Good evening. Okay, anyone who's been in a board meeting or knows that I like everybody to holler back at me. So, we're going to try it one more time. Good evening. Good evening. Welcome to
our school board meeting um on this evening. We are just very excited about all the things that we are going to accomplish on this evening. So the time right now is 6:07 p.m. on May 15,
2025. And so we're going to go on ahead and get started. Um, first of all, we just want to call attention that there is a signup sheet in the back. Um, you have until 6:30 p.m. if you wanted to um
provide u during public comment. Um, that will be read at 6:30 p.m. So, with that being said, we're going to go on ahead and get started. Wanted to make sure that everyone uh on the DASIs had a chance to review the agenda.
Okay, thank you. So, at this time we are going to item two, which is the call to uh order roll call. Excuse me. Mrs. Ambid Day, if you could please do that for us. Yes, Madam President. Miss
Frasier here. Dr. Robinson here. Mrs. Salasar here. Mr. Williams here. Mrs. Wills Hill here. Miss Don Juan here. Mr. Mr. Goss here. Madam President, we have a quorum. Thank you so very much. We are
going on to item 2.2. It is the pledge of allegiance. And we are so excited for uh everyone who's going to be here this night. Um from Wildflower. I'm so sorry. I know it's
not Wildflower. She's CR A. Look at Look at what it says. Okay. I'm sorry. Well, I know you're awake now, don't I? So, we're going to have the pledge of
allegiance. Do we have some people from CRA who's going to do that? Okay. So, we'll have the pledge of allegiance and the reading of the mission statement. [Music] Madame President, we have um special presentation by Maria
Infante. She will recite the pledge of allegiance in Spanish and then in English. So, please remain standing. I pledge of allegiance 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. Thank you so very much. So, we're moving ahead. We are at item 3.1 which is to adopt the agenda and I just need a recommended
motion please. Madame President I move to approve or reject the agenda as stated. Approve. Sorry. Second. Motion to approve the agenda as stated by Dr. Pam Robinson. Second by Miss JJ
Frasier. All those in favor? I now have a meeting item four 4.1 it is the career of readiness academy not wildflower elementary.
So on this evening we have middle school. Yes. Um Giovani Trillo, Maria Infante. And from the high school, Aiden Langley, Barry Hala
Loata, and Jose [Music] Sanchez. And the Coach Terry Den. First of all, good evening everyone. Thanks for inviting Career Readiness
Academy Middle School High School uh to board presentation tonight. We like to start with our mission. I'd like to have Ian Langley come up. Absolutely. So the mission of Career Readiness
Academy is to provide an alternate education opportunities that equipped its students with the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors needed to succeed in college, careers, and life. We are committed to fostering responsibilities, respect, and personal
growth while inspiring students to exceed their potential. And for our mission, I'm sorry for our vision, we have Mr. Barry Melon Alto. vision for our students at a career readiness and readiness academy is to
foster long life learners who uh excel uh academically, socially and emotionally. They will poses as a strong academic foundation. Be prepared for college careers, embrace new ideas,
adapt to change, and demonstrate interpersonal skills such as respect, empathy, and compassion. you. All right. Most of you uh have been black campus uh may not
know a lot about career range academy middle school high school. This is the first year for our middle school. uh our demographics as you can see on the board everything but we are small microcosm of not just our region our district but
also our country in general. 32 students uh 45 of which graduated uh two days ago and uh we have a middle school which encompasses 17 I'd like to have uh Miss Rexrov, our
dropout prevention specialist, come up and talk about student support. Good evening. Um so a little bit about our campus. We are small but uh we have a lot of great support with our admin uh Mr. Dunn, Coach. Everybody knows Coach
and our AP uh Miss Oliver Vera. She oversees our middle school. We um have 10 teachers um that include their CLLD, our sped teacher um that was introduced uh CLLD was introduced this year for us. We have seven support staff members and
um we have community partners. Uh weekly we have men of influence come out and uh our middle school have recently been going to Flying Horse Ranch which is a therapy uh center for um horses which they'll go into more later but so a
whole house of support for our students. Um and then I don't know how to use this green one. Okay. So, just a glimpse of all the staff I just mentioned, just so you could see all the wonderful faces that we get on campus every day. Some that were not
mentioned were our um custodians, our security guards, um our nutrition services, and we also have a night school staff that was not represented there because we have a whole staff at night for our night school as well. So, just a glimpse of who we are. Um we're going to talk a little bit
about our academic focus and we're going to start with uh MTSS and what we've done this year with MTSS. Um we'll go into how we are individualized learning that makes us more why we're an alternative campus and then we're going to see how that affects our student
academic growth and uh how our graduation rates look this year compared to the last five years. So um MTSS is different for us since we are an alternative campus. we have to look at it from a different lens than some other campuses do. Um, so the
way we do that is by looking at their credits received. Obviously, we're credit recovery. We meet monthly during our PLC to go over that and track student data. And then, uh, we focused largely this year on tier one instructional supports. Uh, just to give you a glimpse
of our data, uh, here are seniors and juniors. They were our huge focus this year. um obviously for prevention of them dropping out. At the beginning of the year, tier one were students who are in the top tier where they should be with credits. We were at 22% of our seniors meeting that top tier. At the
end of the year, we're proud to say 70% of our students were in the top tier for credits. So, as you can see, um we grew exponentially from where they were at the bottom to moving to the top. And that took a lot of effort from that huge sport staff that I was talking about. Uh
same thing for our juniors. We had great growth in that with MTSS. Um this was heavy data tracking throughout the year. At the beginning only 29% of our students were on track in that tier one and by the end of the year we had 65% of our students on track. Some of the ways
we did that was those tier one strategies we were talking about. Um so a lot of our teachers did a lot of extra work this year by doing individual prints. They scaffolded quizzes for our students. They did daily check-ins. They had progress reports. positive calls were a huge thing. Um, and they'll go
more into that when they go into some of even our social emotional learning and how that ties to MTSS as well. And I have next up is going to be button will work. Uh, I'm going to introduce Miss
Omera, our AP, and she's going to talk about how individualized learning um affects all of our students. Hi, good evening. Um so at the high school level uh we use Edenum as our core foundation um for our students and it really requires our students to be selfarters
and we really work with them to go at their own pace but with guidance um because we all know that sometimes we just need a little push to make sure that we're finishing strong. Um and we really make sure that our students have that individual accountability with each teacher support. being a smaller staff, we want to make sure that every kid has
a trusted adult in the building and that they can have those tough conversations when a kid isn't making progress in adum. Um, at the middle school level, we have very intentional classes um and grouping. So, students move in pods throughout the day. Um, so most of the time the students stay with that pod all
morning long. Um, and then the way that we do it, we do all of our academics in the morning and then when students complete all of their academic work for the morning, they get a preferred activity of their choosing. Um, and so they they essentially earn their elective classes. Um, but it helps to
prioritize that academic piece. Um, we try to use choice as much as humanly possible. Um, providing students different ways to show their learning and their mastery of the content. Um and we also have built-in what I need time is which is really our academic intervention to um help scaffold and
remediate those skill deficits that our students possess. Um our student academic growth um at the high school level we have a total hours of on classes is 13,500. Our average class completion per student is 15. And at the middle school
level, um, our RI I Ready scores, um, from beginning of year to middle of year had the highest growth in the district. We actually had like 134% growth from beginning of year to middle of year. And our graduation rates, um, in
2022, we had 26 graduates from CRA High School. 2023, we had 19. Um, and then we uh increased to 37 last year and we had 45 this year. I think one of the things that excites me the most about what we do at CRA is really thinking out of the
box and getting creative about what we do to meet our students needs. Um, we have a handful of students who are um dual enrolled. So they might be enrolled in both middle school and high school. So they have access to the high school classes. And we also have kids um who are enrolled in AOA the online academy
and CRA middle school. Um, and so they get some social peer time with our CRA middle school staff, but they're accessing their academics through AOA online. And so I think just thinking outside the box and being creative helps to meet the needs of all of our
kids. And next up is Emma Griffith. A lot of what we tried to focus on uh the last couple years is personal development and success. That would encompass career connected learning and social emotional growth. I will talk about career connected learning and Miss
Griffith will talk about social emotional. We really focused uh a lot this year on career committed learning and uh workplace um work-based learning, hands-on uh being able to get out in the
community uh with our local u community partners and really invest in our students in terms of what their future might look like and maybe do some exploratory um ventures around the region and also
out of a region as well. We have local um community partners uh the local fire station street also have career uh days every Friday. We bring in uh speakers from the community to connect with our
students. gives them an idea of what their future might look like or what their opportunities might be and where they're social emotional growth. Just got kind of nervous. I feel like I'm about to testify or something
in court. Um I'm Emma. I'm a school social worker at Career Readiness Academy. Um, like they had said and I just wanted to speak as fast as humanly possible because I have so much to say about this. I feel very passionate about the social emotional um, resources and support that our students get at CRA.
But um, I want to talk about our resources, their interventions, and the growth that we've seen from it. So, um, I think having the lens of kind of what Miss Ome said of like thinking outside the box. We met with uh another middle school in the district who was transferring one of their students to us and and their principal said, "Hey,
thank you so much for thinking outside the box, CRA staff." And I was kind of taken aback because I was like I didn't really feel like we were doing that crazy of things, but I felt like because we exist outside the box. That's like where we live is outside the box. Um we are not trying to put any kid in a box of what their learning needs to look
like or what their social emotional support like. Um so some of our social emotional resources is me. I'm the school social worker. I work mostly with students in special education who have social emotional support in their IEP, but I also help support the school as a whole. Um, we have an amazing school
guidance counselor, Miss Melville Halls, who some of you may know. She's been around for forever and ever, and she's so great and so lovely and just does so much for our our high school students especially, just keeping them on track, helping them meet their goals, helping them get across the stage. She is a huge
force and powerful force. Um, lastly, we have a school mental health therapist, which I would love to just shamelessly plug because she was the first inhome mental health therapist in the district. Um, we've added a few more, I believe, in the district um, since then, but Stephanie Wagner was the first and she
was trailblazing. what does it look like to have that mental health therapist inside the building as a part of our school staff with an office in our middle school hallway um to kind of help with those barriers of transportation or finances or other things that get in the way of our students sometimes receiving
mental health support outside of school and she has just been amazing. So some of the interventions that we have at our school, I think first and foremost I wanted to put at the very top was positive reinforcement. And that might seem general or generic, but I think for a lot of our students because we are an
alternative campus, they're coming to our school with this mindset of like I haven't been good with school. This is not my place that I thrive. I'm not good at school and this is not where I belong. And so we just get to flood them with positivity of like you belong here
and you have something to bring to the table here. And I think of a seventh grade student whose grandma said, you know, he's not great with math, but he'll fix anything. And I and so we give him these opportunities at school. We have that flexibility. We have the resources that, hey, we let's fix let's
do circuits and let's do those kinds of that kind of learning along with your math so that you feel like you're successful in this place. Um, we have point sheets for middle school. They get to pick some goals and things that they're working on. And every single middle school student has a point sheet where they receive points from their
classes. Um where they get electives and they get um tangible rewards. We have those reward systems. We have a dojo store every Friday for our middle school students where they can cash in points. And I think we have like one of the coolest stores in this district, I have to say, because we have like LED lights
and speakers and Broncos jerseys and they're super motivated to get um get to go to that store. Um, and then with our high schoolers, um, we have a class completion board and that came that was born from a conversation I had with a high schooler who's like, when I finish a class in adment, like all I get is
another class and that's like the and it's kind of a big deal that we finish there really hard. And so we came up with this idea together to have a board displayed in the hallway where they get to put a sticker every time they complete um, a class and they get a prize and then the top five earners got
um, lunch with Mr. Dunn. And I think more than the the chips and the lunch, they loved the stickers, which seeing an a 17-year-old run down the hallway to get his sticker and put it on the board was pretty cool. Um, and then just an emphasis on relationships. As you saw, we're a small school. We definitely feel
like a family, especially this time of year when feel like siblings and we just spend a lot of time with each other and we're all getting on each other's nerves, but we definitely are are like a family. And um we have weekly mentorship with high schools so that every high schooler has an adult that is investing
in them, asking them hard questions, wanting to know about who are they outside of just their academic work. Um we have a lot of goal setting with middle and high school. What do they see in their future? What do they see next week? What do they what do they years from now? And then lastly, our Fridays in middle and high school. As you can
see, this is our middle schoolers at the ranch where they are so kind to the horses. They've really built trust. They've actually gotten in the last couple weeks to get to ride the horses, but it was a slow, you know, getting to know them and grooming them and um learning those skills and they just they love going to the ranch and it's very
fun to see them in cowboy. And then on on Fridays for high school, we do discovery day where men of influence comes and they just do amazing work with our high school students. Love working with those um women of impact and um just learning some.
So, I spoke really fast, but that's our social emotional growth at um CRA. So, I'd like to invite Jose Fe up here. He is one of our high school graduates this year and he
did ask a question. All right. So, we did an interview with him. So, we want to interview him with you guys present. So, Jose, what is your favorite? My favorite thing about CRA are the friends that I got to meet and how easy it was for me to get ahead and graduate early. This was possible because I got a
lot of help from my teachers and I got to pick my own classes, the ones that I would actually like to do, not in like other high schools, but they just give you whatever classes. But I really got to choose my own classes. Those ones I was really interested in, and there was a lot of things that I learned, a lot of
information that I got from those classes. Before coming to CRA, I would have a hard time listening to the teachers or understanding what the work was. I didn't feel like the things I didn't feel like things were always taught to me in a way I understood until I got to
CRA. And what I was trying to say there was the teachers there in CRA really had a way of talking to you. you know, they really had a way of teaching you and getting you um into a learning way of what like you wanted, you know, like in a way that you wanted to learn. They got
you that way. So, I really like the way that they got me to learn there. One goal that I have for the future is to be successful. I want to have a house and my family and to have a good job to sustain that. I would I have been thinking about construction and
heavy artillery and getting into trade school. Thank you. Thank you. Oops. Yeah, I also just messed that up. But um all of our students this year are graduates. Maria, Aiden, and Jose, and
um Barry, if you all will stand up and see. And then lastly, um, our middle school representative, Giovani, was not able to make it tonight, but did want to just make sure we highlight him. Look at him on a horse. That's awesome. Um, and I talked with him a lot today and he just
our conversation around, you know, before he came to us, he was getting his parents were getting called every day and I was like, every day? But now they're getting called maybe once every couple months. And so he really has made so much growth. I think he's bonded with a lot of our staff helping him just with that pause before reacting and yeah,
he's made a huge growth. How about Gio? Thank you. Well, that's our presentation. As you can see, uh we have um some great things going on at Career Readiness Academy, middle school, high school, and uh we have students who are learning and
growing each day. And um it's a Great place to be. Coach and CRA team, I just wanted you to note that the two people assigned to your school, Miss Frasier and myself, have our CRA blue and black on. So, please note that we dressed
appropriately. Play the colors. Absolutely. And then also, board, I just want to remind you that the way we fund this school is different than any other school. And the results you heard are because we do strategic funding. If you fund every school the same, you're not
going to get the results that we're seeing. And so, it's really important that we differentiate how we support schools based on what the needs of the students and staff are at the school. So, super excited just of what CRA has been able to do in their new Pam
Robinson Education Center. And the signage is up and working. So, you have to come by and lights. I I just I just want to commend you all and
I remember just the blueprints and the discussions and you and the staff have just to fruition dream of Hanzel offering the whole team Andy
everybody and you have exceeded the only thing I just have one question. I remember making a statement that I wanted our baby I wanted our children not babies. I wanted them to know that when they went to that school, it's not alternative. It is. And I love the young
man that said different, he differentiated the way he taught to learn. You're learning the same thing just like when you go to AP and CTE. And so you guys are just our differentiated magnet school. You know, you're not
alternative. You are finding you're cutting edge differentiating learning for our students. I was just so excited to see the um graduation rate is students to you for just working and
and don't stop at these dreams. The young man with the goal and and you'll go beyond that. So, thank you all. Thank you, Dr. Rob. Hello. Um, can you does CRA have like a bell
system? I know when I've been there, I've not heard a bell ring. And do the kids, you were saying that kids complete a class. So, can you paint a picture of how
school day would look for students? We're a small community and um and I I know that u principal Balden would probably echo this is he didn't have to have any bails. He probably wouldn't want bails either. But it we
we're a small school. So, we have two we have u two bells. We have one start school and we have to end school. And so no one can say, "Well, I didn't hear the bell." And because the classes are in
close proximity at both, uh, AOA, uh, CRA High School and Middle School, can't get lost and you can't hide and you have no reason to be there. So, uh, it took probably a week or so for students to make the adjustment, but now it's, um,
it's just standard of procedure. Your question was just will we will we include extracurricular at some time or will or will they ever will our students there be inclusive of um sports or any of those like down the in the future?
Well, every student that comes to uh Career Readiness Academy in terms of uh curriculars, co-curricular activities at the high school level, uh they have a home school. So, if their home school is Sierra or Harrison, they may participate
at either of those schools, band, uh drama, sports activities. Aiden, right? And Aiden. Yes. Yes. All right. So, I'll just say a comment. Uh, if you're not familiar so far, my
brother is Marcos Gyos, who is a teacher at CRA. And one of the biggest things I do want to say is that was mentioned by Jose is that the teachers are adapting to all the students learning styles and everybody has different learning styles
whether it's visual or it could be something that could be tactile. It doesn't matter who you are because the teachers that are there at CRA are meant to work with the students to make sure that they are on track to graduate. And this year I have seen a lot more graduates and I just want to say that
very proud of CRA giving the students the magnet that they can have and be able to have the future that they want because this is the possibilities because every student has the chance to becoming successful in the future no matter who you are.
[Applause] We're all looking like can't uh say anything behind what was just said. Um but thank you so very much for your presentation. You all have done just a
phenomenal job. We are extremely proud and I love using the word magnet. That is fantastic. So we have some Yes, I have a comment. I Yeah, I always have comments.
Um I I have a quick question. So, what about sports for middle school middle school student? Yeah, we have um one student at uh his home school is Fox Meadows, Giovana uh participated in basketball at Okay.
Um, and I also want to make I also have more. No, I have more. Um, Coach Den, I think you made a choice. Um, I don't know if it was a year or two ago whether to be a coach or whether to be the
administrator for CRA. Is that correct? Yes. Well, I just want to say I appreciate you making that choice. Um, people call you coach for a reason and I'm sure you loved being a coach, but I just appreciate I mean looking at the
graduation rates, I appreciate you making the choice that was right for students. Well, thank you. And I I think the choice uh I don't think I know uh that the choice was right for me. um in any given uh season I would um have the
effect on probably 30 young men. Um now I have the effect on 132 young men and women. uh no very and and I must
say I have been in lots of bathroom. Thank you. So at this time we want all of our people to come up front and take a picture with the board. If all of our retirees and our teachers of the year and ESP of the year will
please go into the foyer, you're going to line up so that we'll be ready for you in a few minutes. [Music] So at this time we are going to start by honoring our retirees. [Music] We have several retirees who have spent
their careers or a good bulk of their career in D2 and have made us better as a district. And we want to make sure that we honor our special folks who are leaving us staying in touch and their but their everlasting impact in D2 is
much appreciated and their dedication to D2. So if the board could come up front, Miss Aramday. Well, I know I said it wrong. will call their names. Thank you, Dr. Bhanzo. Uh Cecilia Gos
with [Applause] transportation, Miss Mrs. Michelle Larent, our district, one of our district RNs that's been here forever and we're going to have to figure out how to work without you.
Michelle. Yeah. Michelle Taylor from Saurin Eagles. Diane DS from Bricker Elementary. Janette Canard from Sierra High School. Son Manic from Sierra High School. And last, but definitely not least, Jeff
Clemens, who's in our operations department and has [Applause] Next, we are going to honor our ESP and teachers of the year for the district. So, for those who don't know, each
school um selects an ESP member and a teacher to um honor for the teacher of the year ESP for their school and then they compete at a district level to be the D2 ESP of the year and the D2 teacher of the year. and then they are
surprised at their school locations. So we are going to start with ESP of the year. Um and I know we have a lot of their admin here. So cheer loud for your people when we announce them please. Tarwana
Mlan. She's here. Okay. Okay. She's from Gersonen Elementary. Uh Brenda Escalante from Monterey. [Applause] Rhonda Chase is here from Bricker
Elementary. It is a big deal. Okay. I'm sorry. Do uh Miracle Peoples from Stratton Meadows. [Applause] Adalis Leon Gonzalez from
[Applause] Wildflower. Lorenna Voy from Mountain Vista. [Applause] Lulu Chris Lesnney from Sand Creek. Oh,
I'm not sound right. I miss Um, let's see. Jackie Jackie Laam from Soaring Eagles. [Applause] Yay. Myra Gostetta from AOA.
[Applause] Tyler Moser from Panorama, Daniel Valdez from CRA High [Music] [Applause] Cool. Okay. Jana Burgess from Otero. I know, right? Save the best for the
last. And Matt Chase from Sierra High School and uh a person that we really really well I don't no I don't want to say really really uh the ESP of the year
for for uh all of Harrison School District 2 is Lorena Voy. JJ. Thank you all for being here with us tonight. And I know they're going to be taking more pictures. [Applause]
And next, we'll be honoring our teachers of the year. Um, just like our ESP of the year, our teachers I would put up against anyone in any district, we have the best teachers in D2 that go above and beyond, work a million hours to make sure our kids are taken care of.
Ricker Elementary School. Maggie [Applause] Gunnison. Emily Gaitan from Centennial [Music]
Elementary. Briana Hansard from Gyerson. [Applause] Briana Brewster from Stratton Meadows. Ariana Franklin from Turman. Angie Harvey from Wildflower. [Applause]
Chelsea Curl from Mountain Vista. [Applause] Jessica Day Newman from Sand Creek. Calvin Roush from AOA. [Applause]
Kayla Ruptac Loose from Fox Meadow. [Music] [Applause] That's because I got it right. Wait, wait, wait. Here, here, here, here. Wait, wait, wait. I got it right here. I was gonna give it to you in a
minute. Okay. Wendy Robinson from [Applause] Panorama and Mr. Walt Johnson from CRA High [Applause]
School. And the teacher of the year for Harrison School District 2 is Kayla Reptac Loose. So, thank you. Stand up and cheer and smile. Wave everybody. Thank you all. Uh, congratulations to
our teachers of the year and our ESPs of the year and thank you for our retirees and their families that have been here. Take off the yellow paper. Huh? All right. Thank you very much. Um that was a wonderful presentation and
honoring all of our um retirees, teachers of the years, and ESPs of the year. So, we're going to continue on with our agenda. Uh we are at item 5.3 and we do have a CLLDE
presentation. So um at this time the floor is yours. So as they're setting up I just want to give you kind of a background on this. Um you as you know we have over 50 languages in 18 square miles that our students come to us with. Um many of them have never had English
taught to them. Many of them have never been in school. Um, and so what you're going to experience today is what some of those students experience when they come to us with no English. So I ask you to have an open mindset and really understand what it takes for our
teachers to reach these students who do not have the language that we maybe expect them to walk in with. And um, starting us off is our director, Miss Tammy Holland. It's on now. Okay. Good evening, school board. Thank you so much for having us
today. Um, like Dr. Burhansel just shared, we invite you to participate as a student. Um, get comfortable being uncomfortable and just embrace what's about to happen. Isabelle and Hannah, um, two of our coordinators are going to
be teaching you in French today. and within their lesson they will be modeling some of the strategies that we launched this year as far as co-eing comprehensible input and um seven steps to a languagerich environment. So we
just want to thank you again for all of your support this year so that we could launch these initiatives. So with that I will hand it over to Hannah and Isabelle. All right. Hello. Um I'm Isabelle. I'm one of the CLLD coordinators here. Um,
like we're all hearing, we are supporting teachers and supporting our students who are learning uh, English. Um, and I'm Hannah. I'm another CLLD instructional coordinator. Do you want this? So, just as uh, Miss Holland told us,
we'd love you to um, embrace the imperfections of this experience. Um, my favorite motto, my brother told me, is don't let perfection get in the way of participation. Um, we expect there might be a little frustration, but just keep going. We know you can do it. It's going
to be fun. Um, and then just a little technical thing. When you see the purple microphone, that means it'll be your turn to speak. It'll either be that I say something or we do it together. So, um, that hopefully will make you feel a
little at ease. And, uh, you guys back there, we hope that you'll join us. Thank you for joining. [Music] How does water shape the world? low impact lev
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Thank you. A cow. Yeah. So again, we wanted to have the board have the experience of our students because I think we underestimate what we ask students. They come with no English, no school, and then we stick them in
English and wonder why they can't even follow directions. So any impressions from the board or thoughts, reflections? Yes, this was exhausting and I am just so um happy that
they I'm amazed how quickly our student uh differently. Thank you. It is very crystal. I so this was a lot harder in France. This might be like the easiest assignment ever like a kindergarten
assignment but I do college papers 10 to 20 pages. This is a lot harder than that. So I understand being in the shoes the empathy of those students part of CLLD of how hard and the struggles are. So this is a very grateful emergency perspective
just to make you have more reflection. So, it's one thing to come in as a kindergartener when no one kind of knows what's happening. It's another to come in as a ninth grader when you're talking algebra and you're talking long novels. And our students step up. Our teachers
make sure they adjust. they transl language. Um, and our students outperform their peers. Many of our students who start non-English proficient outperform our English proficient students after a few because they have just learned the language plus
their own language. And many of our students actually are multilanguage learners. They're not just dual language. So, um, our CLLD department is amazing. I will just put a plug that we use a lot of general fund because the state does not fund what they should for our CLLDE um students, but because we
value them in D2 and we have amazing staff, um our students get what they need. Um so now you have the experience of what some of our students have. We also just wanted to point out the experience of if we would have just put that picture in front of you and asked
you to explain it in English, you all could have done it with e, right? So we still have to value what our students know within their home language and the knowledge and the background that they bring and how do we help them express themselves in English. And one big part of that is the seal of biiteracy which
also is funded through general fund and is a big push. Isabelle and Hannah have led that this year and we already um have more students earning it this year than we have in the past years and we still don't have all of our AP and IB scores back. So that number is just going to go higher. So thank you again
so much for supporting our program and our students. [Applause] also happy that we could provide entertainment for everyone on this evening. I don't know. We'll be editing
all of that out. I'm I'm pretty sure that there was quite a plethora of facial expressions on this evening. So, but yes, thank you so very much for that.
That was really something I need to process. Um but yeah, that was great. But thank you for bringing that to our meeting on this [Applause]
evening. We are moving on to next item which is public um comment. Uh members of the public who desire to address the board on any topic related to
are welcome to do so at this time. Uh speakers must limit their remarks to not more than three minutes and appoint a spokesperson if the concern is a group concern. Personal attacks will not be allowed. Focus on an individual by name
and or position with the district will end a speaker's comment time period. The board will not respond to any public comment in substance. We will review the information presented and provide responses as needed at a later time. Um,
so at this time we are going to welcome Mr. James Sullivan from the Boys and Girls Club to come to the podium. And if you could just state your name and your topic and you will have three minutes.
Um, Miss Norma will have a time clock. started. Absolutely. This is not like a church closed three minutes. [Music] Dr. Bhanzo, uh, esteemed board, thank
you for opportunity to be here. My name is James Sullivan. I'm the president CEO of the Boys and Girls Club, and I'm here to talk to you about two things this evening. First is the uh with the things that are going on in our community as well as the nationwide shortage of resources for
young people. I want to make sure that we are um letting you know that the club is here ready to uh continue to help families of district 2. We've done for the last 40 years in particular at our TUT club. Uh the piece I put in front of you that should be handed out when you get a chance. We'll talk about a couple
things. One is um Boys and Girls Club serves um as we have two clubs. One is what's called Kids Club 360. That is a after school before and after school uh daycare type of program. And then there's our nonprofit which is the Boys and Girls Club, which is important for
you to understand. It's only $2 a day for a young person to go there. And what do they get when they come to the club? They get a chance to work with some of our esteemed staff people. Uh three of which are here recognized. All of our staff are trained in youth development. They go through full background checks, FBI
background checks. Uh and they are committed to being that big brother, big sister, aunt, uncle to new kids across the community. We serve kids from 6 years old to 18 years old in three different segments. That's 6 to 9, 10 to 12, and then 13 to 18 years old. It's
important me to tell you that the club is a safe place to be. Um, we have programming that is uh uh approved by our national organization of which, by the way, there are almost 4,000 Boys and Girls Clubs across the country. I'm happy to tell you that this is the eighth oldest Boys and Girls Club in the
country at 137 years. So, we've been at it for a while. Not taking any jokes about how I've been doing it that whole 138 years. Uh, and also, and I mentioned affordability. Um, right now we have
uh a challenge in terms of resources of getting the young people and make making sure they get some of the positive things that uh the positive role modeling and positive activities that uh we saw here tonight. I mean, I've been to these meetings before in my 20 years with the club and it's always a pleasure to be in front of this particular body
because I've watched District 2 and Harrison continue to focus on academic excellence with their young people. Uh we do the same thing at the club. We've been partnering with you for a long time. So, I don't know where my three minutes is located, but that's kind of what I wanted to say to you this evening. Uh, I would like to have the
opportunity to uh open an open invitation for any of you to come to the club for a tour. We can show you what young people are involved in. Whether it's 30 seconds. How long? 30 seconds. I'm done with our arts, whether it's our uh drone programming or uh uh our arts
and craft or our homework uh assistance. Uh the second thing I want to have you do this evening is get a chance to meet um one of your own homegrown students uh that's in Harrison School District which is our 2025 youth of the year. He was at featured at our dinner just a few a few weeks ago and I think he's next on the
agenda. So thank you for your [Applause] time. Next we do have Mr. Nicholas Barnett from the Boys and Girls Club Youth of the Year. Thank you so very much. Norma, we'll start your time. All right. Uh, I'll
share my youth of the year speech. Trailblazer Maggie Walker once said, "There is greatness inside all of us. But first, we must choose to be great." Hello, my name is Nicholas Barnett and I'm 17 years old. At age six, I was adopted. While I'm grateful my family chose me, I've searched for a sense of
belonging throughout my life. And I can proudly say I found at the Pipe Region Boys and Girls Club. This is my journey and how my great future started when I walked through those blue doors. I was originally reluctant to join the club, but then I connected with the staff, volunteers, and the opportunities the club offered. My prior director, Miss
Jen, empowered me to try new activities. I took part in the SH Winter snowboarding snowboard and ski program, 3D printing, and drone soccer. I snowboarded down blue runs, 3D printed NFL logos, and learned to fly and play drone soccer. Through the club, I found more capable and confident. I'm I'm no longer just a participant. I'm a leader
and role model in my club. At the club, being a leader taking action when you care about something. I'm passionate about nature as I find a sense of peace when I'm outdoors. I hiked up to incline where I felt so connected to nature and myself. However, upon descent, I stumbled upon some trash which made me feel frustrated. I couldn't believe that
other people weren't appreciative of the beauty and displayless disrespect on the environment. I snatched up the trash and brought my frustration to the attention of the club staff. The staff listened and empowered me to make a difference. I'm now an old in the leave no trace trainer program where I will become certified to teach others how to protect
the planet. It's my goal for every Columbus to value and care about our world. I'm an avid runner because of my love for the outdoors. I've been part of my school's cross country and track team, and I see myself progress from an inexperienced runner to someone who set school records and was named MVP. Going into my track season, I was proud to be
selected as team captain. I was willing to do anything on the track to succeed. However, I I lost out on my classroom responsibilities. Meeting my grades, my status as captain was revoked to leave me angry and discouraged. In my downfall, I turned to the club once again. Miss Evelyn, our foster grandparent volunteer and a trusted
ally, has always mortal great sportsmanship and shows immense respect for your teammates and opponents. She encouraged me. Being a leader isn't about being the best. It's about being a team player. Mr. Shawn, a staff member I look up to, taught me to prioritize, held me accountable, and had me talk about my missing assignments. I got
serious and brought on my grades. The Boys and Girls Club, has made me feel capable, and is a place where I belong. I embody the essence of the Boys and Girls Club mission. I am productive, caring, and responsible. I am a leader and I challenge other teens to pursue greatness and join their local Boys and
Girls Club. To conclude, I like to end up a poem I wrote. To be great, you must strive for the best. To be great, you must rise above the rest. To be great, you must chase every dream. To be great, you must flow against the stream. To be great, you must work through the night.
To be great, you must shine your own light. Thank you. [Applause] both so much for information. Appreciate
you. Next, we do have um Anna Soup. Hey, I am so sorry. Uh, dear board members, my name is Anna Sup and I teach seventh grade language arts at Carmel Community School. I am here in response to a letter of intent
to not renew my contract of employment. Um, I know that as a teacher I uphold the mission and values of district 2. I trust that the board members uphold similar values. If I did not believe this, I would not here today. As an
educator, I build district 2's community up. According to a letter of reference written by a district 2 representative, in addition to her passion for teaching, Miss Sup is a highly collaborative colleague. As we all know, community is
a cornerstone of being an effective educator. Please see exhibit one at the packet. Similarly, I am a teacher leader when it comes to pedigogy on the district, state, and national level. I'm a published author and I've also served on the district literacy implementation
team, the district common assessment team, the Colorado Department of Education writing framework committee, and I am excited to announce that I have had two conference proposals accepted by the National Council of Teachers of English for their upcoming national
conference where I had hoped to represent district 2. There are several other educators, including district coaches and Carmel school administrators who attest to the fact that I meet teacher quality standards. Please see copies of the teacher effectiveness exhibit
3. Furthermore, my students have shown steady improvement in their reading and writing this year. There are two reasons why the decision to not renew my contract does not accurately reflect uh my uh my effic efficacy as an
educator. The first is that I was placed on a remediation plan with the understanding that contract renewal was contingent upon completing the remediation plan. According to the district literacy coach, my remediation plan was completed satisfactorially.
exhibit six, but the contract was still not renewed. Additionally, for the first time in my career, I was not allowed to submit additional evidence to prove I met the teacher quality standards. Every year, and every other administrator
before this has accepted additional evidence at the end of year meeting. Have 30 seconds. [Music] I know that I am a passionate and effective educator. who is an integral member of district 2's community. I came
here today to request at least that the board allow me to submit evidence of towards my effectiveness rating as well as a letter in my personnel file from the district literacy coach that I successfully completed the coaching
cycle and most extend the contract and allow a transfer. Thank you for your time. Thank you for sharing. Will be are moving on to item 6.2. It is the
fiscal year 2025 2026 proposed budget and financial plan. This is Corey Aare CFO. Floor is yours. Thank you so much. I am going to speak the ancient language
of numbers. Uh the universal Yeah, not French. Uh the universal language of numbers. Uh and I think I have So the first thing I'm going to review as uh committed uh when I first uh came here, which has now
been a little bit over a year, is to report our financials quarterly. So the first thing I'm going to present is our uh quarterly financials for the month ended March 31st. Here we go.
Okay. Okay. The this is the main slide that I want to review with you tonight. um in the sense that we've talked at length or I've reported at length how after the approval of last year's budget we were in serious um we had a serious
uh mountain in front of us and it has taken absolutely everyone sitting on the dis um everyone working in the district uh to come together and work as a team so that we could focus on the financial health of the district. Um, I am so very
proud to report that at the beginning of the year or this year's budget when it was first approved, we were uh we had 10.6 million more expenses than revenue. So, I will um point to you
uh back down uh back down. There you go. Okay. And when we submitted our revised budget in January, um right immediately after the the budget for this year was approved, we
went into action. We didn't wait and we knew that we had to reduce expenses for the year. when we submitted our revised budget in January, we uh projected and I am looking specifically and let me oh I
have a pointer right here at 6.5 million um under let me somewhere else but um I just realized I'm pointing it behind you um but if you look um at where it says um revenues um and transfers um over or
under expenditures. So if you look at that particular line, um when we submitted our revised budget, instead of being 10.6 million expenses over income, we submitted our revised
budget in January to be 6.5 million expenses over income. So we have now projected through um the end of the year and we are getting better at our projections and at working with individual department heads and working
with schools. We are now projecting to end the year at 3.7 million um expenses over income. So when you think about the challenges we had this year, we not only started the year with 10.6 6 million
expenses over income. Then we had the student count true up in December and we lost students and it was to the tune of about $4 million. So the mountain we had to overcome was $14.6 million. Um, and
we submitted the revised budget and we were at 6.5 million expenses over income and now we're going to end the year from our projections at 3.7 million expenses over income. So, I just want to give a huge huge shout out
to the district, to the admin leaders, to the um principles and the schools and how hard everyone has worked um to bring our expenses considerably down. Um this is a huge feat that not many districts
can achieve. So, I just wanted to make sure and point that out in our financials. Um, and I'll I'll report the end of year financials um after the the fourth quarter is done. But I'm so very proud of our district and all the work
that we've done from a financial standpoint. Okay. So, next presentation is our budget for next year. So, what what does next year hold for us? And I will it is a PowerPoint presentation.
There you go. And I think I can move it here. Yes, I can. So, first and foremost, I want to talk about the preparation of the budget. Um, we have to submit the proposed budget, which is what I'm doing this evening. Um, and 30 days prior to the beginning of the
fiscal year, which is July 1. So, we're well within our 30-day uh limit. We have to put the notice of the budget, i.e. put it on our website within 10 days after submitting it to you um as the proposed budget and publish a notice on
our website, which is what we're planning to do, stating that the budget is on file um and the date that um it was submitted to you for consideration. You will not be taking a vote tonight. That vote will happen on this budget.
That vote will happen on June 5th, the meeting of June 5th. So first and foremost um the proposed uh we'll go through I'll go through the general fund which is the most important component. Um as you know that is kind of the big pot of money. Um we'll go uh
through the insurance reserve fund, nutrition services fund, um grants fund, bond redemption fund, capital reserve fund, building fund, land trust fund and pupil activity fund. These are all the funds that combined uh make up our
budget and how our schools are funded. I won't necessarily go into a lot of detail with the smaller funds, but I will go into detail with the general fund. Um because for me, transparency and for all of you, of course, um the most important thing is that you know
and understand how the district's money is, how it comes in, and how it's being used. So the budget timeline um today is information only. Um I present to you the budget. Um on June 5th is when an
action is needed uh in the form of a vote. So the appropriation by fund, this is how much. Um, and if you recall when I submitted the revised budget in January, I came to you with an appropriation
request of all of the funds of the district. In prior years, the dis the board was not asked to appropriate all the funds uh for the district. Um I'm not sure why that call was made in the past, but to me being as transparent
with um our um our voters and our constituents is very very important. So these are all the funds of the district. There are no additional funds um uh in in addition to this. Not all of this gets used. This includes our reserve
funds. And so it's $231,269,761 is the total appropriation that I am asking for the board to approve on June 5th. Okay. So we are stewards of public dollars um bound by law, rules, and
prudence to presenting our constituents a yearly plan of spending. And I know I don't need to remind you of this, but given our political climate, I want to make sure that we review it all because sometimes the law is put to the side and that is not who we are or what we stand
for. Um, we have to spend our public dollars wisely. Um, as the board, you know that I have uh met with every department and including the board about numbers and asking a lot of questions. We asked a lot of tough tough questions
this year and we have to meet the plan of spending uh but not by exceeding what we said we were going to do. It has to be a budget that um makes sense um and it that proving that we're good fiscal stewards of the money. Um and then
reporting the results of the work and the programs that we do that is yeah absolutely crucial uh for us to do. So instead of just going through a bunch of slides with a lot of numbers on it, I point out those numbers that are most important to you as board members and as
the superintendent of this district. So our district um our strategic plan includes three main things that we keep at the forefront always. Does this money and these are the qu all the questions are around this
um whether it's a conference attended, whether it's money spent on a new FTE, does it support one of these three um uh things that make up our rubric for how to use money? Does it support the classroom? Does it support our our
culture, our district culture? And does it support um does it bring in community to help us with our goals? So, does it involve our community? Because we know that as a district, we can't do everything alone. I always say that as a
district, we're tasked with doing more with $1 than most of the other districts in this city. We don't charge fees for transportation as some other districts do because many of our families can't afford it and therefore children would
walk to school and they might get hit by a car. We have to do more with a dollar than most districts, which is why we're very diligent and very um strategic about how our money is used. We also know that we have special um programs
that we know work. You got a presentation uh from CRA earlier, right? CDLE was here. A lot of that is funded through general fund and that means that we have to do more with our dollars because um if CDLE were NCR uh maybe
some of our board members would would need the uh would need the specialized way of learning French. But we have to do a lot more with our dollars and we take that very seriously. So first and foremost we have
to have strategic goal and direction. again, our rubric of of you know, does it fit in one of these three buckets? If it doesn't, then it's not a dollar we should spend. Plans for educational values and needs. Um our assistant
superintendent uh said something in a meeting the other day that has not left my brain. Um and she said, "We need to build programs that um aren't just the minimal programs. They need to be effective programs." And that has not left my brain because again it puts
pressure on us to make sure that we're using dollars wisely because we can't just build a program for sake of building it. It has to be effective. Um which results in in increased scores and all the the good things that are coming to district 2 resources to meet
multipleear plans. Um, we passed an MLO this year, which is it was great news. But as we did our strategic planning in finance, we we uh put that that those strategic plans um for out 10 years
because it's a 10-year MLO. We didn't just look at next year. We looked at 10 years out because that's our responsibility. It's your responsibility. It's my responsibility. And we take again we take that very seriously. How how are we going to
stretch these dollars um to make sure that they cover us for the next 10 years. Communication of financial operations, internal controls, there's no question that our internal controls have stepped to the ninth level um this year. they are in place and um many of
our um uh school principles, our admin uh have given us feedback on it and uh we've incorporated their feedback on h how we roll our financial operations out. Next year we have planned budget trackers that will give us um much a
much more clear uh way to make dual projections just like I projected um the end ofear number. We will be um much more confident in that number as we head into the new year because our uh the folks that control the money out in the
schools, manage the money I should say, um uh will have more tools at their disposal to be able to make the decisions they need to make um on a monthly basis. Reports on progress. So we we will be reporting again I'm I'm I report
on the quarterly financials and how we're progressing forward. Um, so for us it's very very important that our principles out at schools will be able to log into the system and see where they are at at any given moment against their budget. The budget truly becomes
our management tool. It a budget has always meant to is always meant to be the management tool by which a district conducts operations. And when you separate the two, that's when you have either overspending and under spending.
and both hurt the kids. Okay, so general fund assumptions are in this new budget for next year, we assume that our pupil count is going down by 241 students and that is a
four-year average. Um before we had a five-year average that we were going off of. So, we've seen declining enrollment in our district and so this year um for next year's budget um we are projecting
240 242 less kids in our schools. Sorry, Mr. Aris, I just want to clarify for you all that includes charters and that's where we're seeing the biggest decrease in numbers just for information. Yes, thank you for thank you for clarifying that we didn't separate it by school, but if we did that's where you'd see the
differences. um any additions. Um uh you can see um that the total program funding um under per pupil funding net of a negative factor um we are actually going up $2.9 million from the state. So
I'm I'm Oops. Oops. Wrong buttons. We're going up 2 one more. Okay. $2.9 million from the state. Um as as Dr. Burhansel has uh sat up here and reported the legislative
updates to you. Um we are very proactive and active at the legislative um at the state level. Um we did not know what was going to happen. Um CDE actually reached out to us and asked us how we were able to do our budgeting and um we were able
to share that we took a very business-like approach to our budgeting. We assess the risk in our budget um like many businesses uh do. We we know there's risk in our budget because we didn't know what was going to happen at the at the legislative session. Um all
this work was being done before the session was over and we assessed our risks. We knew uh what we would have to do to cover it and we moved forward. And that's what you do. Um you don't say, "Hey CDE, you're not working for us or you're not helping us. we don't we come
up with solutions um and and we we put our budget together and so I'm very pleased that they tapped on us to ask um but and we are very pleased that the legislative session came out more favorable than we thought um to the the
we are now going from a per pupil funding of 140 million to 143 million almost 144. So that's a nice bump that we weren't not expecting initially. So good news from the legislative side and
huge kudos to our superintendent who is beyond active on the on the state level. Uh general fund assumptions. So we have mill levies. Um we have two mill levies. Um one was passed a while ago and the other one was passed just um
this year. And so let me catch up because I do have my own notes. Our first mill levy is worth and and you can see in the number where it says tax revenue or I'm sorry um where it says
voter approved overrides. Are you with me on that? So on voter approved overrides let me see pushing the wrong lines. Wait, sorry. I know. right here on voter approved
overrides. Of that um 15.5 million that we are projecting in next year's budget, about 6 million of that comes from the first mill levy override that we had. The the rest of it, the 9.1 or the other
remaining 9 million is coming from the mill levy that was just passed um this last year. And so that that is how what makes up that number. But uh so you now know where the number is for the mil levy override that was passed. Um and so
overall our proposed uh budget um our proposed um uh fund assumptions is uh how much is going to be in general fund which is more um and then uh the mill levy overrides are bringing in more as
well. Okay. So property tax revenue um salary increase. So our mil levy override was very very specific that it was for three things. Okay. And I will be putting together the MLO committee starting at the beginning of next year
so that we have community members, some board members, admin and some staff that will sit down and review the progress of our mill levy. But it was very specific for three things. teacher salaries, the D2 promise which we're taking on out of
general fund and um uh charter schools which represent 30% of our student count. So um 30% of the mil levy money will be going to charter schools and we have three charter schools as you guys know. Um our the raises that are
proposed in the budget for next year are are based completely uh on licensed staff. um the base rate going up 2% uh for our teachers and our ESPs and then if they are returning to us an
additional 3%. For a total of a 5% increase. There are no increases budgeted for other staff. Um and that is very specific because while we've we've climbed the majority of our mountain, we're not done yet. We and I'll show you
that in just a minute. Um and we can't sustain this. We know that that not giving raises every single year is not going to fly because we won't retain the best of the best which is what we're attracting now. Um, so I will tell you that while we understand that the mill
levy was monies were specifically for teachers and ESPs, um, we we at this point we still can't afford um the increases for other staff, but that doesn't mean that we won't make sure that that's what we're focused on for
the upcoming year after this next year. Okay. So what has happened across the district is we um went in we started this budget process very early um as early as December with the new
templates. We rolled out a completely new budget process um where my staff went out and worked with the schools um and we had uh some principles at schools look at our templates um and give us feedback on the our my staff worked with
the schools um to so that we could rightsize the schools given um some of our reductions in student counts. So these student these um overall show across the district a net um decrease of
about 62 um uh staff for next year. and some of those I mean I think you've heard from one person already this evening but it's it's um mainly um folks as we looked at um the districts were
really just right sizing them um to fit the the student count that we have we'll continue to look at this on a casebyase basis okay so didn't realize so there's other things also that I want to point
out to you there's no increase to medical insurance. Um we we've spoken to you about the medical insurance, how we were looking at a 20% increase with Sigma, which was absolutely unacceptable to us given the numbers that we had to
deal with. Um we came back and we put together a plan for our staff that we're very excited about and we'll be we have now uh rolled out. Last year we had 824 employees enrolled in the insurance plan. um 800 enrolled in the plan for
next year. Um I should say this year 824 were enrolled, next year it's 800. Um so given that we're losing 62 positions, we actually have a little bit of an uptick. Um because uh most of the premiums are going down for employees, coverage is
improving. Um the out-ofpocket costs for employees um is tracked as well. And this doesn't include uh the premiums they pay. It's the co-pays and the prescription costs that they pay was over a million dollars for our uh
employees um last year. Next year we're projecting that number to come down to 500,000. So um that's where the real benefit of the plan that we put together is is they'll be paying less in co-pays and less in prescriptions. So we are um
looking to that. There's no increase to PAR. So um that is uh assumed in here. There is a decrease of 42 FTEES to the general fund alone. The others are um uh in grants. The I reported 62 uh total
across the district. 42 are coming from general fund. The others are coming from grants that are ending or expiring. Um it includes adjustments reporting to totals for accounting adjustments. That's just an an internal
thing. Um, and then we decreased non-payroll expenditures of 3.46 million. Um, our charge this year was really look at the students we have. When we had ESSER money, we were able to expand services quite a bit. You know,
an extra 10 million a year goes a long way. Um, especially when you know how to use the money wisely. Um but when that money goes away, then you've got to make some tough decisions and look at the kids that are actually in classrooms being taught um in our district. Um and
we our kids face social barriers that many kids don't face across the city. And you know, we try to solve as many of those as possible for our kids, but with the money we have, we can't. Um so first and foremost the first thing that was
discontinu not the first thing that was discontinued this was with much debate but one of the things that was discontinued was before and after school programming which was about 3 million and while we know that that that um it that was a super nice thing to have. Um
but it was those aren't the kids that are in our classrooms for our district. And so we really focused on that and had to make some hard decisions and ask ourselves some very tough questions. Um and this solves, you know, something for our families. There's no question. It's
just something we could not continue to afford. Uh dis decrease supplies and equipment 1.6 million 1 almost 1.7 and then offset we had some additional expenditures that we had to put into the budget. Um D2 promise is an increase,
right? We are taking that over. We believe our students deserve to go to college um and have the opportunity um to start their college careers and um get into uh careers that will sustain them and and uh their families.
Increased purchase services for FTE filled by contract services um and increased purchase services uh for substitutes as well. Um although I'll tell you that while there more money went into this, it was based on trend.
Um I'm thinking that we are going to do much better than that because our recruiting efforts um I I shouldn't say are. I'm not the one out there recruiting our HR folks and our um are the ones out there recruiting. That's the second time today I take credit for something that's has nothing to do with
me. So uh so I apologize about that, but um okay. So just general fund revenues. You can see that the majority of our funding comes from the state. Uh federal revenue is only a is a small percentage.
Uh but what happens at the state level is 76% of our our budget. And that's why I'm grateful to be in this in this district because we are very proactive about making sure that we get in front of state legislators and that they know
what is going on in our district and how every bill that's proposed affects us negatively or positively. So huge kudos there. Local revenue is only 23%. Um, and that's just because the the property values in our district are different,
are lower than in some other places. Some people could some districts can pass a mill levby override and it's worth 80 million. We pass one and it's worth nine. Um, so there's just a difference. It is what it is. So total
revenue 182 almost 183 million. uh total revenue less transfers out is about 128 million that we have to run our schools and our districts. Okay. though expenditures 133 million um total
expenditures and you can see about 76% um comes from salaries and benefits um salaries another 19% comes from benefits and so that's why we couldn't take a 20% increase in in uh health insurance. Um
you'll see from this pie chart that um we really um focus the dollars on um those uh folks that are teaching our kids. So total salaries and benefits 76% almost 77. Um okay so on this uh slide
in particular I want I hit the right I'm up there. Um so this talks about the the local revenues that come in which is about 42.4 million and that is in this column right here. Um and
then the state revenue is the lion share of what uh comes in and the state equalization is down even though the amount per pupil is up. the total amount that's coming to us from the state is
down because of the lower pupil count. So, I want to make sure and this is another reason why we fight so hard against student vouchers because even I mean at $8,000 per per pupil, if we lose
10 or a hundred uh students, that's a lot of money for us to lose as a district. um because we still need teachers to teach, you know, those of course the ones we lose aren't going to all be from one one class. So you still need the teacher there to teach the
remaining kids in the class. So it school vouchers um that's how school vouchers in many states where they have passed uh end up disseminating public education. So um overall uh where total revenues are is
182. I'm gonna do I'm almost on your face, Joyce. Uh 182 um million right here. Um but with the transfers out um is 128 and I just had that on the the prior
slide. Okay. And so here is the proposed budget. The salaries are about 76% uh of the total budget. Purchase services is here. This is the number I
really want you to focus on. 4.6 million right here under the excess of revenue over or under expenditures. So we still have 4.6 million more expenses than we have
income coming in. That's the mountain we still have to climb next year. Okay. So, um I am confident that we will be able to make a significant dent if a you know after seeing what we did this year um I
am confident we're going to make a significant dent in this number but I want to call it out to you uh uh because no one called it out last year where we were 10.6 million over in expenses than income. I want you to know that this
budget is 4.6 six uh million expenses more than income. Um but again, I I have confidence in this team and in this administration and most of all, I have confidence in the principles and with more information armed with more
information and more transparency on their financials, they're going to be able to do a a great job. Okay. um insurance reserve really this is just for premiums uh for the the only thing I
want to call out on here is um that insurance premiums in claims for property and liability our fleet and our workman's comp has gone up significantly in the last two years let me catch up with this because I had I didn't put the
number in the presentation but I do have it um that number is it has gone up by 37% or $824,000 in the last several years. And so this is one area where we're
definitely planning on focusing on with our safety committee because if we we can save, you know, teacher salaries, you know, $824,000 a year increase over what we were doing just a couple years ago is
significant. So, we definitely need to focus on workman's comp um and making sure that our insurance premiums and claims uh for property and liability stay at a minimum. That's the um nutrition
services fund that we continue uh fund balance reduction in accordance with CDE spendown. Um we actually get u an audit for our nutrition services um at the uh end of this year and so that'll be our single audit. Um as all of you know we
get audited as a district and then they pick one area which is called the single audit in order to audit. Um last year it was the esser funds. Uh this year it's nutrition and we think we're in good shape for that. I hope I don't have to eat my words. um CDE guidance to
maintain less than 90 days expenditure in the fund uh balance. We now may retain up to 120 days before a spending plan is implemented. Just wanted to let you know of that change that that is in our favor. So for the most part this
this is good news. Okay. Um designated purpose uh fund we reduced our expectations for funding levels for title grants. uh that was under the guidance of CDE. They told us you should budget at least 15% less in title money
uh next year than you got this year. So the 15% uh is what we budgeted uh 15% less next year. Um if by some miracle that comes back um at 10% less then we'll get back some money. But this is a
ve, you know, this budgeting um process is very um we're conservative on the on the income side, aggressive on the expense side so that there's elasticity in the budget. Um I I describe it as my Thanksgiving Day pants. It's got to have
some stretch, right? So if it income comes in better, that's great. If expenses come in less, that's even better. And that's the goal. Okay. Um that's these are just designated purpose mainly these are
grants. Um the there is this is down by almost $12 million that is being driven by the other grants which is the very last line before the total expenditures line and this just means that um we had
best grants at our charter schools that they will not have uh that we will not have again this year. So I just want to point that out why this is uh so low. Okay, pupil activity fund. These are the funds that are raised and
deposited at the school level and they they get to use this for their special events and things like that. So we track that as well. Um bond redemption fund. This is um this is for our debt service.
Um we have a bond uh that we have to pay our debt service on. um building fund. We're estimating um about 700,000 remaining funds uh for this uh year and then we have to complete some existing uh projects. Um I
now have operations reporting to me directly and we are working through this. Um and then partial funding, re-roofing projects budgeted in the capital reserve fund for next year. we have some roofs that need replacing um and we have to get to them because it's
been long overdue. So, it's really about pre-planning and doing the things that are needed um but still do trying to do the best like I said, you know, do the most we can with the dollar. Okay. And this is the building fund, the capital
reserve fund. I talked uh a little bit about this, but some planned expenditures for next year. We have two buses, uh, one's bed bus and two white fleet vehicles. We're gonna try to eek in maybe a vehicle for security. Uh, we
have a security Barbie that asked me for that today. Uh, but we we also have a comprehensive facility plan and standing repair items. And then our grounds. Uh, I talked about the re roofing projects and some boiler replacements we need to
do at schools. So um so that's our capital reserve fund. Um the land acquisition fund this is to account for and report financial resources that are restricted committed or assigned to the expenditure of capital outlays. So that's in there as well. So
next steps uh updates or changes if necessary as you review these. Um I'm ready to take any questions this evening you know as as I've gone through this. So if there are any changes, we will post this to our website. Um and then
the adoption of the budget. Um a vote will need to happen on June 5th from you, the board. And then monitoring and reviewing upcoming legislative items. Uh at the time, like I said, that we were putting the budget together, not the budget sessive session had not
concluded. Um like we we came out relatively unscathed. In fact, much better than we thought. A lot of that had to do with advocacy um and we're planning to do more of that ahead of time. So um we are very very active in
that impacts and results of um the 2425 financial audit which we're going to be having um we are now now that we're finishing up budget season. It's time to it's time for audit season to start. It's never ending. And then of course uh
like we started this year we will do a January 2026 midyear modification budget. Um and it just makes sense because our true up for our pupil count happens in December. So uh because of that then we know um one of the things I didn't mention is as we went through
this new budget process um things in operations and kind of some of the things I talked about that we have to uh update for schools the re- roofing all of that is now planned in months so all that work doesn't start all at once and
then we get the the midyear um uh budget increase and now we don't have money or we're way under because we had to modify down. Um, and now it's now planned in months so that we could, you know, uh, we know what is in the later part of the the year and what's in the beginning
part of the year so that if we do have to make some adjustments um, from a financial perspective, we're able to do so. So, it's just about how you plan uh, the money and how you use it. So, that's it. I'm open for any questions. Is
anyone still awake? I'm still awake. I just Yeah. I just want to thank you very very presentation and the hard work the entire team has
um it's was the district's work. I won't take credit for that and I want to ditto owe that and to the administrators in the room because I can imagine when task with that we all had to tighten and I
just applaud her handle from tighten that belt top down. So, thank you all. And I want to reassure the board um that when we say um tighten up school budgets, um Miss Laugher and I looked
class by class at every school to make sure that class sizes are what they need for students to still learn. This is not taking class sizes to even 30. This is still our low class sizes in low 20s. we
um and looking at what each school I mean we look at class by class what that staffing needs to be um to make it very individualized and make sure that the schools and the students have the supports that they need. And so I have no doubt that the positions we've
eliminated or moved around um we still will have high quality instruction in all of our schools. No, I I'm and I'm not able to identify I didn't call it out. Um but I will I
can update this to It was not. It was at 13%. It was 13%. Taber requires us to have 3% in reserves. Um, and we're well, you know, we're well above that. You guys voted to that you could we could
bring it down to 10, which means uh 7% reserved um um required by the board, 3% required by uh Taber. So, we're at 10% reserve. And the reason I didn't call it out is because it is in the reserves. If
you look under the general fund um yeah where it says um there is I believe it's 27 million in our reserve. It's that our reserve started is going to end the year at uh 30 million. Um it will be at 27
million at the end of next year and that's because we have more expenses than income coming in. So that's why we can't keep eating away at the reserve because at that rate we won't have reserve. Um but it's included in that number. In prior years it was that was
the only amount that was allocated for reserve and um like I said earlier I'm about full transparency. I would write either show you the total amount that we have in savings which it will be is 30 million now. It'll be 27 million at the
end of next year, but that includes that more than covers the 10% um required by the board. I'll just say to follow up on that in talking to other districts, many of them are emptying their reserves or really hitting their reserves instead of
making some of the tough decisions we've made. Um and so they're they're not going to be able to do that forever. And um I'm just proud of the work that we've done because we didn't just say everyone cuts 10%. We really
strategically decided where can we take the cuts or where can we tighten and where do we have to some places even increase because that's what we need there. Um so very strategic and personalized to ensure all students have what they need.
It's kind of like fixing it while it's, you know, as as you sail the ship. Um, like Dr. Bhan has said, you know, our it went up, department budget went up just because we started on a cycle. You know, when Esser came, all new computers, but
now those are outdated and we've got to replace them. And there's a replacement cycle now happening. I knew that we had approved um to that reserve. I was just Yeah. And I I I can email it to to everybody. It's part of that 27 million
though. Yeah. I can call I I can separate it out. Okay. This was um way more transparent, clear what we've had historically. So, thank you
for presenting in this manner. So we have great understanding of what we would taking um action on for the next meeting. So um with that being said, if there's no further questions, thank you
so much again. Thank you. We are moving on to item seven. It is the board consent agenda. 7.1 is approval of minutes work session April 3rd 2025 special work session April 7th
2025 and board meeting April 17 2025 item 7.2e13 facilities monitoring report Dr. Mike Claudio, Assistant Superintendent of Support Services. And item 7.3, OE2,
Superintendent Emergency Succession Indicator Report, Dr. Wendy Bhanzel. At this time, I just need a recommended motion, please. Madame President, I move to approve the board consent agenda items as stated.
Second. Motion to approve the board consent agenda items as stated by Dr. Pam Robinson, second by Miss JJ Frasier. All those in favor? [Music] I. Motion
approved. On to item eight, superintendent consent agenda 8.1. It is the May 2024 personnel report and comparison report. Item 8.2, to the quarterly
financials item 8.3. I just need a recommended motion. Madame President, I move to approve the superintendent consent agenda items as stated. Second. Motion to approve the superintendent
consent agenda items as stated by Dr. Robinson, second by Miss JJ Frasier. All those in favor? I Item approved. Item nine, monitoring board
performance is the annual work plan. You can see that this we're getting to the end of the spring agenda that work annual work plan and the other one is attached as well, the one for 252. Does anyone have any questions? Thank
you. Going on to item 9.2 is legislative updates. Um I will be part of three different legislative summaries in the next week. And so from there I'll give you a summary of what is affecting our district most. Also AASA part of the
advocacy group at the national level. Um and there are some things coming down. Particularly the Senate just changed the rules around -ate and said we can't use e- rates for certain things. For us that's a big thing because we can't use for wireless. So um
that's we'll have to figure out other ways to pay for it. Um but making some of the things harder to get funding for. And so as we have more of those items I'll get particulars. And the last thing is in August we will be planning um a legislative meeting with our local um
city council and our state legislators to advocate for what we need um as a team. We already have a couple ideas for bills we would like them to run on our behalf um because we want to be proactive instead of reactive of what we're asking them.
Thank you Dr. We're going on to um item 10, executive session 10.1. I want to read this, please. Madam President, I move that we go into
executive session as authorized by Colorado Revised Statute 24-6-424B and FI to confer with legal counsel Katherine Richie Rap and receive legal advice with respect recommendations for non-renewal of
specific probationary teacher contracts. Included in the discussion will be Dr. Wendy Burhanszel and Pam Aragon. Following people attending the executive session JJ Frasier, Dr. Pam Robinson,
Joyce Salazar, Corey Williams at this time. Time now is 8:44 p.m. Board will reconvene into regular session after
18 minutes and 50 seconds. Four members returning Pam Robinson Joyce Salazar Jones Hill JJ Frasier Mr.
Corey [Music] O Council Katherine Richie W This time I just needed motion, please. Madam President, I move
to I'm sorry I didn't see that did not. Apologies for that. I move to accept the recommendation the recommended decisions of the superintendent with respect to the
non-renewal of specific probationary teacher contracts and the dismissal of specific nonprobationary teacher contracts. motion to accept recommended decisions of ect to the [Music]
non-renewalificationary teacher contracts and the dismissal of specific nonationary teacher contracts by Dr. Pam Robinson, second by Miss JJ Frasier. All those in favor I
We are now at item 11. I just need a this time. Madam President, I second. Motion to adjourn by Dr. Pam Robinson,
second by Frasier. All those in favor? I. This meeting is ajourned.