreciate the the info, Mr. Fall. Thank you, Mr. Bettton. Yeah, Ditto. Yeah, it was good meeting. Thank for uh everything you guys do day
in day out. Yes. Thank you to our guests. Thank you for sharing your experience. And I hope maybe I'll run into some of you after we've been here a little bit longer to hear a little more about your experience. Um and thank you Mr. Gonzalez. Um yeah, and thank you for the
res resolutions update. I see there are a couple that look like they were tabled. Um, so I don't know if they will discuss them again at the December meeting, but we can look into those as well. Yeah. All right. This portion of the meeting is adjourned. See you at the
business meeting. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]
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