--------- Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. Heat. Heat. Pink. Aha. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Oh, heat, heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat.
Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Woohoo! Yeah!
Hey. Hey. Heat. Heat. Happy birthday to you. Heat. Heat. Yeah. Heat. Heat. Heat.
Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Come on. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat.
Heat up here. Heat. Heat. Love those too. Good afternoon and welcome to the work session for the board of education of Gley Evans School District 6. This meeting will now come to order. Miss Lemon, will you please
call the role? Director Zari, present. Director Bentley, present. Director Campos Spitzy, present. Director Mash, present. Director Matthews, Director Norwood, Director Sullivan, board members, present. Thank you very much. The first item on our agenda is our
calendar review and community engagement. And we are to the time of year of all of the celebrations, all of the graduations. Um, I also see the Frontier House breakfast. Um, and hopefully we have all
given our attendance notifications to Miss Lemon. Oops. Do you need anything else for us um, regarding graduations at this point, Miss Le? I think all of our traditional graduations have been um, RSB2. Thank
you. Great. Um, let's see. Then we will have one more board me board meeting in June, June 9th. We canled our second meeting in June. There's also the Pter Learning
Center solstice dinner. That's a really fun event um to raise money for the PLC. And then don't forget GAP graduation a little later in June. And um President Mash, I'll just remind you all that the transition end of year
celebration is Wednesday and it it's out at the um old Jefferson High School, the Jefferson Junior campus at the access center. So okay, you come in the side on the south side and that's where it was last year yeah it's where it was last
year for those of you last year. Okay, if you're able to attend Any other comments on the calendar? Okay, we will move on to a small number of board member comments and reports.
Dr. Campos, you want to start? Yeah. So, jotted five things down I wanted to report on. Um, one was I had the honor of being selected as the keynote speaker for Centennial uh, Centennial Bosses this year. Um, the celebration was
honoring all of their high school graduates, but it was also honoring students in K through 12, so littles um, who had just been recognized as outstanding um, by their teachers. Um, so a really cool night. It was the first time I've been asked to write a keynote
in English and Spanish. Um, for those of you not super familiar with BOSES, um, they support our students who come from, uh, agricultural families, not just in district 6, but across the northern region. Um, so we had kids from Pter and
Windsor and, um, all over school districts. Gley, uh, district 6 is by far the most represented. Um, we had the largest group of students at the at the celebration. Um, and just a really great time. Um, I also got to attend Boys and
Girls Club Elegant Night along with director Azari, um, and Dr. Pilch and a lot of our other staff. Um, I think two things that stuck out about this award night. Well, maybe three. One is the keynote speaker was excellent. He is a
student at Jefferson High School. Um, just had I he got a standing ovation at the end of his his keynote. Um, just made us very proud at our D6 table. Um, and then they introduced a new award in Elegant Night called the um, Hearts and
Hands Award. Uh, and it was started in honor of John Hayley because, um, he leads with his heart, but he also gets his hands dirty and gets the job done. Um, so I really loved that John Hafley was honored in that way. And then
lastly, uh, there's a competition during elegant night called Heads or Tails. Um, and I actually won. I know. It was crazy. I know. That's like That's awesome. So, that was cool. Um, we got to visit Jackson Elementary
this last week. It was really cool cuz they organized us to come into the kindergarten classes and then the fifth grade classes and and no grades in between. And so it was really fun to see kids, you know, starting to learn their letters and and how to sound them out
and then jump to fifth grade where you have these students giving us these eloquent presentations um on athletes who have um driven social change. A lot of African-American athletes were represented as well as others um like Simone Biles and uh Jesse Owens and um
they just presented so well. So, it was just really fun to see them at the beginning and at the end of their K through five um career. And yeah, Jackson's doing amazing things. I thought one point of conversation during our kind of debrief at the end uh was
prompted by a question Director Mash asked about their English language learners because that school in particular um has a lot of English language learners. They have about 500 kids. Um, and almost all of them are uh from the boundary and not open enrollment. But she asked if it was
easier to get the kids in kindergarten who were English language learners um because we can like help mold them and and all that or if that was easier than getting a a child in fourth grade. Um, and the answer was surprising to me even
um from the CLLD teacher um who who does culturally and linguistically diverse work. And she said, "Actually, sometimes the fourth graders are easy be easier because their L1 or their primary language is so strong and they already have their grammar and vocabulary um that they're able to transfer those
skills to English. Um whereas sometimes with our kindergarteners um they're coming with ln none. Um and so it's it can be even harder work. So, just interesting to see it from their lens and always appreciate how much work goes
into um into making sure all of our kids are are served at our schools, including our English language learners. Um I think a highlight for all of us was the retirement celebration. Um we got to celebrate teachers who put in even 40
years in our district, which just blows my mind. Um, I wish I I didn't do the math of if you tallied all the years we celebrated. Uh, but it was definitely in the maybe 400 or maybe 300 range. Maybe I'm not great at math. Um, but it was it was a wonderful
night and it reminded me that Dr. Pilchi started that tradition when you came here, the retirement celebration, right? Um, and I just think how important for somebody to be recognized after that long of a career, you know, 20 plus years uh career in our district. So, um
just a really great night. And then lastly, today at noon, my Rotary Club, um we have a tradition where during our meetings, um you can put a dollar in an envelope if you're going to share a happy moment. Um and these will range
from a grandchild was born to, you know, I have a high school graduate. Um just any kind of celebration and a dollar goes in an envelope. Um, and now that the year has been up, the dollars, it was decided to buy books for our um, public schools and we got to distribute
them. Um, I only participated in one distribution this morning at Centennial um, but in uh, four of our other schools. Um, just really cool. Shout out to Rotary. Thank you. I made up for everybody who didn't. There you go. You covered you
covered a lot. How about you, Mr. I appreciate Dr. Brenda's uh comprehensive report. I don't need to speak much more about the Boys and Girls Club event, the visit to Jackson or the retirement celebration. Just congratulations to all of our retiring staff members and for
all their hard work over the years or year uh that they have put into the school district. I did attend the Gley Central Arts Magnet Gayla uh and uh being a former staff member at Central, it's it's always near and dear to my heart. But uh uh it's it's nice to see
so many great things happening in all of our schools and our high schools. And uh shout out to all our young performers and our GCHS staff and for the civic center staff for all their help and support of the school district. It's really appreciated. And finally, I had
the opportunity as the board director affiliated with our wellness committee uh to go to their final meeting on May 6th. And I just wanted to do a short report out on on three um pieces of data uh that they shared uh with me. Uh I
cannot answer any questions concerning this. All I can do is report out. Uh so what they said is that uh they were reporting out on policy goal number four of our school wellness policy which concerns staff wellness. The wellness committee's philosophy is that staff
wellness is student wellness and in that regard we are doing very well in comparison to the state's data. Uh 100% of our schools have a wellness champion staff member which is 25 percentage points higher than the state average and
our staff have opportunities to participate in health screenings at 100% of our schools which is almost 50% higher than the staff average. But the wellness committee has determined and ha is asking that we look into providing
more opportunities for professional development regarding fatigue and burnout for our employees. So um outside of that that's that's it mash. So thank you. Thank you.
Uh personally I've had a while a couple weeks so I didn't get to attend much. I've been traveling a bunch for work. I did get to go to the PLC room dedication for John Hayilly. I guess it was for John and Delia, right? It wasn't for both of them. Um that that was really touching to see the the art that that
artist created and and just to hear the story of the the history of the PLC and and all that stuff, too. So, um that was about all I got to do and just looking forward to graduation, wrapping up the school year for my personal life and for for the
school district life. Yeah. Are you experiencing that having a senior is like a another part-time job? Yeah, it's it's like having a stranger in my house that I don't want there anymore. Just just supporting them. It's like, you know, those people that have squatter issues. I I have that same
issue. I don't ever see them, but there's a whole of mess and they always texting me for money. Oh my goodness. That never ends. Anyway, that might be lifelong. Um, I also enjoyed the Pter
Learning Center room dedication and just would encourage anyone who hasn't been out to the Pter Learning Center. I I took my dog out there for a walk. Um, they've just done such a beautiful job of um working to have native grasses, native plants. I I remember when my kids
went there with the French chartis um they did they did a number of field trips there. they would talk about, well, this plant is beautiful, but it's a noxious weed and it's going to take over. And um just when I was there this last week, it it's really beautiful. All those things I think have been been
taken care of. Um and then yeah, the piece of art that was designed is very thoughtful representing the Hel's love of fishing and I think it has their hands again, get their hands dirty in the soil and so go check that out. Um I
also attended the Gley Central Gayla and was honored to be um the welcome speaker. Um the the MC's were in character from Legally Blonde. So I got a very enthusiastic oh my god um introduction which was a lot of fun.
Again just so impressive um their orchestra, their choir, their jazz band. I just feel like you could you could hire any of them for for your wedding or your your event. Um, so congratulations to them and just continue congratulations to all of our students.
I've attended the league track meet and a last chance track meet that had 90 schools. Continue to be impressed with just excellent sportsmanship. You know, the the Gley West, Greley Central kids are running each other down on the track and then they high-five each other and go
hang out, you know, between events. Uh my son took his AP statistics test and I wanted to also thank all of the teachers who spent their Saturdays doing AP test exam prep. My son went at least three times for three hours. I mean that's
like a whole extra couple of days of work and um I think it made all the difference. So um I really very much appreciate that and the retirement celebration. Um, yeah. I just feel like we don't
celebrate things enough and thank people enough and say positive things enough in in our world. So, anytime we can celebrate someone's um hard work and dedication, we should do it. So, thank you for your comments. Um, and then Dr.
Pelch, did we decide to switch and maybe start with the legislative updates? That's up to you. Um, whatever you'd like to do, we're ready to go either way. Yeah. Um I feel like that one might be a little easier to catch up seeing as
they're updates as opposed to something brand new as opposed to if someone comes in the middle of the facility audit. I think all of you have seen this except for uh director Sullivan actually she was not able to come in to to get some
prelude to this and so I think it would be if we can wait for her that's probably a great idea. Okay. Well, then if Mr. Fall is prepared to go next, that would be great. Thank you. Do you staple these, Nathan? I Yes. Did
you're not type A. I like it. Thank you, President Bash and members of the board. Dr. Pilch, my name is Nate Paul and M House legal counsel for the school district. Um, this is just a run through of all the bills that passed and didn't pass and then we'll spend a little time at the
end to talk about school finance. Um, if there's something specific on here, please let me know and I can let you know where it's at. So, let's just go through the bills that did pass. The first one is House Bill
251075 regulates speech language pathology assistance. Um, I I put on this sheet uh in bold what my perspective is on what we need to do about this. And for this bill, I don't think there's any action the district needs to take. This is they there was a carveout specifically for school-based
uh speech language pathology assistance. And so, we can just continue to do what we've always done with those folks. House Bill 251135, communication devices in schools, that's the phone ban bill, requires us to adopt a policy. We already have a policy, so we don't need
to take any action with this bill. House Bill 251149, comprehensive black history and culture education in K12. We didn't talk about this bill, but it did pass. Uh, so the state board of education is going to adopt standards on black historical and cultural studies. Uh once
they do that then we need to adopt those standards as well. Uh probably into social studies. So uh essentially we will just need to wait for the state board to adopt those standards and then we will adjust our curriculum as needed. And I'm recogniz I'm moving quickly but there's a lot to discuss
here. So house bill 251 1152 tech excel accessibility liability contract that um has not been signed yet. It's possible the governor puls may veto this bill. Um but really what we need to do is update contracts and that's really more interesting for me. But just know that
that bill what it does is it um creates a little bit of protection from liability if any of our technology is not accessible in accordance to those digital accessibility rules. Uh that's specific to to school districts as well.
House Bill Oh, I'm sorry. I was going to say we worked really hard to get up to the level of that more recent law, right? Because didn't there already something REU was passed recently that increased that accessibility, right? Like is that I feel like Myers was
working on our website. Yeah, there was a there was a bill in 2021 that was set to go into effect last July, July 1st, and they extended that one year um to July 1st, 2025 of this year. Um, and so we need to be in full compliance with
those digital accessibility standards. They are also making revisions to the rules themselves that will come out June 30th, so the day before. It's a little bit it's it's creating a little bit more
um I would say it's it's creating a little making a little bit easier for archive documents. our financial department has a lot of documents online that they are required by law to have uploaded to make those documents accessible is it's insane. Um and so we
don't need to do that according to the new rules they're archive. So um but this just creates so when we enter into an agreement with a vendor then we can include language that they'll indemnify us for any um technology that's not accessible so
that we can go back after the vendor if we are ultimately sued. Um that would require a lot of work on our part and so you know whether or not we want to do that but it just creates a little bit more teeth in our contracts. Okay. Thank you. Uh, House Bill 251188, mandatory
reporter task force recommendations. I'm also not sure if we talked about this bill, but there were a few changes for mandatory reporters. We know that here in District 6, all employees are mandatory reporters. I even uh take the position that you all as board directors
are also mandatory reporters as well. Um, certainly uh in some of your professions, you're probably mandatory reporters. But the significant changes that came through this task force uh is that you have to make a report within 24 hours. Now before the law said immediately make a report and it was a
little bit up for um debate on how long immediately is. They've now clarified that to mean 24 hours once you receive notice that a child is potentially been subjected to abuse or neglect. And then the other change is pretty significant
is that it exempts any um suspected abuse and neglect that occurs outside of your professional capacity. So there was a Colorado Supreme Court case or it might have been an appellet court case in 2017 where a teacher uh had known about child abuse at her home uh and
never reported it because it was in her personal life that this was happening. And she was later fired. This happened in Pter. I I believe it was Pter but she was later fired for that. Um and uh at the time they had agreed, the court had agreed that when you're a mandatory
reporter, you're 247 um on and so now they've made an adjustment. If it's occurring outside your professional capacity, then you don't need to report. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah. Um maybe Dr. Bilch can answer this. Who produces our cart training video? Is that an internal or
do we hire an outside agency to do that? We we do that. We do it. We do it. So it's easy to control and easy for us to update. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So we'll and that that's kind of the recommendation is we'll we'll just need to make changes to our car training. But yeah, we kind of collectively all work on that car
training and update it every year. Um so yeah, Dr. Pel, is there an extra handout for Miss Sol? Oh, the next bill is House Bill 25192. That's financial literacy graduation
requirement. So, thank you. Two things. The fast school requirement goes into effect the 2728 school year. There are exemptions, but there is an expectation that you create individualized plans for all students. And that as part of that individualized plan, they're given the opportunity to complete a FAFSA. Uh they
don't have to if they are exempt, which the exemptions are pretty broad. If essentially if you don't want to do it, you can just opt yourself out. The other piece to this is that we can integrate into an or like current course that we already have or we can develop a new
course uh that incorporates the existing financial uh literacy requirements that already exists in statute. So I don't know if we have curriculum already that has incorporated the financial literacy standards. Um if not, we'll just need to develop a course, but we can we can
identify a course that currently exists that aligns with those financial literacy. The financial literacy standards, as my understanding is they're not changing. So the existing standards um do um are addressed and do exist in our elementary mathematics curriculum and then in our high school
United States history curriculum andi US history is a requirement for graduation. So, every student accesses the financial literacy coursework through the United States history course, typically their
sophomore or junior year. And my reading is that it's it's pretty differential to school districts to creating those courses. So, I think that it's going to be a lot more flexible than we had originally anticipated. Uh the next bill, House
Bill 251210. This is data reporting requirements for K through 12 schools. This is really just stream streamlining and centralizing certain data points that we have to share with the state and with the federal government. Uh so hopefully this will just make things a
little bit easier, but we need to wait from guidance from the state before we can make any adjustments on our reporting um needs. But that should save some administration time in terms of all the reporting that they have to do. uh House Bill 251248. This is protects
students from restraints and seclusion act. So just know that restraints and seclusions previously existed in this other law called protection of individuals from restraint and seclusion act. And what they've done is they've taken out the provisions specifically
related to students and they've moved it into title 22 which is the uh title under Colorado law that governs schools and school districts. So, they've essentially just made a restraint seclusion law specific to schools. Uh, my guess is that's going to make they're going to slowly chip away at the
restraints and seclusions law over time now that it exists in a different uh title. So, but right now there's no changes that were made to the restraint and seclusion law and so we don't have to take any action as a district. I'm guessing there's going to be changes
though next year. Uh, House Bill 251278, that's the education accountability system. So, um, we've spent a lot of time talking about this. Uh, the final act, uh, aligns with really everything that we've talked about. Um, and so if there are adjustments we have to make
for reporting purposes, then we will be making those adjustments, but it doesn't require any policy or significant changes on our end. The next page, House Bill 251300, workers compensation benefits, proof of entitlement. We talked about this bill at the last um, work session.
This is going to do two things uh but of significance. It's going to allow injured workers to choose their own treating physician. The state's going to provide a list of level one or level two physicians that are accredited uh rather than our current list which has four physicians that we have made that
agreement with our um insurance provider Pinnacle for workers compensation. So this is going to lead to some significant changes with our workers compensation forms as well as our practices. We're going to need to meet with our insurance providers, probably our brokers as well, uh, to discuss what
changes need to be made, but this is going to be pretty significant. And my guess is it's going to lead to higher premiums. Has the governor signed this yet? Uh, I am actually not sure. Let's go. There was some hope that the governor might veto this, but maybe not. Um, but I I think the
last point that Nate made is really important. Um, this will, if this fully passes, this will very likely increase the cost of our insurance significantly. Workers comp insurance. Yeah. Yeah.
So, I saw that it passed both the House and the Senate and then they had some committee reports that were also repassed on the last day. So I don't see any signature from Governor Pis yet. So we will see. But this is this will
cause Yeah, this this is a pretty significant bill. Do you foresee this being challenged? I don't know. I because this is not just schools. I mean, this is everyone. It's everybody. And I mean, this was challenged by everybody. And so, you know, the fact that it got through the
way that it did, um, I think is it's concerning kind of statewide. I don't know. Well, there may be other states that have very flexible workers compensation laws that kind of allow them to treat whatever treating physician they want. And um so I don't know, I don't know if
there's a constitutional challenge that could be made though. So um Senate Bill 2563, this is the library resources bill. Uh again requires a policy adoption. community have a fairly robust policy on um
non-curricular materials and book challenges. Senate Bill 2573, military connected children with disabilities. So, I'm just going to read it. This bill clarifies that the child of an inbound active duty military member who has an existing IEP or existing section 504
plan is eligible for open enrollment and guaranteed metriculation. So, um I'll need to work with our special education department to determine if any adjustments are needed. I'm guessing we probably are already ex accepting all students that reside in the district.
So, um, okay. Senate bill 25143 extend prohibition on school facial recognition. This bill was a big deal to some school districts. It wasn't to this school district. Uh, this is relating to a prohibition that schools could not contract with software companies that
have facial recognition services. This was set to sunset this year. Uh, they have brought that back. They've created a few exemptions for when a school district may contract with an entity that provides facial recognition services, but we do need to adopt a policy now. Um, and so my my plan was to
just wait until CASB comes out with um a sample policy on this one because again it doesn't really pertain to our work. It's possible that in the future it may impact uh technology surrounding safety and security. So, if we have security cameras that might be able to recognize
an individual based on facial recognition, we might might not be able to use that service. Uh, which would certainly be problematic from a safety and security perspective, but um, nonetheless, uh, we'll see as the years go on. Uh, Senate Bill 25154, access to
educator pathways. This bill just gives uh currently licensed teachers access to obtaining certain uh endorsements from early childhood uh special education and elementary education. And they just need to submit some evidence to receive those endorsements. This isn't going to lead
to any action on our part. Senate Bill 25191, cardiac emergency plans for school sports. I just wanted to bring this forward to you. Uh it just requires that we place and maintain AEDs in accordance with nationally recognized evidence-based standards for emergency cardiovascular care. We don't need to
take any action. Um I just want to celebrate this district once again for uh the incredible work that they did um to to save um the gentleman who came to the board a few meetings ago uh and that we do already um maintain our AEDs in
accordance with these practices. So um I took the AED training and I thought it was really amazing. So, they're doing great work uh in this school district on that on that front. Uh Senate Bill 25216, eliminate reprinting of education laws. I only included this cuz I'm particularly sad
about it. So, we received these education law books. We don't get the books anymore. I know. I know. It's a It's a very loved book. You can still go online, Lexus Nexus. you can access the education laws, but uh it's near and dear to my heart as
well. But they did have to make some cuts and this is just one of the cuts that they made. It wasn't I think it was like $50,000 or something. Um which when we're talking about $10 billion, that's not very much money, but anyways, Senate Bill 25276 protect civil rights
immigration status. We talked about this bill. Um, you know, I I just brought up the concerns about it creating a civil penalty for violating, sharing, or disclosing certain information uh to federal immigration officials. Uh, those
uh provisions in the bill passed. So, those civil penalties still exist. So, um, we did provide some training earlier this year. And so we'll probably need to just provide additional training to our office staff uh if they are confronting federal immigration authorities uh and
what they can and can't do. And then last Senate Bill 25315 postsecondary and workforce readiness program. This uh consolidated several programs into three main funding streams. Uh it got rid of a scent I believe and it just essentially created
these three programs. So, we'll just need to determine what we need to submit to the Department of Education to receive funding under these new models. Um, and we need just to make sure our programs align with the state's workforce demand and priorities. My guess is they do. Um, we have such a robust uh workforce readiness program in
this district and career and technical education programs. Um, really, really amazing and impressive. So, it's my understanding this legislation will have an impact on us and that we won't be able to offer as much for our students. It's possible. It's my understanding,
Jenny. So, uh, any questions on those or worries? Okay. Uh, just briefly, the Tabber lawsuit bill, uh, did not make it through. Uh, the safe to tell handle with care notice, that bill did not
pass. Uh, the modifications to Kora was actually vetoed by Governor Polus. Um there was a bill about public school financial reporting requirements that was going to require a much more in-depth financial reporting uh at each
school site uh surrounding private donors and things of that nature. That bill did not pass. And then that youth service organization bill that we had talked about um also did not pass. So those are some of the bills we had talked about that didn't make it through. Um and then finally we have the
school finance act. So, just know that by and large this is a really this is really good news. Uh it's going to be a little bit over $10 billion to school for the next fiscal year is a little bit less than what was promised, but still a pretty amazing adjustment by the state
legislature this year. So, that increase per pupil funding. Um we know that they uh extended the four-year averages to account for declining enrollment and that they're going to now implement the new funding formula more gradually. instead of six years, they're going to fully implement it over seven years. I
do want to talk about this Kids Matter Fund. This is actually brought by Senator Kirk Meyer. Uh that's going to create a dedicated funding stream for public education. Um and it's going to lead to a pretty significant increase
that will go to the state education fund. Uh estimates anywhere from 200 to 230 million. Uh, and this is going to be coming from a small percentage of state income tax revenue. So, in order to fully fund this new formula, um, I think, uh, legislators like Senator
Kirkmire were thinking of creative solutions because we know how much this new formula will actually end up costing. And so, um, this is a really, this is really good news. I might have botched this. I don't know if Miss Sponsor or Dr. Pilch has anything to add about the Kids Matter Fund.
So, it's not top of the finance formula. It will help to fund. It really it really what it does is it um pulls those dollars right away so that they're not open for negotiation for the state
budget. So, it would pull them on the front end uh in order to preserve the funding in public education. So, it's it's pretty exciting. Yeah. It does not start this. It did doesn't start until 207 or something, I think. So,
yeah, there's a study group to work on it next year. Um, I think so. But it's exciting for it's exciting for K12. Cool. And it passed. It passed. Yep. And uh and then just they're going to cap state construction
grants at 150 million. That's kind of that best that we talk about. Um, and so that's going to have a cap on it. They may make adjustments in future years, but that was just another way to kind of free up some money to fully fund this. Um, I'm not sure if there's anything else on school finance that um, either
of you wanted to add, but otherwise, it's it it really is good news. You want have any more to add unless there are questions? We're happy to take questions. I don't see any. I think you've done a great job of keeping us up to date and
um I really appreciate the format passed. Here's what we need to do. It's like really easy to find. So, do you have a question on any of the legislation that we talked about earlier that might not be mentioned here or any, you know, any other legislation that we can help you with?
We'll continue to monitor what's going on at the federal level and I will update this board as we learn more. Thank you. Thank you very much. We'll move on to our facility conditions audit. Mr. Hson.
Thank you. So, um, we did flip these two items, Mrs. Sullivan. So, because I know you haven't had a chance to come in and see this yet, I think the rest of you have seen some of this at least. Um, there there is some new information here. Um, I'm happy to introduce Ken
Henson, assistant superintendent of uh, support services to lead off this presentation and I'll help him on just one slide. Um, and maybe phone a friend to Megan if I need to and and I'll let you introduce our guests tonight too, Ken. Okay. Thank Thank you, Dr. Pelch.
Um, this is Lisa Gardner. She's an architect with HCM Architects. They worked on Gley West um Madison and Centennial and handful of other schools. So, uh Lisa was primarily
about those with Gley West. They also um did brought a team in last summer, so a year ago, we started asking questions about this uh building and its future and its you know, feasibility of replace or repair. uh after about the hundth
phone call from Teresa saying it was too hot uh in this building. So um that's that's pretty much when we started this study which was well before the study that you all have seen about the downtown development with the city and the county of which we are the smallest
player in. We basically have one chess move um and the others have more. So, the purpose of this presentation is just to kind of show you the why and what's up with this uh facility. And so, where's this is a
different mouse. Just left click the mouse. There you go. Left click. My brain's got to go like this now. Um, so we have done uh two site assessments on this building as part of the facility
master plan back in 2019. Cunningham did a study on all of our sites. Uh, but their study was more qualitative at that time, not quantitative because we knew we weren't going to be investing bond money into anything but school buildings. And then um when we called
HCM uh last spring, we wanted to do kind of a dollar fordoll replacement versus fix uh value of this building. And so just some things about the site. This building's 70 years old. Um which is kind of hard to believe in
some senses, but maybe not if you're here every day. Um an addition was added in 1977 and we purchased it in 2001. Um and so again in 2019 we did a qualitative study. We did not spend any
bond dollars on this building have not uh because that was uh primarily for students in schools. Areas of need um being 70 years old and heavily lived in um it obviously will not meet parent accessibility
standards. Um, it does meet standards for when it was built or remodeled way back in the day. Uh, but nothing would be current. Uh, the building envelope, which is roof, walls, exteriors, uh, is in poor uh, condition allowing for water infiltration. Um, all the glass is
single pane. I don't know if you're putting single pane windows in your home, but that was done like a long time ago. We stopped doing that. Um the mechanical and HVA system uh needs a replacement which is significant in this
building. The mechanical room is three floors. Um and it's really kind of weird. Um fire suppression is needed. Uh this whole building does not have fire suppression up to current code and we do not obviously meet the current energy codes.
Um other areas of need there are a lot of ACMS or asbestous containing materials uh present in the building in a lot of areas of the building and this um in order for us to do anything we need to abate um those areas um the ACMS
are in a safe condition but if we go and try to remove them clean them wipe them go through them uh then we have a problem and we have to do abatement. So what I tell here is this my peers is don't hammer
anything into a wall without us knowing about and let us check which wall is what. Um and obviously the elevators are in poor condition. Um and when you ride in the elevators uh you need to know we cannot touch an elevator. So the raggedy
one over on the one side of the building with the paper we cannot even touch that paper. uh you have to be certified. We have to have a certified company to do anything with an elevator. So they are um nearing the end of their life and also obviously the building is and still
is floodprone. Um so what HCM did in their study is we looked at what is the cost of actually replacing the building which is just square foot just as is. It's not like,
well, let's take this, but I'd like to add this, this, this, and this, and this. It was simply the value of this building. What would it cost to replace? And then also a repair. So, the things need to be repaired. And it, as I
mentioned, it does not include any major remodeling or redesign of a building for um efficiency. And so the replacement value um of this building uh kind of came out to a number
of 36 million. So that includes um office spaces that are at adequate. You know this big airspace out here which which we can't use again that's just kind of like for like a placement value of $36 million. The cost to estimate
repairs again without improving the building but just making repairs is 23 million or you know 2/3 of the cost of building uh new. And you can see some of these numbers
um these uh numbers up here that uh kind of lead to that. the one you we talked about the mechanical system which is important in a building your HBAC and your AC to build new to replace there's a cost to actually fix
this is is almost twice the amount of money to do that so we talk about value of new versus old um and again if we make repairs to this building we're starting with a building that's 70 years old in 30 years this building will be
100 years old this the structure of this building. And then one last uh number here is a a facilities condition access uh index number 64 generally if we're going to um the best grant or to the state and say
we'd like to tear down this building. Um 0.5 is kind of the number the threshold that once you get over that that is like a replacement index that that building needs to be uh torn down. We're at 64 when we tore down, which is uh probably
the highest in the district. Um John Evans when we tore it down, I looked it up, was almost at 08. Um so that's a pretty high number. So I guess the only thing I wanted to add to this is um so this is a summary from our assessment. This is just all the different systems that we evaluated
when we did the assessment of the building. So we break it up by different areas. So we look at the surrounding site and that would be the drainage issues, parking, um hard surfaces, roofing is pretty straightforward, envelope. So this just kind of gives you an idea of all of the different things
that we look at both from material standpoint, life safety, code compliance, um energy efficiency, just their the functionality of all of these systems. So it is a very thorough analysis of um all the different systems that are in the building. And when we
talk about the interior, that is truly not how spaces are being utilized, but what are the conditions of the different finishes? Are they at the end of the life? Do they need to be replaced? Things like that. What are conveyances and specialties? So, conveyances are
elevators. Um, specialties, that's kind of um would be thing that would be probably our what do we have a specialties? Good thing I brought this with me. No, I don't know. It's a special
whatever it is. Um, that would be Well, so we don't have anything in the repair of it. So, the replacement of it. Um, guess we'll look that up. We'll have a specialist and get back to you. Yeah, I
thought that was like furniture and um sound systems and the things that are not included in the condition in the repair of the condition budget is what I when we had the first presentation, Kent. Yeah, I believe that's where I believe
that. Let's look for sure and see because that is not something that we evaluated at all for the specialties of this existing building, but in the case of furniture or any of those kinds of things, it would just be what it would cost to add to a a comparable building new.
And so with the site assessment like we just showed you is the general $36 million in replacement value. That's with no design. No design has occurred. That's just if you want to look at this for now just just like it is. Um does
not include cost of land. um does not include abatement and demolition which um we'll talk about that here in a minute. Um does not cost so so in other words I guess let me explain if this is to work within this development program
one of the advantages for us is that we could take the first step and start building on land across the street which will allow us to stay here and live while we design and build and not have to move. And so relocation and rent for
personnel for two years. If we were to do this like let's just tear down this building and rebuild new. We would have to relocate our personnel for up to two years probably almost 3 years um from this building. Um does not include drainage fixes to prevent
flooding um in the area. Now we know if we build higher we're more floodprone but as long as we have this building we have the same foundation. uh development, design and engineering fees and costs. So any of those soft costs are not included um yet in that
number. In RichArk's um estimates uh that they gave us, they gave us some round numbers in your presentation that they did for you. They kind of came up with a number of about $33.5 billion um replacement value and that was
basically for the shell 23.8 8, which is basically just the structure of the building as is, and then about 9.7 million for finishing it inside at a cost of about $550 a square foot. Um, additional costs that need to be added
to this. Um, they have um they actually worked with AP Construction and came up with a value to tear this building down and abate it about $2.3 million to do that, which would be a cost to us. Uh our share of parking garage as part of
this project would be about 5.6 million and then 6.7 million for soft costs for design uh for fees and filling it out with furniture etc. uh is roughly about 6.7 million for a round cost of about
$48 million. So just having two comparisons that are slightly different. the one that Richmartart gave us and then the one that HCM provided us with a little more scope. These are both just generalizations um are uh fairly close with the starting
point of 36 million to 33.5 million and then we have those other costs back on slide nine. Um, if we renovated this building, so if we decided we don't want to build new, but we want to renovate, the renovation estimate that we got from htm is about
23 million. It's probably actually higher than that because as you get into walls and start pulling things apart, you start pulling and finding other problems that are hidden in floors, walls, and ceilings. So, it's probably higher than that. We're still
floodprone. Um, our FCI score does indicate replacement and I did some research in our work order system since 2022. Just our work orders, not projects, work orders. We've invested um over a million dollars uh in
this building. And um I kind of did some math there that we've spent um 4,400 man hours since 2022 in this building from facilities. And so that um is like having one person
here 8 hours a day for almost 3 years I think straight. Um fixing and replacing isn't always efficient or cost effective, especially with a building that's 70 years old. Um also, if we renovate, the
functionality of this building is still inefficient. Uh first and second floors are open. Still open a lot of lot of air space there. Most of our people work up on the third and fourth floor. Uh creating ADA compliant restrooms will reduce existing office space because to
make our current builder bathrooms ADA accessible, they're going to have to be bigger, which is then going to go into adjacent office spaces like your office probably. Um, we still have a 70-y old building and again, as we mentioned, this is like
one forone renovation with no improvements or changes, which we obviously have a lot of codes that we have to come up to. Um, also in renovate versus new build, uh, we miss an opportunity to partner with the city
county for downtown development. So, this is kind of like a onetime chance for us um to actually get into a new building where that first step can happen immediately and we don't have to purchase land.
Um otherwise, we'll have to go off site in the future. Um renovation carries more risk versus new construction. Again, as you get into walls, you find stuff. This building's been renovated a lot. There's things
that are in places that no one remembers anymore or are aren't on prints that we have anymore. And again, doesn't allow for more usable square. If we build new, it's a better long-term investment with our dollars. When we talk about the
schools that we just built, we talk about 75 year buildings. The last few batches of buildings we had didn't last 50 years. Um, so if you build new, you get a chance to do it right and you get a chance to build them efficient and you need to build them to
last. Uh, we'll decrease the risk of flooding, allow for more functional and efficient design. Uh, we will have decreased energy costs. Our most energy efficient buildings in the district right now are all of our new builds. They're right at the top. And as we save money on energy
costs, that's more money that we um keep in the district. Uh it will keep the district administration building downtown. And it will include the family center and um family center and enrollment center, which is the building we have across the street. So it keeps
us all into one place. It will create a safer environment for all of our employees. Um again in this I said this is kind of a once in a-lifetime op opportunity because we have the opportunity to build with no land
purchase. We simply would start building over here once all the paperwork is signed. We would give this to the group. It's the chess move on move one space. We give this space to the city and the county uh to become part of that
development. we get the use of of new land for new building um so we don't have to buy land and we would go first in the development at least the way um it was explained by Richmark and some of the other things
that uh bullet I had about finding a space for this many people to work for for two to three years um could cost us $3 million first to find a space that we can use for1 150 people and then we have
to make that space usable. We have to have our phones. We have to do some things like that to the uh space to make it usable for us. Uh that um on a piece of property that Richmart did recently in town cost $3 million just to make it
fit and we'll never get it back. So it's part of like almost like you're leasing it. And then um rent for a facility like that is about $180,000 a year which is money we'll never get back. Funding options um for this Dr. Pilch.
Thanks Mr. Henson. So um what we would propose is that we use C certificates of participation or COP you will hear them called. Um they work very similar to a mortgage. uh we would use one of our
existing buildings as collateral um to issue the coops. Um we would have an annual payment uh that we would make on the coops and typically you would do it somewhere between 20 and 30 years most likely um that we would be paying off
that debt. But we would um sell our debt just like we did with the with the bond. Um, and this kind of debt is pretty attractive for folks to buy because it's typically tax exempt. Um, which means
they're the interests are going to be lower for folks. Um, so it would require us to to budget annually for an annual payment um to to pay the annual fee on the the COP. Um there's also the possibility that in the future this debt
could be a part of a future bond issue if the board at that time decided you know they wanted wanted to do that. So it's um there there is some risk in that we have to have an annual payment and we would need to budget for that every year
and um we as we look at the different options um we would not go to voters and ask for them to pass a bond for a district office. That just doesn't seem appropriate when we still have schools that need replaced and schools that need
additions. Um, I think that needs to be the priority for a future bond issue rather than the district office. And, um, as you'll see here in a minute with some of the pictures Lisa has, this building is in in really, um, terrible condition. Today, uh, we did not have
boilers functioning and most offices and and most offices and conference rooms were over 80 degrees today. We did get um the equipment working somewhat this afternoon and so we've been able to lower the temperature in here for example by two or three degrees but um
it's this degrees right now. Yeah, it's very hot but it but it's you know this building is in um really poor condition and is getting harder and harder to repair quite frankly. And so I think if not this board, some board for district
6 is going to be faced with with making a a really difficult decision around what to do about the district office. That's just the reality. Um we we currently um do not have any coops, but we have used coops before. That is how
we built the district athletic complex was with coops. So, it's a pretty common way for school districts to to build facilities without going to the voters for an additional bond issue. Um and that's what Megan is proposing. Um, and
I concur with her that that would be the way that we would go with this. I want to talk for just a moment about the option of um, building new rather than building downtown someday. Um, there is not land downtown for us to build a
district facility on. Um, other than if we are part of this trade and we're able to move to the parking lot um, to the east of us and build this building. Um but once this downtown project is complete, there will be no there will be
no place to build a building. We would need and to do that we would need to to relocate from this office if we wanted to use this site um you know 150 or so employees to other sites in the community which um we understand from
Richmark that that's there just is not space out there and as you saw you're looking at about $3 million to repair a space if we did find a space. So, um, we'll we'll walk you through some of the pictures and a little bit of the condition of the building and then we
absolutely want to have a more robust conversation with your questions. And you're not you're not making a decision now. Um, I want to be clear about that, too. We don't have the um the agreement worked out with the city and the county yet. They're still working. The city is
fully on board and have um voted and and put in writing their full support for the project. the county is still evaluating their finances and is it better for them to stay downtown or better for them to move out to O Street. So that the deal is not done yet. Um but
we wanted to bring you up to speed so you can begin some conversation um here in the work session and in future work sessions so that when it is time to make a decision on whether or not we participate or not and we take this dead on or not that you're ready to do that.
Can I ask um where we are right now in relation to like flooding? If if we were to have another severe rainstorm right now, where are we at with this building? Will it flood again? And you'll have to be facing all those. We talked about it today. I mean, you look walk next time
you walk in the front door, notice you're walking down from the curb to get to the front door. Um, it's a downhill slope and we can't raise the building off its foundation is about what we need to do.
So, starting over, you can build higher in elevation. So, you're higher off the ground that that will prevent that. But, you know, the city's behind in the storm water, even if they fix their storm water, um, if the water gets over the curb, it's going one place and that's
into the uh front door. I mean, it's so we're looking at a potential u another big budget, another big ticket item if there is a big rainstorm for this school district. Insurance covered it though. Yeah. Insurance insurance covered most.
Did you see the big Surf Pro dryers last year? I did. Yeah. Yeah. That's like an annual occurrence. We don't want to do that. Insurance does cover most of it, but it's still like a huge or reimbures us or something, right? Um I don't know if this goes in
this part of the conversation, but I think um previous conversations we've had, you've kind of talked about that we're spending roughly a million dollars on repairs, on flooding, on all these in the last three years. We're just that's just work orders. And then um I wondered
if you had I think you had an estimation of what our payment would be for those coops and they seemed pretty comparable. I believe. Yeah. Uh we think the payment would be around 3 million annually. Uh we don't know until we engage um the
bond holder and we work more closely on this. We think around 3 million annually, which if um um you know, if you think of the size of our budget, that's those are real dollars, but they're certainly not that's certainly not an insurmountable
number. I think um if the county decides to stay downtown like the timing of the three projects, I would think that that's what would um create even more urgency, you know, to be in line with the timeline
that the city and the county have if the county decides to that's where they've assured not assured I'm saying nothing's assured, but we are in phase one like step one of that project in the plan. So, it just means we can go first. We
can go on to vacant land and start, which would be You might have to check with Megan, but I was wondering if if we as a board donated our salaries, would that help us get us there? I was going to ask large. Yeah. One word I thought of, Dr. P, when
you're explaining this that we have not used is the word obsolete. Um, you know, if you look at our heating and cooling, it's obsolete and so you can't just fix it. You can't replace it efficiently by the way the building's
set up. So, I mean, obsolete means when you take it out, you have to take out all the duct work. I mean, you're basically looking at stripping this to to concrete and starting over, which is a a huge co huge cost. But you were saying if we don't utilize this phase one and start building on that new
property that we would not have a chance later, do they have a secondary plan where somebody is going to take that quad if we don't utilize it? That I don't know. They sure have it filled from what I've seen in the plan for this area over here. Well, that and
that lot is not just the district 6 building. It's it is um the new city building and parking garage. um a parking garage is also possibly part of retail, maybe a um a boutique hotel as
part of the area. So my guess is the uh that I I don't know the land would be available or not. I don't know in the future. I don't know. And I'll say you saw a cost on here estimated cost of $515 a square foot. We be we built Gley
West for just over 400. So cost is continuing to go up a square foot. Yeah. So, the costs are Let's show you some of the condition of the building. So, we um we're just going to highlight some of the things that we found in the building
that are kind of the the six or seven figure repairs that would be required. So, really the the highle ones. Um I think the first thing that's worth noting is that the one system in this building that is in good condition is the structural system. There is not structural failure. This building is not
in any danger of falling down. So, I think it's worth noting that. Um, so side drainage, we've talked a lot about that. Um, grade where the the things the the grade does slope down into the building and and a lot of other challenges are that a lot of the roof
drainage is piped directly into the storm system um that is owned by the city and it's just outdated and it's undersized. And so there are things that we would need from the city um to improve their utilities to be able to capture the rainwater properly um to prevent that flooding. So basically,
it's just that in a big storm event, all of the storm pipes fill up and they can't manage all the water and get it distributed quickly enough so it it backs up and so it can start to back up. And so storm inlets on the site that would normally drain the water away will just start to back up and pond and then
that is what's kind of forcing the water into the building. We just can't kind of get it away quickly enough. Um the roof is at its end of its life. It's kind of it's stuck to the insulation, but it's de that it's taking the top layer of the insulation off and delaminating. So,
it's kind of creating these ponding events. We're not able to fully drain the roof correctly. There's missing roof drains. Um, so this would need to be fully replaced to to what the district standards are that you're putting in all of your new schools. Last summer when we walked the building, the member in a
windy day, the membrane was actually flapping in the wind. Uh, so we did get that repaired because we want to keep this dry. Um, so while it may not be actively leaking, there is other infiltration that's happening as a result of that. Um, all of the windows are single pane aluminum. You have these
interesting window projections that are made of mosaic tile, which back in the 70s was probably pretty cool, but there's no drainage out of them. The tiles are all popping. So these are all just things that are um allowing water to enter into the building. Um, so
Ephus, that's really your exterior stucco system. Not only are there just holes in it from other systems that were added, removed, it's cracking a lot throughout the around the whole building. So, this is allowing water infiltration,
um, air infiltration. So, you're not really you don't have a really solid envelope that's helping to keep your heat in or keep your heat out, uh, depending on the season. We we had all the woodpecker holes filled a year ago in their back. Woodpeckers love the sighting of this building. And there
there is not really a way to to repair this properly at this point. You would need to rip all of that that system off and replace the whole thing. And that was what we had estimated. Then is that how the bats get in also? Well, bats. Well, bats,
right? Is that how they get in? Seriously, they can get in a teeny tiny cracker. Even their window or someone has their window open. A window shot. What's the plan with this building then? If you were to move and vacate this
building, what happens? Demolition. It gets demoed and this becomes a parking lot. Okay. For downtown. Yeah. Um the the planting beds, um there's nothing really structurally wrong with them, but um we know that it's kind of a nuisance.
you have uh some trouble with um some of your uh so the homeless population will sleep in them and so it it becomes a safety and security issue having those around the the perimeter of the building. So the the boilers for this building are steam and they
are some of them are original to the 50s building some are from the 70s. Uh life expectancy of a boiler is about 35 years. So they are at the end of their life. We are recommending a new system that would have no steam in it at all. It would all be hot water, which is a much more efficient way to to heat
buildings. So, we want to replace all of those. Similarly, you have a lot of air handling systems. So, you have the boilers that um heat your water. Then, you have your air handling, which is distributing the air throughout the building. These are there are several that are original to the 50s um construction that are in here. So,
they're just not able to to do the work that they need to in an efficient manner and and create good indoor environmental quality. Same thing with the water pumps, piping replacement, getting rid of steam. It's just a system that you just don't need anymore. It would be one less thing to
maintain. Um here's an image. So the pneumatic controls, this is just a very outdated way of doing controlling. Um it would be it's kind of like what your thermostat is at home. It helps control when when the systems kick on, when they kick off, um what temperature to maintain, how they sense if temperatures
are being able to to be maintained. So, we would want to replace that with a a digital system. And this is what we're putting in all of the new buildings, the new schools now. So, that is a very outdated system, and it's probably hard to maintain and find parts for and all of those things. All of that. And it
doesn't sense. Very good. Very well. Doesn't sense temperature. The the building is only partially fire sprinklered. Uh for a building of this size, it would need to be fully sprinklered. If you we do any renovation to this building, it is going to trigger the need to put a fire sprinkler system
in, which means we're upsizing the size of the pipe that comes in the building. Right now, it's a 4-in pipe. That's not big enough to provide all the water needed for a fire sprinkler system. Um, and your fire alarm. This is just an example of one of the fire alarm panels that we found in the building. It just
it needs to be a fully replaced system. We also have some, you know, we're you're just kind of putting spaces in where you found spaces, right? We need more um dedicated technology rooms for all of your IT and your security systems. Um and so we've kind of there's
some found spaces for those. They're not properly conditioned to keep those spaces cool. Um there's also kind of a million-doll line item for the electrical equipment. We need a new transformer. We need new systems for emergency power if the power goes out of this building, a new generator, things
like that. So, we did an analysis. We took the um your utility bills from the last year and we can calculate kind of what your energy use intensity is. This is a metric that just kind of that they is a kind of a universal way to to identify
how energy efficient buildings are. Um, so this building right now is at about an 80. Um, for comparison, I think Reley West is coming in at a 32. So the higher the number, the less efficient that that the building is. Um, kind of a for an office building of this
type, code compliant, we should be in the the high30s to to high 40s um for that for comparison. So this is what you are spending. So we did this analysis. we we wanted to say, okay, if we did some of the upgrades that are in this assessment, what can that do to the
energy efficiency of this building? So, the first column is kind of just the baseline where we're at the AD EUI. Um, and this is again where we're just kind of looking at we can put it into these calculators and this is how much electricity is used, this is how much natural gas, and then they can it can
kind of calculate all these values. So the next column over, if we just improved the envelope, so that would be fixing um this the stucco, replacing the windows, doing the roof, that's going to knock your energy use down from an 80 to
almost a 73. So it's not a lot of improvement for an awful lot of cost, and you're going to save $300,000 over 25 years to do that. So it's that's a very long-term investment. That's a lot of money up front with not a lot of
savings. Um the next one we looked at is if we So these are all these are not cumulative either. So now for the second column we're leaving the envelope just as it is and now we're going to replace the mechanical system. Um that significantly improves your um EUI down
to about a 58. But um due to the cost of putting that mechanical system in and as Ken mentioned before we would be spending more to replace the system than in a new building. it would to be you would save a million dollars over 25 years of this building which is it's noticeable savings but that's a long
time to save a million dollars. And then the last one which was an interesting analysis is was just air infiltration. So this is where we're realizing how leaky this building is and how much air is just getting in and out. How much of your air conditioning is just going outside um in the summer months. And so
to fully replace this envelope to get it to be at a code level of air infiltration, which is a very small number, which I don't even think is really humanly possible on an existing structure, this is something we would hit with new construction. That gets us to our lowest EUI of about a 43 and
again about a $1.7 million savings over 25 years. So yes, you can improve this building. There are you will save in your utility bills by putting the money into it. Um, but you're not going to be able to get it to the level of of new construction code compliant. Certainly
not to the level of the standards that this district has established for your for your new schools. And we'd be in a much much more efficient um situation with new construction. So that was our evaluation with kind of looking at the the energy code
along with the flooding. Do we have mold issues in this building? No. sometimes get work orders to check things and we always come over and do tests um check them but we have not found any.
Okay. And then the I'm I'm big into this safety thing right now with this building along with the fire suppression. How is this building rated for evacuation? If there was a fire, is this a safe building for the staff? Can
they get out easily? I mean obviously the elevators would shut down, right? You have adequate stairs distributed around the building. You do have a working fire alarm system. So a lot of times fire sprinklers, they are for um the emergency personnel. You have fire
sprinklers so that they can get in and you're providing safety for your your firefighters. Um and some of it's also for property, you know, saving on property damage. Um, so not having a fire sprinkler system, it's not a great solution, but I would say it has not
reduced your ability at this point in time to get out of this building if there was an emergency. Okay. And when the fire alarm goes off, elevators don't work, well, that's what I presume. You have to use the stairs,
but we don't have um advice. So, if you have a a disabled employee on a higher floor, there are other systems that are in newer construction that are code compliant to be able to put them in a safe place to help get them out of the building safely. And um I don't believe we have any of those in this building.
I was wondering um just to put the cost of the building in in context. Um could we be provided maybe with like a list of in the last 20 years um uh con large construction contracts that have cost us
$10 million or more. Just to put it in context with other buildings that we've done in 10 million or more. 10 million or more. Yeah. most recently look at any of our additions we did um on buildings. Those were $10 million projects plus um
you know obviously any of the new builds were right up but just to compare like what else compares to the or I mean 48 million was that the Yeah. Okay. The only problem I see with that depending on the year it's like we saw right and then account for inflation. So do a row
where you're accounting for inflation. I don't I don't know that we could provide you that, but I wonder if we could provide you really with what $3 million means to our budget annually.
I mean, maybe that's more helpful like what what what do we spend an annually on um what we would call capital improvements or technology improvements or those things to help give you a of our mo most expensive school that we
did. How much did it cost? That was West. Well, it' be big west because it was the biggest and so how many million but it was not necessarily the most per square foot. So I have that I have all of our projects broken down by square foot. And besides the bond, the only
thing we've done is Prairie Heights, right? Which was a bond. Prairie Heights was a best grant. Best grant. But that's in the last 20 years. That's that's all that we've done. So he has what you're looking for, but it's just a recent. No, we really haven't. We have not done a project like this other than when we
sold COP's before I got here to build the district athletic complex. So, um, everything else we've done has been bond projects. But we can, you know, we can provide for you what the projects were per square foot and you can compare that to this this um in account
like we're comparing apples to apples. So we So I guess to give more context, I just got that list for the last 20 years of $5 million contracts or more at USC and it was really informative to see to
compare and yes there not every project is the same but just to kind of get an idea for what are these the big ticket items whether they were bond or not bond just I mean none of us are in the the construction business. Well, maybe Kyle a little bit, but to get a comparison
for this building cost $30 million. This one's going to cost 48 million. Like I It's this bond and it's the bond 20 years ago, right? And we have of the nothing out of cap in the last 20
years that's been taken out of the budget. I mean, that's why we were in such dire straits with our uh deferred maintenance. Um because boy there was nothing done until MLLO came and we started investing in roofs and going for best grant matches for roofs. Um and you
know roof's a million dollars um you know give or take you know plus in any other projects bigger than that have all been in the bond. weekend would be the biggest project for in our budget in what the
last like in ever. No, the the some of the buildings were the bond was far larger, right? The bond outside of the bond. So, um yes. Yes. In that in taking on this would be the the largest debt we
have taken on outside of the bond issue or the bond issue 20 years ago. Yes. um because we did build district 6 stadium with the same process. So we could maybe find out how much that cost. But I think like Dr. Pil was kind of
mentioning where where the payment will come from in the budget is maybe more of the question as to whether we can afford taking on this debt, right? Um, and I think I don't know if you've
calculated all of this, but it's $3 million, but we're spending a million dollars to just limp this building along plus the rent for the family center. Um, so I don't think it's really $3 million. It's 15 $1.5 million or something like
that. So anyway, I and I'm not trying to discount your question, but that might be the one that's a little more like nuts and bolts, but Miss Sponsor and Mr. Henson and I can get our heads together and see what we might put together for you all that would just help you to get a a context of the the dollars and in
that we can remind you about our operating dollars, our reserve dollars, our state grants and federal grant dollars. We can we can put a one pager together that I think will help you. Yeah, I think I think what you say is we're spending dollars already. Yeah, we
got this match, but that we can we won't spend those. So it'll kind of in essence deduct from the payment and just you know make it more appealing. And I think when we were discussing the bond I at that point I think it was like well roughly this is what an elementary
school costs roughly this is what a middle school cost. So maybe those kind of dollars would be helpful. It's really the square footage um that can be provided to us what a square footage costs and then it just depends how big of a school you want to build. And then I want to remind you that purposefully
when we set up the bond projects and you saw that big ugly spreadsheet, we put the largest projects at the front to beat inflation because we knew over 5 years there would be inflation. The only exception was the CTE Jefferson building which came out of proceeds that we kind
of plopped in the middle. It's really why Mclliff Titon and really West were and Chapel and Chapo were first were all first in the smaller projects. we knew they were going to be the most expensive projects. Um, the other question is not
necessarily I mean I think maybe just for a discussion in the future, but just to put it out there. Um, I'm curious with the city um, agreeing to go ahead with the Cascadia project, how that might affect us passing a
bond in the future in the next, you know, five years um, and whether that's something we should discuss. um like what basically voters like whether they will feel great about passing a bond um if the city does go
through with Cascadia. So we would need to do polling to know that answer. I don't think we know that answer um or have a way to know that without actually going out and doing some polling which we would typically do before we would
consider a bond issue. Well, they must not be paying for it with a tax because they didn't have to go to the voters. They did big mortgage 49 billion. Yeah. So, the taxpayers aren't fronting the bill. It's going to be paid for through revenue generated at the site. So, it's not it wouldn't really affect our
taxpayers thoughts on a a bond because we're going to ask them for, you know, basically allowing us to pull debt with their and pay it with their tax money. So, it's it's kind of a different issue. I don't know if they would even put
those together in the same Yeah. I think the bigger issue is um when you know that we are really mindful about working with the city of Girley and the city of Evans that we're not both going for a ballot measure on the same ballot that increases taxes. And so we've been
really, you know, aware of that and and worked with both the both cities, especially the city of Girly that if, you know, if they're going out to renew their quality of life tax, we don't want that to be the same year we go out to renew our mil
levy override, for example. And so, you know, we work closely with the city on those pieces so that we're sensitive about what the voters, you know, are being asked in one ballot. So regardless of whether we um build a
new building with RichArk or replace this building for 36 million, we'd be going after COPS. Unless Unless we go for a B, you know, go to the voters and ask for a bond issue for that, which I don't I don't
see as a favorable way to do this. Yeah. Not at this time, at least. Yeah. Well, in the city county project is is time. What many school districts have done if they don't go for coops, they use their bond proceeds. So, the
district I was in prior to this one used their bond proceeds to replace the district administration building and the centralized kitchen. Windsor right now is um doing a significant renovation rebuild of their district office and they're using bond proceeds to do that
in Windsor. So that's that is not unusual, but we felt like there was still so much that we needed to catch up on this on this bond that we built the current tech ed center instead and we built additional classrooms at Martinez and um did more work at reduced
portables. Yeah, we got rid of more portables, you know, adding more classrooms at MER. So that's how we used our proceeds um from this last bond and I I think that was a good decision. So
timelinewise, if we are not looking at a bond, when do you see all this coming to fruition if the county chooses not to relocate or chooses not to stay here? Well, I think what we have been told by the city and the county both are that
this is still an option for us even if the county does go to O Street that the county is still willing to work with us on a you know the land and um and the city is still willing to work with us on a downtown project but I think the project begins to look very different
and I think um it's a bigger conversation the county is not here because that's fewer people downtown so does district 6 stay downtown. Um, we've been very committed to staying downtown and and being here so we can be a teammate with the businesses downtown
and have our employees accessing the businesses downtown and the restaurants downtown and the coffee shops. And so that's been a big commitment of ours. I mean, we have, you know, we have land out at Twiton Academy where would where a district office would fit. it is not
um as desirable to be on the west our furthest west boundary for a district office in my opinion and so I I think we wait you the county is supposed to have um a recommendation in June on on what
they're planning to do um they're they are doing they were completing yet another study to to make sure they really understand the cost of staying downtown or to moving to O street um their project is very significant far
larger than our project um with a new justice center and with new court court h court courtrooms in there and so they it's a big project for the the county um so I suspect that that will begin to get worked out over the summer and that we
may be coming back to you at some time in the fall to consider um this possibility and and really It is, it really will be a board of education decision. I mean, we um, of course, staff and I will make a recommendation once we see where the city and the
county land. Um, one way or the other, we'll make a recommendation, but it will be a board decision. Um, it's, you know, we're we're making a decision not only for the current board, but for future boards here in District 6, just as you do when you go for a bond issue, um, or
a mill levy override. And so we'll need, you know, we will need significant conversation, I would guess, coming back at this in in August and September. But as I say, there are four options then. one to continue as we've been doing,
spending a million dollars, whatever it is here and there to try to fix a building which is crumbling. Well, not crumbling but falling apart or to spend $23 million in repairs, $36 million to replace or 48 million to
participate with the rich mark. That's kind of those are the options that are laid out. Yeah. And the 36 million really becomes closer to the 48 million because in that number we're not including architect design um purchase
of land paying for fees rent for the building if we decide to rebuild right here rent where we would go. So, it's really um three options with the the rebuild option being do you do it downtown or somewhere else if that makes
I think the dollars are going to be pretty close to the same. Megan was nodding her head at me hearing them go. Yeah. We just want to be careful that that cost estimate is like this new. We haven't gone through any design yet, right? Estimated how much square foot do you think you need? But you know, how
many employees do you have? What are you know how many how many offices do you need? You know, how many you know stuff like that has not been designed and how big does cost, right? Yeah. How many? Those are good questions.
Are there any additional questions? Lot to to mole over and um reach out to Dr. Pil or Mr. Hunson with any additional questions. Thank you for being here. Thank you. We'll try to put something together in terms of trying to
provide a, you know, more context around construction and dollars and funds. Sounds good. Thank you. All right, we're a little past our time, so we will go ahead and debrief the work session. Mr.
Rosari, just first. Well, uh, first of all, thanks again to Nate F. I do agree with President Mash that the uh that the format that you pre present to us each board means is really great to have. And
um uh thanks again to Kent and our our architect. She's back here right for um for the support of the school district. A lot to think about and I look forward to more information as we keep going. Thanks.
Uh, yeah. Thank you, uh, Nate for keeping us well informed and Ann Barkcus is at our lobbyist. Make sure to thank her for her work um, in Denver. I'm really happy to see the Kids Matter Trust in um, that
that went through. So, and yeah, lots lots to chew over. Um, it it just went from 77 to 78 degrees. we're living, you know, the um we're feeling the the fact that this building is
almost 70 years old. So, thank you for that update. Yeah, not much to add. Thank you for the update and answering our questions. So, it's much appreciated. Ditto, it's nice to hear from Kent and Nate as always.
Yeah. Um thank you very much for the updates. I I am very excited about um working with the city and the county. I'm enormous supporter and and fan of downtown and if we can be even a small pawn, you can you can still win a trust
match with pawn. But um feel very honored that we have been asked to be a part of that um that project. So um all right, this meeting is now adjourned. We will have a break and see you back at the business
meeting at 6:00 p.m. Part: 2
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Heat. Heat. [Music] Good evening and welcome to the board of education business meeting May 12th,
2025. This meeting will now come to order. Please join us for the pledge of allegiance. Pledge to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God,
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Miss Lemon, will you please call the role? Director, present. Director Bentley, present. Director Campos Spitzy, present. Director Mash, present. Director Matthews, present. Director
Norwood. Director Sullivan present. Six board members present. Well, thank you for joining us this evening. I would also like to introduce Timothy Longacre, president of our co council of student representatives from Northridge High School and Sarah
Venegas, also a member of the Council of Student Representatives from Early College Academy. We always enjoy having you with us and your input. Um, we have reached almost the very end of our school year. This is the time of all of our celebrations of the
accomplishments of our students and also thanking our staff for their tireless and gracious, generous use of their time, talent, and resources for our students. Um, this week we were able to celebrate with our retirees, um, folks
who have served in district 6 for two years, folks who have served in district 6 for over 40 years. It's always a lot of fun to hear folks who stayed in the exact same building, the same um level of education with, you know, they they taught third grade for 20 years and how
they love that. It's also fun to hear about folks who who jumped around and did a little bit of everything. But, um, from the board of education, we want to offer our heartfelt congratulations to anyone who retired this year. And also, thank you so much to our teachers and
educators who go above and beyond. We know this year, this week is AP exams and our students have been working very diligently so that they can potentially get some college credit um but also just finish that college level practice class
um that they're able to take in high school. Many of our um teachers offered exam prep on Saturdays. So again, we really appreciate you going that extra mile to make sure that our students were um prepared and best wishes. um for
these last couple of weeks. Moving on, um we will uh have our superintendent's honor roll and I'll give this to Dr. Pilch. Thank you, President Mash. I have several folks to recognize tonight on the superintendent's honor roll. I'm
going to start with one of our staff members first, uh Vita Trevino. Uh I think she's here tonight. Oh, come on up, Vita. You get to stand by the podium and we get to look at you. while I talk about you. Um, so
VITA, uh, as many of you have heard, was one of the was the 2425 Colorado finalist for presidential award for excellence in mathematics and science teaching. This is a highly sought-after award. Um, it it's really something to be recognized with this award and and
we're so lucky to have Vita here in our school district and committed to our students. So congratulations. I would like for you Vita u to take a minute at the podium and just if you want to if you want to share about the award a little bit and um what it means to you that would be great and if you don't
want to you don't have to. Okay. I'll share just a few words. Um the the award is pretty special to me because it it is a culmination of the work that we do at Heath Middle School. I'm so proud and
hap happy to be at this school where I get to impact students every day and I feel the support of my colleagues. And so the the award being a finalist is more than a just just about me. It's about everything that we do collectively
at Heath to help grow our students. Thank you so much, Vita. You know, I was a middle school teacher and a middle school principal when I started out my career. Uh it is it is a lift, especially here in the last couple of weeks of school to be a middle school teacher. So, thank you for all you do
here in District 6. Uh next I'd like to recognize our two students who are sitting to the left of me um as this is their last board meeting in these roles um as Timothy Longacre will be actually graduating and leaving us. He has been
the president of the council of student representatives and then Sarah Venegas is the vice president and she fortunately she is a junior and I learned tonight she is coming back as the president next year. So, I think she'll still get to sit here next year and and represent our students across
the district, but um I want to recognize you both as part of superintendent's honor role. It it is so important to have a student voice in all that we do. And uh Mr. Matthews and I have had a chance to come and visit with the council student reps and hear from you
all as well as your peers uh across the district and and help us to be better leaders for the district. And I want to thank you for for giving up these evenings here in the boardroom and for for taking the courage to to hit your button and and share a comment or a
thought with us because we do what we do because of the students in district 6 and you two are like a big deal. You're like the big representatives of that. So congratulations to you both. I want Do you want to go to the podium? Do you
want to speak from here? Okay, great. So, actually before we move on with this whole award and everything, we actually want to announce to the board our closing statements and the following officers that will be taking on their positions for the following school
year. There's a little group right here. Uh, I'm just going to start off with my speech and then we'll move through. Good evening, President Mash, members of the board, and Dr. Pilch. You all already know my name, so I won't go into any unnecessary introduction. I've been
greatly honored to serve as the president of this year's incredible Council of Student Representatives and as a sitting representative at the D6 board meetings. Since September of last year, Sarah Venegas and I have been able to participate in board meetings and grant a voice to the many students
throughout District 6 with our comments always being welcomed with hospitality and acceptance by board members. The ability to represent our schools and the students that make them up has both been empowering and at the same time eye-opening. These meetings have shown
me that the hard work and dedication of our district not only comes from our fantastic teachers, but also the staff throughout our district, like the janitors who clean our halls, the counselors that serve our minds and health, and the cafeteria workers who keep our bodies energized, and especially to the students that make up
the district's hardworking identity. I have been district 6 for most of my life, nine years at this point. And I must say that out of anywhere else I could have grown up and developed, District 6 is the place I choose 100% of the time. I thank every educator,
counselor, staff member, and student who has watched me grow up and has helped foster who I am today. I would like to give a special thanks to Miss Kimberly Foster, my fourth grade teacher, who welcomed me into this entire school district in 2016. And now to the future. I will be
graduating in the coming weeks, leaving my position as the president of the Council of Student Representatives and proudly passing it on to someone I know will bring passion, care, and utmost prowess to this position. Since the day I first met this student, I have been nothing but astonished by her ability to
solve problems, interact with others, and bring a muchneeded energy to the group's efforts. She has always done everything possible to ensure our group success and has intended every single group activity possible. She's truly the future of this
team and its inspirational members. Without further ado, I excitedly pass the mic on to the incoming Council of Student Representatives President, Miss Sareneos. Thank you. Good evening, President Mash, Dr. Pilich, members of the board. I am grateful for the opportunity to be one
of your student representatives here on the D6 board meetings. It was an honor to witness firsthand the dedication and strategic thinking that went into every discussion. Being included in these discussions gave me a unique perspective of all the hard work that goes into
continuously improving the district for our students. It was such a wonderful experience to see how connected our district was within our teachers, staff, families, and of course, our students. Acknowledging all of our student success within the meetings with the same
amazement and values made me realize that we are truly appreciated. Furthermore, I want to acknowledge Timothy Longacre. Timothy is truly a great leader and being able to work with him closely during this time has been a privilege and a great
learning experience for me. He did an outstanding job being the president of the Council of Student Representatives. He was always inclusive and open-minded about the diversity and ideas between the schools big and small. His dedication both for the Council of Student Representatives and for the
District 6 board meetings was amazing. There is no doubt he truly has the voice of a leader. Now, the future of the Council of Student Representatives is bright as we introduce the new officers for this upcoming year. Mr. Edwin Power,
a hardworking and dedicated young man as our vice president. Miss Aaliyah Medina, an intelligent and optimistic young woman as our secretary. And last but not least, Miss Maybelline Zarat
Reoso as our social media specialist. She is new to the group, but has already shown promise through her new design of the CSR logo, and we are excited to introduce a new perspective into our group and are excited to see what she
will become. We look forward to continue working with Mr. Allen and Miss Lonard this next upcoming year. Thank you for your continued support for the Council of Student Representatives and for the schools all across our district.
So many congratulations so you just one more President Mash. Um, finally, I'd like to recognize some parents and community members who are here tonight from our district accountability committee and honor all of you with the superintendent's honor
role. Um, and so I'm going to talk about you all a little bit and then I'm going to ask uh Nate Johnson, the the chairperson, to come up and help me pass out certificates to you all. Um, but I am I am so honored to recognize DAC tonight. They have concluded their
school year uh serving as the district accountability committee. Um most of them made it to every single meeting. Uh we meet I think seven times a year. Uh the DAC not only informs the school improvement plan um and the work of the district, but for me they have been a
sounding board for parent input and community input on a regular basis. I've been able to go to the DAC and pose questions to them or issues that we are working on as a board of education or revisions to the strategic plan and
these individuals have given me honest and meaningful feedback to to better the work of the district and it was actually the idea came from DAC to actually include um an action around artificial intelligence in our strategic plan over
a year ago. we had not included it yet and it was one of the DAC members who said hey what about what about artificial intelligence where's that at Dr. Pilch and so um it's just that's just one small example of how important they have been to us. Uh they have also
informed our portrait of a graduate. We haven't completed that yet but we have we have a a nice draft of that that we're scrubbing up and we'll be bringing back to you all for more input but Dak has has given input on that over two over two different meetings. They gave
us input on that and um they look closely at our panorama survey data. uh they they look closely at our district improvement plan and and their work is not to be taken lightly. They also go back and represent uh at their building. They serve on their school
accountability committee and they represent their building then when they come back in into our meeting at DAC. So, I'm so grateful to you all. Um you're going to hear me talk about you just a little bit more a little later when we actually have Nate come up and and and do the budget, but I I want to
bring you all up. Nate, are are you here? Did I Okay, great. I'm going to give you the certificates, Nate, and then I'll read the names um as we go. Okay. And you can help me with this. The first one is Kaylee Height. I didn't see
Kaylee. Valerie Fernandez. Nope. Deborah Chastain. These parents are all getting their kids ready for finals is what they're doing. They really are. Lisa Shelly. I thought I saw Lisa. Kelly
Jackson, I saw you. Come on up. AndreaRandle. El Dominguez, I see you out there. Come on up. Diana Rubicava. No, no. Diana. Kathy Hefron. Jennifer
Gman. Brianna Wakefield, Geneva Garahan, Amber Coleman, Tanya Alde Katano. To be fair, they did not know they were getting recognized tonight.
This is their surprise. Uh Barry Hollstead, George Alana's, I thought I saw George. There's George. Nicole Ortega, Christy Aldridge. Come on up, Nicole Christy Aldridge,
also Emily Ellen, and then Nathaniel Johnson himself who's helping me with the certificates, Germaine Wilson, Senior, Lisa Woody. Oh, did I miss one?
Oh, and our principal representative, Lindseay Gentle. Ariana Warz, Diana Letman see Diana. Rebecca Herald. Hi Rebecca. Saw you sitting out
there. Rebecca's actually our staff representative from the Girly Education Associ. No, I lied. Never mind. Shut up. Dearra Rox Roxan Martinez. Uh, Brandon Yetto, Heather
Bunan, do you want to come to work for us? Jonathan Cole, Jerry Jennings, I see you out there. And Christy Stewart. So, I want to say thank you to all of you. Um, you're a small but
mighty group tonight and but I appreciate you showing up and really your role tonight is is just to be here to support Nate as he talks about the budget recommendations. So, thank you for being here. Thank you, Dr. Pilch. Our next item is to approve the agenda. This is
an action item and will require a motion. I move that the board of education of Gley School District 6 approves the agenda as presented. Second. Thank you all. Is there any discussion on the
agenda? Seeing none, Miss Lemon, will you give us a vote, please? Director Zari, I. Director Bentley, I. Director Campos Fitzy, I. Director Mash, I Director Matthews, I Director Sullivan, I. Motion carries 6. All right. And back to you, Dr. Pilch,
for the superintendent's report. Thank you, President Mash. Um, first I'll point out that you do see an administrative piece in your agenda related to student expulsions um for for your review. Um, I also want to share with you uh I want to add on to your
comments, President Mash, about coming up on the the close of the school year. Last week was teacher appreciation week, but really when we think about closing that week out, it really is about appreciating and recognizing every single employee, every single staff
member in District 6 and all that they have done for our students. As we wind up another school year here and and we get ready to go into field day and the final concerts and programs and and finals for our older kids. Um, we're just so grateful to our staff and
grateful to our families for supporting us. Um, and and allowing us to serve your children. Um, and we are grateful for the children, the little bitty ones and the great big ones who are ready to go off. Um, so just just a lot of
heartfelt gratitude for our education community here in District 6. And speaking of gratitude, I am grateful to get to introduce two new hires um, tonight. one you have already approved, the other you you have in your personnel report. And so the one you've already
approved is Mr. Derek Lefabre. Um so Derek, stand up, give a wave. Hello Derek. Um yes. So uh Derek is no stranger to district 6, although he's he's been gone for us for
a little while while he was working on his doctorate degree um at CU Boulder. But Derek is our new assistant principal at James Madison Steam Academy. Um, we're so excited to welcome him back to District 66 after working on his
doctorate. Prior to leaving district 6 to go do that work, he was a social studies and Spanish and speech and drama teacher at Brentwood. He taught science at Heath Middle School. Um, and he also taught at Celita Dul Academy. He was actually a teacher there when I came
through I think 10 years ago interviewing for this job. I believe you were a teacher there um teaching social studies science and Spanish. So Derek, welcome to the assistant principal ship. I think we've already put you to work actually. So thank you for starting a little early. We wanted you to to hit
the ground running and and excited to have you over there with with Nidia and and supporting the students at at Madison Steam Academy. So welcome. And then our second new hire that you all have on your agenda tonight to consider. Um and with your approval, I am
recommending Mr. Russell Tupper um who to be the new principal at Chapel K8's arts magnet. [Applause] So Mr. Tupper has been in district since
2018. uh he came to us uh to serve in the dean role at Winterrad K8 and then he helped to open Twinton pre-engineering academy um as an assistant principal over there um and prior to that he was in the St. Brain Valley School District as a special
educator um and he also worked as a special educator facilitator there um and prior to that he was in Morgan County School District supporting students with special needs but really excited to have Mr. Tupper um join the chapel staff and to come on as principal
um at our our only K8 arts magnet. So welcome Russell. Thank you. Thank you Dr. Pilch. We are now to the portion of our meeting for public participation. As a board, we welcome welcome the comments of community members and we dedicate a portion of
each business meeting to provide an opportunity for the community to present brief comments. All speakers are limited to two 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, snapping, clapping, and other distractions are not permitted. 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 or 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 where all members of the school community are
treated with dignity and respect and we expect all speakers to exercise their speech rights responsibly. Our first speaker this evening is Miss Jerry Jennings. Miss Jennings, thank you for being here and
you will have two minutes. Thank you, President Mash, Dr. Pilch, and all board members. I've never done this before. I'm so nervous. I've only watched on TV. So, um, I was supposed to have a student with me that could testify to
how much this has benefited them and what it will in the future. So, I'm here to talk about the Gley West booster car show that we're having. It's our second annual. It'll be on June 15th. And I I hand I gave flyers for each of you to to
have for your own. So, um, it's open for everybody. It can be your little jalapy. It can be your fancy car that you've worked on forever. But we're going to have food vendors, um, a kids area, smoothie bikes. Where's
Danielle? Um, and it's it's a lot of fun. So, it'll be 10:00 a.m. to 1:30, rain or shine, on June 14th. I think I just said the 15th, but the 14th. So, um, if you have any questions, ask Cranson. He knows. So, that's all. Thank
you. Okay. Good. Good. All right. Thank you. Or did you have any questions? Okay. All right. Thanks. Thank you, Miss Jennings. Our second
speaker this evening is Mr. Josh Wayne Scott. Thank you, Mr. Wayne Scott. You'll have two minutes. Beginning of every school year, district employees are supposed to review their policies and procedures within the school district that staff are supposed
to abide by. I would like to direct your attention to policy JKA, use of physical intervention and restraint. Use of physical intervention and restraint to maintain a safe learning environment. District employees may within the scope of their employment and consistent with state law use physical intervention and
restraint with students in accordance with this policy and accompanying regulations. Such actions shall not be considered child abuse or corporal punishment if performed in good faith and in compliance with this policy and its accompanying regulations. The use of
physical re intervention is allowed to quell disturbances threatening physical injury. It's for the protections of persons and property against physical injury. Restraint is over a minute and it must be documented. Anything less
than a minute is not restraint. In this policy, there are no additional trainings required or certifications required. only people acting in good faith. Based on that information and the way things have
gone, I would ask that any persons, employees, current or former in this district have any letters of reprimand removed from their file immediately. And I hope moving forward the district finds a better way to use taxpayer dollars.
Thank you, Mr. Wayne Scott. Our next speaker is Miss Molly Davis. Thank you for being here, Miss Davis. You will have two minutes. All right. Um, I'm Molly Davis. I teach first grade at Maplewood Elementary. Um,
I want to speak about something a lot of us feel but feel few are willing to say, and that is the growing lack of trust in our school administration and how it's fueled by one major issue, and that's poor communication. Um, time and time again, we're left in the dark. decisions are
made behind closed doors. We often hear about major changes not from at the administration but from rumors, social media, or each other. Whether it's schedule changes, safety concerns, or policy updates, we are rarely given the full story. And when we are, it's too
late to voice our thoughts or concerns. I am speaking specifically of how the accusations against Joshu Wayne Scott were handled. administration was quick to come to our school and tell us of his arrest and the notification that went out to families. But when he was found
not guilty, we didn't hear anything from administration. How can we trust leaders who don't take the time to listen or even inform? Trust is built on transparency. And when communication breaks down, confidence follows. Students and even teachers feel
powerless like the their voices don't matter. And when people feel unheard, they stop engaging and they stop caring. Mr. Wayne Scott's life was turned upside down unfairly. The morale of our school also declined. When a student makes an
allegation against a staff member, all the staff that interact with that student should be interviewed to get the whole picture in order to protect our staff. I learned that two teachers were formally written up for not reporting child abuse that we know now didn't happen when he was found not
guilty. I would hope those writeups are now rescended. My hope is that in the future when allegations are made about a staff member, it is handled better. We can do better communicating with all staff members involved with the students daily routines. Good leadership requires open
lines of communication. Without that, trust can't grow, only doubt. Thank you. It's time. Okay. Thank you. Our last speaker of the evening is Miss April Kramer. Thank you for being here, Miss Kramer. You will have two
minutes. Hi, my name is April Kramer. I'm a reading interventionist and a GA member. On April 30th, DE uh District 6 staff received an email asking for our feedback to help assess progress in strengthening district-wide communication, collaboration, and
consistency between staff and administrators, specifically around student discipline practices. This was more than just a request to fill out a quick survey. It was an opportunity to share honest reflections about how discipline decisions are made uh made, communicated, and supported in our
buildings. And I can tell you staff did not take this lightly. I personally spent three separate 30 minute sessions of my own time thoughtfully respond responding trying to convey the ongoing frustration I feel about the lack of consistency and clear communication. We
have work to do and that work starts now and must continue from day one of next school year. I'm urging all of us, our building administrators, staff, students, and families to commit to high expectations and shared accountability through the effective implementation of
response to behaviors of the response to behaviors matrix and code of conduct. In addition, I respectfully request that the results of this survey be shared with all employees. There is power in transparency. Seeing the patterns and trends in the responses can help all of
us understand where we stand and more importantly where we need to go. If we put in the work now together, it will save us time, stress, and confusion later. But that only happens if we're all on the same page. Since I have a few minutes left, I realize why I'm here because I continuously see students from
our school representing our school and it's worth it. Thank you. Thank you all for coming to speak to us this evening. Our next item on the agenda is our consent agenda. This requires a motion. I move that the board of education agre school district 6
approves items as presented on the consent agenda and authorizes the officers to sign any and all contracts. Second. Thank you. Is there any discussion on the motion? Seeing none, Miss Lemon will give us a vote. Director Ozari, I. Director Bentley, I. Director Campus Fitzy I.
Director Mash I. Director Matthews I. Director Sullivan I. Motion carries 6. And our next item on the agenda is to receive the DAC budget recommendations. So I'll turn this back over to Dr. Pilch. Good evening, President Mash,
members of the board. I don't usually come to the podium, but I am standing in for uh Mr. Anthony Osmus, assistant superintendent tonight. Uh he's actually taking his um 18-year-old to actually start in the the army. Um and so they
took a trip to Denver tonight. So, he can't be with us this evening. Um so, I said I would step in. Um I spoke a little bit earlier about the responsibilities of the district accountability committee. I want to share just a little bit more about um one of their responsibilities that
brings Nathan here with me tonight. Um DAC is also responsible for looking at recommendations for budget consideration and and making recommendations to the board of education around those budget considerations. And so DAC has looked at
the district unified improvement plan. They've looked at innovation 2030 throughout the year. And then I shared with them um earlier this month some of the things we've been looking at in terms of priorities in the district for keeping um in our budget and some of the
priorities for looking at possibly cutting in our budget um as we finalize the budget and and then DAC had a conversation and they were able to make some recommendations around their priorities as a district accountability committee. So, with that, I'm happy to
introduce to you chairperson Nate Johnson, um, who will present to you additional information about the top recommended budget priorities from the district accountability committee. Thank you, Dr. Pilch, President Nash,
members of the board. Um, appreciate your time this evening. Uh, you'll find the the formal uh, budget recommendations in your agenda packet um, as well. So, as I kind of talk through them, um there's a little bit more information there and a little more specifics. Um after spending a
considerable amount of time learning throughout the year, um talking with uh different staff within the district and getting to know the district better, um we went through at our last meeting and after Dr. Pilch kind of talked about the current state of the state budget and
the money that the district should expect to receive next year. Um went through and looked at different areas within the district that um DAC representatives who bring the feedback from their schools should kind of direct the district to um focus their time and
efforts on. Um, in order to do this, we created a matrix and we ranked our priorities on a scale of 1 to four with four being a low priority and one being a high priority. Um, after all of the DAC members uh tallied their scores, um,
Lindsay took it back and pulled everything together. The highest possible score uh would have been 18. And um the highest recommended priority from DAC was to provide at least one school counselor in each elementary school and increase the number of school counselors at K through 8, middle, and
high schools. Um and that received 23 points. The next three priority items were parent and family advocates in each elementary, K through 8, and middle school, maintaining a low class size, and having social workers in all of our
K through2 schools. Um, additional comments that were made from DAC included recognizing the importance of mental health support in our schools. Um, something that especially postcoid has been a a revolving conversation in DAC around all aspects of the district.
While we understand this is just one piece of the budget process, we hope that you will consider our recommendation as representatives from all schools across our district. We have become familiar with the budget process we work within and we believe these priorities will further support our teachers and students to be
successful. Um, since I have the podium for a second, I'd also like to uh make a comment to all the dads out there. Um it's something that we don't tend to see in DACK and I've been in DACK for three years now and was a lone soldier for the
first two years uh minus a couple staff members and this year we had two dads involved and it was really awesome to see um George is doing great work in the transportation department um and is representing INDAC and it's so important to get dads in our schools and involved
in our kids' future and I would throw that challenge out to any of the dads that are watching tonight. Um it's really really important and and when I started with that uh there was kind of a question in my mind of hey this is a state required thing is it really
important and it has been phenomenal to see how much the district truly pays attention to the things that DAC brings to the table. The questions the concerns um the things that we want to see for our kids and takes action on those. So I really appreciate your time and thank
you very much. Thank you very much. Um, are there any questions for Nate or for Dr. Pilch? Dr. Campos Spitzy. Um, not really a question, more more a comment.
Um, I I really like the format you guys give us. It's like super easy to understand and to to see the ranking um of your budget priorities. Um, I really appreciate that school counselors are appreciated by parents as much as they
are by staff and and building leadership. Um, I I I I think this comment is for the board that as we look at the budget um, as much as as we can and I I guess I'm speaking individually
um, we will definitely keep that priority in mind. Um and uh parent and family advocates as well and and class size uh is always a priority. Um so I I we appreciate this. I I
appreciate this. Thank you so much, Mr. Matthews. Thank you, President Mesh. Uh thank thank you, Mr. Johnson. Thank you to our DAC members. We we do know that that's a lot of time that you commit and we do appreciate your input into the budget process every year and so uh can you
tell us just a little bit more um why school counselors maybe rose to the top just if you uh recall any of your discussion and I would say those those top four are all are all very big priorities for us but how school counselors rose to the top. Absolutely.
I think um you know a big part of the change in in times has become a much better recognition and focus on mental health um across the board, but especially in our schools. Um our students just because they're young and
resilient doesn't mean that they're not affected by the outside world and change um and the effect of their peers. Um home life, you know, there's all kinds of things that contribute to that and a lot of that comes to light at school. um you know they're in a in an environment where they're stuck in a desk for most
of the day and really having to kind of focus their efforts and that's where a lot of that stuff kind of comes out and I think the parents recognize that while we can do our jobs at home there's a second component and a big part of their life that we aren't always involved in and we can't always be there and that's
a big role that the school counselors play um from a mental health aspect along with guiding their education. Um, it's that one-on-one contact and availability for kids to be able to reach out for that. Um, and knowing that it's there instead of having to ask
around or wait for somebody to come in from another school um is really really important. And you know, CO was a a huge thing that changed everybody's lives and had a drastic impact um on mental health. And I think a lot of that I
think there's been a bigger focus on that after co um and it's just something that it's come up every year that I've been in DACK. Um and I think all of the parents are um very passionate about Thank you. Absolutely.
Are there any other comments or questions from board members? Well, thank you so much for bringing that to us. I agree with Dr. campost that this is easy to to see and um thank you for answering the questions. Um thank you for giving a
plug for DAC and also I am excited to see if some more dads will join. Um I get I get to attend the DAC meetings in my role as vice president. Um so I think Mr. Bentley will be joining you next year. Um but the DAC parents are
extremely astute. They ask excellent questions. Um, I guess some of the perks of being on deck, you get to take tours, you get to be, um, in, you know, in the beginning of a lot of information and, um, if you have smaller kids, you know, you get to see what their opportunities
are coming up, um, in the later grades. So, please join Dak, have a a big impact in our community for only one meeting a month. So, thank you very much for being here. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you. The final item on our agenda is to
receive um I'm sorry, let me get to um to receive our certified staff master contract agreement. This is an action item. I move that the board of education of Gley Evans School District 6 approves the tenative agreements to be incorporated into the
2024 2025 district 6 master contract. These tenative agreements include the adoption of the salary schedules as presented. Second. Thank you both. We have two motions. Are there two
motions or is I move that the board of education of Gley Evans School District 6 approves the tenative agreements to be incorporated into the 2025 2026 m district 6 master contract. These tenative agreements include the adoption of the salary schedules as presented.
Okay, second. So just one that we will be voting on correct. Okay, no worries. Sorry about that. Okay, thank you Mrs. Overton. Thank you so much for um always participating in negotiations. I will
start tonight with the um the way that I usually end this every year and that is talking about how successful this negotiations is and the partnership that we have as a group from the school board that participates in negotiations really
honoring and listening to teachers from Dr. Pilch who has set up the um environment and the problem solving and collaborative um message that she sends out to us and from Aaron who um the president who will work tirelessly
throughout the year with me to bring problems together um to me or concerns and that we can work through them and in a year-long process of negotiating and um solving problems. So tonight we're here to talk
um to talk about the tenative agreements that the the association, the um school board and the district administrators have come together as a negotiations team. The agreements that we've made. We're going to talk about um the uh adjustments to the language and the
changes that we can make. We talked a little bit about this in negotiations where it was about um restructuring some of the formatting and then also changing some of the language. Uh this will be something that we can work that we have been working on together. And we also
had to um get we have changed the document so that it is now accessible um as the new rules that have come out from the state. Um we're also here to talk about the reports on the progress around recommendations for next year's work
with any of the committees that have we have. We've got four committees that are working. One is time and learning. Uh another is systems of support. The other is the alternative new teacher uh support group uh support uh task force
and then of course compensation. We utilized this year the s the uh solutions committee uh soulcom is what we affectionately call it throughout the school year as a mechanism to problem solve with um the between the
association and the administrators and it's been insightful and collaborative this year um language changes as I started to talk about this really just updating the master contract making sure that we've got new salary schedules updated uh with
the co-curricular schedule, the stepoff leadership schedule, the certified schedule, and um any of the uh steps and columns that teachers might use in to advance their uh their
salaries. The step off leadership has always been an option in the contract. That's something that you have seen maybe if you have read through the contract, but teachers are well aware of. We want to make sure that they are um they see visibly in the contract the schedule that they would um how they
would go ahead and make additional salary, what percentage it is. So, we're adding that to the contract which has never been in there before. Um each of the committees that um the purpose statements and the committees that are running that I talked about a few minutes ago, they are um going to be
updating and their mission statements. they'll be looking at their purpose and what they're going to be doing for the for the year as well. So then the committee reports include time and learning. That's one the first one we're the work we're still
in action includes um uh collaboration on co on um class coverage and class compaction. We are looking at how to having dialogue about the professional learning communities and what their expectations are and then how we are
going to enhance the uh new professionals academy that's being done through the school leadership division in the in the district and um we're looking at an HR and a GEA component to that in the in the early in the early
fall. We are still going to continue working on the um late start Mondays where teachers will get 16 late starts. Uh they'll have individual planning and then with uh buildings and districts then having training uh 11 other Mondays
for trainings. Um we want to continue the conversation uh and the expectations around uh professional development as well. That's been something that's been happening through the school leadership department. And then time and learning will continue to to maintain the three
standing committees time and learning um I mean sorry elementary secondary and special education. So the systems of support this is um we're considering the survey that we have just recently um pushed out to all
of our staff. They um gave us good quality feedback and we'll doing we'll be doing some analysis of that. We're also heard in negotiations that the best team was a great um addition to uh supports for buildings this year. We
also need to look at what their form and function is so that everybody is aware of what's happening with that team. We are taking the alternative the alternative and new hire task force to the retention. So, we're going to dissolve it from or um sunset it from
negotiations and move it to the innovation 2030 uh retention task force. You may also remember that we are training all staff to respond to disruptive behaviors of students. We did that training last fall. We'll do the
second round of that and um uh expand that training again this this um this fall. So the last committee report is the compensation. This is exciting because we have all agreed that we want to remain competitive in northern Colorado,
indeed Colorado, but for sure northern Colorado. And um in order to do that, we have a new starting salary of $53,040. We'll update we, as I said earlier, we'll update all the existing salary schedules and all employees will see an
increase in pay. This is the what you can see on this slide is the new stepoff leadership schedule that has never been in the contract but will be going in the contract this year. Um the uh the percentage increase is um 2% to
the base of the salary certified salary schedule and uh the highest level um we'll we'll talk about that in just a second but the um any of the staff that we have in the district AP and classified will also see a salary
increase. that communication goes out um after uh tonight's presentation. If you all approve the master contract, then that communication will go out by um our chief of communications. This is the new salary schedule. And while the cells are hard
to read, I wouldn't expect you to be able to see them all. You can see the top left corner on that slide is $53,040. And you can see the bottom right side is 121,000. It's over
121,000. That is the new salary schedule for the 25 26 schedule. You want to share that? Go ahead. I just want to point out that the um that the things that are highlighted in
green are every five-year increments that's been built in at a higher percentage rate um than the regular steps in the effort to recognize people for their retention and not everybody has that. We what's exciting for us too
is that it is a it is a 2% increase to the base. It's a average of 4.3% raise for our teachers and our staff. If those that have participated in horizontal advancement or stepoff leadership, they can earn even more on
their raise for next year if they've participate and are awarded that kind of um horizontal advancement. So they're also going to receive steps and columns which is part of that horizontal advancement. That is our presentation around the
tenative agreements and we'd be happy to entertain any questions that you may have. Thank you both for being here and for that presentation. Um Mr. Bentley has a question. Um more of just a comment. Um just want to first off thank you guys for all the hard work. Um negotiations
have been very eye opening for me. I I didn't know expect my first year and I think this is my fourth time negotiations and I I value that process so much I've actually brought it into my my own business and and seen a lot of uh you know ROI on that there. Um the one thing I that was brought up in
negotiations and and we've heard it a couple times is the uh the desire for communication and while we're sitting in negotiations I sat there and we heard the same thing. I heard a couple people mention we didn't hear about this and
and and a couple questions and I I sat there and I went well I know the answer to this question and how the heck do I know the answer when I only come to one two board meetings a month basically I'm not involved in any of the day-to-day operations and it hit me it's because I come to the board meetings so I really
think that a lot of these communication issues because I know Dr. Pilch and Teresa. Basically all Teresa does is communicate. That's her entire job description. And I hear it from my side and I hear from your guys' side. And I just want you guys to know that communication, this is this is a little of my therapist
wisdom. Communication isn't key. Comprehension is key. So if if it's out there and you're not taking advantage, you know, the newspaper recaps basically every board meeting we have. There's ways to get what we're doing to everybody in the district. And I don't know if another newsletter or maybe
maybe if I mailed you guys a postcard if that would help. But the the information is there and I just want you guys to take advantage of, you know, they're on YouTube forever. So, um, you know, they're pretty easy and accessible and I think that would that would start off answering a lot of people's questions
and the need for communication. But I I know that we're trying and I and I know that Erin's trying because I've heard her say that and I've I know that Dear just said it and I know that Teresa said it and I I hear it. So, um, I just want to let you guys know from from my point of view, every everybody is trying and I don't know if it's a solvable issue
ever, but, um, I appreciate the effort you guys put into it. Thank you. I'm just being sorry. Uh, Miss Sullivan, I don't know if you uh can go back to uh the salary schedule. I just have a question on that. On the uh section
that's grayed out, why is it on step 10 with a bachelor's there's no pay increase? and then um so on with that scale where it's in gray. We are we encourage people to continue and be lifelong learners and get extra courses,
move along the horizontal um along horizontally or vertically um in the system and it freezes at step 10 because that's where um that that's as far as they can go in that bachelor's column. We want them to continue their learning
and continue growing. So then they move over with horizontal advancement. That's what horizontal that's what that means is moving over. And then as they continue to stay with us and earn seniority and um experience in the district, they are awarded by moving
down the column as well. So that's where that comes from. Thank you. Yeah. Um I don't see any other questions. I was just curious. I know these are the tentative agreements. Um but I was wondering if um there is a piece around
benefits that or if that was kind of straightforward. I feel like I included that. Um but some of that stuff has to happen before we actually go into negotiations. So, we did get to keep nice healthc care at free of charge for the employees and um
you guys ate the increase that it would that has been otherwise put upon employees in other districts like you guys ate that. So, we still have a fully paid benefit option for employees. Excellent. All
right. Not seeing any other comments. Thank you very much. Um, and we will now take a vote. Director Zari, I. Director Bentley, I. Director Campos Spitzy, I. Director Mash, I. Director Matthews, I. Director
Sullivan, I. Motion carries 6. Well, thank you again for joining us this evening. Um, I think there's only 10 sleeps until summer vacation. Are you you're you're yang about that.
tell you that GA membership has um voted to accept that like we have voted to accept the tenative agreements through a ratification vote. Oh, okay. I apologize. I feel like I was supposed to do that. Okay. I'm sorry if I rushed that. No, that was not about Well, we're
all in agreement and it passed. So, excellent. Thank you for all that good work. Um, best wishes on the end of the school year. This meeting is now adjourned. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat.
[Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music]