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down. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. All right. Down. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat.
Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. N. feel. Down. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N.
Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Good. Good evening. I would like to call this meeting of March 12th, 2026 to
order. Roll call, please. Miss Harper. >> Miss Applegate, >> here. >> Dr. >> Yes. >> Mr. Gibbons, >> here. >> Miss Kenworthy, >> here. >> Miss Moian, >> here. >> On behalf of the board of education. Welcome to tonight's meeting. We welcome all attendees, those joining us live in
the audience and those connecting with us virtually. We also wish to express our appreciation to the live simultaneous Spanish interpreters and the deaf interpreters for facilitating access this evening. We invite you to please stand and join us in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Is there a motion to approve today's meeting agenda as presented in board docs?
>> I move to approve today's meeting agenda as presented in board docs. >> Is there a second? >> I second. >> Any discussion? Seeing none, it has been moved and seconded to approve the agenda for today's meeting of March 12th, 2026 as presented in board docs. Roll call, please. Miss Harper.
>> Miss Applegate. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Mr. Gibbons. >> Yes. >> Miss Kenworthy. Yes, >> Miss Moinian. >> Yes. >> Please note that we will take an approximate 15minute break at 7:20 this evening. Every month, it is the pleasure
of the board of education to recognize students, staff, schools, and community members for their achievements and contributions to our community. For our first recognition of the evening, the board of education would like to honor the future business leaders of America or FBLA students from Alama International High School along with
their adviser, Miss Felicia France. Will our guests from Alama International High School please make your way to the front of the boardroom. The theme our learners our future is one of the four defined priorities of Jeffco thrives. Our goal is that all Jeco students have extraordinary student
experiences that recognize their strengths, challenge them to improve, and support them to succeed. Students we are honoring include Ricky Raso Nerves, 11th grade, business communication. Jonathan Dominguez, 12th grade,
entrepreneurship. Isaac Kintana, 9th grade, introduction to business procedures. Selene Hernandez, ninth grade, introduction to business procedures. Leaf Kuiman, ninth grade, introduction to business procedures.
Braden Moore, 10th grade, introduction to retail and merchandising. Anthony Garcia, 10th grade, introduction to retail and merchandising. Brooke Ortiz, 12th grade, public speaking. Mini Mentosa, 12th grade, retail management.
and advisor Felicia France. Future Business Leaders of America is the largest business career and technical student organization in the world. FBLA helps students prepare for careers in business through academic competitions, leadership development,
and educational programs. Congratulations to these exceptional students for their outstanding achievements within FBLA. Whether you placed at the regional level, qualified for state, or simply pushed yourself to network and grow, you have built a foundation for your future career.
You've proven that you aren't just waiting for your future, you are actively building it. Congratulations. Next, the board would like to recognize JCA retired and Nina Longreak from Falcon Bluffs Middle School for Our Community, Our Legacy. Will the group please make their way to the front of
the boardroom? We are honored to celebrate a partnership that brings the world to our students. Thank you to JCA retired members Lorraine Bowen, John Sefkin, Mary Joe Abbott, and Nancy McCandless for the $300 donation to the Falcon Bluffs Middle School Library. Accepted
by ELA department chair Nina Longreak, this gift fuels their reading without borders program. By focusing on stories that connect us, Falcon Bluffs is helping students see books as windows into new cultures and identities, ensuring every child finds a story that
truly resonates with them. JCA retired as one of our trusted community partners. Thank you for supporting Jeffco Kids and Falcon Bluffs, thank you for creating these opportunities. For our next recognition, the board would like to honor our employee assistance program team. Will this group
please make their way to the front of the boardroom? The EAP team includes Caitlyn Kziki, Deb Martin, Karina Kading, Kathleen Remington, and Melissa Ko Formbby. This exceptional team was recently recognized for excellence in EA programming and
outstanding efforts to provide EA services. For over four decades, the Jeffco School's Employee Assistance Program, EAP, has served as a vital lifeline for our educators, addressing the evolving mental health and substance use needs of our community. This past
year, their mission took on profound significance as they provided unwavering support to the Evergreen community following the tragedy on September 10th, 2025. Through a comprehensive range of trauma-informed care, including EMDR therapy, process groups, and specialized
consultations, this team has guided our staff through the healing process. We are deeply grateful for their expertise and their enduring loyalty to team Jeffco as they truly embody the principle that our people are our strength. As the board of
education, we express our deepest gratitude to this team. For our final recognition of the evening, the board of education is honored to celebrate schools with graduation rates over 95% and schools with significant improvements in their rates. Will these schools please make
your way to the front of the room as your names are read? The following schools have achieved one on-time four-year graduation rates of 95% or higher, which is a remarkable achievement. Arvvada West High School, Chat Chatfield High School,
Coline High School, Conifer High School, Evergreen High School, Golden High School, Green Mountain High School, Jefferson Academy, Rston Valley High School, Two Roads Charter School.
The following schools, some of you stay up here. Well, all of you can stay up here. I know they're taking amazing pictures. First of all, thank you. This work is a tremendous gift to our community and we truly truly appreciate you. The following schools have achieved significant improvement in the on-time
four-year graduation rate. Arvvada High School with a 7.5% increase. Chatfield High School with a 2.5% increase. Compass Monasuri Golden with a 2.9% increase.
Jefferson County Open School Secondary with a 12% increase. New America School with a 9.5% increase. Pomona Junior and Senior High School with a 4.7% increase. Rocky Mountain Dev School with an 8.3%
increase, Sabeski Academy with a 15.4% increase and Wheatidge High School with a 4.2% increase. This work does not come easy and on behalf of the board of education, we offer our deepest thanks and congratulations. Your commitment to
instructional excellence creates extraordinary experiences for every student in our classrooms. Because of your tireless efforts, more Jeffco students are reaching the finish line with the tools they need to succeed. Thank you for being our people and our strength. That's amazing.
>> That's goosebumps right there. Before we begin with proclamations, we will pause briefly for those who have joined for honors and recognitions to depart. I want to make Please enter the video ID. Please hold while I try to connect you.
>> Never worked again. >> Oops. >> They're coming back. >> Can you hear us? >> Can you hear us? Smile if you can hear us. No,
be patient with us, please. We're working through some technical difficulties. No. Okay. Can you hear me now? No. feel the strong urge to keep talking until I see that he can hear me. But
that will be very awkward for all of us. Yes, I can I can keep talking. >> Michelle, how was your weekend? >> Can you hear me? >> Lovely. Thank you, Director Kenry. >> Fantastic. just to make it less awkward. We can keep talking and you don't have
to be the only one. >> I can, but I don't know if we're also on >> if they can hear us at the board meeting. >> We can hear you. >> That's what I meant. I thought I meant like hear us. >> Can you Can you all hear us? >> Can you hear me?
>> Yes, we can. >> We But you cannot hear us. But we can hear you. I can't hear you at all. There's no sound coming from your end. >> We're We're going to keep working on that. We have our best.
>> The only person who can hear me is Karen. >> Oh, no. We We can hear you. Can >> The only person I can hear is Karen, I should say. >> Um, can we Drew? Can he see us? >> We can hear you. I'm gonna keep talking. Sorry, everyone.
Um, if I had a book, I could read it. Can you hear us? Okay, perfect. I don't know what that means. And maybe you join the teams on a cell
phone and turn the the message on there. Turn the mic on there. >> Are you able to hear us now? >> It's not going to work. How about now? >> Thank you everyone for your patience. >> Okay,
>> I hear that. There's a big echo. >> There is an echo. Does this Can you hear me? >> Yeah. >> And then
Drew, can you mute this? >> What are you asking Drew to mute? >> The room and the audio. The audio in the row. >> Our audio. Nope. >> If you turn on Drew and mute the 45612,
I think I can hear clearly. >> Drew, would you like me to go use um Dr. Adiko's phone in the hallway because I I can I would be happy to do that. All right. Can you hear me? >> Okay.
>> Yes. >> Thank you everyone for your patience. The following school has achieved a significant improvement in on time 4-year graduation rates and we are so
incredibly proud. The Rocky Mountain Dev School saw an increase in 8.3%. Would you please join us at the front of the room to be recognized? On behalf
of the board of education, we offer our deepest thanks and congratulations. Your commitment to instructional excellence creates extraordinary experiences for every student in our classrooms.
Because of your tireless efforts, more Jeffco students are reaching the finish line with the tools they need to be successful. Thank you for being our people
and our strength. Congratulations I'd like to thank the school the school members and all of our staff for radical inclusion even when it is hard and technology is in the way. And also to President Applegate for being flexible.
Thank you so much. I from the bottom of my heart that inclusion um means everything and that's the efforts that we make to include all of our students in our culture of belonging in Jeffco. Thank you very much, President Applegate and staff. Thank you everyone for your patience. We
will now turn to board proclamations. The board publicly recognizes special events and significant issues by issuing proclamations. In the month of March, we are commemorating National ReadAcross America Day, which was March 2nd, National Social Worker
Week, which was March 1st through 7th, I'm sorry, National School Social Worker Week, which was March 1st through 7th, National School Breakfast Week, which was March 2nd through 6th, and National Women's History Month. We encourage you to read the Jeffco school board's
proclamation in board docs. Items 3.01 through 3.04 are presented in board docs as proposed proclamations for the month of March. Do I have a motion regarding the approval of these proclamations? >> I move to approve items 3.01 through 3.04 on the proclamation section as
published in board docs. >> Is there a second? >> I second. Any discussion? It has been moved and seconded to approve the March proclamations as presented in board docs. Roll call, please. Miss Harper. >> Miss Applegate. >> Yes. >> Dr. Edaria. >> Yes.
>> Mr. Gibbons. >> Yes. >> Miss Kennedy. >> Yes. >> Miss Millennium. >> Yes. >> Thank you. We will now move to the public comment portion of our meeting. Public comment is an opportunity for the community to share their thoughts with the board. Please note that during public comment, the board does not
engage in discussion with or respond to individuals. I would like to draw your attention to the board covenants um at the back of the boardroom. They are hanging on the wall back there. Um this is something that we commit ourselves to and we um ask that you as community members come into our space and honor
them with the same request. Each speaker or group has been given a number. The board invites you to come up in that order. When the person before you completes their comments, you can begin your way up to the podium. We listen with respect and ask those who address the board to do the same. We do ask that so that we can move through these
quickly, and there are quite a few tonight. There be no applause in between speakers. There is a three-minut limit per group. I'm sorry, there is a threeminut time limit per individual and a 10-minute time limit per group. And as part of our collaborative agreement we have reached with the associations, the
board has reserved 10 minutes for each association at the beginning of public comment. So tonight we will hear from JCA, JCA and Jespa. With that we will begin with JCA. Welcome. So Michelle Mis, Spanish teacher at Grim
Mountain High School, JCA bargaining chair. >> Anna Bryant, first grade teacher at Hackberry Hill Elementary. >> Amy Perry, uh, preschool teacher at Kein. >> Stephanie Jones, social emotional um,
learning specialist and social emotional coach. >> Okay. Uh, good evening, directors of the board. Superintendent Orland, we thank you for this time to give you an update on how bargaining is going so far as we find ourselves uh a third of the way through the process already this season.
Um in the good news, we've successfully TAed article 3 and appendix B, our coach and sponsor stipen, which is a really good start. It's the earliest we've ever TA anything. Um but we still have quite a way to uh quite a ways to go with some challenges that will require meaningful collaboration in order to resolve. We're
encouraged by the process so far and hope that we can continue in a way as we are in this way as we are working on some delicate and meaningful changes to our contract. First and foremost, I'll reiterate our call to action for a mutually agreeable that can help direct the group the um partners for fiscal
sustainability that's currently tasked with creating the language for a possible mill and bond. We know that our members will be um a big part of the group that's out there walking and talking and knocking to help assure for a a successful campaign. They've been clear with us that they need assurance
that the dollars generated will stay as close to the classroom as possible, allowing us to keep uh competitive compensation, thereby attracting um people to our district to fill necessary roles in transportation, security, and in the classrooms working with students
to name but a few. Um, also any new funds can help retain employees um in whom the district has already invested time and money. We have the data that shows that when our people get out there and walk, our ballot measures pass. And when they don't, they don't. Um, we we know how desperately Jefferson County
Schools needs to pass this MLO. And we've been told that the district's ability to offer compensation more in line with other metro districts depends on it. But if voters don't understand how the money will be spent or are not assured of oversight, they're less likely to approve additional funds and our members are less likely to willingly
give up a Saturday or time with family after school to work for it. We have bargained the use of mill funds before and we are simply asking to do the same this time. We are asking for those with the decision-making power to be directly involved in this process and we understand that a response to our um
intent to bargain is forthcoming and we look forward to re-engaging with you in this process. Um next an update um from the bargaining table. So an update on article 5 which is time management. We introduced it in our last bargaining session. Giving educators sufficient time in the school
day to engage in meaningful planning and collaboration empowers educators to deliver the best possible instruction and experience for our students. Too often our elementary and middle school educators struggle to find that time given the need to adhere to busing
schedules and to supervise younger students. Our goal in bringing article 5 this year was to find out what's going well in some schools and put that language in the contract for all educators. We proposed and discussed a regular early release and/or late start for schools that don't currently have
one in order to create parody for planning. We are also committed to finding extra opportunities for team level planning for the purposes of data analysis, new curriculum internalization, and unit and big picture level planning. To that end,
we've proposed that three of the PL days become fully 100% teamdirected time. Um, and a personal story. Um, this year at my building, four of our six grade levels have new folks to the team. And so, um, we only have structured time in
our school team or in our school week though for math teams to meet. Um, so we value our daily planning, but a 45minute window is only enough to manage immediate logistics. It leaves little room for deep collaborative conversations required for long-term big
picture planning. Separate from these calendar shifts, um our bargaining team has also proposed that licensed administrators at the district level guest teach in schools. This initiative would allow leadership to maintain current classroom experience while significantly cutting guest
teacher costs for the district. We are also hard at work on article 9, student discipline and educator assistance. We all agree that student behavior is one of the most pressing issues facing our district right now. We've actually made significant progress at the table, which speaks to how much
common ground exists between educators in the district. We've reached tenative agreement on several important items within the article. Embedding board policies directly into the contract so educators aren't hunting through multiple documents. Streamlining documentation requirements. Establishing
reasonable time frames for interventions. ensuring if training on a student's behavior can't happen before assignment administration will provide supports. Defining the district prevention and intervention manual and when schools should have their sightbased manuals ready and increasing
family involvement when students have repeated unsafe behaviors. We're also working collaboratively on a virtual baseline training to help schools understand how to use the district PNI as a framework how to apply the behavior matrix and how to support PBS teams PBST
teams in monitoring student outcomes. We believe that the district actually does have strong resources that schools simply aren't accessing consistently and that better consistency will reduce unsafe behaviors. A recorded video training could remove the telephone game
effect of train the trainer model, ensuring every educator receives the same baseline information directly from the source. Two items remain unsolved. First, we are still fighting for language protecting educators from being required to teach
in unsafe conditions with the ability to temporarily request reassignment without loss of pays pay. This language exists in neighboring districts contracts. It isn't about leaving the profession. Sometimes educators just need a temporary break from intense behaviors
to stay in the career long term, especially in hardto- fill positions. Second, we are seeking protection for educators who, in accordance with board policy, engage in a brief hold of under one minute to protect a student or themselves from harm. The district has
redlined this language without offering any counter. The district is simultaneously cutting cell and sped staffing which does not help protect educators who will be left holding the bag. When I asked directly who would answer these calls, the response was, I don't have an answer for you. We do.
It's going to be the classroom educators. We are not asking for changes that violate state law or board policy. We want protection for educators doing their job responsibly under increasingly difficult conditions. Um, and our last update is on article
10. As referenced in our remarks last month, meaningful collaboration both in our schools and among district employees remains a high priority. In this round of negotiations, we intentionally opened a small portion of article 10 around
district implementation, around collaboration, district departmental collaboration. Our goal is to establish reasonable guard rails for department teams similar to those that already exist in our contract for school-based teams while
recognizing that district departments vary significantly in size, structure, and function. Therefore, rec require greater flexibility in how those structures are implemented. We believe our most recent proposal reflects the
spirit and framework of artic of all of article ints ensuring a transparent and meaningful collaborative process that includes opportunities for department educators input problem solving and informing decisions. At the same time,
language appropriately allows department teams to adapt the structures to meet their operational needs. Because of that balance, we believe that our latest proposal provides a practical path forward and aligns with the collaborative expectations already
outlined in the contract. We feel we are very close on language and are hopeful that our proposal allows us to reach an agreement. We appreciate the opportunity to inform you on how our work is progressing from the educator point of view. As the decision makers, we hope
that you will remain engaged in the work throughout the process. Please reach out with any questions or clarifications and we invite you to attend any of our training any of our bargaining sessions. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next, I'd like to invite up
Jesspa I'm Xander Kashub. I'm the Jesus president. So, uh, appreciate the time to speak to you all tonight. We stood here last month demanding negotiations, uh, on potential mil levy override revenue. Uh, and we're here
again. I want to also acknowledge that we're going to hear from you soon, I believe, is what we've been told. So just this last Monday, uh I believe Superintendent Dorland told the fiscal
sustainability executive planning committee, which is a subgroup of the larger committee that uh the mill levy override will fail and that we'll just have to try again
next year. So not because of what students need, not because of the realities in classrooms, uh because that's what the cycle has been in the past.
As if uh students can wait, as if their futures can be put on a loop, as if failure is inevitable. But when we talk about revenue, we're not talking about numbers. We're talking about children.
We're talking about the conditions that they learn in, the adults who support them, and the opportunities they either gain or lose. So, let's talk about what actually happens
if we don't bring in revenue because it's actually happening right now. Let's talk about who pays the price because it's not the superintendent. It's not the chiefs. It's pretty empty over there. No, it's going to be the students every
single time. So, even after our community passed uh healthy school meals for all, after we decided to fully fund it at the ballot this year, the executive director of food service, Beth Wallace, is continuing to dismantle
the infrastructure and workforce in that department. Who suffers when that system breaks? Students. Kids can't learn when they're hungry. Kids deserve to have more than a rushed,
understaffed cafeteria line that's not pushing junk food. Principals are being pressured by HR and HR partners to cut paraprofessional hours below the threshold for medical benefits.
Think about what that means for classrooms. It means the para who helps a struggling reader sound out words might not be there. It means the adult who keeps a child with sensory needs regulated
might not be there. It means the person who helps a student deescalate before they melt down might not be there. You're forcing our lowest paid, most essential workers to choose between
serving students and supporting their own families. And when they leave, because who wouldn't? Students lose the support they rely on to learn, to grow, and to simply get through their day.
The executive director of facilities, Mark Streo, continues to find ways around the CBA to deny negotiated pay to custodians and maintenance workers. These are the people who keep learning
spaces safe, clean, and functional. when they're stretched thin and more importantly when they continue to have deferred area cleaning plans. Classrooms suffer, hallways suffer, the
buildings suffer, students suffer. Imagine your boss telling you that their cost-saving strategy is for you to work harder with less. How long would you stay? If Jeff Cro does not bring in more
revenue, students with special needs will lose their one-on-one support. I'll say that again. Students with special needs will lose their one-on-one support. I challenge each and every one of you to shadow a parent educator for a day, just
one, and then look them in the eye and say their job is expendable. say that the student they support is expendable. So the mill won't fail because of a pattern or a cycle.
It'll fail because the community and workers you employ don't trust you. So the real question is why aren't you doing everything in your power to earn that trust back? Why aren't you fighting for students
with the urgency that they need? Why is Jeffco refusing to commit to freezing admin salaries? I want to remind you, I think we sent this over to you, but I also want to share with the community here the proposal that we passed in December when
we were negotiating thisou for the mill before negotiations stalled. the one that meant to reassure the public that their money would go to where it's needed most, into classrooms, into student supports, and to the people
who work directly with kids. That proposal says, and I quote, "Mill levy override funds shall not be used for central office administrator salary increases or the creation of new central office
administrator positions. I'm going to read that one more time. Mil levy override funds shall not be used for central office administrator salary increases or the creation of new central off office office administrator
positions. Y'all struck that. It's gone. And here we are. Why? We handed you a gift. We gave you the easiest win imaginable.
Chance to show the community and students that you put them first and you threw that out. Now, if I were in your position, I would do everything everything in my power to save public education because that's
what leadership looks like. That's what students deserve. Contrary to popular opinion, we don't hold grudges. We hold people accountable. And if accountability scares any of you
here, then maybe you applied for the wrong job. JC, I very much appreciate the passion, but I did ask please no applause after speakers. I appreciate snapping's okay. I've said that before, but I appreciate
it. Next up, JCAA. Good evening. My name is Deianne Hoffman and I'm principal of Hutchinson Elementary and president of JCAA. >> Hi, I'm Megan Mudson. I'm the um incoming president of JCAA and the principal of Green Mountain High School.
>> Good evening. Jeff Pearson, executive director for the department of school safety and past president. I want to begin by recognizing the strong sense of solidarity among our administrators across JECO. Principles understand that sustainable budgets are
essential to offering robust programming and ensuring both educators and students have what they need to succeed. This shared commitment reflects something we value deeply that our principles see our themselves as a part as part of a larger team working together to provide a
highquality education for all students in our community. As we think about the work ahead, it's important to recognize the value of our schools and what our community investment makes possible. Jeffco's recent graduation graduation rate, the highest in 16 years, along
with continued growth in early literacy and mathematic outcomes, speaks to the strength of our system. Jeffco's recent academic achievements are a source of pride for educators, support staff, families, students, and administrators alike. They reflect the reality that it
takes every part of our system working together to support highquality outcomes for students and that we're a good team. If we want to sustain this level of educational excellence and continue offering programs and supports our students need, JCAA believes we must
work together as a community to explore additional revenue. That belief is what brings us to our involvement in the partnership for fiscal sustainability. I was personally energized to see so many community members at our recent meetings including high school students. The
energy in the room was palpable and the discussion among such a diverse group of participants was thoughtful, meaningful and grounded in our shared val shared values and commitment to students. Thank you to the board of Thank you to the board for actively participating in
these meetings and for taking the time to listen and engage with the voices of our community. Make no mistake, JCAA is supportive of the district asking voters to approve additional revenue. Additional revenue is necessary to support highquality
education for students and competitively compensate all employees. As a community, we have important work ahead to secure long-term financial sustainability. JCA supports using available funds and pursuing additional revenue to
competitively compensate all Jeco employees. The data shows that all employees groups lag behind the front range neighboring districts. Compensation discussion should focus on adequate compensation for all Jeffco staff. At the same time, schools must
receive adequate funding to offer competitive programming, staff fairly and appropriately, deliver the high-quality educations that our students deserve. These are challenging financial times. The board must make careful balanced decisions. Decisions
about resource allocation is totally the responsibility of the board and we must lead with students first. Um, I want to begin by recognizing the responsibility you carry in the decisions before you. The role of the board is to ensure that choices made serve the best interests of our
children, the Jeffco community, and all of our Jeffco employees. Those priorities do not always pull in the same direction. And we understand that the work you work requires balancing student needs, employee needs, and community expectations. Budget allocation is ultimately the
responsibility of the board of education. And we know the financial decisions in front of you are not easy ones. At the same time, the district must take steps to strengthen our financial position. Delaying difficult decisions only increases the cost in the future. What we choose not to address
today will only cost more tomorrow. Our goal must be sustainable funding that supports our schools year after year so that we can continue serving students well into the future. We also believe strongly in our GECO community. Our community cares deeply about our schools and the people who work within them and
across our district. When given the opportunity, we believe they will step up to support both. Finally, we appreciate the important work of our board of education and our superintendent and um are doing to guide our district. You are the head of our gift team and we want to thank you on behalf of our students, our community,
and our employees for the commitment and care you bring to the work every day. >> Thank you. Next up should be number four. Welcome. Yep. Good evening. My name is Abigail. This
is Thomas, Lily, and Jade. Today, we would like to talk about the use of chemical pesticides on school grounds. After a lot of digging, we found that the pesticides being sprayed are Ranger Pro, which contains glyphosate, and power zone, which contains dicama. According to Beyond Pesticides,
glyphosate can cause cancer, endocrine disruption, reproductive effects, kidney and liver damage, birth defects, and it's an irritant to the eyes. Dicama can cause reproductive effects, neurotoxicity, liver damage. It can irritate the skin, cause birth defects,
and it can possibly cause cancer. Since these chemicals are being sprayed on school grounds, children are being exposed to them, putting them at risk for all the negative effects I listed earlier. Actually, according to the National Academy of Sciences, children are more susceptible to chemicals than
adults are. This is because children take in more pesticides due to their body weight, undeveloped detoxification systems, and their vulnerable developing organ systems. Pets are also largely at risk. Since they spend a lot of their time eating, licking, digging, rolling,
and sniffing grass, dogs are constantly exposed to pesticides. Studies have found that one in four dogs develop cancer in their lifetimes. Cats are more at risk than dogs because of their grooming habits and because they're carnivores. Due to their diet, cats lack the enzymes in the liver needed to
detoxify chemicals. While these chemicals, sorry. While these chemicals are harmful to our bodies, causing things such as cancer and other health defects, the chemicals also affect the environment and organisms within it. With the use of chemicals such as glyphosate and dicama,
we found that both chemicals have a high have high detection rates within the environments they are being used in being found in groundwater in other places acting as a potential toxin to animals such as birds, fish, bees, and other mammals. Both of these chemicals
have a high effect on all of these, showing that using them can be dangerous for anyone and anything. The chemicals also have the potential to act as leeches in the environment they are spread in, which worsens the overall health of the places these chemicals and pesticides are used. While there is a
benefit of sustaining freedom from weeds and sustaining clean grass, the environmental effects severely outweigh that benefit in most cases. In the end statement, it says that the school district will incorporate environmental sustainability into the
curriculum and culture. Spraying pesticides on school property where little kids might roll around in the grass is not incorporating environmental sustainability into the culture. The pesticides that are being used are not sustainable. So, they are hurting our environment and possibly the kids.
Even after the chemical has dried, the after effects can still cause damage to our environment as well as the kids. The statement also states that the district has a long-term commitment to environmental sustainability. I don't think that glyphosate and dicama are sustainable.
For example, at Ryan Elementary, we looked at where they are spraying the chemicals and noticed that they spray Ranger Pro, which contains glyphosate on the parking lot. Glyphosate is one of the most damaging and dangerous chemicals, and it is being sprayed on the parking lot. Though I get why you
would want to spray down the parking lot, I think that the wrong substance is being used. You can use boiling water and it works just as well. Just heat the water to 200° and pour on the weeds. It works very well for weeds growing in parking lots and gravel. Then the parking lot
won't have any won't have many weeds and no chemicals would be required. Spraying dangerous chemicals on the places where little and big kids play is not incorporating environmental sustainability into the culture of our district. Many parents and students have no idea
what is in the grass. They have no idea that the same grass they roll around in, touch, or even eat can cause cancer. During our research into this topic, it took us weeks just to find any information on these pesticides, with much of it being a general overview on the common pesticides you may find in
schools or lawns. Information regarding pesticide use in schools should be way more accessible to the public. The common law pesticide can cause many health complications. However, neither I nor many of the people I know were aware that these were being sprayed in the in grass children as young and four could
be running in. All that we are asking of the school board today is to make pesticide use more sustainable by not spraying pesticides in the parking lot as well as making pestifi pesticide info more available and transparent to the public.
>> Thank you for your time. >> Thank you guys very much. Number five. Hello, my name is Ler Johnson. I'm a second grade teacher at Rosestin. I'll be speaking for our PE teacher. Unfortunately, he had to work for his second job.
My name is Jinho Tahihara. I'm a physical education teacher at Rosestin International, and this is my fifth grade, my fifth year here. Rosestein International is a title one school and a proud international balariat school that has recently went from a turnaround into a performance
school. Our students have come from families with an incredible resilience and determination. We have also welcomed the Emory Primary and Intermediate Effective Needs Programs with open arms during the Rafett process. This program we have lovingly called the Eagle's
Nest. Every day I see how capable and brilliant all of our students are, but I also see what happens when a highly impacted school is underfunded. Our staff is dedicated to our community and we have experienced increased
enrollment each year from 2021 to 2024. Even with those increases, our school was still faced with more than $160,000 in budget reductions. For us, the budget re the budget duction
budget reduction blueprint was only 1.6% budget reduction, but this was a combined with a 13 point 13% title title one reduction. In the five years that I've been at Rosstein, many teachers have had to leave due to the cost of
living, burnout, and compassion fatigue. The people that I am speaking here with, Teresa, Audra, and Cheryl, have been with me with these five years and have seen many employees have to make that hard decision to leave. It takes
perseverance to teach every child effectively in the highly impacted classroom. And when that support isn't there, teachers have left have the have left the s shoulder to have that load. As a member of our school's OOLT, I have
worked directly through the most recent round of the budget reductions at Rosestin. Throughout that process, we had followed the protocol that was sent by Jeffco exactly as it was outlined. Even after carefully followed by every step, we ultimately had left with the
impossible decision. either eliminate our school counselor position that has been previously funded through the CDE counselor core grant or keep two fifth grade teachers and our most impacted grade level. Neither option feels like a
decision that is best best for our students. Yet is the hard decision that we have left we are left at the end of the day. We are asking is we are asking is what every child deserves. One, a school that is a school that is
supported. Two, a community that is resourced. And three, a future that is our students for our students that is fully funded to reach. I am sharing this not in un not in opposition but in advocacy for students
whose potential deserves to be unlimited and for a community that has been proven for what is possible and when it is given the right support. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Audra and I'm a licensed preschool educator. I'm a Jeco
a mom of a Jeffco student and a proud JCA member. I want to tell you about a student who once walked into my preschool classroom. They had already been removed from another school because their behavior was considered unmanageable. Their home life was
incredibly difficult. One parent was incarcerated while the other was struggling with addiction. extended family stepped in to care for them, but by the time they arrived at school, they were carrying an enormous amount of trauma. And that trauma showed up in my classroom. When this student became
overwhelmed, they would scream, knock over bookshelves, rip apart books. The best I can ascribe it is them moving through the classroom like a tornado. When that happened, we had to evacuate the room. 19 small children with their two teachers while two adults often
stayed behind trying to keep one child safe and calm. Learning stopped not just for this student, every student. But there was one thing that made the difference. We had the mental professional health professionals in our building. Our mental health provider
worked consistently with this student. They taught him how to recognize when they were overwhelmed and how to regulate their emotions. Slowly that child began to change. Instead of flipping shelves, they learned to say, "I need a break." They would go to the
cozy corner and use one of the calming book calming tools they had practiced. By the end of the year, that student was learning alongside all their classmates. Today, that student is older and thriving. Those behaviors never came back. That didn't happen because we got
lucky. It happened because support was there when that child needed it the most. And now, because of the district's 60 million budget deficit and the decision to cut funding for Title One schools, my school is losing one of our mental health providers. So, I need to
ask you something directly. What happens to the next child like this? What happens when a classroom crisis happens and there is no mental health provider to call? What happens when teachers and support staff are
expected to manage trauma level behaviors without the training, staffing, or resources to do it safely because title one schools already serve students facing the greatest barriers. Food insecurity, housing instability,
family crisis, and trauma that children should never have to carry. And the response to a budget crisis is to remove the very supports these students rely on the most. Cuts to title one schools mean fewer mental health counselors, fewer
mentors, and fewer adults who can step in when a child is in crisis. This doesn't close opportunity gaps. It widens them. Mental health support in schools is not a luxury. It is what makes learning possible. When you remove
those supports from the schools that need them the most, the students are paying the price and they already are facing the steepest obstacles not in a spreadsheet but in the classrooms in crisis and children who have succeeded
if children who could have succeeded if someone had simply been there to help. I urge you to reconsider these cuts and protect mental health supports in title one schools because the next child who walks into my classroom carrying trauma deserves the same chance to succeed as
the last one did. Thank you. >> Good evening members of the board and superintendent Tracy Dorland. My name is Tessa Wagner and I'm here today as a Jeco community member, parent and a Rosstein International Learning Specialist to speak on behalf of the
students who often cannot speak for themselves. Budget cuts are never just numbers. They are people. We have seen a significant loss in mental health support at a time when our students need it the most. For many of our neurode divergent students, a school counselor
or social worker isn't a luxury. They are a bridge that allows that student to access their education. Without them, we are asking students to learn while they are in a constant state of disregulation. This is compounded by inadequate
staffing across the board. When we don't have enough pair of professionals or specialized instructures instructors, we aren't just stretching the staff, we are snapping the safety net. Perhaps most concerning is the bottleneck in our centerbased programs. We currently have
students who have been identified as needing intensive specialized support in center-based programs, yet they are sitting on weight list for months. But a student need does not go on hold just because a program is full. For example, we recently had a student who required
the intensive environment of a center program but remained in general education while waiting for a spot. Because the proper setting wasn't available, our general education special education team had to be pulled from their regular duties to provide
one-on-one support, crisis support for this single student. The result, other students who also have legal rights to specialized instruction missed their required small groupoup session. When we don't fund enough center-based seats or
the staffing to support them, we aren't just failing the students on the weight list. We are systematically depriving dozens of students the minutes and supports promised in their IEPs. This is not just a budget issue. This is a
compliance issue. The pressure is it. This pressure is exactly why we are seeing such high teacher turnover. When staff are forced to choose between supporting a student in crisis and meeting the needs of their small groups, they are put in an impossible situation.
Finally, we must address the revolving door of staffing. In special education, relationships are the foundation of progress. When budget constraints lead to burnout and high turnover, those foundational relationships are shattered. Every time a trusted teacher
or aid leaves because the workload is unsustainable or pays inadequate, our students lose months of developmental progress as they struggle to build trust with someone new. A budget is a statement of values. Right now, our
budget says that the needs of our most vulnerable students are secondary to a balanced budget. I'm asking this board to please reinvest in our students, our staff, our mental health resources, and our center programs. Our students cannot
wait any longer to prioritize this funding. We cannot continue to ask our staff to do more with less when our children are the ones paying the price. Thank you. Thank you. Number six.
>> Good evening, board members. I believe I have three minutes. I want to address an important safety issue regarding the stop the bleed program that was implemented through the 2023 Colorado House Bill 231213. The intent of this bill was to provide life-saving supplies to schools for a
stop to bleed program and is commendable. However, its implementation has revealed some critical shortfalls that we must address. We need to create a robust program that is effective not only for isolated emergencies, but specifically for active shooter events like the one we experienced at Evergreen
High School last September and so many others here in Colorado. The 2023 bill did not provide clear guidance on how these kits should be distributed throughout the school buildings, but instead offered funding for schools to purchase the kits and acquire training if they wanted to participate in the
program. What we've seen in practice is that most schools who decided to participate in this program only purchased a few kits for the entire building, often placing them in nurses offices, shop classrooms, and common areas. The reality is that in an effective an
active shooter event, students and staff are locked down in classrooms and cannot reach these centralized kits because they are out of reach and are too dangerous to get to. These stop the bleed kits are useless during active shooter situation if they are not placed within each classroom. Another concern
is cost. Stop the bleedle kits are extremely expensive and include additional supplies that while are useful are not strictly necessary to create a robust stop theble to bleed program within the school and throughout every classroom. To truly prepare our students, we need a program that puts
multiple tourniquets and sufficient gauze throughout the building. This should be combi combined with mandatory training for all staff and voluntary training for students, ensuring that if an emergency occurs, there are trained individuals immediately available to administer life-saving care with
supplies. is right at hand. I want to highlight a successful example here in Jefferson County. The Rocky Mountain Conservative Alliance or RMCA, which is a grassroots community-based organization based out of Conifer, has been supporting dedicated members of our community and working with Conifer High
School, their leadership to implement an ex exactly this model. Through community organizing and fundraising, we have provided enough tourniquets to outfit all 36 classrooms throughout CHS and have successfully completed adoptive bleed training for over 60 CHS staff.
All staff members were trained on tourniquet application and wound packing. The training was not only free but very well received by the staff. The staff reported the training was enlightening and non-triggering. Today, CHS is properly equipped to respond to critical situations with both
supplies and trained personnel readily accessible in the building. To date, RMCA has raised over $4,000 in medical supplies to outfit each classroom at CHS with approximately four tourniquets in each classroom and ample ample amounts of gauze. RMCA will continue to work
with our local mountain communities and schools to implement a stop the bleed program that is effective and thoughtful. However, doing this alone takes more time than we have. We simply cannot afford to wait any longer before every school throughout Jefferson County and frankly all of Colorado has a robust stop thebleleed program at the roots of
their school safety and security protocols. I urge the Jefferson County School District to restructure its stop theble to bleed program to equip each classroom with stop the bleed supplies and ensure proper training is provided. We ask that you lead the way in prior prioritizing our student safety and be the example for all Colorado school
districts. Thank you for your time and consideration. >> Thank you. Number seven. >> Welcome. >> Hi, I'm Sarah Hawkins. I'm the PTA president of Shelton Elementary.
>> Philip Canrick, SACE co-chair and parapro at Shelton Elementary. >> Dustin Fry, Wilchester PTA president. >> Hi, I'm Abby Neber, Mitchell Elementary School PTA president.
>> Hi, I'm Mandy Lao. I am the SAC chair at Mitchell and also have two children there. Good evening. I'm Alice Kesh. I'm a parent at Wellchester Elementary and also the co-chair of our SAC. Hi, I'm Maya Chain. I am the treasurer
of the Shelton Elementary PTSA and also a parent of a student at Bell Middle School. Good evening, directors and board superintendent Dorland. My name is Sarah Hawkins and I'm here tonight representing the PTA and Sachs of
Shelton, Wellchester, and Mitchell elementary schools. Shelton had 100% teacher retention last year. We are known for our diversity and projectbased learning leading to rigorous student work that has been featured on Colorado
Public Radio. Wellchester had phenomenal student growth last year and received Governor Polus' Bright Spot award. In the past three years, Mitchell Elementary has received the Governor's Distinguished Improvement Award and John
Irwin School of Excellence Award. We aren't here as three separate schools competing for resources. We are here as a unified community with demonstrated successes. While we understand the district's financial re While we
understand the district's financial reality, we want to highlight how these budget decisions will affect our students and our classrooms. Every dollar taken from a classroom has a tangible negative impact on a child's
daily experience, resulting in larger class sizes, burdened teachers, and diminished support. We urge this board to shift its focus The classroom must be our north star. We
support the push for creative non-instructional reductions, but the current blueprint still asks too much of our schools. On the issue of declining enrollment and staffing impacts, we're deeply concerned about how these
cuts penalize schools facing declining enrollment, creating a self-reinforcing cycle of loss. When resources are stripped, families look elsewhere, which further accelerates enrollment declines.
At Wellchester Elementary, as a title one school, any cuts, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, have big impacts. Before a district budgeting error of nearly $80,000
was found, discovered in this budgeting process, the cuts were frankly going to be catastrophic for us. Still, we're navigating impacts to positions like our family engagement liaison and our reading interventionist roles that serve
our students who are at the highest risk and who, as our cohort before us navigated and spoke so well to have some of the greatest needs. Our enrollment secretary is also being reduced significantly. In addition to these
overhead cuts and one classroom teacher, we face significant impacts to school's mental health support. While we're grateful to JCH for providing a social worker at a significantly reduced cost, we should not be relying on other organizations
and their kindness to fund basic mental health needs for our students. Further, we cannot rely on the generosity of other schools sharing grants or parts of their budgeted funds to mitigate reductions and impacts at
our school at Wellchester like we're currently doing. >> Speaking on behalf of Mitchell, we are looking at a combined loss of nearly $290,000. This isn't just a number. It is a loss of highly qualified staff who meet
academic and emotional needs at our school. At Shelton, we face a nearly $285,000 reduction. Shelton has an autism spectrum disorder center program where many students in the ASD center participate in a hybrid model of
learning, spending some time learning in the classrooms and some time learning in the ASD center. We are facing a cut of two classroom teachers in our youngest grades due to the cuts made to the Shelton budget, which will lead to less individual attention to both our ASD
students and general education population. We wonder how the district plans to protect the integrity of our ASD center program under this budget. If general education classrooms become overcrowded due to these cuts, how can we possibly
maintain the calm, structured environment that our hybrid model students depend on to thrive? All three of our schools have slashed our operational budgets to the bone. We're facing a future with reduced access to technology, limited classroom
supplies, and even restrictions on basic things like printing and copying. When we rightsize our schools to the point of a watered down Jeffco experience, we aren't just saving money. We're making the schools less attractive
to new families. And we asked the board, how do we grow or even simply maintain enrollment if we're cutting the very things that make families choose JCO? Finally, uh we must address a troubling
trend regarding school safety. All of our schools have been asked to pay for security camera expenses from our school budgets after receiving budget cuts and experiencing enrollment declines. At Mitchell, our communication radios are outdated
and need replacement. Cameras and radios are not extras. They are fundamental requirements for a safe in learning environment. The Mitchell PTA will help fund these security requirements. We find this
fundamentally inequitable and problematic. Safety should not be a line item that depends on a PTA's ability to fund raise. If a school's security depends on the wealth of its parent base, the district is failing in its duty to protect all students equally.
Essential safety infrastructure like radios and cameras must be paid for by the district, not by family contributions. Furthermore, two of our schools are facing reduction in social social emotional learning hours as seals are cut across the district. While
enrollment is decreasing, the need for support has never been greater, especially at schools with highly impacted population. We understand that the money must come from somewhere. This is why we are proposing top-down alternatives
to ensure we are truly prioritizing the classroom as our northstar. Has the board fully exhausted all top-down operational efficiencies before asking schools to reduce student-f facing staff and materials? Our group has shared several suggestions
with you all in a previous letter which include um some of the following. Furlow days for education center staff during low activity breaks. Remote work initiatives to reduce district-wide utility overhead. a freeze on all
non-essential consulting contracts and re-evaluating the scope of reductions at the ed center. We appreciate the work you all do and we do not envy the position you are in. However, we must ask that you exhaust every administrative and operational
alternative before you allow budget reductions to impact students and safety. Thank you. >> Thank you. number eight. Welcome. Good evening, Jeffco board members and
superintendent Dorland. I am Donetta Macdonald, principal of Free Horizon Monastery, where I have worked for 18 years. And both of my children, now 21 and 16, started as three-year-olds. Almost eight years ago, Jeffco and Dr.
Glass approached Free Horizon to become the district's first innovation school. They fasttracked a plan to serve students and prepare building occupancy, prioritizing speed over documentation. Now returning to charter status has
become necessary as district expectations have changed including a restriction on maintaining our own child care license which could have compromised our monastery model. The district gained a significant asset
when we exchanged 581 conference place for a vacant Pleasant View Elementary. Now, we are asking a fair price and turnkey condition for the 75-year-old Pleasant View building where we have operated for six years.
It is hard to reconcile changing price estimates when other Jeffco buildings sit empty and some charter schools have firstear building fees waved. We stand in a gap of traditional education and a model that serves
non-traditional learners. Nearly one in five of our school-aged children has an IEP and many more are neurode divergent. Our program gives them the support they need. At Free Horizon, we are a place to learn
and a place to belong. These are Jeffco kids and they deserve a fair final resolution for their school home. We now appreciate the positive intent but are mitigating perceptions from our community due to lack of transparency
and delayed information from Jeffco. Still in this 11th hour, we are awaiting our finalized documentation from our district. I do want to thank our community director, Dr. Taio Adiko, and
Superintendent Dorland for the support of our school through this transition. And since she's in the room and I have 56 seconds left, I'm also going to thank Chief Legal Officer Julie Tollesen, who has always been a phone call away anytime we had a question or challenge.
Thank you so much for your consideration. >> Thank you. Number nine. Welcome, dear Jeffcoard. My name is Julia Holy. I am currently and have been a Jeffco teacher with Free Horizon Monastery for
the past eight years. This school has made me a strong teacher and a strong leader. I have been the department chair for three years, board leaison for three years. I have won the employee of the month and Jeffco awards for integrity.
Sorry. I started in 2018 when Frey Horizon was in the middle of deciding if they would accept the innovation option school deal with Dr. Jason Glass. A lot of teachers were reluctant to vote for it because they weren't sure if it was safe to trust Jeffco. As a new Jeffco
teacher at that time, I voted for it because I was giving Jeffco the benefit of the doubt that they would keep their word. Sorry. Unfortunately, as board liaison for the past three years, I have witnessed the lack of integrity and respect Jeffco has given my school board
principal and admin staff. We were given the illusion of choice by either staying in a public school with unreasonable restrictions around our monastery model or going back to a charter. As Free Horizon has integrity around our monatory model, we decide to go with the
charter option. Instead of a seamless transition back to charter as which the old Jeffco promised our staff if things didn't work out, we are now facing two years of unanswered questions, magic numbers that were given to us as a
search charge from that what was originally agreed on for operational costs and now we are being charged for technology that we paid for with our own money. I plead to you that if you truly want your enrollment to grow in this
district, it starts with integrity and respect for all of your schools, including charters. How Jeff treats Free Horizon Monastery's transition back to charter would be a great opportunity for Jeffco to earn some trust and integrity
back if your vision is truly prioritized for all Jeffco families and staff. >> Thank you. number 10. Welcome. >> Thank you very much. Good evening, board
members and superintendent Dorland. My name is Matthew Mom. I am a member of the board of directors of Free Horizon Monastery. I am here tonight, however, as a parent. Uh my daughters have are currently in second and fourth grade.
they have been at the at the school since they were in preschool. I would like to highlight some bright spots in our community as well as make a simple ask of the board and the administration that you lead. Um I understand that you
represent the whole of the students of Jefferson County and there are times when the needs of a school uh may not be in line with the board in general. I assure you this is not the case here. Uh, Free Horizon's success is Jefferson,
excuse me, is Jefferson County's success. Uh, Free Horizon Monastery has always been an asset to this district and the families it serves. Uh, we accept all students. We serve a high proportion of students with IEPs and we
support a significant number of families qualifying for free and reduced lunch. We also have a demon demonstrated history of robust enrollment even as the district at large faces demog demographic shifts. Our school
successes are Jeffco's successes. However, we've always been a bit of an outlier. At times it feels as though we have gotten lost in the shuffle as we were a charter transition to an option school
of innovation and now back to a charter. This recent transition one we did not initiate has been difficult. FHM has maintained a strong partnership with Jeffco over approximately 20 years now.
At this moment that partnership feels a bit strained. I'm here to ask for your help in repairing it. We understand that leadership changes and people move on, but we are asking that the district honors its commitments made to our
school even when the specific partners from that time are no longer here. Our school is in district 2. So, Mr. Gibbons, I will address you directly. You ran on a platform of greater transparency and accountability in
district decision-making. That is simply what I'm asking for here tonight. Every hour our staff and principal spend responding to shifting goalposts is an hour taken away from our shared singular goal, which is ensuring
Jeffco students receive the best education possible. our students are district students. We are asking for the board to fully support FHM's transition back to charter and to honor the
historical commitments made to our community. We look forward to another 20y year plus strong transparent partnership with the district. Thank you very much.
>> Thank you. number 11. >> Welcome. >> Thank you. Um I'm Sarah Paul. I'm the parent of a first and fifth grader at Shelton Elementary and a seventh grader at Bell Middle School. I'm here today to ask the board to find budgetary alternatives to
further classroom cuts, whether they come from educ education center cuts or revenue recuperation efforts. So, my eldest son began kindergarten at Shelton Elementary the year after. It welcomed approximately half of the student population from a nearby Title One elementary school that had recently
closed due to budget cuts. My first impressions of Shelton were overwhelmingly positive, talented and devoted teachers, a dedicated community of parent volunteers, a wonderful place to send my three children. The district provided funding for a full-time family engagement liaison to assist with the
transition and Shelton teachers invested significant time in professional development f focused on whole child social emotional learning support and targeted reading interventions. By 2020, the district funding for the family engagement liaison had run out and Shelton was faced with making difficult
choices knowing that we needed that position for family support but not wanting to give up on the other staff that work to meet the needs of our diverse student population. Despite efforts to work with the district to retain some of these funds, Shelton eventually lost our instructional coach and other key staff went to part-time.
At one point, Shelton relied on PTSA funds for paraprofessional salaries so that we could preserve our dwindling school budget for family engagement and assistant principal staff that we couldn't afford to lose. Shelton is incredibly unique. The student body reflects a broad diversity of academic achievement, economic backgrounds, and
nationalities. An equally diverse set of staff are needed to support the wide array of needs of each of these groups. Shelton has worked so hard to ensure that all communities are welcome and supported in our school. However, schools like ours are operating on a barebones budget and further cuts will
lead to the loss of essential services. Now, as my youngest child finishes out her first grade year, I see several underresourced local schools having maxed out their optimization and coping strategies. They are reliant on busy working parents to volunteer time in the classroom to provide the differentiated
support that helps all students thrive. Existing staff are required to wear three or four different hats just to try to serve the needs of everyone in the building. It is hard to imagine a scenario for some of these locally underresourced schools under further budget cuts that doesn't severely undermine the classroom environment that
is experienced by every one of their students. I think we've heard from a lot of people tonight that would agree with that statement. Once again, I urge the board to consider budget savings or recuperation efforts that will place less of a burden on the student facing staff that are so critical to effective
school functioning. Thank you. >> Thank you. Number 12. Welcome. Oh, I didn't bring my card up here. I'm sorry. Um, hello. My name is Sarah Montath. Um, and I'm a parent of two Jefferson County students at Free
Horizon Monastery right down the road, literally 5 minutes from this building. Um, and I have been a consistent volunteer weekly in our classrooms for the past 5 years. First of all, I want to thank the board for having us and for everyone else for speaking and caring enough about our students to come in and
and give their opinion because we truly are a community and we it shouldn't just be up to y'all to figure everything out. and I think that it's helpful when parents give input. Um, I appreciate the time you have sacrificed to make sure our children are getting the best education possible. And I know it is a
sacrifice and I'm sure you all have families that you're away from, too. As one of the most popular forms of ed alternative education worldwide, we're incredibly grateful to live in a district that has a school like Free Horizon Monastery. Our our family specifically moved to Asheville, North Carolina and came back right before our
oldest started kindergarten so that he could be a Jeffco student. We came here specifically for Free Horizon Monastery. We applied to the school before we moved back to Denver and were accepted. Um it was a big deal to come back to Jeffco because of all of the options that we
have which is truly amazing and unique. Um, the monastery model has provided my children the opportunity to grow into independent, critical thinkers and empathetic and kind humans. The community that Free Horizon has provided has built my children's confidence and growth in ways that we could have never
imagined. When we toured our neighborhood school, which is Deini Elementary in Green Mountain, um, our family decided Free Horizon would provide a better opportunity for support and growth in our children's education. The teacherto student ratio alone made us skeptical
our neighborhood school could provide the support our children might need. Free Horizon filled a critical gap in our community by providing a safe space to land for our students who might not otherwise thrive in a tra traditional public setting public school setting.
While the monastery model provides students with diverse learning needs to progress at their own pace, it also provides the structure for gifted students to excel past their current curriculum level without increasing teacher workload, which is one of the things we love about the school.
Unfortunately, it feels like our community is in jeopardy. Our board of directors and school leadership have encountered multiple internal barriers with the district as we transition back to a trai a charter school. As part of our transition transition from an innovative school to a charter school,
we originally agreed on a set price with the district for our building's lease. Now, two years later, after budgets have been planned and set, a new higher rate has been proposed by the district that would divert already limited resources from our classrooms. I urge the district to reconsider and honor the originally
agreed upon rate for our building's lease. I am asking the board to stand by your core values of belonging, equity, excellence, integrity, and focusing on students, and work with us to support transition that
allows Free Horizon to continue serving our wonderful Jeffco students and their families. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. Number 13, Welcome. >> Um, hello Jeffco board. My name is
Britney Lease. I am a parent at Shelton. Um, I have two kids at Shelton and a seventh grader at Bell. Um, who came up through Shelton. Shelton has been such a wonderful place for our family. I can see firsthand the way that the budget
cuts over the last few years have caused a decline in services and I'm worried that the upcoming budget cuts in the following year will have a devastating effect for Shelton and our entire community. My current seventh grader came up through Shelton with access to
support services and opportunities that made Shelton perfect for us as our neighborhood school. The loss of instructional coaches, full-time teachers, full-time family liaison, support staff make me question whether Shelton is going to be able to provide
the same highquality education for my second grader as it did for my seventh grader. I personally know many families in our neighborhood who have choiced out of Shelton because it cannot provide the services that their children need with
its current budget constraints. Shelton is one of the most socioeconomically, racially, linguistically diverse schools in the area. Um, this is very important, a rare gem. I believe it is a tragedy to watch
Shelton in this downward spiral. Budget cuts lead to reduced services, lead to reduced enrollment, lead to more budget cuts. I am deeply concerned that this wonderful school that really brings our
community together will not survive much more of this. If there's a way to prevent any of the further budget cuts coming to Shelton, I do hope that the board will consider alternatives. Thank you. All right, number 14.
Welcome. >> You >> Thank you. My name is Daffhne Anderson. I'm here to advocate for Free Horizon Monastery. Um I'm a lower elementary school teacher. I have worked for I serve 26 students ages 5 to 10 in my
classroom. I've taught at the school for eight years. I'm here tonight not just as a teacher, but as someone who works every day with the students that your decisions have directly affected. Our monastery program serves many kids who struggle in the traditional classrooms.
About 19% of our K prek8 school students have IEPs with more currently being evaluated. The monatory model allows these students to learn at their own pace, build confidence, and develop independence as you heard my previous um
uh parents speak of. Um over the years, I have watched students arrive discouraged by our school to our school and leave our classroom confident and excited to learn again. That is why this process has been so difficult of an experience for us. So I want to ask the
board a few questions. Were you aware that so many of our school questions to the district have gone unanswered for months? Are you aware that what was presented as a straightforward transition has become months of uncertainty for our whole community. Our
charter school or charter schools are still public schools serving the students of the Jeffco students. the resources supporting them and support our children. Right now, there are students sitting in our classrooms who finally feel successful at our school.
They deserve stability in a district willing to work alongside the educators to support who supports them. Thank you. >> Thank you. Number 15. Welcome. a little shorter. Good evening. Um, thank you board members and
Superintendent Dorland for having us and giving us this time. My name is Amanda. Um, while I am not a Jeco resident, I'm an resident of Englewood, which is a little farther away. I am a parent of two children at Free Horizon Monastery. I'm also a teacher there. It's where my monastery journey began and where my
Jeffco journey began as well. In fact, our family drives from across multiple districts just to be here every day. Free Horizon Monastery is our home away from home and we have found an extension of our family in this community. When we were choosing a
school for our family, we always knew it would be Monasuri. We believe in public education as well and wanted to be in a district that respected diverse learning styles and clearly put students needs and safety first. Free Horizon made all of that
possible with Jeffco. That's why the current facility transition has been so concerning. We simply want collaboration so that students can continue learning in a stable and supportive environment. I was an employee the year that innovation was
proposed. Lost my spot. We all had a lot of nervousness about the change. Transitioning from charter to innovation was scary for a lot of us. We had a lot of conversations about the asurances of about all of the whatifs
that could happen. But the original agreement that year felt fair and it seemed to be what was best for all. To see and hear the difficulties happening in the negotiations feels disheartening and makes me question the faith and the trust that I put into Jeffco both as a
teacher and as a parent. I understand that all of you in this room may not be fully aware of how those negotiations are unfolding. If that is the case, I respectfully encourage you to look closely as the leaders of this district at how this process is being handled.
And I ask whether this is truly whether this truly reflects what we stand for as a district and how we want to be remembered by families, students, staff, and voters. At the end of the day, this is about students, all students. Schools and districts everywhere are facing
challenges and we all have an opportunity to rise and support one another. Thank you. As a teacher, I know it's hard to sit there and just be talked at for many hours. I appreciate your time. >> Thank you. Number 16, please.
>> Welcome. >> Uh, good evening board members, superintendent. Uh, I'm Tim Krug. This is my wife, Yumiko, my sons, Joseph and Eddie. Eddie was the subject of a Canyon Courier article that came out this morning, which has more information about the
subject we're going to talk about, and that's my little daughter, Mia. Uh, I'm sure you could guess why we're here tonight. Uh, we sent you an email last Friday, uh, that contained documents that we obtained through the Colorado Open Records Act. Uh there were emails
between a district administrator and a conifer high school administrator in which they appear to be conspiring to falsify information in order to deceive our
family about a lacrosse practice uh in which my son Eddie was seriously injured. I honestly don't know what words to describe this because I've never experienced anything like this before. Uh we wanted to let you know that uh our
experience uh ever since this injury has been acrimony and frustration. Um and now to find out that this investigation that we took issue with was conducted by an administrator who is seemingly willing to falsify records uh
is very very frustrating. Um this whole situation is completely unnecessary. Had the coaches simply followed their training that night and inform my wife or I that Eddie had a potential concussion, it would have been over that night. But instead, the coaches decided
to attempt to conceal the injury. And now we believe there is upwards of five district employees who have either concealed or falsified information uh in what should have been a very minor incident. Uh we did go to the district for help.
We went to the first team. We've talked to a community superintendent. We attempted to engage the superintendent. Um, and I can tell you that, uh, to make a long story short, the response was not what we hoped for. Uh, but I know that at least two of you should not be surprised by the response because a
Rston Valley high school health technician came to this very podium to warn the board of education what is waiting for those who dare to question or criticize this administration following a student's head injury.
that uh health technician said retaliation, intimidation, isolation. Those were his words, but they perfectly describe uh how our family has felt we've been treated. As a result of all of this frustration,
we took our boys out of Conifer High School a couple weeks into the semester. And it feels like a real shame that they are missing out on a high school experience because of an investigation that was performed by an administrator that through his own words is seemingly
willing to deceive our family. Uh we would like a new investigation. Um, and we do appreciate your attention to this matter. Thank you very much. >> Thank you.
Number 17. >> Welcome. Good evening board members. My name is Julia Henrix and I have three children in Jeffco and I'm a social emotional learning specialist in Jeffco for the last six and a half years. Today I'm here to voice my opinion regarding the union negotiated cell displacement process underway. I specifically want to
speak on behalf of elementary school cells experiencing displacement this week despite the fact that there's been no change to their position or really to the number of part-time elementary positions across the district. Um you see back in December a number of.5 cell coaches were part of central office
budget cuts. The funding for the cell program came from voter approved MIL levy um earorked for counseling and mental health. Reductions to this program are unfortunate especially given two new director um student service positions that were added this year. However, I do understand the need to
prioritize staff in buildings working directly with students over district level positions. What I don't fully understand is why elementary school cells are now at risk of being displaced or replaced rather by central office coaches who have been displaced. Unlike
the cell coaching position, um, elementary cells are selected by hiring committee made up of their school admin and staff. In many cases, schools have chosen to use their school-based budgeting to buy them up, making them full-time staff. schools have already made this decision based on the person,
their performance and the relationship with the students, staff and community. I know that for me a large part of my effectiveness is due to the trust I have built within my school community. Um staff consistency especially for mental health I believe is best for students. That's why the contract states that display staff get first priority to
interview for open positions such as the many unfilled or currently contracted psych and social work positions within SPED. The contract also states that moving from district level positions or split school assignments into building based positions requires mutual consent,
not direct placement without the input of schools. While elementary cells are given a choice between two displacement rubrics, they were not given an opportunity to reject the premise of this kind of unprecedented displacement process. I would like help interpreting or clarifying the contract. If I am
wrong and this is the correct process, um I want to be reassured that it's the same process being used for other department and positions such as DTLs and learning specialists who may be experiencing a reduction in the number of central office and school-based positions across the district. As well
as the president of Safe to Teach, a local non-political teachers association, I wanted to elevate the concerns of educators who are not represented by JCA. So some new teachers who maybe not being long in the district and don't have a voice at the table. um to understand their contract. I would
love just thanks for your consideration, I guess, but I would love clarification if this is the process to be used. Thank you. >> Thank you. Are there any others that signed up to speak? Okay,
we really appreciate everyone coming out. It is a community and your voices um we appreciate hearing. Next, we will move forward with our consent agenda items 5.01 01 through 5.10 are presented in board docs and on the proposed consent agenda. As a
reminder to our listening public, the board receives a preview of these items on our study sessions. So, the study session was March 4th. Do I have a motion regarding the approval of the consent agenda as presented in Board Docs? >> I move to approve items 5.01 through 5.10 on the consent agenda as published
in Board Docs. >> Is there a second? >> I second. >> Any discussion? It has been moved and seconded to approve the consent agenda items 5.01 through 5.10 as presented in board docks. Roll call, please. Miss Harper. >> Miss Applegate.
>> Yes. >> Dr. Etchavaria. >> Yes. Mr. Gibbons. >> Yes. >> Miss Kenworthy. >> Yes. >> Miss Minian. >> Yes. >> Thank you. The time is now 6:56. I would like to call for a 15minute break. Thank you.
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Heat. Heat. Welcome back. Next on the agenda are leadership reports. First, we will hear from Superintendent Dorland, followed by the board. Superintendent Dorland, that we have a lot of 10 minutes for your report. The time is now yours. >> Great. Thank you, President Applegate.
Um, the board has asked me this evening to share some resources on the district website tonight, which I will do at the end of my report this evening, and I look forward to um sharing those both with the board and our public. Uh, but first, I want to publicly thank the more
than 200 people who attended the Jeffco Schools Foundation SIP and support galla last week. Um uh uh director Avaria and uh uh director Kenworthy were there with me and we had a really lovely time. Um the event was a philanthropic success
raising $130,000 for Jeffco students. Those of us who were there um we had the opportunity to see extraordinary performances by the Bear Creek High School String Quartet and the Kendrick Lakes Elementary School
Choir which was awesome. all in decked out in black and white. Um, and up way past their bedtime as we noticed a few of them yawning during the performance. It was awesome. Um, there were also interactive demonstrations from the Drake Middle School drone and robotics team and uh from Fremont Elementary Art
students. Uh, it was awesome. And I also want to make sure and call out the powerful keynote by speaker Sage Laflur which many in the audience um supported uh afterwards by raising their paddles to um increase funding for our
foundation. We are so grateful to the Jeco Schools Foundation and to everyone in the Jeco community who supports them and in turn supports Jeffco students. And thank you both for being there with me that night. Um it was a special evening. Since my last report, my schedule has included everything from
hearing Colorado's gubanatorial candidates share their education platforms at the winter case conference to taking representatives from the Marggo Foundation on a visit to North Middle School. Marggo has been commit a committed investor in Jeffco's magic of
middle school and high school reimagined work for the past three years and we're very grateful for the support of the Marggo Foundation. I want to recognize Riley Peters um the principal of North Arvvada Middle School for his incredible leadership. He is focusing on school
culture in such tangible and visible ways. The school is truly a middle school showcase for Jeffco and I was excited to visit with the Marggo Foundation. I also had the opportunity to attend career day at Wheatidge High School last week. It was uh highlighted
on my Instagram um because the incredible energy of the event is really captured on video. If you're interested, you can find it at superintendent_dorland on Instagram. Sounds like a infomercial right there. But uh you can follow me on
Instagram and um see some of the what what we try to post is all of the amazing experiences that I get to have in our schools with our students and our staff. Uh, finally, I want to mention that I met this week with our great partners at Stride Community Health Clinic. If you're not familiar, we have
a Stride Clinic located on the Alama High School campus. Um, it is open to the public and it serves both children and adults, not just students, um, but all all people in the community. One of the things I learned that was interesting as part of this meeting is
that individuals can usually get the same a same day appointment at the Stride Clinic or be seen within 24 hours. Um, not a long wait to receive care, which is amazing. It is a great resource for our entire community, especially during cold and flu season.
Um, all right. Now, I'm going to switch over. Thank you, Drew, for helping me switch over technology-wise to do a quick tour of some resources on the Jeffco website. As the board requested, I'll walk you through where our public can find information about the efforts
to cultivate an environment of safety and belonging for all students and families, especially for our immigrant families and communities in Jeffco. On the front page of our website, um you'll see a direct link as if you scroll right down to the first team, the family
response service team. When you click that icon, it takes you uh to the first team website and the first purple box that you come to is the immigration frequently asked questions and resources
for students and families. And we want to make sure that people know where this information lies so that they can share it with um those in our community who might need it. When you click on the frequently asked questions and resources, you come to our immigration
uh support page here in Jeffco. You'll find here frequently asked questions um new resources for immigration fam families who are experiencing immigration and for our newcomer students and our guidance for school leaders. Um and then you'll see there's
a lot of information here. there is a a link to the board's resolution in support of belonging and immigration immigrant families um and immigration practices that support our value of belonging. It is uh translated in all of
these languages. In addition, on all of our websites up here, families can find various languages to translate the whole page. For example, this is going now into French. Um we'll go back to English so that we can see. Uh but we also have
the board's resolution translated um for for families. Um and then it also again links to the family response service team where any family can contact the folks on the first team and then be directed to supports that might be available in our schools from our family
ambassadors, family engagement liaison or others in our district who might be able to support them. We have some frequently asked questions. You can see those questions here. If you click on the question, it provides the answer and sometimes additional links for other
resources. Um, one of the things that is often asked is do immigration status affect a student's access to education in Jeffco schools? Um, it does not impact their access. We serve all students who come to Jeffco. Another
question is that's commonly asked is do uh does Jeffco share a student's immigration status with federal immigration officials and the answer is no. Um we do not ask for that information. We do not collect it and we do not share it. And so you can also see
it links here to our policies that are related um to these types of questions. Um in addition to that we have some immigration and newcomer resources around knowing your rights. Um those are also translated here. Um and our family
ambassadors, family engagement leaison, principals, social workers who are in our schools have all of these materials at their fingertips and are using them on a regular basis with our families who are in need. Um we have opportunities here for families to learn about
preparing a personal plan. um community legal resources that they can access if they need some legal support, clothing, food and housing resources, medical youth programming, and what we do as a district to support English language
learners. We have also made public our school leader guidance. It's been in place for a while now. I think in the last few months, we just made this public on our public site instead of our internet, but more of our external website. and it can share uh it shares the guidance we have
provided to school leaders for what to do if a government official arrives at the building. I want to share that there has not been any instance of ICE activity on our school campuses to date, but we are prepared and have trained our
school leaders to understand what to do if something like that were to occur. Um and so that is here for everyone to see as well. Um and then we just have some additional helpful links and resources. Um, and again, the first team really is a main point of contact where we collect
information and then get people routed to the right level of support based on their unique and specific circumstance. Um, so I I just um wanted to make sure that everybody knew we had this robust information available. Um board members,
if you know of families um or school communities that need uh more support with these resources, please let me know and know that these are here for your availability to share with others as well. Um I just want to thank you for allowing me the time to share this important information. I know that this
has been on the top of mind for our staff um our families as well as um community members who care deeply about um the rights and um the supports for our immigrant families. And so I wanted to make sure you knew about this. I also
want to share that last week, thank you to Jespa and JCA who shared feedback with me from our employees that they were wondering about some questions related to the district protocols and guidance. Um, and so I also last week
was able to share an internal memo with all employees just reaffirming our commitment to belonging in Jeffco and making sure that they knew about these resources and the protocols that we have supported our school leaders with. Um, I did receive some gratitude from our association partners for taking that
step and I just want to thank them for providing that feedback to me um, and letting us know that that was on the minds of our employees so that we could be responsive. Um, and thanks to the board for giving me this time. Uh, I look forward to hearing your updates. >> Thank you, Superintendent Dorland. And I
do want to note one of the things you showed up there at the very bottom was links to some of our other district policies. And so it is um you know I get the question often well what if it's not ICE? What if there's someone who's trying to come into our school? And so I just want to reiterate that what you
shared is we do have district policies around entrance into our schools. Um and those are part of our standard district policies that you can access from here. >> They're right here. >> Yep. So I just wanted to add that. Thank you. All right board members, the time is
ours. Um love to open up. We have 30 minutes to share our reports. Who would love to start? I can pick. Director Moian. All right. So, uh, this past month I
attended an FAC meeting. Um, very excited about that upcoming dashboard and having that available to the community. Uh, I've recently gone to Dakota Ridge High School, Powder Horn Elementary School, Ken Carroll Middle School,
Westridge Elementary, Montasauri Peaks, and Summit Ridge Middle School. I've been busy. Um, I thoroughly enjoyed my time at each individual school and I just want to thank them for being such gracious hosts.
Um, so I've been fielding many emails concerning uh the proposed budget reductions and how it's impacting schools as well as concerns concerning, you know, what happens if law enforcement shows up at one of our school buildings. So, Superintendent Dorland, I really appreciate that
presentation. I hope that the community uh finds that information helpful. So, thank you for highlighting that. I want to say that one of the things I recall um back in December when I first joined the board is uh the presentation
regarding the budget, the budget development and that timeline. And one of the things that I recall from that presentation was that uh the intention was to be collaborative. And one of the things we we talk about
often is how a budget is supposed to be a statement of our values. And so I'm concerned about the budget reduction blueprint and what values we are stating as a result of it.
Um and I just wanted to use my board report today to share those and highlight those concerns that I've been raising month after month. Um, the last thing that I want to feel in this situation is that I'm expected to
rubber stamp this budget that I have concerns about. Um, I'm concerned that as a district, we've made it clear that we value safety and security and yet we're cutting ourselves. We're cutting our paras across our schools. The voters were clear when they passed the 2018 MLO
that they wanted that money to go towards mental health supports in our schools. So, I want to make sure we're honoring that promise. I'm concerned that we are making cuts to reach a goal rather than adjusting our expectations at the school level in
order to ensure that we are meeting the broader goals that we have as a board and as a district. I would love to hear from my fellow board members if you feel that this has been a collaborative process. Are you satisfied with the process that's been undertaken to arrive
at these conclusions that we're being presented? Um, would you support directing the central office to work with our partnerships to identify how to streamline processes, identify cuts at the central office? Um, and cuts at our schools that do make sense. Um, so three
things that I I've written down as potential things to consider and I would love to get some feedback and perspective from my fellow board members. Uh number one being I'd love to see some information and numbers to understand what this proposed
budget and cuts look like at the school level. Are we cutting cells across the board at all of our schools or are there just certain schools making cuts? Um are the schools making cuts at various places? Perhaps maybe a bar graph, a pie chart, something with the information
being broken down so we can understand what this decision means at the school level. I'd like to understand how much of the central budget, central office budget was cut since we've identified 30 million in cuts. So that's 30 million of
what? And lastly, I'd like to see some options presented to the board uh in regards to budgets. I'd like to see what option what different options would look like and how they might correlate with the district's values. Since we are passing a deficit budget
this year, I'd like to understand what those budgets might look like if we scaled back cuts or expectations at the school level. Um, particularly those that are receiving that double hit that we talked about last week. And I'd like to understand
what it would look like if we asked our schools to prioritize their cells and mental health supports the way that they prioritize security. I'd like to see an option with bigger cuts to central office as well. That's all I have. Thank you.
Thank you. Who would like to go next? Director Kenworthy. >> So, I have also had lots of conversations about our budget reduction blueprint um with many multiple different audiences and my husband is
even having water cooler convos about the budget. Um my kids are eagerly awaiting news about how school level budget cuts might impact hockey programs that they're interested in. And so our family has had conversations about this and I know the community is also wondering and I want to acknowledge that
the uncertainty about outcomes in the budget reduction process or has been very uncomfortable for our community. I don't think any of us expected that it was going to be easy or um not have an impact on our on our
community. Um and I know that we can do hard things well when we're curious and engaged. So I want to say thank you to every asker of questions for thoughtful engagement and for trying to understand the difficult process that we're undergoing right now. Um
things I did this month is attended DAC where they worked on bylaws and are restructuring the SAT kickoff event at the beginning of the next year. Um using a different structure that might be interesting to the board. They're going to be hosting those meetings by director district. So that gives us an
opportunity to get together with leaders from all of the schools in our director district together at the beginning of the year. And there's also a window of time. So it won't be scheduled on one specific like the whole county all on one day at one time. There'll be a little bit of
flexibility. Um and I wanted to let you all know that. Um, I attended a visit to Green Mountain High School to hear uh, Representative Britney Patterson speak with students and she was kind enough to bring Commissioner Kerr and I into the conversation. And as always, student
questions are my favorite questions. Um, February 19th, we had our legislative check-in with the Jeffco delegation, and it went well. We're deep into policy work around education, and our next scheduled legislative check-in is on March 19th at 8:00 a.m. in the Capitol.
I've met with union liaison, um, participated in two executive sessions, helped plan and lead the board retreat, met with educators, got to read books at Green Gables for Read Across America, and I was absolutely upstaged by three Colorado Mammoth Players in Cat and Hat
Hats. So, when the school board member walks in, you just don't get the same response as a mammoth player, which I'm fine with. I get it. Um, I want to say that I'm grateful for everyone who's helped to encourage literacy across our district by reading.
I know that's a lot of volunteers from a lot of different walks of life. Um, and I've been fascinated also by the folks who've shown up in schools when I read. Um, I just I absolutely adore that program and I'm grateful that our community engages in it. Uh, Jeffco
Schools Foundation Gala. I wanted to lift up the Kendrick Lakes Choir. Um they sang hot chocolate, uh blackbird, defying gravity from Wicked and a jazzy tune with like snapping fingers. So they
had a nice range. Um and I think that was probably was my favorite part of the evening. Um so highly recommend that event. There's lots of good community engagement and watching people bid on things was fascinating.
Yes, >> I know. >> I had a little a little bit of Yeah, that was fun. Um I attended the EAC meeting last night and they have some really exciting work going on there. Affinity group um initiative is getting ready to launch. They talked about
antib-bias training plans, an on the-spot hiring event that was hosted, and um some transitional support meetings for families who will be navigating entering a new school environment. So, um, families that are just entering into pre-K and kindergarten and also at the fifth, you
know, elementary to middle, middle to high school transition. So, um, I'm really grateful that these ideas were shared in the EAC and there's movement. Um, and I just want to acknowledge the folks on that committee for their
authentic engagement. Um, and they're not afraid to have conflict and they share their opinions. um so that we can get to an outcome that everybody can engage in. Uh I also want to mention we're swiftly approaching the end of the year and are about to experience the
race toward the summer once we return from spring break. And I will take us through all of these things. School budget submissions, finishing the legislative session, standardized testing windows, final projects in anticipation of a new school year, promotion and graduation season is both a joy and a very tightly scheduled flash
of time. I just want to give you a nice long on-ramp, my fellow board members, for what happens in May. Um, in order to prepare, I've been reading a book called Hockey Tough with my oldest kid. And it's reminded me once again about how important mindsets are to the success of
an individual, a team, an organization, and a community. And I want to invite all of our community to check in on our mindsets, our internal and external channels that influence our mindsets. It's important to acknowledge and feel tension and emotions and it is also important to release them. It is
important to breathe and refocus as needed. Be mindful of the present moment of what is and is not in our control and to intentionally use each breath in the moment to sustain and feed what is good rather than letting the moment use us in unproductive unproductive ways. Trauma
that is not transformed is transmitted. It gets passed along to others. It's a reminder um for myself and for others in this role. I believe my responsibility is to center what is best in the best interest of our students and to consider how our decisions as a
board impact our students. All of our Jeffco students, every single one of them. And I'd also like to invite all of us, each engaged community member and all the various roles that we each hold to make similar considerations and to differentiate what is in one
individual's or group's best interest and that those individual or group interests may not necessarily align with what is in the best interest of all of our students. If you hear about something or situation that sounds ridiculous, please leave space for doubt, misunderstanding, or misinformation, or lack of information,
and be curious. I like the term trust but verify. Um, second, third, and fourthand information might be flawed. It's the entire premise behind the game of telephone. I believe our district is suffering through a period of time where emotional responses are heightened and that we are
reacting rather than responding. So, to quote Ted Lasso, please find out before you flip out. That does not mean that any of those interests or perspectives are right or wrong, better than, or more important than the other, or should be ignored. And our district works hard to resolve challenges as close to the
location of that challenge as is possible. Resolution does not mean winning and losing. Resolution does not mean solutions manifest in the exact way that one individual demands. Resolution is collaborative. It is informative and it's ultimately all of our collective
responsibility to encourage. Holding student needs and impacts at the center. So I continue to invite all of our community to advocate from a fully informed perspective. holding the considerations of all of our students, all of our beautifully diverse, whole human beings at the center of our
mission as we consider both the joys and successes and the challenges and disappointments that happen across the district every day. And finally, our district equity accountability committee is offering us an opportunity to talk with one another. Uh they're doing a strengthening equity
through community conversation event at Kraton Middle School on April 28th from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. to connect with families. There is a registration uh link and it's up here on the board. Thank you so much. Um it's a time to connect with families, access resources,
gain clarity about equity work in our community in a small group discussion format designed to increase community voice and participation in this ongoing work where we are all building communities of belonging. So that's my report. Thank you very much.
>> Thank you Dr. Maria. >> Great. Thank you. Um, this past month I've had a chance to visit a few schools. I went to, um, Betty Adams Elementary. The principal there is Brie
Moth and their mascot is the Eagles. Um, my visit to Betty Adams was very special because I surprised my niece and nephew. They could not really place me there. It was very funny. Um, also that was the first school I've ever been at that had a um classroom pet, a bearded dragon,
and the kids adored this dragon. They have made him all kinds of things for his tank, and it was very fun to see. Um, at Betty Adams, I saw plenty of learning targets that were clearly posted, scaffolded sentence structures and visual supports. Uh, one of the
grade levels, I think it was fifth grade, was getting ready to go to Young Ammerittown, which if you've ever been, it's an amazing experience. Um, I went with both of my kids and loved every minute of it. I also had the opportunity to visit Slater Elementary School, which
was fun because they are the Gators and my son is at Stanley Lake and they're also the Gators. So, their principal um is Brooke Tolmach. She um took me around the school. I observed really strong classroom instruction with posted learning targets, graphic organizers
that supported student thinking. Um, having a background in cultural linguistic diversity, the school had so many tier one supports that my heart was like literally smiling. I loved every classroom I went there. It was so much fun. Um, Slater recently achieved the
highest math growth scores in the district and they have a really strong partnership with the Jeffco schools Foundation, Kowanas, and Western Union. They give all their second grade students there a free bike which is amazing. Um I was able also able to visit Michl
John Elementary. Their principles Carrie um Carneo and their mascot is the mountain lions which was my elementary school mascot. And um super fun. They have just a really warm culture there. Uh if
any of you were around back in the 80s or 90s, there was a restaurant called The Trail Dust and their their assistant principal has an entire wall of ties like on his wall which reminded me of the Trail Dust. So that is now what I'm
going to remember there. Um we we did get an opportunity to sit down with a student who was reading and I learned that she recently had a loss in her family, a pretty big one. and it was just a reminder that school is a really safe place for these kiddos despite what's happening outside their
classroom. She was able to sit and read to us and point to every word. It was just such heartwarming experience. Um I visited Westwoods Elementary, their principal, Cheryl Clay, they are the wolves. Um they had a really fun cafeteria, lots of beautiful paintings,
murals. um highlight there. The gym teacher was teaching or PE teacher was teaching uh skateboarding during their PE class. So all the kids were out on the blacktop and they all had helmets on and they were just very carefully, some of them had, you know, the shoulder
pads, knee pads, they were all very carefully just pushing their skateboard across the black top. It was so fun to see. Um this school has a lot of opportunities for kids. They also had uh theater they're present their theater group is presenting uh Finding Nemo Jr.
pretty soon here and then they've got a STEM lab with some 3D printers. Um one of the most beautiful stories I heard there was when the power was out in December. Um the principal came to the school early in the morning and everything was out. just everything was down, but the school was lit up and she
said it was just a really safe space for kids to come when their power was out at home for multiple days. So, I thought that was awesome. And then my final school visit this month was to Van Arsdale Elementary. Uh the principal there, Shaylee McDougall, and their
mascot is the Mountaineers. Um they had a really unique uh neighborhood when I drove up. They had some like brand new houses that were just built recently. Then they had like the 1970s neighborhood which looked like mine and then they had like farm houses across
the street. So they had such a unique um community that fed into the school. Um and I think with that she said that they've got a super active PTA which was a really you know good thing to hear in that community. Um the preschool
preschoolers were getting ready for like their wheels unit and so all of them made these little box cars and they were all decorated like some of them were Batman and some of them were like rainbow themed and they were absolutely precious and adorable. Um so that's kind
of the end of my school visit section. Um, I also was able to go to Read Across America Day at Sierra Elementary and I did not have the Mammoth team there, but I we had somebody a weatherman from Fox News there and he was dressed up like
not the Cat and Hat, but I think it was the Horton here's a who. So, the kids were all very interested in him as well. And then uh I was able to attend the Jeffco schools foundation sip and support gayla and all I had was diet coke and I crashed the drone three times. So those drones are very
difficult to fly and when the Drake middle school kids told us what they have to do to win a competition I was very impressed. Those things are hard to fly. Um, finally, uh, the communication that I've been
receiving this month is heavily surrounding this budget reduction blueprint, um, the free horizon monator school. Um, and then again, the Senate bill 26055 came up um, in a few of my emails. Uh, I just want to thank the
listening public and community members who provide us with all of the communications each month. They provide a valuable insight uh into the priorities and concerns that Jeffco families, staff and community members are having and I appreciate the advocacy for our students through these channels.
Um I did write a little bit in response to director Monian's um questions. I would also be interested in seeing that chart uh and see what schools are actually cutting. Um, and I'm also
interested in bringing some different options to the table. One thing I saw during my recent school visits was I heard and even tonight we heard it. I heard from several school leaders who are preparing to reduce positions such as instructional coaches and academic interventionists. And I think these
roles provide targeted support for um students particularly for students who need additional help to reach the grade level expectations. Um I haven't seen in any of the budget discussions any connection to how this is going to
impact um student achievement data and academic success is very closely tied to student well-being. Research shows that students who experience academic success feel competent in their learning and are more likely to report stronger self-esteem, greater school engagement,
and improved mental health outcomes. Um so as we continue the budget reduction blueprint discussions I am interested in seeing some of the um options that might be available to us as well. So thank you
>> Director Given. >> All right. My uh last few weeks was not nearly as exciting or fun as uh Director Kinworthies and director as I did have a couple school visits planned that we had to cancel due to sick principles. So, I'm looking forward to rescheduling those because I very
much enjoy the school visits and hopefully that's a sign we're nearing the end of uh cold and flu season. Knock on knock on wood for that. Um coming up, um I am very excited uh
for next week. Um, next Tuesday the 17th, uh, starting at 5:30 is my town hall at Jefferson Junior Senior. So, I encourage everybody who's not barred by open meeting laws to attend, which is unfortunately most of the people in this room. Um, I'm very much looking forward
to the opportunity to have conversations, um, to hear concerns and actually talk about them. Um, on nights like tonight where we have open comment, I love hearing community concerns, but I'm also frustrated that we really don't have an opportunity to dialogue in this forum. Um, and there's good reasons for that. I think it's it's the right choice
on our part. Um, and yet, um, I'm looking forward to actually having two-way conversations with community members and am hoping for a strong turnout. So, again, that's Tuesday at 5:30, next Tuesday at Jefferson Junior Senior. I'm also excited and have this on my calendar, the ribbon cutting at
Fletcher Miller next Wednesday in the middle of the day. I'm very, very excited to see that. Um, a ton of work has gone into that building and I think it's a great achievement and something that we can all be proud of in Jeffco. Um, I am getting many of I think similar
communications as others. Um, one I do get a lot of communications and have had meetings with members of the community about concerns about um, immigrant families. I very much appreciate the superintendent's report tonight about resources on the website. Um, I think there's a lot that we're doing and I
think we also, um, owe it to ourselves and our community to continue to look and see if there's other ways that we can, um, continue to respond to the present moment. Um, to that end, you know, we discussed at our board retreat ways in which existing policies um, may
be put to use um, to the current challenge in ways that haven't been considered. And given that my work schedule does not allow me to go to some of the gallas, it does allow me to, in fact, it often requires me to stay up late reading laws. So, I have been spending some of my later evenings starting to go through some policies and
seeing um what's there and what's working and what could we apply in a way that we haven't considered. Um, I also am getting lots and lots of emails, um, lots of communication about
the budget reduction, um, how that's beginning to affect buildings as people are now starting to to hear as that process trickles down. Um, also, you know, I'm hearing a lot from our association partners about their concerns in that process. I do appreciate them tonight and their
communications in public comment. I also appreciate um instances where they've reached out to me with their concerns. Um I appreciate their patience while the board um prepares its response in that process and um am hopeful that
we will have a fruitful process moving forward that addresses many of the shared concerns and priorities of both the board and the association. Also with the budget um I do share a lot of director Moanians and director's concerns. Um, in addition to what was
stated, um, I am concerned that at the moment we do not have sufficient flexibility, um, depending on what may occur in the future. Um, whether that's even less of a state contribution than we're anticipating, for example. And so I'm
worried that we need to identify more cost savings um, as far away from the classroom as possible. um that would allow us to have greater flexibility that does not involve um eliminating or reducing positions that are studentf facing that are providing essential services to our students on a daily
basis. Um some of that we've talked about tonight. We've heard conversation, you know, suggestions from community members as well identifying non-essential contracts or services um again that are not um being felt in the classrooms. And then throughout this process, I think that we
also need to engage our community and our association partners in having a better understanding of what other solutions may be possible and also what other solutions may be more palatable. Um, again, we don't get to have as many conversations as I would like and um,
again, I'm excited about that at my town hall and I think we need to do more to engage with conversations in the community both so they understand what's happening but so that we understand their priorities and their concerns. Um, and then in addition, I also share the concerns particularly about the cuts to
cells and as it relates to the 2018 Milvy override. Um there is a perception that we are not maintaining our commitment to the voters that pass that millie override. Um we ignore that at our peril.
And on that cheery note, that is all I have to say tonight. >> Thank you. Um I want to echo um my fellow board members and I do very much appreciate the public comment. um it is a rare
opportunity for folks to come get to talk to us and um in a way where we sit and listen and so um while sometimes it is hard I agree with Director Gibbons to not be able to respond and the the
desire to help um it is incredibly valuable as our email communications that we receive. So I just want to um lift that up. I also got to read at Sierra, which was very fun. Um, and a big thank you to Kayla Lasic, the librarian there, who organized it all. I
was upstaged by a, um, very popular news anchor. It wasn't the weatherman, so I think we were all upstaged. It's quite all right. Um, but it was really fun because the kids got to ask questions at the end of reading. And, um,
my, uh, I I brought two books with me that I got to read. And one of them is Rosie River, engineer. And um I read to first graders and preschoolers and all the first graders were like, "This is the growth mindset book." And I was like, "Yes, children. This is the growth
mindset book." So it was really fun. Um and the the teachers were amazing. So I really appreciate that. The uh I also got to attend the Wheatidge Urban Renewal meeting and got to do some fun school visits. So I got to see Swanson, Serest, Sto, and
Hackberry. um welcomed a new principal at Hackberry. It was really fun to get to meet with him um and see some of our you know just our schools who are doing just really tremendous work. Um I did get to have my town hall. It was uh it was great. I had really good
questions. Um a lot around interestingly choice enrollment um came up quite a bit. Um it was it was a fascinating conversation. We talked about trust. We talked about the budget quite a bit. um property surpluses came up, we had kind
of a a great representation. And one thing that I want to leave with us as something to think about in the future, um you know, we have high school reimagined and we have the magic of middle school. And a very smart elementary teacher said, "When are we going to think about elementary school
reimagined?" and um I appreciated him raising it and you know his point was that elementary school teachers are doing so much and mentioned concerns around burnout and so I just wanted to honor him by saying I'm mentioning it.
We are we're going to talk about it and it's something that we can put on our our list. Um I also want to really thank Miss Harper because um it was a great town hall. She does a lot behind the scenes for us that goes unnoticed and
it's another evening that you're um taking out of your time to support us. So, thank you. Um going through my list, I'm very very excited for next week, which is the Fletcher Miller grand opening. Um ribbon
cutting and I actually ran into a couple teachers outside. We are all humans in the wild after all. And so, um, Jefferson County, you get to run into people. And I asked them how it was going and they said, you know, we're moving. Um, which was a very fair
response, but huge grins because they said the space is amazing. They are so fortunate and they just expressed immense gratitude for that building. So, um, continue to be really excited about it. Um,
I'm going through my notes. We did have our retreat. Um I want to express gratitude to director Kenworthy for the planning and presentation that she did at that. It was really um it was really great. Helped us have good conversations. And um I also just want to kind of
remind all of us that it's it's okay to treat each other with kindness and respect. Um our staff and educators are doing a lot. Our principles are busting their tails right now. And I know it's really hard. Um, but they are they are truly doing like
the the most amazing work for our kids and I see it every time I walk into a school. Um, so I just want to lift that up. Um, I also want to appreciate the comments made by Director Minian and the support. Um, Superintendent Doran, maybe you and I can talk about what what that
could look like and follow up on um, some of the requests that we're hearing from the board tonight. Okay. And I think I'm going to close with that. Um I I also will echo
director Kenworthy's May is coming. Um May is coming. It is the most fun, coolest thing and it's wildness. So um it is a it is a really cool time and hard to believe that it is the middle of March almost.
So, with that, I I just appreciate everyone taking the time to share these board reports. Um, it's a really great way for us to connect, hear what each other's thinking about, and it's um from my point of view, it's helpful to hear. So, with that, we will move into study
session. So, come on down. Our first item of study this evening, the board will receive an update on safety and security from Jeff Pearson, executive director of safety and security and Malina DeAndrea, senior manager of strategic projects
recovery and resiliency. Um board, this is a presentation that we have asked for. Um this actually came from the previous board and a decision was made to wait until y'all had been seated because we felt it was very important for you all to hear this. Um
Mr. Pearson and Miss Deandra, very happy to have you back to talk to us. Looking forward to it. We have allotted 45 minutes for the presentation. Um, and please do include time for us for questions at the end. And before I turn it over to our presenters, Superintendent Dorland, is there anything you'd like to add? Um, thanks to the board for requesting this
presentation and thanks to um our district leaders for being here tonight um late into the evening to provide the update to our board. There we go. I think we're on now. We appreciate your time. Uh tonight, at the request of the board, as we had
indicated, um this is a presentation that's going to provide a general overview of Jeffco school safety and security practices, explain the different safety roles in our schools, including school resource officers, R1 staff, and our campus security team. We're also going to show share a little
bit about our dispatch center, how it operates, and outline the steps taken when a safe to tell report comes in and is received. So, um, we're going to kick off and thank you. I'll let Maline introduce herself real quick. I think you heard from me, but let's let Malina introduce herself and I want you to hear a little bit about her background as
well. >> Good evening. My name is Malina Deandria. I currently serve as the senior manager of strategic projects recovery and resiliency for the Department of School Safety. A little bit about my background. Um, prior to serving in this role, I had the opportunity to serve in emergency management for our district, which meant
I was in buildings every day supporting our schools with skill sets and mindsets to stay safe when bad things happen and supporting our educators and looking at their buildings and um, navigating different things to make sure that they are safe. Prior to that experience, what really got me into this work, um, I actually survived an active shooting
where 12 people were killed, including a responding police officer. And so based off of that experience, I now get the opportunity in my healing journey to travel around the country and speak about what those protective factors in place, part of that experience really were, um what recovery and resiliency has looked like for me in the aftermath.
And what I really love most about that opportunity to travel and speak is that I get to see what other districts across the country are doing and bring back some of those best practices here to Jeffco so we can continue to innovate and grow. Now, with that being said, I'm going to kick it back to Jeff so he can talk about the ecosystem of safety. Before we get into that, I also with our
new board members, I want you to know a little bit about myself as well. Um, this is 18 years in Jeffco was a former high school principal. Go Gators Stanley Lake. I heard that mentioned earlier. Um, have been in the role or in the department for eight years now in school safety. I was able to come over from the
principal's lens and bring just a different mindset and bring kind of the educator lens to the world of safety. my predecessor hired me uh to come in and really kind of build a bridge and begin to really navigate how our building administrators and schools can navigate school safety from both sides of of the
aisle, which means that safety security, that law enforcement lens, but then the educator side. So, we've we've really come a long way. I think we've developed some incredible relationships and I think you're going to hear tonight about some of the incredible work that we're doing here from a school safety lens,
the ecosystem of safety. Safety is a shared responsibility. We have 145 plus school professionals that work together to serve and protect all Jeffgo public schools every single day. All staff, students, and school communities deserve an environment that is welcoming without threats, bullying,
intimidation, and harassment. They deserve that. The core function of our team includes prevention, preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery, training, collaboration with school staff, our amazing law enforcement agencies. But we also engage with our families and community agencies. Daily
operations, campus support, dispatch coordination, event management, investigations, and safety preparedness, supporting all schools, including our charters, which I know is very important, and safety components related to drills, communications, response when issues arise, SRP protocols, training,
and any any other safety issues that arise. The important part is when we talk about the shared responsibility, I think it's just important that you all understand that safety is shared by all. And if there's anything that we can really bring bring home today as we talk
about school safety is the culture of safety is embedded in all of us. It's shared not just from the department of school safety from the administrators and the teachers, but our parents and our community share in those efforts with us. Our comprehensive safety approach focuses on three active protective
areas. Immediate readiness and training, physical security and relational trust, proactive anonymous reporting. I want to start with readiness and training. Our dedicated department of school safety that as I said includes 145 truly dedicated and professionals that uh
includes our law enforcement professionals, educators, they're focused on relentless preparedness because it's one of our beliefs. We have to be prepared for anything. Jeffco uses the Frank D'Angelus Training Center for School Safety, a former elementary school here in Jeffco to ensure that
school resource officers and all school leaders receive hands-on scenario-based training that prepares them to respond quickly and effectively in any emergency. We are actively reviewing and reinforcing these critical safety protocols across every campus to ensure
swift, coordinated action is a consistent and and practiced response in any emergency. Our priority is to keep students and staff safe through clear procedures and ongoing preparation. I want to highlight some of our training programs because I think it's important that you and the community hears. Eight
years ago, when I first came aboard from the principal lens, I asked our our pre my predecessor that we needed to shift and change how we trained administrators. We used to sit in a very large auditorium, all the administrators together as one, and hear about a two
and a half hour presentation. And I'll tell on myself because I believe that's the right thing to do. At times I would sit in that audience and I would use my computer to do emails and I probably didn't pay attention like I should have. We shift that mindset. We now train our administrators in much smaller
environments. We train them at their level and we give them three hours mandatory training supported by our superintendent to ensure that every administrator goes through a mandatory academy where they're going to get training not only about key concepts, important safety aspects for the year um
but they also get 90 minutes of training with our judicial services team around threat assessments, threat management, behavior recognition. In addition to that, we take them through tabletop scenarios. We've learned for a long time that the best way to learn is to put people in front of a tabletop and allow
them to engage in the work and think through scenarios of what were this what would happen, how would I navigate this, how would I lead through a scenario if it were to happen at my school. We take them through a number of those scenarios. They do that with our team, R1, our patrol officers and oftentimes
law enforcement sitting at those tables. That way the engagement is you're not doing this work alone. when we come and partner with you, they're able to engage through those tabletop scenarios with them. We've also expanded our specialty trainings and this also has expanded over the last three years. We now have
had a chance to train our custodial teams, transportation, front office staff. We've worked with PARS um and have have gained so much more access to be in front of more groups to give them this critical training to build that consistency across our district. There's a school safety checklist that's so
imperative and important that our emergency management and Malena's work when she was in that group put together. It gives principles a checklist of everything that they're they're supposed to do around when do I plan my drills, what do my drills look like, who is my incident command team on site. All of the checklist develops is any incident
that comes up, it's going to be a checklist of things and ideas and accountability for them to know that they're doing exactly what they needed to do to to stay accountable um should any event occur at their school. Next, I want to move to physical security and our relational trust.
This might be the most important component and maybe might be the most important thing I say tonight. While physical security enhancements such as our saf safer school entrances, vestibules as they're known, was funded through the 2018 bond measure, those are
all necessary. The most vital layer of defense is the culture built within our school buildings. And I'll say that again, the culture, as I said earlier, it's the most important component that we can build that is going to keep our schools extremely safe. We are proud of
our strong collaborative approach with our seven different law enforcement agencies. Excuse me. These trusted professionals build positive relationships with students and staff. They serve as mentors and provide a critical resource for identifying and addressing safety concerns, helping to
ensure a secure environment for all. We're committed to knowing our students by name, strength, and need. This focus on positive connections and trust remains our strongest link to safety. It's embedded in our work as leaders. Knowing our students by name, strength,
and need is something that we put into everything we do. It's in our goals. It's in every presentation. We have a leadership academy within our department and it's the number one thing we talk about is how we connect with kids every single day. It's the number one component to keeping kids safe. We believe it. We know our superintendent
and our executive team believes it and we believe it's our duty to share that and share that it's embedded in our work every single day. I can't say enough about the amazing of the amazing law enforcement agencies that we're able to work with. We work with seven and if you can imagine oftentimes pleasing seven
different agencies that might have a little bit understanding of how things work can be difficult but we have built amazing relationships amazing trust with them we meet with the SRO supervisors quarterly um we talk about things that are improving where some of the the issues are or there gaps or there's
things we want to work on it has been so so the trust has built to the point where we are part of their team and they're part of our team there's no longer this gap of well it's us versus do. We are now cohesive and unified in all of our work. I'm going to turn it over to Malena now.
>> Great. So, now we're going to watch a short video that outlines the different rules within the Department of School Safety before we go into more detail. I apologize. It looks like the video is not queuing up. You know what? Um, we can speak through
it. Oh, Drew's got it. Go ahead. >> Show me yet. Jefferson Senior, no status check, please. >> The duty to protect. If if you were to take a look at everything we do, it's around the duty to protect 24/7 all day
long for all of our kids. We have a community that demands that we have a gold standard for school safety. And we have a training academy for all administrators. It's mandatory. They all have to go through it. We take them through a training so they're prepared and ready should anything come our way. We want to make sure that our kids and
our environments are emergency prepared, not emergency scared. And so we believe strongly in preparation, preparation for any event. What would this look like should it happen on your site? We are so fortunate to have the team and the support that we have here in Jeffco to
take care of our schools and to make sure our schools are very safe environments. And camp security is our campus team that basically works our secondary schools. Their main job is to provide a safe environment. They're often going to be the ones that kids trust the most in the building.
I'm sure when it comes to that second building they handle all the drills and it's raining or sorry you very very quickly the ones that go out and show not only the kids but some of the issues that
came through the drill where the doors have been locked parts of the building that we need to look at from the scope of safety. Well, when it comes to safety and respond to any comes up, they call dispatch they see. We do control
kids to parents classrooms monitoring our schools dispatch dispatches amazing individuals who take all the calls. It's thousands and thousands of calls every single year. It's an amazing robust group that helps
monitor all the cameras came across the district. We monitor monitor systems. So control. Now, with that overview, we're going to go into more details specifically on first three roles. um we were asked to
speak to the difference between our R1 officer, our school resource officers, and our campus supervisors. So, as we pull up, um this first slide is going to show a side-by-side comparison of these three different positions. And it's going to detail specifically who employs
these individuals, how they are funded, their armed status, um their postcertification, or if they are sworn law enforcement officers, and the locations they are at. So, we can go to slide nine. There we go. Thank you. Uh, so with that being said, we're going to go into more
detail on each of these specific positions on the slides to follow, but I will um briefly highlight our R1 officers are Jeffco employees. They are funded 100% by Jeffco. They are armed and they are trained at the same level as postcertified officer officers even
though they are not sworn. Um they move across locations in the district and proactively respond to calls for patrols at our campuses and facilities. Our SRO's or school resource officers are sworn law enforcement officers. They are employed by our law enforcement agencies. They are funded 50% by Jeffco
and 50% by our law enforcement agencies. They are armed. They are postcertified and sworn law enforcement officers. And they are primarily stationed at our secondary school sites, but they may be called into the community for policing needs as necessary. Last, our campus supervisors. These are
full Jeffco employees. They're funded 100% by Jeffco. They are unarmed and highly trained in support, deescalation, first aid, cameras, many other things we'll talk about in more detail on the slides to come. And they are 100% dedicated to the secondary site that
they work at. Now, as we move on, our school resource officers here in Jeffco. Our school resource officers are law enforcement employees. Uh we have 35 sworn specially trained law enforcement officers. They are stationed at Jeffco
schools. Their training typically includes adolescent development, deescalation and conflict resolution, trauma-informed practices, school law and student privacy, behavioral threat assessment, crisis intervention and coordination with school mental health teams. Additionally, they serve as
informal mentors and counselors. This is so crucial to the work that they do in our buildings every day. They provide classroom instruction when initved, attend extracurricular events when able, and when necessary, perform law enforcement duties at that school site. Um, our law enforcement partners, our ESRO's focus on law enforcement,
prevention, education, and community policing within and around the schools. They're primarily located at Jeffco's middle and high schools. Now, as we move on to our campus supervisors, these are Jeco employees. They we have a
group of highly trained, unarmed um 97 members in our campus supervisor team. They monitor our middle and high school buildings, the grounds, and the surrounding areas for safety and security concerns. Additionally, they coordinate safety and security efforts with district personnel, public safety
service providers, and the community. They enforce school and district rules. They monitor student behavior outside of the classroom, and identify and implement intervention strategies while maintaining confidentiality in accordance with district policies. They're often that first connection for kids in the building, and these
relationships cannot be understated how crucial they are. They support deescalation strategies, first aid, CPR, camera and intel analytics, drug and alcohol recognition, searches, and so much more. They also assist in clarifying our emergency response
protocols. So that's hold, secure, lock down, shelter, and evacuate. All Jefco high schools have a campus supervisor on site, as do more than half of our middle schools. Our goal is to expand the camp supervisor position across all of our middle school campuses. Now to the last group in that
group of three, we are talking about our R1 armed patrol officers. So these are Jeffco employees and we have 27 roaming armed district safety staff. So these are trained for higher level interventions at our schools. They're trained at the same
level and standards as post-certified officers. Even though they're not sworn officers, they proactively and responsively patrol campuses and facilities to help keep students and staff and visitors safe and to protect buildings and property. They respond to credible threats, assist in searches for
weapons and coordinate with law enforcement when necessary. They're trained in verbal deescalation, um, and they handle situations ranging from minor policy issues to rare life-threatening emergencies. We have two schools that have stationary R1 armed patrol officers, and that's
Evergreen High School and MLAN Community School. Now, we also want to talk about the other roles within the Department of School Safety. So, we just touched on our R1 armed patrol officers. They work inside and outside of our schools. We also have an incredible dispatch center, which we're going to go into more detail
in just a second on the slide to follow, but that's really our central communication hub that ensures real-time coordination between schools, law enforcement, and emergency services. We have an emergency management team. This is the team that I came from. They lead preparedness and planning, drills, crisis response coordination, and they
collaborate directly with the county's emergency management team and other regional partners. We have our campus safety coordinators. This team um really is a liazison role that's connecting with those campus supervisors at the school site, administration team um and
they really provide coaching, accountability, and integrated safety support for administrators and the on-site team. And last we have our judicial services and behavioral threat assessment team. This team now serves um as a part of the member the department of family community partnerships but they provide a cross-disciplinary
approach integrating educators, counselors, law enforcement and mental health professionals and they engage families in early interventions and ongoing support. Now with that we're going to dive into more detail on our dispatch center. Our dispatch center each year really handles thousands of
calls, monitors cameras and fire alarms and serves as a first-line response to keep Jefco schools safe. We have a newly renovated state space we're very excited about. It serves as a home to Jeffcoal communication hub ensuring real-time coordination between schools, law enforcement, and emergency services. We
received over a million dollars in grant um and other external support to be able to renovate this space. We're very excited about it. So, now we're going to show you a video that details that renovation and what that new space looks like in more detail before we jump into our last pillar. >> Dream bigger and sleep better at the
living space and sleep center where you can enjoy more space for less with our king for a queen off. >> It's due to a student with a possible allergic reaction. Phone notes state that the EpiPen was given at 9:58. The old center was a fraction of the size.
We had three total stations. Now we have seven stations. >> Jeffco public schools has unveiled a major upgrade to its emergency dispatch center, enhancing safety for students across the district. >> At the heart of this upgrade is cutting
edge technology that dramatically speeds up emergency communication and response with our computerated dispatch um our CAD. Um, we have interoperability with JeffcomCom 911. It gives us the ability in an instant to drop a call to law
enforcement or vice versa. What would usually take um, you know, matters of minutes to communicate stuff is now happening instantaneous. >> The expanded facility also prioritizes dispatcher comfort and well-being, creating a more effective working environment.
>> Moved everything to LED and got away from the old fluorescent bulbs. They can temperature control. they can set their station up ergonomically. >> These improvements acknowledge the demanding nature of dispatch work. >> All of the sudden an emergency will happen and everybody needs to be focused
and ready, being present, making sure the work is swift and accurate as possible. >> The emergency dispatch center provides comprehensive monitoring of facilities throughout the district. We support every school that has students in it. We're also monitoring our stadiums for
sporting events. We have officers that are stationed at different places. And so we support the district in every capacity. Investment in this upgrade reflects Jeffco's commitment to creating safe learning environments where students can thrive.
>> We're operating 24/7 365. Good. >> I'll put it in that she went back to class. Thank you for everything. All right. Take care. Bye. Okay, as we dive in, I want to talk next about um our third pillar, which is proactive anonymous reporting. Student safety is a shared
responsibility as continues to be our theme. Taking the collaboration of families, law enforcement, mental health specialists, educators, and students working together in Jeffo. We teach if you see something, say something. We believe and our students have really
shown this and and our students and I'm going to talk about safe to tell here in a moment, but our students really have have adequately really gone above and beyond to say if you see something, say something. We believe here in the district and we embed this as well. If you say it, you tweet it, you put it on social media, someone overhears you
saying it, you write it, whatever the form you bring that communication forward, we're going to believe you. You remember in the old days, at least I do, it used to be, well, that's the pastor's son. that's so and so. They would never do that. Well, today we take everything as a belief and then we put resources
and plans in place to navigate what was said so that we can work towards providing an opportunities to support whatever student was involved. As I go into safe to tell um two really important um data points that safe to tell has provided us and these are
really key. According to the US Secret Service, 81% of the time a violent act occurs in school property, at least one student had prior knowledge of the event, but failed to report it. Students must learn the importance of taking every threat seriously and reporting in
a way that keeps them safe. Second, 93% of all school violence cases studied indicated the person who knew prior to the incident happening was a peer, a friend, a schoolmate, or a sibling. So really close really close to the individual
that that perpetrated and here in Jeffco when I think about safe to tell safe to tell is a Colorado program and we in Jeffco use it more than any other district across the state. I can guarantee you that because I get all the safe to tells and our students and our our communities use it tremendously.
Yes, there's some overuse. There's some misuse, but for the most part, the Safe to Tell program is an amazing tip program for us to navigate any type of threat or self harm or any issues that come about. I want to talk a little bit about when a tip comes in, what happens
to that tip. In Jeffco, there's a number of individuals that receive the tips through email. our community superintendents, our school administrative teams, law enforcement in our security division, our executive admin, campus security if they're out at the individual site, our dispatch team
and patrol, our legal services, student services, and HR. If it's a general tip about a school or a student or something in a building, all of those individuals receive the tip. Everybody in there sees it. And those that see it and can navigate and say this is my
responsibility whether it's a administration community soup they will then navigate that tip investigate and do what's necessarily needed to investigate the tip fully at some point there there's a disposition that gets filled out by the individual that report
that investigates the tip. What I love about our law enforcement agencies is oftentimes we see tips come through after hours even during school hours that may involve a threat or self harm. All of our law enforcement agencies uh go out and do what we call welfare checks on our students. If it's a
threat, they'll do a welfare check with parents. They'll check for weapons. If it's a self harm, they'll check and make sure the student's okay. That information is then shared back to our dispatch team. And then we share that with our schools. If it was a potential threat, our team will go out the next morning, be on site in the morning with
the administrators just to help navigate should there be any issues from the night before. If it's self harm, our principles and our mental health teams know about it so that when that student shows up, they can navigate and engage with that student and find out what ways can we support and help you um through whatever self harm was reported. Now, we
know that a lot of times these are unfounded tips, but it's important that you know we go out on every tip, we report on every tip, and there's a disposition completed for every single tip that comes through, no matter if it's accurate or not.
response to threats. Malina mentioned it earlier, but our standard response protocol. This was developed by the I love you guys foundation and came from the unfortunate um loss of Emily Keys at Plaque Canyon. Her mother and father developed this foundation and the I love
you guys is the last tweet that she sent to her parents that said, "I love you guys." And so this foundation has been amazing. and it's now used in 70,000 plus schools across the USA and Canada. But it gives our schools and anybody
involved a really specific um uh actions and directives that keeps everyone's in the school safe during any type of incident. The SRP uses uniform specific language and as you can see some key indicators shared with students, staff, responders and families.
Our schools are mandated to do do two two drills a year. We do our lockdown drills in the first semester fall and they have another drill that they're that they need to do sometime in the spring. Our emergency management team, they go out and help support all of those drills. But we can allow our schools to navigate when are we going to
do those drills? And one of the things I want to point out is we all know that unfortunately tragedy and events don't happen at the most unique times. Well, guess what we did? Even when I was a principal, we always scheduled our drills the most convenient time for us,
right? What's the easiest way for us to schedule our drills? We have pushed our principles and our schools in the last year and a half to try something new, to get outside of their comfort zone and establish drills outside of the comfort zone. Do it during a lunch period. Do it
do it during a passing period, a time when it's chaos because we all know events happen at the worst time of the day. And so our schools have really taken our our our advice and have really have begun to do a lot more um events with us and drills outside of their normal comfort zone, which we think has
been a a big value ad for us. I'm going to turn it back over to Malina for our last couple slides. >> In the interest of time, as we talk about our emergency plan, um just high level, our plan covers those five areas: response, recovery, prevention,
mitation, and preparedness and we'll be happy to go in more detail, but we want to leave time for questions and be cognizant of that. >> And last but not least, our website details what families should do in an emergency. Um, we have specific steps for family and community members to follow in that emergency situation. And
there's a lot of detail on that website. So, I encourage family and community to go check out that school safety website. It's got a lot of resources for them. Now, with that being said, um, we are happy to take any questions you all have. We make caution of your time and give that opportunity.
Thank you very much. Board members questions. I've got a couple earlier in the presentation when you're describing kind of the roles and qualifications. I'm looking at slide nine. Um so with an R1 officer, you talked
about how they're trained at the same level in standards as post-certified officers, but of course they're not sworn officers. Um, could you just talk a little more about what that means in terms of the type of training they're getting, how that relates to postcertification even though they they are not sworn officers? Also, what
differences, if any, are there between what an aran officer would go through versus what a sworn law enforcement officer would go through in their training? >> The most important function is that law enforcement goes through a nine-week nine-week full training
academy. That's the one component that our team does not go through. I think it's also important to highlight that over 70% of our current R1 patrol team is either former law enforcement or military, which means they've gone through that training. Many of them have
been post-certified for many, many years. We just add that additional component. Post-certification means that twice, and with our team, it's three times a year they qualify and go up to the range and they do their their their postcertification. They also do PPCT which is the arm training for for
handcuffs for uh protecting your weapon. They go through that training in addition three times a year as well. So all those components that law enforcement goes through outside of the actual training academy all of our officers go through periodically three times a year. >> Also our armed patrol team goes through
single officer response to active shooter training. >> Thank you. Our armed patrol team goes through single officer response to an active shooter training. They go through rapid immediate deployment training. Um the rescue task force training. So some of those crisis training that our law
enforcement partners, our team has been very intentional about making sure if there is crisis training, our team is also receiving it. So we can work handinand in emergency situations with our partners. There's not a training gap there. They have the same skill set and can respond if needed, if our schools need that support.
I will add one more thing that the training company that that uh does all the training for us um they are both current commanders and a former deputy chief that runs all that tactical training for our teams. Then my other question and you know this is an issue I I occasionally hear about
you know just a general concern from members of the community. So it's not in those specific instances but in certain certain populations there's concerns about um you know a risk that presence of law enforcement particularly SRO's can sometimes cause disciplinary issues to
become criminal issues. Um, I don't think that's necessarily a big problem, Jeffco, but I am personally aware of that being a bigger problem in other districts. But I wonder if you could just speak to how you navigate relationships with law enforcement and how you work on making sure that things that could be viewed criminally but are
maybe better thought of as disciplinary issues, how that's handled, particularly in relation to law enforcement and judicial concerns. I'll start and I think Maline has got some great information on this, but I want to start by saying the trust that we've established and the communication
we have with not only the chiefs but the commanders and the sergeants of our SRO. We've embedded the work to understand what does the relationship look like? What are the goals of the SRO program? And how does it relate to not only keeping kids safe, but the mentoring of
kids and supporting kids every single day? That trust has been so significant. Our SRO's are part of the community. They're part of our staff. They're not just an outside entity that happens to sit in a office and is only called upon when there's a legal issue. They're at
games. They're high-fiving kids. They're eating lunch with kids or out front. Parents are inquiring with them. So, that the navigation of that work around mentorship, I believe, has had the negative the reverse effect. and our law enforcement officers actually help support and try and navigate kids away
from some of the potential negative things that may they may um finding themselves in from a mentoring lens. So I think in Jeffco we've kind of shifted away from that a little bit because of the relationship that we've established in our schools with those groups >> and one of our partner law enforcement
agencies um actually in response to this concern with the community started tracking just informally what those interactions looked like and what we've seen overwhelmingly from that data is that the majority of interactions our school resource officers are having with students is mentorship opportunities. It's positive interactions with kids
where we are giving them that great opportunity to have a friendly interaction or a supportive interaction with someone with a badge who's there to protect them. Overwhelmingly, data is showing that is the interaction that students are having with our SRO's. >> I thought I had two, but I have a third one, but I promise this is my last one.
Um, but it's a hard one. You know, we're all still dealing with the terrible events of last September. Um, I'd like to hear your thoughts on what do you think went well in the response to that crisis and what do you think could have gone better and then additionally
particularly in terms of what could have gone better are there things that this board needs to be doing to better support that work. >> Yeah, extremely difficult question. Um, as as I think you heard in our presentation, we are we are very proud
of the preparation and the things that we put our not only our staffs through but our kids to prepare for any potential situation that may come our way. Unfortunately, we're always going to find some type of a gap or a step where something um we
didn't we didn't key on or something that we don't have a 100% hold on. And you know, part of preparation is understanding that we need to do everything we can should the event come our way to take care of ourselves, those next to us, and our buildings. And I do
believe we do an amazing job of that. I think you're hearing a lot of requests around physical security needs. I you know we we're talking about some physi physical security upgrades that I think a lot of are asking about but as I said before one of the most important things that we can do and for I think you as a
board to continue to support our superintendent on is understanding the need of culture of psychological safety for our kids we can put all the physical nature all the physical presence that we can in in in in our sites and make them fortified it's the internal component of
kids and the see something say something the psychological understanding that kids feel welcome, they're known by name, strength, and need, and that we know who they are, and they feel like they belong. That's where the majority of our resources and our work needs to be done because that's where we keep our cultures really safe.
Uh, what I will also just add is that as someone who is in buildings doing drills every day for four years, I want to commend the Evergreen High School staff and students for the incredible job they did with following protocol and getting safe in an incredibly difficult
situation. And personally, as someone who is navigating an active shooting, I have the deepest compassion for the recovery journey that the school is on. I would never try to compare um my experience to theirs as it's apples to oranges. That's trauma is never comparable. Um but I do think the
community is rallying together in a very beautiful way and they're supporting one another in that process and I it's been a gift to be able to watch them take that step in recovery. >> I I might add um just to because it does link a little bit to some of what we heard in public comment. Um, this
district has never had a centralized refresh for some basic safety and security um, technology kind of investments. Um, so we have had PTAs purchase radios. You
heard it tonight in public comment. We have had PTAs contribute to camera upgrades. We do have every school has sort of a baseline of what we believe is important and um each district kind of has their own sort of like standard for
what what what is what does each school get for cameras and what does each school get for radios and things like that. Uh one of the things we are working on is a centralized refresh program. Um because I agree that PTAs and parents should not be funding these
kinds of basic needs for schools. Um, and we're we're also just trying to work through like the camera's still working, but the internet upgrades for it are not what our IT team would want in terms of a standard and there's risk there with say with sort of like just hacking and I
mean, you know, it's all these different sort of variables and risk analysis that you have to go through. Um for next year as we work on our um capital uh reserve budget uh we have carved out
a small portion to be able to centralize some of the highest needs that come our way related to some of these basic safety um investments so that schools aren't taking that from their SBBS. Um, and last year this board made a decision to defer 15 million of our cap reserve
transfer. And this board is going to need to discuss that as you go into next year's budget, especially if we're going to revisit some of the reductions that we have been discussing. And so, um, the honest truth is that there's a lot
of needs. We don't have enough resources to meet them all. And this board is going to need to be making some very difficult decisions as this budget for next year comes up. Um, and the the fewer reductions we take this year, the harder next year's budget's going to be. Um, and so I just want to I just want to
say that the balance of what you consider when you think about next year's budget needs to include all kinds of different things as we've discussed, right? I mean, everything we've talked about in terms of reductions that are
impacting schools are really difficult decisions to make and shouldn't have to be being made. they shouldn't. Um, and there are areas of investment that are basic needs that we're not making right now and can't make because we don't have
things like the capital funds to be able to do so. And so just trying to paint a broad picture for the board and want you all one of the things I could use from you to your to answer your question, Director Gibbons, is a
real consideration of the big picture. um because there are many areas where we're investing, you know, no no central funds right now and schools are asking us to um and that's an example of one. Thank you. Um other board member
questions. >> Dr. Veria, >> I'm just trying to understand the D'Angelo Center a little bit in more detail. Um, do they work with all seven jurisdictions in Jeffco or are there other jurisdictions they work with?
>> They're a foundation and they work with um metro agencies across the entire metro area. The FBI has trained there. The Navy Seals have been there. There's agencies that come from rural neighborhoods um all the way from southern Colorado to northern Colorado. Even had some Wyoming teams that have come in. It's a training facility unique
in the area that is one of a kind and the foundation um has a grant that they use from the state that allows trainers to come in and train them on single officer response and raid, but then agencies can reserve it and come in and just do tactical training in there. So, it gets used pretty much every day by
multiple agencies across the entire state. If I could add a little bit there, they also offer training for civilians. So, there's deescalation training. It's free. There's a like it's it's the most it's amazing. It's a phenomenal resource in Jeffco. And if I
may, in the past, the board has gone to visit and get a tour and even a demonstration. And I will warn you, it is emotional, but it is eyeopening. Um, and so I did want to ask if the board would be interested in us scheduling a visit. It's um it's phenomenal. So, Mr.
Pearson, if I could work with you to and Miss Harper to figure that out. >> We'll take care of that. Yes. >> Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. It's it's it's incredible. >> Thank you. Um I lost my train of
thought. Um Okay. So, when you bring principles in to train, do you actually provide them with on-site training in their own school where they get to do walkthroughs and see kind of points of entrance and
exit and all of that with principles in their own schools? >> Yeah, that's a great question. So, when a new principal or a principal comes to a new building here in Jeffco, we do a specific sitewalk with them. So, if they're in a new building, we're going to walk through, show them all their emergency shut offs, how their systems
work, what our protocols look like in their building. Um, if they are a current Jeffco employee, but they're going to a new building, we're going to do the same walk. So, every leadership team has that understanding of their site. Um, and that is consistent across every summer. When we bring them all together as a group, that is more
scenario-based training. So, we're talking about overarching issues. We're taking scenarios and walking them through that decision-making so they can learn from themselves um their teams and one another about how to navigate along with our team in partnership. And so yes, they get that sitebased support and they get that more centralized
scenario-based support. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else? Director Kenworthy, I want to say thank you. Um when I joined the board two years ago, I did not have any idea about the ecosystem
that existed in Jefferson County. Um and through your presentations and your toutelage, I have learned quite a lot. Um and I want to say how grateful I am for both of you and your work and your advocacy. Um, I know that at times the
public may not fully understand the amount of work that goes into um, keeping our buildings and our community safe at in Jeffco School District. And um over the two years, I
still don't think I fully understand, but um I I feel confident that we are addressing safety and concerns uh in a way that is much more nuanced and thoughtful than many other school
districts. And so I want to thank you for your leadership and for your continued advocacy. Um, I think the work that you do is phenomenal. So, thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Director Moanian. >> So, I want to circle back to something
that you shared um about the culture in our buildings is so crucial in ensuring safety in our buildings. And I'm just curious, what other staff employees at the local site, at the school buildings
do you guys work with, interact with, coordinate with on a daily basis? >> Our teams interact with just about every aspect of the of the district. Um, at the executive level, we often are are interacting with with community superintendents often and our executive
team, our campus supervisors interact daily with every aspect from custodial teams to our kitchen management group um to parents that are dropping off to our paras because they're in and out of out of buildings or in and out of classrooms every single day. When I talked about
that uh specialized training that we do, we've been able to get in front of more groups. We've wanted to consistently approach and have a consistent expectation for safety. And the more groups we can be in front of, the same message is heard over and over. And that message being about you're a big part of
keeping kids safe. You are the person that helps kids know name, strength, and need. Getting to know kids, ensuring that you're a trusted adult in a situation where kids can come to you and say, "I just saw something or I need to report something." And allowing all of those individuals across the system to be a part of that. Our teams do an
amazing job of just trying to interact with everybody on a daily basis. Our executive team may not be in the buildings as much connecting with those groups, but I can guarantee you our patrol team and our campus security team does it every single day. >> Thank you.
>> Anything else? >> I offer want to just offer I also Sorry guys, it's late. We really appreciate you. Um, this work is hard work and I want to lift up just a few things you shared in the video that you mentioned, but it it's truly different when you
stand there and and see these things in real life. And so the dispatch center is another thing that um seems pretty cool, but really is impactful for the way that we as a district can respond to things. These folks used to work in a
tiny little space with tiny screens and now you saw those really cool control centers and it's um to hear them talk about how excited they were for that was was really eye opening for me personally in this role. Um I also want to
highlight that we share calls with our law enforcement. So when something happens you all are in direct communication with law enforcement with R1 and that is something that I don't think a lot of folks actually understand. Can you speak a little bit to that? I forget the name of the system. >> Yeah, the the CAD system, it's the
interoperability that we have. So, in other words, when CAD or our team drops a call into the call notes, we have interoperability with all of our law enforcement through Jeffcom 911. The only group we don't have interoperability with is Westminster because they're on a different system. But all of our other agencies, they're
on Jeffcom 911. And therefore, if law enforcement drops a CAD call and it it involves a school and we have notes, those notes go into the same CAD that we can read their notes and they can read ours. That way, there doesn't have to be that secondary call to call law enforcement saying, "Hey, we've got this
issue." They automatically see our notes and we see theirs. So, if they're maybe they're headed to a call that they got from a parent at a building and we hadn't gotten the call, we see their notes. We can respond and we can send, you know, our team R1 to that just by reading those interoperable notes. That has been a big win. That's another trust
factor that does not happen in other districts. The fact that we have that interoperability is a big win for us to just stay in not only consistent with the work, but it speeds up any time that we're responding to any type of an event. >> Thank you. Um I appreciate Superintendent Durlet your comment. One
of my questions was going to be I knew we were working towards kind of what is the baseline expectation of safety equipment across all of our schools and I know that's something we are working in. I'm excited for that work. I think that's the right work to do. I also appreciate the recognition and mention
of culture and belonging and how that does play into safety. Um I think that is critically important. Um as is safe to tell. Safe to tell is really a tremendous tool and often um one of the
first things I suggest when people are struggling with something is the first team or safe to tell. And so it's just a really tremendous resource for us to be able to um keep a pulse on what's going on. I also just want to speak to drills because again you talk about it very you
know high level but it makes such a difference in our schools and as someone who has kids of a whole bunch of ages who have seen kind of the whole um life cycle of how we've treated drills. It's uh
it's really fascinating when your kids go through one. Um my kids school had an accidental push and they went into what they thought was a real lockdown situation and talking to my kids that night and hearing the they knew just what to do. I heard from dispatch right
away that they responded great. The kids knew what to do. The teachers knew what to do and it was of course during lunchtime. Um, and so I know these drills are hard and I I hear from parents like, man, do we really have to be doing these drills? Um, because it it can be really triggering, but um, I
firmly believe they save lives. So, I just want to highlight that as well as a parent who also has kids go through them and we have to have those conversations at dinner about why we're doing them. Um, and I just want to recognize that, um, again, little bit in the video, but
our R1 officers are also at sporting events. Um, that's something that's really important as a parent of a now graduated high school student. Um, my kindergarten aged daughter took a pretty big spill at a
high school lacrosse game and the first people there to tend to her was R1. Um, and it's a it's a pretty amazing thing to see the way they care for all people. They were there. I I wouldn't have even pointed them out and then all of a sudden they all kind of came together
because they heard a little girl crying. So, um, these are really amazing humans and doing a lot of really incredible work in our schools. So, appreciate you all for coming. Thank you for taking the time tonight on a topic that is really important to our community.
>> Thank you. Thank you. >> Okay, for our final item of study this evening, the board will receive the 2526 second quarter financial report from Miss Brena Copeland, our chief financial officer, and Miss Shaen Rosario, our executive director of finance planning
analysis. Welcome. We have allotted 60 minutes for this presentation and ask that you please reserve time at the end for board questions before I turn it over to our esteemed presenters who I want to say thank you for staying with us for this late hour. We very much appreciate it. Um, Superintendent Dorland, is there
anything you'd like to add? >> Not too much because I know it's getting late and I want to make sure the board gets home on a decent hour. Um, I do want to just highlight that this is second quarter. I want to emphasize that we're well into third quarter spending right now. So this is a look back at
second quarter. Um and I know that um Mr. Rosario and and Miss Copeland will kind of guide you through that as they talk through the numbers uh because they they look different today than what this report shows right in real time. Um but it is important that we quarterly monitor and report out to the board. Uh
so this is second quarter and with that uh Miss Copeland, I'm handing it to you. >> Great. Um, so a tiny bit of context about what you might expect to see and how this information is useful in your budget adoption process. Um, when you
were asked to approve a revised budget in January, the data and information available to my team in order to produce that budget recommendation was actuals through October. What you're about to see is actuals
through December. So part of the value of this report is that it either does or does not validate the projections we use to generate the revised budget. As you know at the revised budget uh we had to decrease our forecasted revenue and
increase our forecasted expense because of the way that actuals were trending. And so you should see a little bit of that although both were relatively small in terms of a percentage amount. You should see a little bit of that in this report. This is the last major quarterly
report you will receive before um you get the proposed budget in May. This is you will get a third quarter report, but it'll be after the proposed budget. So, this is your last chance to pressure test some of the trending
actuals before that proposed budget comes out in May. So, with that um information about how you might find this useful and how you might want to approach it, I'm going to turn it over to Miss Rosario.
>> Great. Thank you for having me. Uh Miss Copeland covered this, but just to reiterate, this is for our actual activity July 1st through December 31st, 2025. It's unudituded and it is um you'll see throughout the presentation it does show consistent analysis to what
we provided to the board of education in January as part of that revised budget present. Key takeaways uh the general fund revenues are tracking in line with prior years. There always is timing differences between receipts and expenditures that make uh the second
quarter financial spendown look larger than uh it will be in as we get into third and fourth quarter. So just keep that in mind. We'll touch on it as we get to general fund. Capital reserve fund expenditures are below last year's, but keep in mind we also decreased that
transfer in. So we did have to make some adjustments for the expenses within that fund this year. We still anticipate a planned fund spendown of almost $30 million within that fund. We have some staffing adjustments that lowered expenditures both in food services and child care funds relative to last year's
benchmark. and there were changes to our um employee health insurance plans that's driven both revenue and expenditures in that fund to trend below budget. However, the expenditures haven't decreased enough to offset the revenue decline. So, you'll see that there is a net deficit in that fund of
2.4 million. So, those are your key takeaways that I'll cover in the next few slides. general fund. As I mentioned, the actual revenue is lower than 50% of the budget, but this is largely due to the timing of property tax receipts. We really see those start picking up in March. So,
when you see the third quarter financials, you'll see that revenue um bar growing more rapidly and starting to catch up with the budget bar. Um I should have started with grounding in what the uh graph looks graph is on all of these slides. So you'll always see a
graph on the right hand of the slide. The orange bar is the fullear budget for FY26. The green bar is our actuals year to date through second quarter. And then the gray bar is prior year through the same second quarter of last year. Um the
first three are going to be revenue. The last three are going to be expense. And anywhere you see a hatched mark on top of any of those graphs, that's that indicates a transfer. So, specific to the general fund, that hatch mark that's on top of the expenses, those are the expenses that are the transfer out of the general fund. Um, as you can see,
the actual expenses are tracking with the adopted budget. We'll talk about it in more detail on the next slide, but we're sitting at about 50% of the budget has been spent through Q2. Um, this is somewhat mass. We have an increase in purchase services around placements of out of district for our
special education students along with PAR educator staffing. some of that is offset by the um decrease in contracting and consulting expenses. Um and then we also have identified that um there is a $1.2 million expense in the general fund
that's still represented here in Q2 that the grants and budget and sped teams have identified as a as being able to be covered by our idea grant. So we will see a shift of those expenses over into the grant fund for Q3 when we get to the Q3 financials.
Uh this this slide hopefully looks somewhat familiar. It should be similar to some of the slides you've seen around budget. This is looking our expense detail by program. So program is what are we spending the money on. The first three columns are the current year. The the last three columns on the right are
prior year both budget and year-toate um actuals. As you can see and we mentioned on the slide previously, our expenses are about 50% of budget. But as you see by these um categories of expenses, some of these are above 50%, some are below. In
particular, the line of special education instruction, we can see that uh year-to- date through Q2, 56% of the budget has been spent. Prior year, that was 53%. So, we are seeing a higher uptick in the special education expense
this year than anticipated in the budget. And this was part of the revised budget presentation to adjust um the expenses within the general fund back in January. Keep in mind also that that line that says special education instruction is not the only line that
represents how we support those students in our district. We do have a chunk of those expenses also sitting down in the instructional support. It's just the way it's classified for CDE that breaks um some of our social workers and some of the other staff that really do serve
that population into a different category, not labeled as special education instruction. This is the same expense detail, but now it's uh broken out by account type or similar to an income statement. Look, same columns. We can look at salary and benefits, purchase services, material
supplies, capital outlay, and transfers. Again, we've spent 49% almost 50% of our budget through Q2, but you can see which lines are trending above and below that 50%. Looking at the line for purchase services, that's where we would see again the the outside district placement
services, but also a decrease in the consulting and contract services. Looking at that line specifically, if you note, last year's actuals year-to- date through Q2 were 48 million. This year it is 47.3. Um, so we did uh we have spent just
basically the same. We did increase the budget this year because we had it trending upward last year. It was at 66% through Q2. So we're still above 50% but we've really actually kept those expenses flat even though the budget increased. If that makes sense. That's
how the percentages on there um work. And then if we combine these two prior slides between programs and expense types down the lefth hand column are those programs. And then AC across the top are those account types where you can see the intersection of many of these categories to see how we're
categorizing these expenses across the district. Moving on to capital reserve fund. Our actual revenue is trending slightly lower than budget. Uh really this is attributed to the surplus of our um uh properties, the timing of those sales.
We put in a flat amount for the year and we've sold a couple of them so far this year and we're anticipating a few more by the year end. So that's what's driving that revenue being slightly different than what we anticipated with budget. Also note that those revenue columns has that hatch mark on on the top. The hatch mark represents the
transfer from the general fund. Looking over at expenses, the expenses are slightly less than last year, which is what we anticipated knowing that there was a decrease in the transfer from the general fund. And then also note that a good chunk of the expenses in the cap
reserve fund uh occur over the summer months when our students aren't in the buildings and we can complete those capital um projects within schools. Focusing a little more on our cap reserve fund. This is a forecast of that fund. So you can see the orange column
is our prior year actuals uh income statement look at this fund. The first column of green is our adopted budget for this year where we see that the revenue into the fund was anticipated at 31 million and the expenses were 60 million. We can see through Q2 we've
seen about half of the a little bit less than half of the revenue coming in and and a little more than half of the expenses. And then finally that final column on the right is our forecast for a full year of actuals. And with the math, you can see that our expenses are
going to exceed our sources by about 29 million and decreasing the fund balance in this fund by about 29 million um leading into next year. And so just a note, this is the quarterly report. It's not really our um
full forecast or um work leading into the budget. U Miss Rosario will be back um sharing more about what we should be spending in capital each year uh which is a dollar figure higher than 60 million and um what we think next year
might look like. So I just want to flag that. Thanks for adding that. All right, moving into our grants fund. Uh looking at this, you can see that our revenue as we budget revenue in the grants fund, we we budget it at a
maximum anticipated amount because we're not exactly sure which grants are going to get awarded throughout the year. Often our receipts appear lower than budget and that's just because a lot of our grants are ones that we receive the funding after we've spent the money. So
a lot of times the expenses happen prior to the revenue. uh in the expenses are tren trending on the track of um where we would anticipate them this year to going towards the $60 million that's budgeted in the expense in here. And again, we noted I noted on the general fund slide,
we have identified that 1.2 million that'll get shifted over from the general fund into the grant fund expense for Q3 financials food services fund. The actual revenue is in line with our adopted budget. Note that that hatch mark that's on the green
bar in the revenue is an increase in transfer from the general fund into the food services fund compared to last year what the size of what that hatch mark is on top of the revenue. However, um on the expense side, we are seeing that the expenses in the food services fund is
less than what we anticipated um for budget, slightly less than what we anticipated for budget but less than last year. And that is because the food services department has taken steps to reduce spending and make progress towards a balanced budget so that we don't have to support the fund with
transfers from the general fund campus activity fund. So this is fees and dues receipts that happen within the schools to support activities within the schools. Year-over-year the activity doesn't change a ton even between revenue and expense.
Insurance reserve fund. This is the uh fund where we have our expenses related to our property, general liability and workers comp uh premiums and self-insured um retention policies. The revenue is all funded through the
general fund. And um then the expenses are primarily related to the premiums we pay for those insurance um premiums and for any of the claims expenses especially for our workers compensation self-insured uh program that we have. Uh the reserves that we have within this
fund must support the district for our deductibles and the self-insured amounts um across all the lines of coverage that we carry for the district child care fund. The revenue is trending in line with the adopted budget. It's slightly less than last year by
$200,000. It's not too notable, but what you can see is that the expenses are less than last year and and less than the trended budget. We do see that there has been some adjust adjustments in the staffing within this fund compared to prior years. And finally, our employee benefit fund.
I did mention this at the beginning of our um presentation. We can see that both revenue and expense are lower than anticipated in the annual budget. However, the expenses are outpacing the budget. Um through Q2, it's by $2.4 million. We changed insurance plans
within this fund for this year and we did not anticipate a decrease in enrollment from our employees in this plan. We have approximately a thousand less employees that um enrolled in this plan than prior year. That is driving both the revenue and expense to be less
than anticipated and less than last year. I can see that Miss Copelan is ready to interject. Go for it. >> Um this is a complicated situation. Uh, so I want to say you're going to read things on the slide something like
overall claim losses are below prior year. That may be true in aggregate dollar amount, but on a perinsured basis um our overall claims expenses are substantively higher than last year. So
this new plan that we have rolled out is um exceptionally expensive. Um, we're seeing utilization um increase substantially. We're seeing costs increase substantially. Um, this slide
might be something you come back to after you hear from me again in a month and you're going to be like, "How can any of this be true?" Get it? It's very complicated. On a per subscriber basis, um, our claims expenses are up probably 30 or more percent.
um compared to last year. And claims are just the actual costs of providing the medical care, the pharmacy benefits, etc. in a self-insured plan. It's not because an insurance company is charging us something. It's because our employees are getting the services that are
commensurate with the plan benefits. I just want to flag that because this reads like not a five alarm fire and it is a five alarm fire. >> Yeah. And I'll just add a little bit. Thank you, Miss Copeland. I appreciate that. I want to add just a little bit of
context for our new board members. Um it is a really it is not a good situation. Um as Miss Miss Copeland just um uh explained um for your awareness, we have always in Jeffco had two plans for our
employees to choose from. One being Kaiser, which is just a full insurance plan. They we pay Kaiser for the service and they provide the service. We do none of the administration of the plan ourselves. The second plan um has been for a long time now a self-insured plan.
Um which means that we have built up we we collect the the uh the a premiums and then we manage the payments on behalf of the members who select that plan, our employees. Um we recently uh in
partnership with our employees uh went out went out to market and rebid our uh our two plans. Kaiser was one that we reselected um just last year and the second was a shift uh from Etna which we
had before to United Healthcare. Um this was all done through our um procurement processes that are driven by policy and statute and very um specific in terms of the steps we have to take uh to do this work. What we are finding in this first
year of the ETNA plan is that it's um becoming a much more expensive plan um in reality than any of us expected. And so Miss Copeland has been paying close attention to it uh with our benefits adviserss and just trying to get a
handle on what's going on and what do we need to do about it. Um, as we um proceed into conversations around next year's budget, we will be talking at length about which is typical for us to talk with the board
uh about benefits costs. And so we'll be able to get you more information and update you related related to both our self- insurance plan and the increased costs associated with Kaiser. um because because what we know um like all
organizations across this nation is that healthc care costs rise annually which is a huge burden on organizations and our budget. It's also a huge burden on our employees and so it's an important conversation for us to have as we look at our budget going into next year. Um
so much more to come on this but I agree with Miss Copeland. This is a real issue that we're going to need to spend some time talking to you all about um and our employees as we as we move through this spring and into next year. >> Can I ask a quick question? Just I just
want to clarify and make sure I heard you correctly. So the the two plans that we have for this year are Kaiser and United. Okay. And then which one was the one that has the rising costs that we unanticipated? Is it Kaiser or United?
United Healthcare. >> Okay. >> Um, and we are basically the plan administrator because we're self assurs. I don't know if I said that right, but the >> how Etna is the >> Etna is nothing anymore. Um, >> I'm sorry. United Healthcare is >> the plan administrator.
>> The plan administrator. >> Um, we are the insurer. >> Okay. >> We hold the funds. >> Okay. I got a little confused because we were talking about Etna and then Kaiser and then United. So, I'm clear now. Thank We shifted from Etna to United Healthcare through an RFP just last year. So I wanted new board members to
know that this is a recent change. It's not something that we've been um dealing with for a long this organiz this administrator is not something we've been dealing with for a long time. Just >> can I also Oh, sorry. >> Just to confirm my understanding, but also for the benefit of others, that
aside, self-insuring, provided an organization is large enough to do it tends to be more cost-effective than the alternative. Is that still accurate or >> Yes. Absolutely. >> I would say over time. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> No. and and with a properly designed
plan. >> Um it's really important in any organization if you're going to have more than one plan that they have somewhat comparable benefits and structures otherwise they start to attract um different
folks, >> different risk pools >> and Exactly. and one of them um can enter it's a terrible word but it's something of a spiral kind of >> right >> um down the drain so to speak and and that uh can be really destructive so
it's it's really important to design um comparable plans and when we switched to United um they mentioned that they were doubling the size of our um physician network which I think sounded good to everyone but
Um, and I was extremely concerned about that because the only physicians not in our Etna network were ones that wouldn't accept the ETNA reimbursement rate. And so by definition, it's driving up costs to expand that network.
>> Um, it also had a different um, pharmacy benefit. Um, and yet they said it would drive behavior um, that would somehow lower costs, which I was a skeptic about. it does um not seem to have driven any behavior that is a um cost
savings and lo and behold um doubling the size of our physician network um has both driven up usage and driven up costs. >> Thank you. >> Yep. >> Um I had a question. When I was in Adams
14, we had the option to um receive a stipend, a monthly stipend, and then purchase our own insurance like through the marketplace. Um do our employees have that option here? >> They do not. >> Okay.
Thank you. When you say that we are self-insuring through United, what what does that mean exactly? >> We pay United a per person fee to be our plan administrator. That means that they
interface with all the physicians. They establish the reimbursement rates you using effectively the buying power of their full insured pool. Right? So what the physician or the hospital is accepting as a reimbursement rate is
negotiated by United on our behalf and then they accept you know the person has a United card they hand it to the physician the physician sends the bill to United we are not able we don't have the professionals the skills or the abilities to do any of that work
ourselves but United makes no representation about what the claims themselves might cost in a full insurance model. For example, Kaiser. Kaiser says, "We think we know what the actual claims
cost will be and we're going to charge you 20% more than that." Um, and that's going to be your insurance premium. That's about how they operate it. In a self-insured plan, you expect to pay a set admin fee per subscriber, and you
know what that is in advance, and then you just pay the claims. And so um to the to the question about is it generally cheaper? Yes, because it's generally priced at 8 to 10% over the actual claims costs. And we do know that
at Kaiser um they are achieving that 20% margin. Some of which goes towards their administrative expense, some of which is just the cost of capital um for them to kind of advance us and the actuals of those claims, right? So, but over time
it's it is 10% or more cheaper on average um to self-insure, which is why most organizations at our scale do that. Um and the the the really important thing is to
design your plans effectively. >> May I ask a question on this? And I know we're close to the end of the presentation. So if can I can we just roll right into questions or did you have more to present Miss Copelan? >> It's all it's up to you. You got it.
>> So I I remember this RFP process and um I know we went through quite a bit in that process and maybe I missed it so forgive me if I did. Why are why is it costing us more than we thought it would cost?
or is it truly the number of claims? >> Um it it's a both and. Um so we just got a presentation today. We had to hire um a temporary actuary to examine our claims data because our um benefits
advisor contract ended December 31st. Um we did ask them if they would extend for two months because we're in an RFP process to get a new benefits advisor. Um, and their response was, "We will extend you for 12 months," which they knew would violate our RFP process. So,
we had to go find someone new um to support us for 2 months. And in the presentation they gave today, they teased apart three different key factors to why our costs um so much higher than they were with Etna, which was also a
self-insured plan, which was also us paying the actual claims, etc., etc. Um part number one is rising costs overall. Usually that's the number one reason. It was not. Part number two is usage utilization.
Utilization of both medical care and pharmacy care. That is the primary thing driving our costs. That means that people are getting more care from more expensive providers and more pharmacy um
benefits. Both things. So frequency cost for both medical and pharmacy are up. Back to my point about um it's it's sort of logically impossible
to substantially expand your network of providers and somehow think your costs are going to go down. on our Etna plan, we were in a what's called like a Etna preferred or it was a slightly limited group of physicians.
Limited essentially by the fact that those are the physicians that would accept the reimbursement rate offered by Etna. So, I want to be clear. Um, it's almost impossible to do what was sold to us as what would
happen. Um, and we are where we are and it probably means if we want to keep an option other than Kaiser, we need to be really thoughtful about how we design it. >> I appreciate that. Thank you.
>> Um, I have other questions, but I want to see if board members have other questions on the presentation first. >> I never get I never go first. That's the one privilege I get as being president. Sure. Dr. Etcharia. >> Okay. Um, this is more just
um rephrasing some things I heard or that we communicate about for our listening public and feel free to jump in and correct me if I'm incorrect. Um, I'm not comfortable voting for a deficit budget uh for several reasons. One of
them was what Director Gibbons mentioned. Um, but specifically one of the conversations we had was that the reserves right now would only last for about a month and a half and there is no safety net in Colorado. So
there's there's no way that we would get bailed out. So that makes me extremely nervous. Um, the second concern I have with the budget is the deferral of the the continued deferral
of the capital. um asset fund. And then finally, and I'm just gonna drive it in because why not, right? I still haven't seen budget addressing the potential impact on academic achievement, and that
is what we're here for. The board is here to make sure students are achieving and graduating, and we've got to make sure that that's front and center in our budget. So, those are just my thoughts on the budget, but thank you so much for presenting. I appreciate it and um
>> appreciate you being here so late. Thank you. >> Happy to. >> Thank you. Other questions, >> Dr. Director Kworthy. >> Um my my one question is just um we went
through the RFP process. We've selected United Health and Kaiser. What is our length of commitment with United Health? Like is it multi-year or is it just a single year? >> It's a little bit of a of both. And um
just about every contract we enter as a district has a clause um relating to TABR that says subject to appropriation, annual appropriation. So your budget is approved annually. um none of you can commit the following year for whoever
sits in these seats. Um and nor can I. And so um everything is subject to appropriation. Now for us to not appropriate to to fund something like that is kind of a technical move. Um that might be strange. More importantly, I think in terms of a promise to
employees. Um if we're going to contemplate changes, it's really really important to give them a runway. Yeah. >> So, I would say um it's March. I I no matter how grim the outlook is, um I
would not be comfortable and it's not up to me, but I would not be comfortable attempting to make a sudden shift um in terms of people's medical care. I know we went through a process. Um, I think what we should do is be very transparent about costs, real costs, um, and allow
people to make choices that over time make sense for them. Um, you know, I happen to know what my choice is going to be for next year, but I think, um, yeah, I that's both a technical answer and then a slightly more um, employee
focused answer. >> I appreciate it. Thank you. >> Any others? to circle back to what director Kenworthy said. So, are we under any contract obligations to stick with
United next year? >> We are not contractually obliged. >> Okay. Um so, going back to slide four, I had a question regarding
um out of district spending. And I mean it's kind of hard to talk about the budget and then not also talk about the changes to you know the upcoming budget that we are looking at. Um, so I'm just kind of wondering if
we are required to do some of the to purchase some of these services and I'm just wondering with some of the cuts that we're thinking about making um, would this mean that this line item in the budget would grow
in order to meet the needs of students? I'm gonna take it in two parts if that's okay. >> Yeah. Um the placement out the placements out of district um are largely related to um an
IEP and an agreed placement between a family, our special education profess professionals, teachers, etc. Everyone getting together and agreeing this is the right place. Sometimes it's agreed um in more of a
um quasi legal situation, which is to say um attorneys are in the room talking about what's the best thing for a student. And sometimes we agree to a placement that maybe isn't exactly technically what our special education professionals think is required, but we
agree to it. Um and those are our placements out of district. Those are almost entirely private institutions. So what we are paying is the tuition and sometimes fees related to attending a private institution. Just so you know.
Um there are other purchase services that are contracted services uh within the special education space. That second bullet that talks about pareducator staffing has is at a higher level
meaning fewer vacancies more FTE etc. our contracted services to students as a substitute to parah educators um is is down. The contracted expense is
down. We are not making any cuts to that staffing line. So there is not a chance that contracted expense will go up from this point in time. We both increased pay for PAR
educators and we did everything we could to recruit and so staffing has now gotten back up to the level that we expected and and in fact exceeded that. So um if anything next year's budget and
the revised budget that we adopted um both reflect more FTE for PAR educators and lower expected contracted expense that help >> which basically means lower vacancy
rates. And I do think this is an important clarification. I really appreciate the question and thank you Brena for clearly um providing an answer because I do think there were some comments earlier this evening in the spirit of reduced paraprofessional support for our most vulnerable
students. That is absolutely not the case when you look at what we are budgeting for and spending right now and what we we have budgeted for for next year even with the budget reduction blueprint um from department budgets. So
um there is not a contemplated reduction to par educators. >> Thank you for that clarification. Um, I wanted to go to slide five and I just wanted to kind of
refresh my memory and get an understanding with the line item called general administration. What does that entail? What does that mean? >> It's a variety of expenses um that CDE asks us to code as administration. that
doesn't necessarily mean it's removed from students. So, for example, you'll note if you've looked at previous year financials that this line is higher than it was um two years ago. And that is because a year ago um we consolidated
the information technology fund which had been a standalone fund that both paid for people and paid for software expenses and contracted expenses related to technology. We pulled all that into the general fund. Why did we do that? We did that because ultimately it's more
transparent to have more of our expenses coded by what they are instead of where they go. Previously, their full budget showed up in the transfer line. Transfer line is not what the expense is, it's where it goes. Right? And so, yes,
general admin expense is higher than it was two years ago. And last year's audit reflected that. But that is purely and almost entirely because we consolidated the funds and when we did that work we said this will involve bringing in different types of expenses into the
mix. So at this point more than any other year in the you know past 10 general administration includes a lot of stuff that our kiddos use. So for example, our Google licenses, our Peopleoft licenses, our Microsoft licenses, all these different contracted
expenses have to be coded to general administration. That's the guidance we get from CDE even though it may be deployed in school sites, even though it may be essential to the learning of students, etc. So it's a little bit of a misnomer to be honest. Um, but there's
lots of different things in that bucket. my entire team, you know, of staff and a handful of small contracted expenses go in there. Julie's team is in there. Um, the superintendent's office is in there.
But I would say at this point, it is is a huge portion of that. And it's not because it is doing a bunch of things in this building. It's because that's how we have to code those types of expenses. Thank you for that reminder and
clarification. I appreciate it. And then my last question, I promise, is just to refresh my memory again on purchase services and what that line item entails, if you don't mind. The largest single expense in purchase services is our utilities. So, we
purchase service from Excel, which most of the time they provide, some of the time they don't. Um, we also purchase fuel. Those types of things show up. Um, because our gas, etc. is ultimately a
purchase service. We could call it a material or supply, but you know, once you start doing something one way, it's best to just keep it that way unless you have a really strong reason not to. Um, and so for the time being, we're we're still doing that. The second largest set of purchase services
is a set of agreements. and I just spoke about these. So those same software um licenses are actually a purchase service. So if you've you know um if you're not a sort of dinosaur like I am, you know perfectly well that software as
a service is kind of a thing and it's been a thing for 10 or 15 years. So purchase services also includes quite a bit of software. I think that's the second largest component of that and it goes down from there. um mo the I think the third largest is actually contracted
services that provide direct service to students. So it that may actually be second and it may be third. I'm talking off the top of my head. Had this in the notes at one point now I don't remember where it is. And like an example of a contracted
service that serves students is if we um have like speech language services for students in an IEP and we have more students who need those services than what we're able to hire for. That's like a hard to fill position at times. Um so we might contract with a company that
will send a speech language pathologist to come work with a student who's who needs it and is required to have those services in their IEP. Um that's just one one example. And those foods I spoke of before are also a purchase service. So that 16 million in in tuition we pay
to the private schools that serve our students is also in that line. >> Thank you for the reminder, >> Miss Copelan. I just want to clarify. Um because it's late and I'm very tired. Um it is in both general admin and purchase
service, but we're not there's it's not the same thing in each. We're talking licenses, hardware, things separate from services. >> Um, those are two different ways to look at the same number. >> Ah, >> remember
breaking it in different categories. Yep. With you. >> What purpose? And then um account is like what did we buy? >> Thank you. >> This is the the split. So you can see um
>> Yep. Yep. Got it. Director Moin and I cut you off. Did you have any other questions? Um, so when we do like So if we go back to the capital reserve slide and I have already lost what slide
number that is. Thank you ma'am. Um, so I know I know we've already spent higher than we were expected. We're above the budgeted expenditure mark from here. And I know that our revenue and our costs are lumpy um throughout the year. You've taught me this. Um and I am
a good student. So when we think about capital, this one does concern me a little bit because we do spend a lot of money in the summer and um we are already a high. Are we thinking about um and maybe this is for Superintendent
Dorland, are we thinking about any maybe slowing measures or cost-saving measures or pumping the brakes on anything? or are we just going to continue to watch it as we go through the lumpiness? >> I mean, we're we're continuing to watch it, but um there have been expenses that
we've just decided we need to invest in. A recent example that I was just discussing with um Mr. Gatlin was the investment of um some devices on top of Evergreen High School and Evergreen Middle School that would actually
support the radios in the building. um working more efficiently in connecting with outside entities. Uh it's a it's like a $330,000 um projected expense and it it was not
budgeted for this year. Uh we feel that it's an important investment given the challenges that that building has had um with some radios at times. Um and so we're we're investing in it. Um, so we're doing our best to try to stay um
within the allocated budget that we've set for this year, including the sort of contingency that that we've identified. Um, but when things come up, things come up. I mean, I will be honest with you, the conversations we're having around our capital investments right now are
most definitely primarily focused on deferred maintenance. And there just are times when we can't let something be deferred any longer. We have had instances where we have a roof leak and the classroom is
wet and we have to do the cleanup and the roof repair. We cannot invest in all programming at the expense of warm, safe, dry, and modern learning facilities. Um, it's not good for our employees to walk in to their work environment in the morning and find that
it's not a place where they can actually do their best with kids. Um, and it's obviously not an okay thing for our kids to not have their learning spaces on a consistent basis day-to-day. So, this is just these these are real needs. Um and our deferred maintenance will continue
to um build up over time if we do not make and have the discipline to make the capital investments that our $5.5 billion of property properties need. >> Thank you.
>> Um directorate, can I just add >> please? >> Fletcher Miller is in those that actual spend. So, while we say the majority of capitals over the summer, that's one that's ongoing and has been frontloaded for the beginning of this year. So, that's >> that's very helpful.
>> Yeah. Just another piece of information. >> Yeah. No, that's great. And to be fair, I'm very supportive of making those investments. Um I just think it's helpful to make sure we're doing everything we can. Um the childare fund
and food services fund are both showing that the expenses are lower than they were last year which was thanks to some decisions that were made in both of those funds. Do we ex I know you're there's no tea leaf reading here but are we is that what we are expecting to see
throughout the rest of the year or do we think um that we would see an influx on that in the remaining two quarters? I haven't. Uh, so I did meet with um our operations teams to try and review what spending looked like uh through
January, February to the best of my ability because that's part of preparing the budget presentation for April, which is our departmental budgets. Um, my sense is that things are still tracking about where they were as of December.
And so I think that the um adjustments, if you'll recall, um food nutrition services made some um food purchase adjustments in terms of uh how many meal options are we going to present at the same time. Um these are some things we
talked about in detail last spring. Um those types of things. Um and I don't think that's changing. >> So it seems like they're working. I it does seem like >> Okay, that's great. >> Um and then I know timing on revenue
again, lumpiness, property taxes, all those things. Um the I know we are behind in revenue which is I think typical for this time of the year. You can correct me if that's wrong. Um, and I know,
well, I guess just confirm for me that that is correct, that it's not necessarily that we're behind, but the revenue is very lumpy and we expect to get most of that coming in the spring. >> Yeah, I think we just got like a $138 million payment um, as one of our first
installments of the local receipts. Um I do want to say that at our low point we had sought as part of the revised budget authority to borrow from our capital reserve fund for our general fund expense. Um I believe there were questions about why did we bring that
forward in lie of the state program um to meet our cash flow needs. It's because it is a requirement that we do that first. We have to in our fund borrow our cash before we ask the state for money. They explicitly will deny a
request if we're trying to borrow money into the general fund while we're still sitting on cash in another fund. There's only two exceptions to that. That would be the food and nutrition service fund and the debt service reserve fund that we cannot borrow cash from. So, I just
want to be clear. Um, we did borrow that cash. Thank you all. We needed it and now we have repaid it because we received the 138 million in our first installment of the local property taxes. Next year we will not have enough money in the capital reserve fund to meet our
own cash needs and so we will first exhaust all of our own cash and then we will borrow from the state. Thank you. That's all the questions I have. Any other questions for our amazing
presenters tonight? Okay. Great appreciation for the work that you do. Thank you for walking us through this. I know you get a lot of repeat questions, especially from me. It is much appreciated and thank you for staying so late with us. This brings us to the end of today's
agenda. Thank you for everyone who participated this evening. Our next scheduled meeting of the board is a study session on Wednesday, April 8th. With that, we stand adjourned. Good night.