Good afternoon. I would like to call this meeting of 02/12/2026 to order. Roll call, please, miss Harper. Miss Applegate. Here. Doctor Echeverria. Here. Mister Gibbons. Miss Kenworthy. Here. Miss Moenian. 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 for the live simultaneous Spanish interpreters for facilitating access this evening. I 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 which it stands, one nation under God, 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. Is there any discussion? It has been moved and seconded to approve the agenda for today's meeting of 02/12/2026 as presented in board docs. Roll call, please, miss Harper. Miss Applegate? Yes. Doctor Echeverria? Yes. Mister Gibbons? Miss Kenworthy? Yes. Miss Moenian?
Yes. Thank you. Tonight, our first item of business is an executive session. The board of education will vote to convene in executive session pursuant to CRS 24 dash six dash four zero two four b for the purposes of conferring with legal counsel to receive legal advice regarding the superintendent contract. Is there a motion for the Board of Education to convene in executive session under CRS 24 dash six dash four zero two four b for the purposes of conferring with legal counsel to receive legal advice regarding the superintendent's contract.
I move to convene into executive session under CRS 24 dash six dash four zero two four b for the purposes of conferring with legal counsel to receive legal advice regarding the superintendent contract. Is there a second? I second. Is there any discussion? It has been moved and seconded that the Board of Education will convene into executive session. Roll call, please. Miss Harper. Miss Applegate? Yes. Doctor Echeverria? Yes. Mister Gibbons? Miss Kenworthy? Yes. Miss Mawhinian? Yes. This portion of the meeting is now closed to the public. We will reconvene at approximately 04:55.
Thank you. Good evening, and welcome back. The board has completed our executive session and will now continue with the remainder of this meeting. Please note we will take a twenty minute break at approximately 06:40 this evening. Before we begin with honors and recognitions, I would like to welcome doctor Drew Coleman, our chief of schools, who's joining us on the dais. Doctor Coleman is representing superintendent Dorland who is at the sup school superintendent's annual association convention. We appreciate doctor Coleman, his leadership, and partnership this evening. Every month, the board of education has the pleasure of recognizing students, staff, schools, and
community members for their achievements and contributions to our community. Our first recognition of the evening, the Board of Education would like to honor our art students from Fremont Elementary with art teacher Kathleen Jenny and principal Crystal Crystal Johnson. Will our guests from Fremont Elementary please make their way to the front of the boardroom? The theme, Our Learners, Our Future, is one of the four defined priorities of GEFCO Thrives. Our goal is that all GEFCO students have extra extraordinary student experiences that recognize their strengths, challenges challenge them to improve and support them to succeed.
Students we are honoring include Maddie Polk, Vaughn Michael, Lucy Jenny, Evelyn Pardo, Addie Hendricks, and Ada Johnson. Congratulations to these Fremont Elementary artists for their participation in the annual art showcase at the CASB Convention at the Broadmoor. This exhibition provided a wonderful opportunity for our students to share their creative strengths with educational leaders from across the state, resulting in a truly extraordinary student experience.
The board also recognizes Ms. Jenny for her expert mentorship and to Ms. Johnson for being a dedicated champion of the arts. Thank you. Next, the board would like to recognize Tara Pena, chief of family and community partnerships, and the entire community partnerships team for their incredibly hard work on the fall food drive, Jeffco Feeds Jeffco. Will this group please make their way to the front of the boardroom? Jeffco Feeds Jeffco was established as a vital lifeline for over 22,000 local families facing
delays in SNAP benefit disbursements. By providing immediate food access, the initiative bridged a critical gap while families waited for federal assistance to resume. Led by the family and community partnerships team, the program's success relied on seamless coordination with food and nutrition success relied on seamless coordination with food and nutrition services, GEFCO stadium staff, and local school teams. Across nine official pantry sites, the mission was powered by more than 150 dedicated volunteers. This diverse group, including central office staff, parents, students, and partners like Jefferson County Mental
Health and the Lakewood Police Department, managed every detail of the operation from packing pallets to final distribution. The board extends our group deepest gratitude to this team and to every person who made Jeffco Feeds Jeffco a huge success. Thank you. Before we begin with proclamations, we will briefly pause. If anyone who has joined for honors and recognitions, if you'd like to step out, you're obviously welcome to stay, but we do want to give you that time. We will now turn to board proclamations.
The board publicly recognizes special events and significant issues by issuing proclamations in the month of February. We are commemorating Black History Month, Career and Technical Education Month, National School Counseling Week, which was February, National School Resource Officer Appreciation Day, which is February 15, and we very much love our school resource officers. National PTA Founders Day, which is February 17, national girls and women's and sports day, which was February 4. We encourage you to read all of the GEFCO school board's proclamations and board docs.
Items 4.01 through 4.06 are presented in board docs as proposed proclamations for the month of February. Do I have a motion regarding the approval of the proclamations? I move to approve items four point o one through four point o six 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 February proclamations as presented in board docs. Roll call, please, miss Harper. Miss Applegate? Yes. Doctor Echeberia? Yes. Mister Gibbons? Yes. Miss Kenworthy? Yes. Miss Moenian? Yes.
We will now move to public comment portion of the 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. In light of the anticipated topics that will be addressed during public comment, I'd like to share an update on district efforts to re relating specifically to safety. Many of these updates were also recently shared at the SAC meeting and Evergreen. GEFCO has designated a project manager tracking all safety projects on request coming from Evergreen High School, Mountain Schools, and other GEFCO schools.
The district has commissioned a report to explore the potential use of metal detectors in schools. There is information on the GEFCO website about this exploration. The report will be completed by the March and posted publicly. Other work, including assessing safety enhancements, is also underway. Staff will be training on a new badge alert system after spring break. Badge alert is a wearable safety device. Every school and administration building in GEFCO has stop the bleed kits and staff who are trained to use them. More training will be offered and kits will be provided to those who are trained over the course of this and the next school year.
Having shared these updates, we move forward with public comment. 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 may step up. We ask you to listen with respect and ask those who address the board to do the same. We also ask that you please refrain from outbursts after public comment is given. There is a three minute time limit per individual speaker and a ten minute time limit per group. As part of our collaborative agreement that we have reached with JCEA during collective bargaining negotiations, the board does reserve the first ten minutes of public comment for JCEA to
address the board on issues relating to contract negotiations. With that, we'd like to invite JCEA up, and then we will follow that with number two. Hello. I'm Sarah McClintock, vice president of JESPA. Hi. I'm Amy Perra Perry. I'm a preschool teacher at Kiffin. Hello. I'm Xander Kashib, JESPA president. Hi. I'm Mike Villanueva, social studies teacher at A West. Good evening. Michelle Mala, Spanish teacher at Green Mountain High School. Hi. I'm Lisa Hass. I'm a social studies teacher at Golden High School. All right. Good evening. We are here to present an update about, but first we want to share some
specific concerns about collaboration, so the update on bargaining for the mill levy overing. We have asked for increased meaningful and real collaboration. This evening you're going to hear from my colleagues who faced a similar challenge in 2011. We faced a budget crisis with a summit bringing together JCEA, JESPA, JCAA, and district representatives, together with the core value that all ideas are welcomed and not a single
part of the budget is excluded. This created a sense of shared responsibility, decision making, and buy in from some for some really hard decisions. Thank you. True collaboration is being met halfway as both parties listen and exchange ideas. It is not repeatedly coming to the table and saying no while offering no alternatives and no movement. Collaboration means coming to a meeting with an open mind. Mindset to demonstrate that we are listening and thinking about what could be done to address concerns and needs. Collaboration is treating each other as equal partners.
Collaboration is hard, but it is essential for building shared leadership and trust. It's culture work. It's action, not just words. And it does exist in pockets around the district. Perhaps we should identify some of those schools and groups that have high functioning collaboration and learn from them how to replicate it and share that across the district. Unfortunately, at the district level, we still see a lack of openness to create solutions and a reluctance to say I was wrong. This isn't working. Let's try it your way. This lack of true collaboration is clear to us in how current budget work is
being handled. Two concrete examples of how this isn't working are the mill levy override MOU work and family versus the current standard short term leave option. So first, I wanna give you an update on the MOU for the mill levy override. So the district and unions have been working on this since December. This was proposed during last year's negotiations during the summer, and it was also a condition of both tentative agreements that we would negotiate this MOU. We were informed at the table this summer that there was little to no money
that the district could commit to educator and ESP compensation, and that the only way for us to increase compensation was to pass an MLO. We agreed to negotiate an MOU that would ensure any such funding increases would be used for compensation. This is vitally important for GEFCO to remain competitive with other metro districts who offer higher wages because of successfully passed MLOs. However, the current MOU negotiations has stalled. It's extremely discouraging. District's counter offers have stripped much, if not all of the language, guaranteeing that m
l o MLO funds would be focused on frontline needs, such as increasing compensation for educators and ESPs to retain us and that our district has already invested in in preventing further cuts to ESPs and educators. We're told we can't meet our budget priorities without an MLO, and also we cannot guarantee that MLO funds will be used for budget priorities like compensation. Among other things, one of the major sticking points that the district is not willing to agree on is freezing central administrator wages. We were told by the district team that they didn't have the power to agree
to our language, but that we could restart negotiations with you, the board. That was over two weeks ago, And after several requests, we're still waiting to hear back on how we can restart this process. So tonight, we're asking you to commit to bargain this MOU with our unions. We need to collaborate in order to pass language that our community supports and that guarantees any revenue we bring in stays as close to student services as possible. This is a necessary step for our members. Back in 2016, when we ran a mill and a bond, it failed.
The number one reason voters told us they would not be willing to support it was because they didn't trust that the money would actually end up in their schools. They were adamant that any additional dollars would not end up at the Ed Center. In 2018, the ballot language for the mill had specific language that reassured voters where the money would go. To wit, quote, No revenue from such taxes will be used for senior district administration, and the spending of such taxes for the benefit of district students will be reviewed by the Students' Financial Oversight Advisory Committee for transparency and accountability and subjected to an
annual independent audit. We were successful in 2018 in part because the voters were told specifically what the money would be used for and what it wouldn't. There was also supposed to be a committee to oversee the usage of those funds, but we have recently learned that this group was never formed and that no such oversight occurred. We had asked for an MLOMOU to make these guarantees to our members so they would feel comfortable throwing their support behind such an effort. Why? Between 2024 and 2025, GEFCO increased funding to general administration by 40% in spite of
total revenue increasing by 8% according to GEFCO's last two ActVers. This resulted in $57,000,000 in funding for general administration in 2425. Educators are concerned that this increase in general administration will continue to grow, and these provided and these prospective dollars will miss the classroom yet again. Our membership is divided on whether or not to walk for this MLO without this oversight and direction for how people's tax dollars should be spent. My question is, if our educators and ESPs don't work in support of this MLO
or bond, who will? I also wanna address educator leaves, which we are bargaining this year. Recently, an issue has come to light that if an educator is taking a leave and qualifies for short term disability, they'll be required to exhaust their state benefits first if they've opted into Colorado Family Benefit Plan. While we've been told that this has been in the district plan, from the beginning, it was never discussed with employee groups and has only recently been enforced. This means that the district is paying for short term disability benefits to a private organization for for people who may never be able to access their benefit through standard
because they've opted into family. And we wonder how much money that is and if it might be better spent on other priorities. From a values perspective, I think we should think about a couple of things. We're in public education for a public good to serve the entire community, and yet we have chosen to opt out of public family leave and into a private insurance policy. Number two, standard only covers educators for their own illnesses, including the birthing mother of a child, whereas the Colorado Family Act covers what standard covers plus adoption, paternity leave, safe leave, exigency leave, and allow for coverage when you have to care for a
family member with a serious health condition. We want our educators to have the ability to care for their own families and their children if they become ill. Most educators are only given the option of unpaid leave in these circumstances, which really isn't a viable choice for our people. We don't want to force our educators to work in lieu of taking care of a family member. We know that if the district opts into family leave, the cost will be split between both the employer and the employee, but we believe that a public good will provide more coverage, and that premium is worth it. So I'm asking for your help to care for our families. And a critical component of this conversation is hearing from employees and their lived experiences.
Have you ever talked to someone who's gone through short term disability process with Standard? Well, we have someone here that has. When I was newly pregnant, I reached out to our leaves department to discuss my plan for maternity leave. I wanted to opt myself into family in order to pay for the unpaid portion of my leave after the initial six weeks. Our leaves department informed me that I could do this, but I first had to exhaust short term disability through the standard before I could utilize any benefits from family. I did all of the necessary paperwork and filed my claim with the standard. But as my son turned six weeks old, I realized that the standard had only paid me a total of a little over $40 for my entire leave despite them
approving my claim. When I called the company to ask what, I assumed was a mistake, they told me they could not pay me my weekly benefit because I was eligible for family leave through my state. I replied that this was a simple misunderstanding as I had not even filed a claim with family yet. I was only enrolled in their program for potential use and was not currently being paid by them. They explained that this did not matter if I was being paid by the state or not. Simply because I am eligible for the benefits mean that they cannot pay me what I was expecting. They ended the call by telling me that if I wanted to be paid for maternity leave, I would have to call the state, which is exactly what I did.
In contrast to dealing with the standard, the people at the family, leave program were infinitely kinder and were helpful. They quickly helped me file a claim to pay for my entire leave, even the time that had already passed. The point of my story is that for any current employee who has enrolled in the family program for any reason and is eligible for their leave is no longer eligible but to be paid by the standard, which is just one of many reasons our district should move away from the standard and opt in to family. Thank you. So to conclude, we ask of you, the Jeff Fuerston County Board of Education directors,
to engage in true collaboration with your employee groups, especially when it comes to how best to balance a tight budget as has been done in the past. Collaborating does not mean explaining the parameters and decisions that have already been made. Number two, restart bargaining on an MOU for an MLO or a possible bond in good faith, and the sooner the better. And finally, please take time to familiarize yourself with the many benefits that opting into family would provide for this community, for not that much more money than what we are already paying the standard because it is the right thing to do. Thank you for your time.
I would ask everybody to please refrain from applause, and I also wanna say thank you, Jespa. I apologize that I didn't recognize you when when bringing you up. Okay. Alright. Is there a number two? Thank you. Alright. My name is Brad Lanfear, but my kindergartners call me mister Brad. I've been at Edgewater Elementary as a title one educator for the last three years in our two way dual language school. I've always prided myself in building a safe, trustworthy, and caring community, and that community we built has carried us through the many ups and downs. Over my three years, we've had the most extreme behaviors, most newcomers, and most students
with IEPs. This year, almost half of our 41 students have an IEP. Some students with extreme behaviors are eligible for a change of placement but did not move schools because there is no room. These behaviors cause anxiety for our youngest learners and limit my teaching abilities. The behaviors also distract the rest of the class from getting uninterrupted instruction and the individual help that they need. Newcomers have been an integral part of my classroom, but many come with no school background and trauma. I speak Spanish, but without that, most of our newcomers would have a tough time transitioning.
If you mix in severe behaviors, they might see that as the norm and join in those unwanted behaviors. Mental health support at the at the elementary level is so important for a Title one school because of the underlying trauma our students have outside of school. Our counselor, cells, and social worker make it easier for me and my students in those fight or flight moments. Our literacy interventionist works with me every day to make lessons accessible for our newcomers through visuals and sentence frames. These interventions are also effective for our English speakers who come in not knowing their letters because of lack of resources at home or going to preschool.
Last year, our DTL even provided extensions for a gifted kindergartner reading at a third grade level. What worries me is what will happen next year with these positions being cut, removed due to budget cuts. It does not seem equitable for Title one schools to succumb to the same style of budget cutting as the rest of the district because we have different and profound needs. What may seem fair is actually hurting us more than the rest. Our students at Edgewater will not be able to receive the extensions of support from people outside of the classroom, which help them function in school every day and will
make my job that much harder. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. Good evening. My name is Erica Knob, and I am the counselor at Edgewater Elementary. I am here tonight because our school is facing an equity gap. The budget numbers alone will not communicate how dire our needs are right now. At Edgewater, we serve a resilient newcomer population, many of whom have traveled here through extreme adversity. For all children, but especially for our children, safety and belonging is a prerequisite for academic success.
We simply cannot close the achievement gap without first addressing the trauma gap. However, the very team tasked with building that bridge is currently being dismantled. Next year, we are set to lose our grant counselor and ourselves position is being cut in half, and even though this year we have enjoyed a fully staffed mental health team, we have still struggled to meet the various needs of our kids. These aren't just line items, these are positions staffed by people with the most specialized training whose job it is to meet the needs of all of our students.
When these internal when these internal positions are cut, we lose the most reliable safety net many of our families have. This loss of internal staff is even more devastating because our external supports are already failing. Since our JCMH therapist left in 2025, budget constraints have prevented us from backfilling that role and leaving 30 students in crisis without the care that they need. We are often told to rely on Hazel Health as a solution but for our specific for our specific community, it is an inadequate substitute.
It excludes our youngest learners because it is not appropriate for kids younger than third grade. It lacks the bilingual capacity our families require and it relies on technology that remains a barrier for our families who do not have reliable internet, which there are many. A virtual platform cannot replace a physical presence in a Title I building. We understand that the district faces a structural deficit, but equality is not the same as equity and budget cuts at Edgewater aren't trimming the fat. They are direct hit to our students' ability to function in a classroom and I
urge the board to prioritize equitable funding and protect the supports that allow our most vulnerable newcomers a fair shot at the exceptional experience we have promised them as students in GEFCO. Thank you. Buenas tardes, GEFCO board members. My name is Amanda Duncan and I am the dual language instructional coach at Edgewater Elementary in the Jefferson Articulation Area. Tonight I want you to know the questions I'm wrestling with as I envision conversations I will have with families and teachers at Edgewater after we have cut or reduced many positions.
For example, when Drakel's family asks to find an optometrist, how to find an optometrist who speaks Spanish and doesn't require insurance, what should I say when the one day they have off from work to come get help is the same day that our family liaison isn't here because her hours were cut. When Nancy's father asks if she will continue to receive extra support from the reading interventionist, how will I explain that the district cut that position? And when Nancy's dad says that his coworker's daughter still gets intervention at her school
because the PTA can pay for it, how do I tell him that's not an option at our school? When Diego's mother explains that he might not be paying attention in class because his father was recently deported even though he had committed no crimes and had a legal permit to be here, how do I explain that our mental health team was cut in half? When our fifth grade teacher asks for support with her newcomer who never learned to read, how do I tell her we don't have anyone available to help so she'll have to teach him to read while also keeping the other students on grade level?
When teachers are ready to quit because they don't have the support they need, how do I tell them that things will get better? When families suffered terrible hardships so their children could get a better education than they did, how do I tell them that the American dream has to be on hold? These are the realities our community is facing. Our school has to cut over $250,000 Part of the reason for this large reduction is that our Title I numbers came back lower than in the past. We dropped from over $1,100 per qualifying student to just over 800.
This is not because fewer of our families live in poverty. Many Edgewater families feel a very real fear of revealing information to the government in this political climate. Their concerns are valid and the worry they feel is palpable. Our families need the support of our school that our school provides now more than ever, which is why we urge you to revise the budget to protect our Title one students. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Charles Parker. I'm a GEFCO graduate as well as a GEFCO parent of four. My children are in high school, middle school, and in kindergarten.
I'm here tonight because I want to put a face to what these budget cuts mean. Our daughter attended Edgewater Elementary from first grade all the way through sixth grade. During that time, she struggled emotionally as many kids do. And because the school had a mental health team, she didn't fall through the cracks. She received support at school, a place where she spent most of her day from adults who knew her and cared about her. That support mattered. It helped regulate it helped her regulate, learn, and feel safe.
Today, that same support is on the chopping block. And now my her younger brother is starting kindergarten there. We're being asked to accept the various services that help the child succeed may not be there for the next. Title one schools exist because the needs of the students are greater. Cutting their budgets deepens, inequity rather than addressing it. These cuts don't eliminate needs. They eliminate access. And title one students are the ones that feel the loss first and hardest. Budget cuts don't reduce student needs, they reduce student chances.
In addition, basic health support like clinic aids should be paid for by the district and not with the school budget. These essential conditions, are there to ensure that students are safe, cared for, and are ready to learn. When a child is sick, injured, or managing a chronic condition, learning cannot happen until the health needs are met. Schools should not have to choose between education and basic care. The same is true for librarians, especially in title one schools where serving a greater
diverse demographic. A librarian is a lux is not a luxury. They are literary leaders, research guides, and champions of equitable access to books, technology, and information. For students, the school library is the only place where they can encounter a wide range of literature and reflects on identities and expands on their opportunities. Removing this access widens the opportunity gaps which we should be working to close. Finally, it's unfair to place these decisions on families and schools and communities, asking them
to choose between nurses and mental health support, between librarians and interventionists, as if any of these roles are expendable. They are all necessary. Families should be not be put in a position of fashioning the very support in which allow children to thi to thrive. We know these positions are essential for student success, safety, and equity and they must be, funded as if they are essential. Our children only get one chance at education. We are asking you to protect the people and resources that make that chance. Thank you. I will ask one more time.
I know these are really great public comment. Please refrain from applause. Snapping accepted. Number three. Good evening. Hello? Hello. Okay. Good evening directors and doctor Coleman. Our names are Caitlin Fitz oh, I'm sorry. Fitzpatrick and I'm Allison Phipps. We are speaking tonight on behalf of Engage GEFCO, a community partner committed to ensuring that every student can learn in a safe and supportive environment. Communities across GEFCO are asking for clarity and reassurance around the ICE policy. They are also building their own local solutions and support networks to ensure their neighbors
and children are safe. Jeff School shares the responsibility of ensuring students and families feel safe, supported, and able to fully engage in education. That shared responsibility is why we're here tonight, urging further action. Clear communication, consistent protocols, and visible preparedness are foundational to student access and well-being. Preparing for the worst gives us the best chance of protecting students and strengthening the systems already in place so that no gaps exist when they are needed most.
The 2025 resolution was an important start, but the resolution alone is not enough. To truly prioritize student safety, the district must align policy, direct communication, and implement implementation. We are asking the district to strengthen this alignment in three key ways. Thank you, Allison. My name is Caitlin, and first we wanted to talk about policy. And in order to give our amazing students time we want to follow-up with emails detailing the policies and where we see room for growth so we won't put everyone to sleep about the policy numbers and everything.
So policy is the first task. Second is communication. The resolution called for broad multilingual dissemination and visibility, yet many schools have not posted it. It is difficult to locate online, and families have not received district wide communications reassuring protections already in place. Communication must reach the entire community, including families, students, teachers, guest teachers, staff, and community members interacting with our schools. As parents of children in this district, we have not received an email, text, or
social media communication confirming these safeguards. This communication gap undermines trust and contributes to fear that can directly affect attendance and engagement. Families navigating legal processes are often deeply afraid, and schools carry immense pressure as safety nets within these realities. Third, guidance and resources. Schools and staff need actionable direction, not just commitments. Other districts provide toolkits, step by step procedures, and family resources. GEFCO has the opportunity and the responsibility to match this level of preparedness and support.
We are asking what happens when rights are not respected by ICE officers. A friend of mine who works in a neighboring district shared that ICE activity was reported nearby and she held her students tightly before dismissal telling them she loved them fearful that they might be sent to a detention center in Texas like other young children. No educator should carry that fear alone. When students feel unsafe, learning suffers. When families disengage, communities weaken. When clarity is absent, fear fills the space.
We cannot change federal policy, but we can do what GEFCO does best, support our local community. Unpredictability defines this moment, and preparation matters. Our goal is to eliminate the possibility of a child experience harm experiencing harm tied to preventable gaps in our systems or communication. We urge the district to move from resolution to implementation by reinforcing policy protections, strengthening communication, bolstering existing systems, and equipping schools with clear guidance.
Now you will hear from amazing students who whose experience speak to why this matters. Their voices remind us that policy decisions are not abstract. They shape daily realities in our classrooms. Thank you for your leadership and your commitment to GEFCO students and families, and now for these brilliant, amazing students. Alma and Ashley. My name is Alma, and I'm the eleventh grade class president at Jefferson Junior Senior High School. Oopsie. Sorry. I'm a little short. I'm I stand here representing my community, my generation, and Miraza to say that the
DG's current policy regarding immigration enforcement does not guarantee the safety of my community at Jefferson. My friends and I cannot concentrate in class while worrying that ICE agents could be waiting outside in our parking lots, our sidewalks, or our athletic fields. The current policy, which does not allow ICE enter schools without a warrant, does not give me comfort. For I see students across grade levels stay in class wondering if they will see their parents again. I am asking you to strengthen the district's immigration policy for I never imagined having to speak about our basic rights and safety. I grew up believing America stood for opportunity, diversity, and education.
Today, many families and I, like including my family, we live with fear because of the color of our skin or the accent on our voices. For I believe no child should feel like they are the problem or be afraid to attend school. Stronger policy protections would help students feel safe and allow us to focus on building our futures. We need protections that prevent enforcement activity from targeting school spaces or surrounding areas where students and families gather. For we all heard how a fire was used as bait to detain his family. How an 11 year old took her own life because of the toxic environment in
her school, threatening her that they were going to call ICE on her family, and how a kindergarten teacher called ICE to take her students' parents away just because they were from Honduras. So what I want what I'm asking us to do is because you have the power to decide what happens in our schools, you can help us make it safer for our students and families. Please ensure the safety of difficult families by strengthening these policies. Students can learn, grow, and use their voices without fear. My name is Ashley Rentale Garcia. I am an eighth grade representative at Jefferson Junior Senior High School.
While it should not be our responsibility to stand here and ask you to protect our classmates, I feel it is a moral obligation as a person that sees the fear shaping our community right now. Our immigrant students and children of immigrants are not criminals. They are students and they are people. They deserve dignity regardless of legal status, ethnicity, or race. Everyone is working toward a better future and seeking education should never be criminalized. We should be worried about grades and tests, not about our friends or families being taken by masked men. To value education you must first value the lives of those you educate. I am here to remind you that. Children have been taken by ICE right outside their school and our current policies do
not prevent that from happening to us. Jefferson is a predominantly Hispanic school and we ask what protections ensure that enforcement activity would not happen right outside our campus. Our schools are full of culture and diversity. In a time where that is being threatened we are asking you to do more to protect us. I am not here to debate politics but I am here to ask that you think about the eight year old worrying that their parents will be taken from them while they learn long division or the high schooler who can't focus on the PSAT because they don't know if their family will be home when they get there. Protecting student information matters, but that alone is not enough. Students need stronger protections and a voice in the policies that affect them.
A good school is not just built by teachers supporting students. It is built by a district protecting them. Please do more to ensure students can learn, laugh, and grow without fear. I'm using my voice because so many of my people cannot, and I ask that you help us amplify your voices because they are not just ours. They are friends, our families, and our teachers. And so I ask that you do better regarding policies regarding policies that affect us. Thank you. Thank you. I believe we're on number four. Welcome. Thank you. My list says we don't have a number five. If you have a number five, wave at me.
Okay. Come on up. Welcome. Hello. My name is Emily Ritchie. I am the coordinator of GEFCO's Native American Education Program, and I'm here with our Indigenous student council members. Good evening, members of the board. Thank you for the time and care you give to the students in this district. My name is Delilah Lucero. I attend Alameda International, and I'm a tenth grade student. Before the rest of my classmates introduce themselves, I would like to start off by reading GEFCO's current land acknowledgment. As we gather, we honor and acknowledge that Colorado educational institutions sit on the traditional territories and ancestral homelands that were unjustly taken from indigenous stewards who have and continue
to call this land their home, the Cheyenne, Arapaho, U, Apache, Comanche, Kiowa, Lakota, and Pueblo and Shoshone Nations. Further, we acknowledge the 48 contemporary tribal nations that are historically tied to the lands that comprise what is now called Colorado. It is GEFCO's responsibility to educate ourselves, our communities, and our students so that we can embrace the wisdom and knowledge of indigenous peoples and actively stand together to address injustices. In offering this land acknowledgment, we affirm and honor the history, wisdom, oral traditions, and
resilience of indigenous people and recognize the responsibility to care for and appreciate this land together. We ask that you take action by looking into GEFCO's Native American education program's upcoming events and or attending a community powwow. Hello. My name is Terren. I went to Arvada West High School, graduated in 2024, and I'm a past member of the Indigenous Student Council. Hi. I am Ellie Jones. I am a senior at Ralston Valley High School and I'm a part of the Shoshone Bannock Tribe. In 2023, Indigenous Student Council created this district's band acknowledgment.
Since then, it has been left to the choice of each school's leadership team to decide if and how this is included in graduation ceremonies. Tonight, we are here to share why that acknowledgment should not be optional and why it should be read at every graduation for every student every year. As we continue to work together on inactivity and meaningful change, we would like to recognize and express gratitude for the board's history of support for native students. In 2024, when the board supported SB twenty one thousand one hundred and sixteen, it meant so much to me and my peers from the, GEFCO's Indigenous Student Council.
Having an active role in the removal of offensive displays at Arvada High School felt healing and empowering, feelings only strengthened by the knowing that our district had our backs. Similarly, in 2023, when the board backed the policy change, giving freedom to students to express their culture at graduation, through wearing regalia and adorning our caps with cultural items, I and many other students felt truly seen and honored by our district. As a student leader and active community member, I know the importance of cultural expression and how it can truly lead to feelings of belonging.
Thank you for supporting this for GEFCO students. Representation shapes how we see ourselves. If the only time you see people who look like you is in a history book or a cartoon, you start to feel like a ghost in your own school. But we aren't ghosts. We are still here, and we always have been. Belonging is a big deal in school. When we talk about native people, it's almost always in the past. We rarely talk about modern leadership, current struggles, or the resilience of native communities today. Requiring a land acknowledgment at every graduation sends a clear message that native people are a living, breathing part of the community that students are graduating into.
It helps students like me feel seen rather than erased. I think spaces like Indigenous Student Council makes a difference because I don't feel like I have to explain myself all the time. But outside those spaces, representation always isn't always there. And sometimes, when it is there, it can be harmful and or stereotypical. We are not one single group. Native communities have hundreds of languages, traditions, and histories. When schools treat indigenous identity as one small historic topic, it limits everyone's understanding, native and non native students alike. Land acknowledgment helps share responsibility. They show awareness and respect without putting a burden on native students that always have
to be the ones explaining our presence. A student council member who was not here to not able to be here tonight shared, only showing Native students in the context of the past puts us in a box. Graduation is about the future. It's where community gathers to celebrate who students are becoming. That moment should also recognize the land and the peoples who have always been here. For many of us, hearing our tribe's name out loud in school spaces is emotional. Many of us have seen elders move to tears because of this. It is a healing sit sit situation where many were once told, to hide who
they were at such a young age gets the chance to express themselves. In my culture, gratitude is essential and crucial. A land acknowledgment is not only words, it's commitment to awareness, respect, and shared responsibility of all of us in the community. So tonight, we are asking the board to make land acknowledgements a permanent required part of all GEFCO graduation ceremonies. This is a small step with meaningful impact. It ensures students don't have to wonder if they belong. They will hear it affirmed at one of the most important moments of their education. We look forward to working with you to make this part of GEFCO's traditions. Thank you for listening to our voices tonight.
Thank you. Number six. Welcome. My name is Chris Harrington. I'm a father of, two and conifer. I know you guys quickly spoke on the Stop the Bleed stuff. Just a quick note. In speaking with various administrators throughout the district, my understanding of the current Stop the Bleed training is that there's a few various kits in the schools placed throughout the hallways in various locations and very few staff, mostly just the nurses and maybe one or two, teachers that are trained in that protocol. The trouble with that is during a lockdown, nobody's getting into the hallways to reach
the necessary supplies and neither is the nurse or possibly a few trained staff reaching potential victims in the classrooms. So with that, following the successful example set by Conifer High School and recognizing the leadership that made the program possible, I'm here to ask you to consider adopting a Stop the Bleed type program throughout the entire District for all school staff. At Conifer High School, our, school administration showed what proactive leadership looks like. They allowed parent partnership and recognized a simple but powerful reality.
In an emergency, the first few minutes matter. Uncontrolled bleeding is the leading cause of preventable death after traumatic injury, and the ability to act immediately can mean the difference between life and death. Because of their leadership, Conifer High School staff have now been trained on the Stop the Bleed program that empowers staff with pro, practical life saving skills. This program doesn't create fear. It builds confidence. It prepares people to help one another in moments when help is needed most. What is especially important for this board to know is this. The program has not cost the school a single penny.
Training was conducted by the local fire department, professionals who already serve our community and understand emergency response. Our local hospitals also serve a great resource for free training. I currently have a contact through Lutheran Hospital who would love to talk about partnering with the school district and providing that training. All supplies in our school thus far have been funded entirely through parents and community support. No additional burden was placed on school budgets or instructional time. This is a clear example of what can happen when schools and communities work together with a shared goal of safety and preparedness.
A stop the bleed stop the bleed program is not about expecting the worst. It's about being ready for the unexpected. Just as we may teach CPR, first aid, and fire safety drills, bleeding control is a basic life skill. These skills extend beyond the school setting and can be used at home, on the road, or anywhere within the community. Tonight, I respectfully ask the board to follow suit, explore partnerships with local emergency services, hospitals, school health staff, parents, and community members, and take meaningful steps forward to protecting the lives of students and staff.
I wanna offer a sincere thank you to the school admin at our school for their leadership and their actions demonstrating what meaningful improvements in safety and that it doesn't always require new funding, just commitment, collaboration, and the willingness to act. Number seven. Hi. I'm Dusty Behrens and I am a parent of Conifer High School students. The safety and security of our schools is a critical responsibility that directly impacts student learning, staff effectiveness, and community trust. A secure school environment allows students to focus on their education and educators to perform
their duties without fear or distraction. Given today's complex safety challenges ranging from emergency preparedness and threat assessment to crisis response and coordination with local agencies, it is essential that the safety and security department is led by individual with a strong law enforcement background. Experience in law enforcement provides the training, judgment, and situational awareness to ass assess risk, implement effective protocols, and respond swiftly and appropriately during emergencies. The this background strengthens preventative strategies, improves incident management, and reinforces a culture of accountability
and preparedness across the school district. Many school districts in Colorado have taken the steps to protect their students, staff, and facilities by hiring an individual with a law enforcement background. Below is a short list of the many schools districts in Colorado that have hired an individual with a law enforcement background. Director of safety and security for Cherry Creek School District has has twenty years of experience in law enforcement. Executive director of security for Boulder Valley School District has twenty one years of law enforcement experience.
Director of student safety and emergency management for Poudre School District has fourteen years of law enforcement experience. Director of safety and security for Adams twelve five Star School District has over sixteen years of law enforcement experience. Director of safety and security for Englewood School District has nineteen years of experience. Security Director for Academy District twenty has twenty five years of experience in law enforcement, and the Assistant Director has thirty one years of law enforcement experience. Chief of Climate and Safety for Denver Public School has twenty two years of experience.
Director of Safety and Security for Douglas County School District has twenty five years experience as a special agent in the FBI. Director of Safety and Security of Mesa County Valley School District has nineteen plus years experience in law enforcement. Our current executive director of school safety has zero years of experience in any type of law enforcement, which has weakened the department's effectiveness and has led to school safety protocols that are more theological than operational. Many parents throughout our district have had the knowledge been very vocal about safety of
our schools especially in our mountain areas. The miscommunication and guidance that has given that was given to parents after the events at Evergreen is a clear indication that our Safety Department leadership lacks knowledge and experience in the field of school safety. Investing in experienced leadership for school safety is not only a proactive measure but a vital step in protecting our students, staff, and facilities while maintaining a positive and secure environment for our students. Thank you. Number eight. Welcome. Thank you. Hi.
I'm Carrie Dahlman. I'm a teacher at Arvada West High School. Good evening. I'm Nancy McCandless. I'm a retired GEFCO education support professional. Good evening. Mary Sullivan, teacher at Arvada West High School and parent of a seventh grade child at Oberon Middle School. We're here to speak about what real collaboration looks like in our district's history with that. When we as a district face serious budget challenges, I believe there's some things that you should expect from district leadership moving forward.
I wanna take you back to 02/15/2011. On that day, governor Hickenlooper announced historic cuts to k 12 education to the tune of $40,000,000 for GEFCO Public Schools. What makes that moment especially significant, to me is where I was when the news broke. The announcement came during the lunch break of a labor management collaboration conference hosted by the US Department of Education here in Denver.
Sitting in that room with me were superintendent doctor Cynthia Stevenson, Dave Thomas, then the school board president, and myself, the president of the Jefferson County Education Association. When the news of the cuts came down, it was immediately clear that continuing with traditional siloed bargaining would only lead to conflict and harm to students and staff. We needed a budget process that intentionally included the employee associations as partners, not adversaries.
So I floated an idea. What if we tried something different? The three of us sought and received board approval to convene what became known as the employee summit. Representatives from the district, the school board, teachers, administrators, and classified staff came same constraints, and a shared commitment to protecting students. Nothing was off the table. There were no sacred cows. The summit was not easy. We discussed cutting positions, compensation, transportation, programs, contracts, and busing, and even closing schools.
But because the process was collaborative, transparent, and consensus driven, the outcomes were jointly owned. The district was able to cut $40,000,000 while we avoided mass layoffs, We minimized class size increases, and we preserved electives, arts, and music, the heart and soul of our schools. Just as important as the financial outcome was, the shift in relationships was so incredibly
important. We built trust. We were able to say collectively that these decisions, as painful as they were, were made in the best interests of students. We're sharing this not as history, but as a model for moving forward. When budgets are tight, collaboration is not optional. It is essential. And it does not happen by accident. It requires the board to expect district leadership to work meaningfully with employee associations, and it requires leadership to see those associations as partners in problem solving, not obstacles.
Our request tonight is simple. As you face these financial pressures ahead, commit to intentional collaboration. Expect transparency. Expect shared responsibility. And expect district leadership to work with employee associations, not around them or after decisions have already been made. This is how we make hard decisions without losing trust, stability, and focus on students. Nancy? That process, the employee summit, shaped my entire career in as a leader in GEFCO.
It was exhausting. It was energizing. It was gratifying and honest. It was the first time I understood what real collaboration should be and it should look like. I am very proud to have been at that table and to have done the best I could representing classified employees at that time. And more than anything else, I was proud to be a GEFCO employee and part of this GEFCO community.
Thank you. I brought the, article written about our work in 2013, copies for the board, if I may give those. I wanna thank you for your time tonight. I know your work is difficult, but I really hope that you steer this district towards real intentional collaboration because it was so powerful in 2011. It was so powerful in 2012. And like Nancy, it is one of my proudest moments.
It's not every day that, you know, a union leader will sit down and say I'm willing There are still people who, you know, don't agree with all of the decisions that we made. But when we work together, good things happen. And I'm concerned that that's not happening right now. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you to the commitment to the snapping. I appreciate it. Alright. Number nine. Good evening, board members. Nice to see you again.
My name is Nathan Phenom from Conifer. I'm an educator, trained first responder, mandatory reporter, title nine trained, and have combat experience. I now have a student enrolled in GEFCO, and I'm still not allowed to volunteer to keep our students safe. I started speaking here in October in order to bring you more ideas on how to further protect our youth. I offered a volunteer based system that had a financial net positive impact for your school district that has gone ignored along with everybody else's ideas. It is clear that you choose your personal feelings over the protection of our students but don't understand what it's like to be in their shoes.
I've seen more than one gun here on-site for each of you tonight. Currently, you're 66% covered. There's four open firearms in this room. Whereas, our students at Conifer are point 00125% covered by a firearm. 800 to one. You guys have four to six of you. You guys are adults, they're children, and you're putting the signal in front of them that your life is more important than theirs. You have the funding to protect yourselves but not them. Erin Kenzworthy stated in October something along the lines of she does not feel safer
when she is around a good guy with a gun but yet but yet always make sure that there are armed officers to protect all the board members every board meeting. Our community has purchased ballistic films, magnetometer. Citizens have offered to protect the school both armed and unarmed and yet you're dragging your feet. Why is the security why the security for all of you is more important than our students, I will never know. During the fall semester, I didn't have a student enrolled in GEFCO, therefore, I couldn't volunteer. Start of spring semester, I enrolled a student and I'm still unable to volunteer because
Greg Meniere will not implement the GEFCO approved Watchdog program. Don't know why, but he won't. He refuses. Will not let me volunteer at the high school. Between y'all and Muneer, I have no other choice but to believe you don't have the best interest of our students in mind. That being said, since I don't believe you have our best, the best interest of our students in mind, this is the last semester I'm having a student enrolled in Jeffco Schools. I am moving all of my assets to Park County. You put your personal feelings and protection above the students' needs, whereas it should be
the other way around. My contact information hasn't changed. Please feel free to reach out if you change your mind and wanna protect our students. Otherwise, keep them living in fear. Number 10. Welcome. Hi. My name is Anna Francis. I am a parent to two kiddos who are currently enrolled in GEFCO. And I'm also here tonight to ask the board to update the district policies around how federal immigration enforcement on school property is being handled. It's been over a year since the initial policy was created, and, unfortunately, the situation has increasingly increasingly grown worse and schools are now part of the targeted areas.
While there are a number of steps in the current plan that are in alignment with other school districts across Colorado, we have one that is weaker and less detailed of a risk of an outline of a response to how they should be carried out. I do very much appreciate that the district has taken time, energy, and the courage to create a plan, but I strongly believe that we can and should do more to ensure that each one of our 26,965 non white students and their caregivers feel protected and safe when they attend one of our schools. I'm requesting that the district strengthens our policies and provides a more developed district wide plan for what happens on district properties regarding the safety of our students and their
caregivers when and if federal agents and agents were to arrive on scene. We have some great examples through the Denver and Aurora school districts for improving language and add and adding additional steps and clarification that would strengthen our district's plan and keep our students safer. For example, clarifying language to specify a judicial versus an administrative warrant, requiring a specific name to be on the warrant rather than a general warrant, requiring all identifying information for each agent, including their name, badge number, and ideally a photograph of the officers. I think we can also add designations of, including parking lots and driving areas on
school property as part of the protected zone with a visible signage. That's something that's been recommended, just to help provide a little bit more of a buffer and then to include protections for school events outside of school hours such as sports, bands, choir, theater practices, community events, or weekend festivals. I would like the district to look into partnering with local law enforcement as a potential ally in protecting our community and having that be an immediate action that is, that is put into place anytime federal agents are on or near school property so that there can be additional witnesses and to ensure the safety of students, staff, and
the community. I would like the district to begin building relationships with the local advocacy groups to provide immediate legal representation and support to the students or faculty if federal agents do come onto campus, and that they wait to allow contact with any student or staff until that representative does arrive. Sorry. I have a lot more. I am also asking the board to partner with other school districts to try and bring another lawsuit, against the federal government to restore those designations as it looks like that safety that they currently believe they have is ending.
I believe that every student has the right to a safe and free k 12 education, and it's not a political thing to have students have the ability to feel, to attend school without fear of reclamation for themselves or their families. And that the resolution currently in place leads me to believe that the board's views on this matter are also in agreement with this statement, but they do need to be strengthened. I don't know what your backgrounds or your families look like, but I will end with this quote from the City Spies book series. You You don't have to be a part of a group to understand that they're being mistreated. Justice doesn't require a membership card, just a sense of right and wrong.
Number 11. Welcome. Good evening, members of the board, and thank you for your leadership. My name is Deb Erickson, and I'm from Golden. Hold on, miss Erickson. Let's make sure your mic's on. Did I touch it? Sorry. Thank you. Okay. I've coached in this district across multiple schools and sports for more than a decade. I'm here tonight because what may seem like small a small potatoes issue, how our schools recruit, train, and support coaches has quietly become a systemic problem with the potential to undermine the health of our athletic programs and by extension our schools.
One example is that there is no consistency across our district in how athletic job postings are handled. Some schools post roles on the district site, others on Chassa. Some include clear expectations, others provide only contact information. This initial inconsistent inconsistency creates inequity and confusion from the start for both applicants and administrators, and it means we're not setting clear standards for one of the district's largest and most visible student programs. Once hired, most most coaches are thrown into the deep end.
My first coaching job began with a handshake, a set of keys, and good luck. There was little formal training, no signed contracts, no evaluation. Today, we do sign an agreement, and we do have evaluations, which are now four pages long. The current responsibilities expected of a seasonal coach have expanded dramatically. Off season programs and youth camps are just a couple examples. For a stipend that in some cases equates to only a few dollars an hour, coaches assume enormous risk, liability, parent conflict, public scrutiny without the employee protections that other
district staff receives. Coaches are the most visible ambassadors to the community, but they are also the most vulnerable employees. Expected to represent the district with professionalism, yet little support when concerns arise. Adding to that vulnerability is a new financial burden. Due to district budget deficits, coaches are now expected to fundraise to keep programs running. In my first year, in the nearly early February, funds were allocated based on participation numbers. In the past two years, my program received nothing. This additional expectation is another risk for head coaches and a distraction from what we
were hired to do, coach and mentor students. Let's be honest, athletics may not always be the district's biggest priority financially, but they are essential to the well-being of our schools. We are all aware of what athletic programs bring to students. And yet we are watching talented, committed coaches walk away every year because they feel unsupported. I'm urging the board to take a close look at this before it becomes a crisis. I'm offering a suggestion to the district if we could standardize the coaching jobs listening to start and provide some level of support and due process for coaches.
Thank you for your time. Number 12. Welcome. Some really fascinating comments tonight. Good evening. My name is Tim Krug. I live in Evergreen, and my topic is declining enrollment. My family is again here with me tonight. Since you saw us last month, my wife and I made the difficult decision to pull our boys out of Conifer High School. And this semester will be our daughter Mia's last semester at Marshdale Elementary, which is a real shame because Marshdale is a fantastic school. We know there are many external factors causing declining enrollment in GEFCOPE, but the reason
you are losing these three students is entirely due to a lack of transparency and accountability. Our family supports public education. My wife and I volunteer in our schools and on committees. We've helped get signatures for ballot measures to increase school funding. We've taken our kids to Red Fred rallies to support our teachers. It's remarkable that you have managed to disenfranchise our family so badly that we are pulling all of our kids out of your schools. About five weeks after our son, Eddie, was put in mortal danger, after suffering a concussion at lacrosse practice, his older brother, Joseph, who is autistic and on a significant
support needs IEP, reported feeling bullied and humiliated multiple times during class at Conifer High School. We were unsatisfied with the school's resolution, and so we used Facebook to locate the family of one of the other students involved. When we sat down with him, what he told us he did and what the school had told us were not the same thing. The school had watered down and had minimized the severity of what had happened to our son. And it had also ignored possible health risks that we were only able to address
after talking to the other student. Now we know that most students in GEFCO are gonna have a perfectly satisfactory experience because you have many superb teachers working here. But when something happens, when there is trouble of some kind, and there are parents that are scared or angry or frustrated, and they need to deal with administration, we found the district is not at its best. Here's one of many examples. I sent an email to school staff detailing my son's concussion experience. Our community superintendent sent me an email claiming that there were factual representations that the
district disputes. So naturally, I responded with a one sentence email asking, could you please tell me what are the facts of the district dispute? I got no response. So I sent another email asking the same question, and he told me that the district isn't going to tell me. What is even the point of telling us that we have facts wrong without telling us which facts they are? We are desperate to understand our son's experience and what can be done to prevent other students from being put at risk of permanent disability and death. If we have some facts wrong, we would very much like to know what they
are. If the board members could help us get these answers, we would very much appreciate it. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Number 13. Welcome. Good evening, directors. My name is Eddie Krug. Again, heard some fabulous, speeches tonight. This is my first time making a public comment. I used to be a freshman at Conifer High School, but I started homeschooling two weeks ago. It's going pretty good, but I miss seeing my son every day. Last month, my dad told you about my concussion and how he and my mom asked the district to send out an email to remind coaches how to safely respond
to potential head injuries, but they said no. I don't understand why. We know for sure I had a concussion, and so we know my coaches put me in danger of second impact syndrome when they allowed me to return to practice. I was lucky, but if it happened to me, couldn't have happened again, to someone else especially? I don't think it's allowed to ask to send out another email to, coaches to prevent the same mistake. I have another idea. I think you should require high school athletes to learn how to respond to head
injuries before they're allowed to practice. It wouldn't hurt for us to learn it, and I think if my teammates had known, players are supposed to clear be cleared by a doctor before, returning to practice, they wouldn't have let me in. Something that, has been bothering me is my coach, said the reason he didn't tell my dad about my injury after practice is he is distracted by other players, but I've seen the video and he isn't talking to any players at the end of practice. He was talking to the assistant coach and both coaches appear to be killing time.
Can someone help me understand why if a student lies to the school, there are consequences, but when a staff member lies to the school, nothing happens. I thought coaches were supposed to support their players and care about their safety. But five days after my injury, a friend on my lacrosse team went to a game and told the coaches that I wasn't there because I had a concussion. My friend told me that one of the coaches said it must have been from that hit, and both coaches started laughing. It hurts to hear that my coaches were laughing about my injury in front of my teammates. I don't think concussions are funny.
I missed a bunch of score and had to go to, like, 15 appointments at Children's Hospital. I was in pain and couldn't sleep through the nights for weeks. My parents told me I didn't laugh or smile for many days after my concussion. I don't really remember. I spaced out a lot. I missed out on homecoming because the music gave me a headache, and I couldn't participate in esports for the rest of the semester because video games hurt my brain. My friend told me he decided to quit the team because he doesn't want to play for coaches who think what happened to me was something to laugh about. I think my friend is maybe more mature than the coaches.
The lessons I have learned from this that I'd like other Conifer students to know is that the school staff can laugh at you and lie, and nothing will happen when you report it. I'll follow-up with an email tomorrow to ask what you think about my idea of athletes learning about concussion safety. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Number 14. Is there anyone else that has a number? Okay. Wanna thank everyone that participated in public comment, especially our students. It takes a lot to stand up in front of a podium, in front of people, and in front of a live stream, so I really appreciate that.
Next we will move forward with the consent agenda. Item 6.01 through 6.25 are presented in board docs as proposed consent agenda items. As a reminder to our listening public, the board received a preview of these items at the February 4 study session. Does any member wish to amend the consent agenda? Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda with the exclusion or never mind is there a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented in BoardDocs? I move to approve the consent agenda as listed in BoardDocs. Is there a second? I second. Is there discussion?
Doctor. Echeverria? Yes, I have some discussion. I'd like to share a few thoughts on Senator Bazely's bill regarding the director of district voting for school boards. When this concept was first introduced, the proposal was to divide GEFCO into five separate districts. While I don't support that specific approach, I did offer the alternative director district voting that more accurately reflects the communities being represented. As I continue to learn more, I discovered that districts such as Denver County, Chaffee County, use a hybrid model where they combine director district seats with at large seats.
And I believe that model deserves serious consideration in GEFCO. For context, I ran in District 1, which includes areas of Broomfield, Westminster, and parts of Northern And Western Arvada. I've lived, worked, and raised my children in this area since I was a child myself, giving me a deep understanding of the needs of this community. During my campaign, I was surprised to learn that I needed over a 100,000 votes spread across areas with vastly different realities. From mountain schools that occasionally canceled recess due to wildlife being on their fields, to schools near Denver that are surrounded by multiple highway systems.
During this during that campaign, individuals who lived more than 40 miles away began spreading rumors and untruths about me. And it was the people in my community who stood up and said, You don't know her. That moment underscored the importance of local elections and local representation. Knowing who you are voting for because that person truly understands and represents your community. Jeffco mom since 2009 across four different schools, including an option and a charter. I've worked in Bloomfield and Westminster schools for decades, and I've seen firsthand how diverse
District 1 truly is. What senator Bazely brought forward was, at its core, about representation. He represents mountain communities with needs that differ significantly from suburban and higher density areas. I understand that perspective deeply. I ran for the seat because I didn't feel my community was being represented. Many people don't even realize that GEFCO has school board has schools in Broomfield County. To me, representation matters. Director districts make local elections more accessible. Candidates can focus on fewer voters, making grassroots campaigns, door knocking, attending local events, more
realistic and far less expensive. This past election cycle, countywide mailers cost the equivalent of several classroom teachers and paraprofessionals. In the director district model, campaigns can be more personal, more affordable, and more closely connected to the communities they serve. Finally, capacity matters. I work for a nonprofit and just this week, our executive director proposed expanding our board because as the saying goes, many hands make light work. GEFCO is a mass massive district. Our board oversees eight to nine committees, foundations, and partner organizations.
As a five member board, we struggle to meet the demands of that work. Everyone up here is either working, raising children, or both. And this board service is unpaid. Adding two additional members would allow us to distribute the responsibilities effectively and bring fresh perspectives to the table, ultimately benefiting GEFCO and its students. I do not support mandating the structure at a statewide level. This should be a local decision driven by the needs of the community. However, I do hope that someone, whether it's senator Baisley or another leader, can help
bring forward a solution that allows GEFCO to consider a model with five director districts and two at large seats similar to what other districts have adopted. Thank you. Thank you. Is there any other comment? Director Momenian? So last week, we had a presentation on some properties that we're looking to vote for surplus. And I just wanted to bring to light that, one one particular slide in that deck stood out to me and that was color strand. And when I looked at the average number of seats that were available at other
schools, it was a significant number, about three to 500, let's say. But at that particular school area, it was a lot less. And I understand it's an average and there might be some additional seats available elsewhere, but I wanted to bring light to this concern and engage my fellow board members in any conversation that they might want to have around this. Mr. Gibbons? Director Kenworthy? Director Kenworthy? Did you want us to have that conversation now? If anyone had anything to say, yes. Yeah. I will add just looking back at the slides, from those the presentation of those
schools that, it was it was noticed in there that there were receiving schools within three and a half miles that had footprints, in their existing site and their sites that we continue to maintain and, have students and staff in that had capacity for additions that would be anywhere from two to four classrooms. And, we're gonna still continue to experience declining enrollment for the foreseeable future.
But if something were to change where we needed more capacity in that particular area, there is capacity for adding seats. Your classroom, mister Gatlin, is about twenty twenty five on average student, student count. And so four classrooms is an additional 100 a 100 spaces, essentially. And if those are within 3.5 miles of the property that you're bringing up with Color Strand, then we would have the capacity to be flexible.
There's a margin there. I also wanna lift up that, having a school with a high capacity right now actually is fantastic because it means that we're fully utilizing our resources in that one area and that we are not, double spending for overhead for education. And that our and I I just think we will continue to experience declining enrollment. So if that number is high now, I think we will see the percentage of usage continue to decline over time.
That's what I wanted to say. So I'm I will be supporting the, surplus of all of the properties listed on our agenda. Thank you. Director Gibbons, anything to add? As to Kolor Strand, not specifically. I did wanna just briefly say in terms of the the vote to op oppose Senate Bill 26 dash o five seven, I do support what I understand to be the motivation behind the bill, which is to make sure that communities within this large district have, more connection and better say. And my opposition to it to that bill is simply because I think it, one,
should not be imposed upon upon districts across the entire state, nor do I think the policy proposal within that bill would solve the problem it is attempting to solve in the way that it's being hoped. So I do think it is worth all of us having more discussions, Maybe even if it's just doing a better job of reaching out to communities, including the mountains that that maybe don't get the attention they deserve, but this legislation is not the solution to that problem. I appreciate all this discussion. Thank you. It has been moved and seconded regarding the approval of the consent agenda as presented
in BoardDocs. Roll call, please, miss Harper. Miss Applegate? Yes. Doctor Echeverria? Yes. Mister Gibbons? Yes. Miss Kenworthy? Yes. Miss Millenian? Yes. The time is now 06:32. We will call for a fifteen minute break, and we will be back shortly. Thank you. Welcome back. Next on the agenda, our leadership reports. First, the board will hear from doctor Drew Coleman, who will be speaking on behalf of superintendent Derland, followed by reports from the board. Doctor Coleman, we have allotted ten minutes for your report, and the time is now
yours. Thank you so much, president Applegate. I appreciate the board for inviting me to join, on the dais this after this evening. So as president Applegate, mentioned, superintendent Dolan, is representing GEFCO, at the national superintendents conference, where she is both sharing the important work that we are doing here, in in our district as well as learning from our other districts across the country that are making meaning meaningful progress. So we hope that she continues to enjoy, that continued learning.
She asked me to share a few highlights, from this past month, with everyone. And as many of you know, we're in our principal hiring season, right now, and superintendent Dorland and I have been spending a significant amount of time really identifying strong leaders, to fill our current vacancies. And, Jeffco, we continue to attract, some exceptional talent both from within our district as well as outside of our district. And our hiring process is both both very thorough, as well as inclusive.
And our candidates spend a lot of the time through the process in our school communities as well as meeting with our educators and our families and and getting a chance to talk to the students for the schools that they are interviewing with who also play a very essential role in helping us identify the right leader for each one of our schools. And so we're very excited about our processes and also the leaders that are being named, to continue to lead our schools and support the communities that they are ask
that they're willing to serve in. I also wanna highlight, the state of the district event that superintendent Dorland, hosted on January 20. The event feature, feature a panel of our outstanding j s l JSLB students, whom you will also hear from tonight in when they do a presentation for you. She also opened opened the JCAA winter leadership event, which included a keynote, on the happiness advantage, which was a very, timely, professional learning for our leaders as well as
of our central leaders. And this year's message around the happiness advantage was really positivity isn't a luxury. And so it was a great learning for us. And it says positivity isn't a luxury. It's actually a performance strategy. It felt both powerful and timely for our leaders, really asking us all to lean into, what drives us, what makes us, show up each and every day, and how we continue to be happy. But not only happiness, but how do we spread that around our schools and around
our our our different teams. And earlier this week, superintendent Dorland attended a press event, hosted by representative, Peterson, the Jeffco Sheriff's Office, as well as state senator, Lisa Lisa Cutter and state representative Tammy Story. And this event highlighted several bills that are being advanced both in the state of Colorado legislator and the US House in the aftermath of the Evergreen House High School shooting, that happened on September 10.
In her remarks, superintendent Dolan, shared that she was proud to stand side by side, with local and national legislators who have chosen to take action, to do something to make our schools and our communities better. Personally, I would like to share a highlight of my my week, which was, a learning walk that we did at Bell Middle School earlier this week. Weekly, we do our cabinet learning walks where members of our, academic learning team, academic chiefs, as well as principals from that particular articulation area, go and we go to
a school and we walk to school and we're able to give that particular principal, that leadership team, a feedback on what we're seeing that is happening, that is excellent in the school as well as areas where they can continue to work to continue to improve. I wanna recognize our principal of Bell Middle School, which is, Michelle Deandra Austin and her leadership team for the outstanding work that we saw happening, in in our middle school. We observed a strong sense of student belonging as well as, students both academically and
socially, and we witnessed our educators implementing high quality, instructional materials, utilizing our curricular resources as well as, students taking ownership in their learning. And so we were very excited and happy to see that Anytime I have the opportunity to go to, our schools, it always fills my bucket. But it's really, something very excitable to see our schools utilizing the resources and really following along with, what we have said that we're gonna do for our students, creating
those extraordinary experiences, not only for our students, but for our staff as well. I really enjoyed visiting the class the classes with our cabinet colleagues, and the Golden Area, principals in supporting the work that is happening in our schools. Additionally, this week, our magical middle school and high school reimagine steering committees, met again this week to continue advancing our efforts around the Magic of Middle School and High School Reimagine. Our steering committees are made up of, principals for those particular groups, whether it's middle
school principals or high school principals as well as district leaders, to really begin to think about how we continue to create these extraordinary experiences for our students. This week together, we were able to reflect on, what is working well, and we also identified areas where we can continue to improve, and strengthen the learning experiences for all of our students. I'm so grateful for the dedication of our students, our staff, and leaders across GEFCO, and I appreciate the continued commitment, to ensuring that every school provides an exceptional learning
environment for all of our students. Thank you. Thank you, doctor Coleman. Other board members? Sure. Doctor. Echeverria. I feel like I always go first. Alright. Since our last meeting, I was able to visit several schools. The first was Three Creeks K eight, principal Tanya Bruce, and their mascot is the Colts. K eight schools have their own unique challenges and opportunities. I appreciated the really thoughtful design at Three Creeks. It was intentionally child centered. The spaces were there for kids. I was especially impressed by the leadership opportunities for middle school students to partner with
the younger students to be role models. It created a strong sense of responsibility and belonging across all grade levels of that school. I was also, fortunate to visit Stanley Lake High School. My daughter graduated Stanley Lake and my son is there now. And the principal convinced me to go find my son, which was very embarrassing for him. Stanley Lake is one of the only high schools in the district that offers an IB program, an SSN program, and an AN program. Quite possibly the only high school in the district. You might know that.
Despite serving students with very different needs within the one building, Principal Rego is most proud of the intentional work around climate and culture. When my daughter attended school there, the entire school was pink and it was known as the Pepto Bismol School, like, everything was pink. And he came in and one of the things he did was he repainted to really bring that pride, the gator pride back. So it's blue and green now, which is great for the kids. His he had a strong intention to bring, to build a strong staff family.
And that work has clearly paid off. Stanley Lake achieved the highest MAP scores in school history this year without a single decline across the four tested areas. So very proud of them. I also had the opportunity to visit Pomona Junior Senior High School with Principal Patrick Rock. They are the Panthers. Principal Rock is especially proud of the culture building efforts within the school since they have transitioned to a six through 12 model. There's a renewed sense of pride. 85% of their students are choosing to remain at Pomona rather than choice out, which
is huge. Being a Pomona Panther carries meaning with the community now. Mentorship again in this larger grade span, school is allowing students to create strong leadership pathways from the middle schools to the high school. Pomona is also celebrating notable midterm, mid year growth in language arts this year. I also visited Werder Elementary, principal Jim Havens, the Wildcats. Werder has the same exact colors as Pomona, red and gray and black, which was
awesome. They face unique parking situations because their building was originally designed as a neighborhood school, but currently they have 65% choice. So it's hard for parents to find spots to park and drop their kids off. During my visit, classroom Valentine celebrations were underway and Mr. Warder had received several Valentine's while I was in his office. Lots of kids were coming to bring him Valentine's, which was super fun. He's built relationships within the school and they are also celebrating the highest mid year
MAP growth in the school's history. Two more. Little Elementary. Little Elementary is the Links. They're principal's April. Principal Thompson was herself a Little Links. So that school, she attended there as a child and is now, principal there, which is amazing. They've got a really strong PTSA that supports school initiatives and community engagement. They are celebrating two consecutive years of performing status after previously being in improvement status. And then I finally visited the Sierra Elementary School with principal Tenille, Forrester, the Sabertooths.
Sierra is a newer building, again, like three creeks. It was intentionally built for kids. Like, you walk in and you see, really neat arches for kids to walk under. Just it was so welcoming for younger students. The school is now three years into consistent PLC work and that investment is paying off. Current math scores are the highest in their area. This month, I also had the opportunity to attend the Adapted Athletics basketball at Pomona and the hockey game over at Stanley Lake yesterday where my two year old was
the tiniest cheerleader in the room. He loved cheering for the teams. This month I was also, fortunate enough to, attend the State of the District, the and also a legislative delegation session and the CASB kickoff and day at the Capitol. Oh, and finally, Jeff Khan and, Director Kenworthy and Moeenin were there as well. That was a lot of fun. I got to watch how they use drones for security in GEFCO. My email the emails that we received this month were surrounding mostly budget and fiscal
responsibility. Sexual misconduct. So, specifically, I would still like to put a bug in your ear about better understanding current HR processes regarding, background checks and reference verification, maybe at a study session. Thank you. Thank you. I'm gonna just go around the table unless anyone jumps out. Director Momenian. Alright. So I'm gonna pull up my calendar because so last Friday, as doctor Echeverria was saying, myself, herself, as well as director Kenworthy, we were all at GEFCON, and it
was incredible. Director Kenworthy and I sat in on a session where we got to engage in sort of, like, a hands on, real life scenario, yeah, of, you know, a security breach. So much fun. And we were sitting there just trying to figure out who who was the culprit behind this security breach. A lot of fun with that. And the students were very engaged with it as well, which I it just really warmed my heart to see that. There was also many staff members there that were helping students engage, with finding internship
opportunities and, you know, so that was really interesting to see. Today I was actually at, Schaeffer a little earlier in my day, and it was very incredible to see the the work that's being done there around social emotional learning and inclusivity and just how they weave that into their curriculum. They're doing some very magical, very important work there, so I just wanna uplift that. And then I was, met with doctor Coleman, and we, went to Ute Meadows.
And we had a student led tour of the whole school. And there was so much positive energy as they were exchanging Valentine's, you know, cards and and celebrating Valentine's Day as well as, other celebrations that were going on. So it was just a whirlwind and just so much fun. And I I I love saying, is every day like this here at Ute Meadows? And I pretty much got a, yeah, it pretty much is. So just wanna uplift again the students that were there sharing how much they love
their school, how included they feel at their school. It's it was really heartwarming to see that. So that's all I have at this time. Thank you. Director Givens. Yes. So since, since we last met, I've been able to visit Jefferson Junior Senior High School. Had a great time. Principal Esparza was excellent. And, it was particularly heartening to see, you know, that school faces a lot of challenges, particularly in sort of achievement gaps. And they've made some amazing strides in recent years, sort of improving performance, and they've got a lot of systems in place to help a population where some students, you
know, in the same grade may come in with radically different reading levels, math levels. And they've had to figure out how to deal with that, but are able to at least, are doing it quite well with a lot of creative solutions. It was very impressive to see. It was also important for me to visit that school and see, sort of, how it's positioned within that community. How many students were walking there, to school in the morning, was particularly notable. I also went and saw Dunston Middle School, and, got a tour from that principal, doctor Pannell, and met many teachers and students. Was particularly impressed by the students I saw with the robots that they had built,
that were both impressive and functional. Also got to see what was going on in engineering classroom, which was also very impressive particularly for kids that age. At both of those schools, I also was able to hear a lot of feedback from both teachers and and administrators about cell phone policies and sort of what policies they have in place. Dunston actually was one of the, pilot schools and, they've had tremendous results from the policy that they were able to put into place. And, you know, definitely, I think it's a lot that we can learn from how
it's affected that school. And then I've also been able to participate in some conversations that with, Representative Story and others about the legislation that she's introduced, that would change, the way the social media companies have to respond to search warrants. What this legislation would do is, radically shorten the time within which they have to respond. And I think it's, you know, school safety is so hugely important. And there's things that we've, you know, heard a lot about about ways that things
can be responded to in the moment, whether it's these Stop the Bleed kits or other things like that that sort of harden the schools. What I like about Representative Story's bill is that's a really powerful preventative measure if it's able to get through. And had that law been in place and had the social media companies complied with those requirements, Evergreen wouldn't have happened. So and that's not hypothetical. It would not have happened. They would have been able to find the social media posts, the students. They would have been able to intervene in that young man's life and and hopefully
would have helped him make better choices, and we would all be having very different conversations about the challenges facing this district. So, I hope that bill is successful and that we have a much needed change in our state's policy to help us prevent future tragedies. That's my big highlights. Director Kenworthy. Thank you. So I'm just gonna dive right into it. We have our first of our four scheduled and publicly noticed legislative delegation meetings, and superintendent Dornland, doctor Echeverria were there, for that conversation.
And I wanted to give thanks to representative Tammy Story and Ed Bowditch for organizing the space and, also setting us up for our next three meetings. I'm looking forward to those. Our next one is next week. I had the chance to visit the Evergreen SAC meeting, which, has been focusing on ongoing efforts to enhance and discuss security measures in that, community. I also had the chance to, visit a couple schools with our state board education member, Carla Esser, to celebrate some growth, in in a couple of our schools.
So we visited Rose Stein, Lumbergh, Alameda International, and Red Rocks, and had phenomenal conversations with the admin and leadership there and also got to tour the schools for a little bit. But we had four four places to get in one day. So, we rode together and had fantastic conversations in the car as well. It was really it was really lovely, and I hope we can do it again. I attended the state of the district, and I appreciated that it was also streamed and then shared on our, podcast channel. So I encourage members of the community to go and listen to that if you
have not. Today, I got to attend the Adaptive Hockey South Schools event. And I just wanna give a shout out to the Dakota Ridge hockey players for being the refs. That was really, really a great event to attend. It I left smiling, which has has been such a gift today. Let's see. I also visited the Evergreen GSA and shared a pizza lunch with those folks. I wanna say we have a ninth grade leader in that community who is an outstanding facilitator.
Like, watch out. They did amazing. I I when they told me they were in ninth grade, I was like, no, you're not. You're a senior. Right? And they said no, and I was just I was very impressed. I also attended Jeff Con. The theme was stranger things. I love a theme, so I showed up dressed up like 11. But some people, maybe if they haven't watched stranger things, were probably really confused by my presence there. I also wanted to give thanks to Denver Water. They were hosting a session there that was a ninety five minute session where they
handed out, robotic arm kits to our to our participants. They had to turn students away because it was highly anticipated event every year at at GEFCON. They were building robotic arms, and I've never seen a classroom of of kids more engaged and, like, thrilled. They were so excited to be there. And I think, Denver Water does a great job of being engaging as a community partner, and that was just such a gift to be able to witness some of that. I also attended the JCAA conference for a little bit and appreciated that there were
concrete and usable tools that our administrators were able to leave with. I attended educator lobby day with our JCEA and Jesper reps and had some good conversations and also got to spend some time around the Capitol Building. What else? I attended the press conference that's already been mentioned a couple of times, and I'm looking forward to supporting that bill. I was with the EAC last night and, that's our Equity accountability committee, and they are planning a community conversation on April 28.
The EAC was set up by article 22 and our teachers negotiated contract. And in the language, it requires that there are two community conversations, and so this will be the first one that we have done. And so I wanted to put it out there, save the date, April 28. I think it's gonna be a fascinating experience and I and really, engaging. We had a great planning con conversation last night. I registered my own eighth grader for high school, which is fun and terrifying. And then I also met along with community stakeholders. And I also wanted to remind my fellow board members about our Grubhub friendly board
director competition. Yeah? Just a reminder. Just wanted to put it out there. And then I also, wrote something that I'm gonna share with y'all to to finish out my report. There is so much to celebrate in GEFCO. Every single day in this, county and this district, there's so much good going on. And I just want to remind the directors, I need to hear the reminder myself and for folks in the community, who, you know, have been here for public comment.
I'm not saying GEFCO is perfect. None of us are. And it's not an excuse for not doing the hard work. We're engaged in hard work. But there is also so much good that I think is overlooked on a daily basis, and I want to lift that up. So I'd like to invite our listening public to consider sending us emails with good news. Like, My kid brought their grades up, or My daughter scored her first goal, or Our composting program is up and running, or I feel like I belong in my community, or My sister made a new friend, or I passed my history test. I want to know, and I think we would like to know, what is everybody
celebrating out there that we don't even know about? I wanna remind us that there's learning and achievement, connection, inspiration, mistakes, and forward motion every single day. Where there is spilled milk, there is also somebody willing to share their goldfish, and there's paper towels and recess. You know, if we can bring it back to school, be student centered, there is no way that any one person can know every single thing that happens in this district every day, but we can be looking out for one celebrating and feeding and nurturing the good things that are happening because they far outweigh the negative things that
we need to face and that we need to deal with. So I just would like to invite people to catch somebody doing something great. And if something happens and you're mad, you can be mad, but please don't stay mad. Come and be a part of a solution with us. Build something that is going to serve our students far into the future, not just for this generation, but for seven generations out. Like, we need some long lasting vision and healing in our community so that we can move forward. And I will leave you with that this evening. Thank you. I wanna start by saying how much I appreciate the public comment tonight.
It is often really difficult to sit up here and not be able to respond, when people are really hurting or upset or angry. And, it's a really unique spot to just sit here and listen, and I think it's something more of us should do is just sit and listen because it really forces you to be thoughtful about what's being said to you. So I wanna appreciate JCA and Jespa for kicking us off and being here, and I'm excited that negotiations and bargaining have started. I wanna thank our community, our parents, our our students who came and and shared with us because it really is beneficial and it matters.
On the legislative front, I agree with a lot of what's been said. I'm very supportive of, the press release. I got to to stand there with representative Story and, senator Patterson and, our sheriff, sheriff Marinelli, and see a partnership that is really awesome to come out of our GEF co electives, and that's that's a really exciting thing. Also, I wanna I we got quite a bit of comment about kind of some of our legislative agenda study session, and I it's a great opportunity to say a lot of the ideas, and and director Gibbons said this, a lot of the ideas,
and and doctor Echevarria said this too, are good. We need the policy sometimes to catch up and the language to catch up. And so I would just ask, you know, don't assume that because we can't support a bill, it doesn't mean we don't support the idea and concept. It's very much how is it written, how will it be executed, how is it funded. Those are the things that we have to weigh in on when we make a decision to support legislation. And so, I just want wanna lift that up because some of these decisions are really hard when you love the concept, but the language isn't quite there. And that's why we have an iterative process at the legislature.
Right? That's why bills come and go and get modified. I was able to attend the the Westminster Chamber of Commerce and got to share with them a little bit about our budget situation, which is really fun. They asked great questions. They always do. They're, they're a wonderful bunch. Also, the Wheat Ridge, Renewal Authority, which is, a lot of folks don't know, as a taxing entity, we often sit on boards of our municipalities when they are doing renewal efforts, which is also a taxing authority. So, excited to to be a part of that and listen to the great ideas that are happening in Wheat Ridge.
I got to attend a roundtable with JCEA, and lo and behold, we went on a hold at 07:00 at night at Bell Middle School. And it's a really fascinating thing when you look around the room and say, wait a minute. How long are we gonna sit here? And we did. We sat there. It was great. We had great conversation. I appreciate that. They sat there with me until our r one let us let us go home. I wanna highlight that we have dyslexia testing in our district now. And I got to go to my mid year conference for my daughter and got to see her dyslexia testing results, and that's not something that we've always had.
And it's a really awesome tool to be able to implement that's gonna help kids learn and catch children that are struggling to read a little earlier when they have dyslexia. So I'm really happy that we've implemented that, and I was really excited to see it. I appreciate the state of the district and that, multiple folks have mentioned it. Please do go check it out if you didn't get a chance to see it. I also love the highlights of adapted sports. For those of you who don't know, those are sports where kids of all ages come together, and it's it's a really awesome thing to witness. So if you can go, I encourage everybody to go check those out.
Enroll Jeffco is real. The stress is real for all of you parents who went through that. We appreciate you. I know it can be challenging sitting to see if you get offers from some of your schools or not or where you're where you're gonna go to middle school or high school. So I just want, the listening public to know that we all we all go through that with you. And so I'm I'm glad I'm glad that that's done and that we have town halls coming up. So something you're gonna start to see from the board is that we have town halls that will be in the March time frame. There's gonna be a lot more communication coming out about that.
Really excited. It's a great opportunity to engage in our community in a direct way. And I would I wanna really appreciate director Kenworthy ending us on a positive note and inviting everyone to come come with us and work with us. I also wanna lift up that, I've been really touched at the schools I've been able to go see to see the interaction with parents and educators and staff. And it's just a really helpful reminder to me that the way we treat our educators and staff is the way our kids will. And so, kindness, respect, those are things that we expect our kids to do and
and that we as adults have to have to teach. And so I was just, it's just really cool to see that. And I would encourage you all, in the spirit of director Ken Worthy, one of the things I'll be doing is sending a bunch of our teachers and staff just thank yous, the work they do every day. Also in Valentine's Day parties today, it's amazing to me what our teachers do every day. I always walk out thinking, I'm so grateful that they're here. So, send your teacher a note. Let them know how much you appreciate them and that the work they're doing is meaningful because, that's really important too.
And so with that, I appreciate all of you giving your board reports. I think it's really, it's always fun to hear what everyone's been up to. And, we will move on to the next section of our agenda, which is the study session. So our first item of study this evening, we will receive an update on High School Reimagined in Jeffco Public Schools. District leaders, staff, and students will share progress and plans for the upcoming year. Presenters, please come on up. I know you're out there. Join us at the front. We have sixty minutes for this presentation, and please plan to include some time at
the end for questions from the board. And before I give it to doctor Coleman, I just wanna say how excited I am about this presentation. High school reimagined has been something that has been in the works for years, and, it's really awesome to see the impacts that this program has had, not only in just kids really enjoying the classes and work that they're doing at school, but in our graduation rates and interest and belonging. I think there's a really awesome story to share here, and I'm really happy to hear it. So now I will turn it over to doctor Coleman. Thank you, president Applegate.
You know, this is I am really excited for us to be able to hear about High School Reimagine. This work that, we're doing across our district, and our leaders, really taking hold and really, really changing the experience for our students. When you think about access and opportunity, this is how we continue to, build what we're doing. So I'm excited to to really to hear tonight and for everyone to hear just as amazing work that our leaders and our students, are are really doing right now. And to hear about this experience, I think it's just gonna continue to motivate us,
and inspire us to continue the hard work that we're doing. So I'm gonna turn it over to to them, and let them begin. Great. Hello everybody. And thank you. Thank you, doctor Coleman, president Applegate, members of the board. We're excited to be here this evening. My name is Heather Waldron. I'm our director of post secondary workforce readiness, joined by an amazing group here. Special thank you to our principals who are generally running from school events to get over here and join us this evening and our students taking some time out of their evenings tonight to be here with all of us. I'm gonna give everybody a moment to introduce themselves and then we'll get started.
Hello, everyone. Thank you so much for allowing us to be here tonight. Wonderful to be in front of you all. My name is Ellen Mary Hickman. I am the project manager on High School Reimagined and Magica Middle School, and I will turn it to Kim and John. I'm Kim Keller, principal at Dakota Ridge High School. John Thanos, fortunate enough to be the principal at Chatfield Senior High. Hi. My name is Zylisha, and I'm a senior at Arvada High School. This is my second year on GSLV. And my favorite part about high school has been senior sunrise. It's a great way to get to know people, so I loved it.
Hi. My name is Chris. I'm a sophomore at Chatfield Senior High School, and this is my first year on JSLB. Highlight of this year so far has been learning Titan management skills with extracurriculars like JSLB classes and my personal life. Hello. My name is Gavin Volley. I'm a junior at Dakota Ridge High School, and this is also my first year on JSLD. One thing I have enjoyed this year has been tackling the new challenge of becoming a full IB student and balancing all my extracurriculars with the rigor of the classes, but also exploring the ingenuity all of the curriculum inspires and seeing how they talk in the same type of language in that curriculum inspires you to be a lifelong
learner and a lifelong inquirer. So you can see we've got our work cut out for us with the amazing students that we have in our system. We really are anchoring a lot of this work with a student centered focus. So really thinking about this idea of leaders building a community of leaders so that all of our students will have the skills that they need in order to lead in their community, the school, future workforce, and making sure that all the work that we're developing around high school reimagined keeps the voice of our students at the center of that. And that's really why they're here tonight so that you can be able to hear directly from them on how this work is impacting their educational opportunities.
So to kick us off, we've been really anchoring into these key concepts around what is high school reimagined, because we can talk about it in a theory and it's nice to start to have some concrete ideas about what is it that we're talking about when we talk about High School Reimagined. And so our key goals around High School Reimagined is that our students are all leave us ready for their next steps towards whatever their chosen path might be. That they would have a resume that represents that they have proficiency in their core content, academic skills, durable skills that we know that they're going to need to be successful in the future. They have college credits or certifications that help them jump start into whatever their next
steps might be. We're hoping that all of our students have an opportunity to have a senior sign off experience. We'll talk a little bit more about that tonight, about that could look like, but some sort of culminating experience that helps students really feel like they're ready for whatever's coming next for them and that they have a plan. And that plan might change. Right? It's okay for that plan to change. Many of us had our plans change multiple times between the course of high school and where we sit today, but we want them to understand how to kind of make a plan for what that next step is and how to execute on that. And so what all the work that we're doing around High School Reimagined is how do we build the systems, structures, access, and opportunity for our students to have these
types of experiences. So when we talk about resume of a graduate, that's a common phrase that we're talking about then with this idea of high school reimagine that our students are leaving with this this resume, this idea of skills and experiences that prepare them for their future. There's a few key things that we really wanna make sure that all of our students have access and opportunity to experience. One of it's one of those pieces is around what we're calling the big three. This is language the state has started to use when they talk about the big three. And so if you've seen some of the legislation that came out this this past spring and some work that we're doing as a system right now is around aligning to these key college and career readiness indicators.
And so the states have been referring to them as the big three in a lot of different spaces and said this is a great time for us start to talk about those because they're directly connected to the work that we'd already began at GEFCO when we started these conversations around high school reimagined. And so one of those pieces is that our students have access to college credit while they're still in high school. Right? So when we talk about college credit, that could be concurrent enrollment credit. Concurrent enrollment credit we know comes at no cost to students and families. It does require that we have a credentialed teacher in place in order to be able to offer that credit. The other way that our students earn college credit while they're with us generally is
through AP and IB courses. And so students have access to those courses and then the student has to pass the exam at the end in order to receive that credit and have that credit transfer in. The next part of the big three is industry certifications. So we also wanna try to ensure that all of our students have access to high quality industry certifications. And so those certifications are usually accessed through our career pathway programs that we have in our schools through our career technical education programs because that's where you see the alignment between what students are learning in class and what those certifications are that would actually set them up for success in the future.
This list comes from the Colorado Workforce Development Council. They actually identify what are the key jobs and what are the certifications that would get students access to a high wage, high demand career right out of high school. That's really that's who determines what those certifications would be. Our students earn between 1,502,000 certifications a year off this list. And then the third of the big three, are in-depth work based learning experiences. So we've been doing a lot of work around work based learning throughout GEFCO, especially tied to High School Reimagined. When we talk about the big three and kind of really making sure our students
have access to in-depth work based learning experiences, we're talking about things like internships out in the community, industry sponsored projects where industry partners are bringing real work into our classrooms, and that work is being supported by teachers and students are executing on that work. This is primarily supported through our career hubs in our schools, and you'll have a chance to learn a little bit more about that this evening as well. Alright. So access to those pieces as well as access to engaging relevant daily learning experiences. So what we know is that for high school reimagined to really work and for our students to have these experiences, we can't just wait until these culminating opportunities to
make a difference. Right? So we're really working intentionally on bringing durable skills into everyday lessons so that students are while they're learning US history, they're also learning about collaboration skills and critical thinking skills, communication skills, those skills that are going to be transferable no matter what it is that they do. It also increases engagement and relevance in all of those courses. We're focusing on content mastery and really trying to think about how are we delivering instruction in a way that sets the bar at what we want the students to learn and gives them regular academic monitoring and feedback towards that content. And oop, my clicker's not working all the way right.
And, and key extracurricular activities. So we also know when our students talk about where they have these experiences, they talk about the clubs they're in, the athletics they're in. Right? This is their opportunity to practice some of those skills in a totally different context. They develop leadership skills, collaboration skills, and they continue to anchor back to those being the opportunities that let them expand beyond what might be happening in their classrooms. Last but not least, we want students to take all of these opportunities that we're trying to build and put those together into some sort of digital or physical resume or portfolio to have something that they're bringing with them when they leave us that
helps them launch into what comes next. Right? So really this is the work that we've been doing with our high school leaders to get from this big idea, this big concept of what a high school reimagined into the what does that look like on the day to day basis? What are we really trying to accomplish for our students every day? We are excited too of, rolling out some new tools that are helping support this as a system, and I'm sure our leaders will talk a little bit more about that as well. So at the heart of all of this, we've been working on building out opportunities like this for a long time, but at the heart of all of this is creating equitable access access and opportunities to to be able to experience these things across
our schools. The reality is that when we talk about college credit throughout GEFCO, depending on which school you attend, you would have access to anywhere from six college concurrent enrollment credits to a 166 concurrent enrollment credits. Or Vena has six credits. At Chatfield, we have a 166 credits. And at Dakota Ridge, we have 64 credits. Depending on which school in GEFCO you attend, you would have access to anywhere from five AP or IB courses to 30 AP or IB courses. Ravenna has 11. We have 19 at Chatfield.
And at Dakota, we have 31. Similar themes emerge when we talk about access to different industry recognized credentials or those certifications. Knowing that those are offered through our career pathways, does recognized credentials or those certifications. Knowing that those are offered through our career pathways, depending on which school you attend in GEBCO, you could have access to anywhere from three specified career pathways to up to 12 career pathways. At Chatfield, we have access to 19 pathways? At Naticko Ridge, we have access to 31 or six six pathways. Sorry. We We also know that a number of students access some of these programs through our Warren Tech opportunities, which is a phenomenal way for students to be able to
have access to programs that might not exist at their home high school. The reality also exists that we currently have 2,190 applications for eighteen eighty three spots. There's significant wait lists for really key programs in health sciences, cosmetology, auto tech, and welding. In addition, as we work to increase work based learning experiences, we currently have career hubs in 11 out of our 17 comprehensive high schools. We know that these career hubs have been a key lever to providing students access to opportunities like internships, job shadows, guest speakers, and more.
And I believe we have a couple of students. Is it Kristen, Salisha? That are able share a little bit about that experience? So as a reminder, I'm only a sophomore, so I haven't personally used the Career Hub yet because college is still far away in my head. However, I've seen the impact it can have. Last year, one of my close friends was a senior, and she shared how the career hub helped her find not only which college she wanted to attend, but also what major aligned with her career goals. Because of that experience, she graduated feeling confident and prepared. Hearing her story helped me feel like this was a useful tool for me to
use when I'm ready to take that step and like I can trust the teacher who is guiding me to the right path. This year, I've been able to use the career hub in so many different ways. I've explored things that I like and things that I don't like and I've got to really find myself in the things that I want to do. The career hub has helped me see the career hub has helped me get interviews, shadow positions. I've shadowed at the DA's office. I've got to go to engineering panels, and I've got to see a lot of
different things in CareerHub, and the CareerHub has honestly helped me figure out what I wanna do for the future. It's shaped me in so many different ways. So really, when it comes down to it, the work of High School Reimagined is about how do we create those types of opportunities for all students, right, and increase access to those programs across the district. And so the the key work that we've been doing, the levers that we've been really activating through this work, especially this year, is one is around the leadership focus and really helping our school principals understand the programs and opportunities that exist at their
school and think about how do they help shift mindsets in their buildings to increase access for all students and what can might they be able to do to increase the awareness of those programs so that more students understand how to access those opportunities within their buildings. We've been investing in teacher certification. So that's everything from our, tuition reimbursement programs that we have available for teachers that might be close to being able to offer concurrent enrollment. We've also been working on expanding opportunities like college for all programs and looking for unique ways that we might be able to increase some of these opportunities, especially in targeted schools that have fewer opportunities that exist for students.
Career hub support has been a critical component of this work, and we've seen this work grow from what was an initial concept and was grant funded through three or four schools has now grown to 11 schools that are working to maintain those positions, even in the face of our current budget realities because of the impact that we're seeing that it has on students. We're having some regionalized support. We're able to bring those career hub coordinators together to think about who are the key partners within our community. Because what we often hear from community partners is when I have 30 different people reaching out, it's really hard for me to be able to partner with you all.
If I could have that organized and efficient and regionalized, it's going to make it a lot easier for us to be able to say, okay. We can open up 30 job shadow opportunities. We just can't manage 30 of you all trying to fill those spaces. So having that coordinated support has made a huge difference. And one of the key pieces that we're really excited to share about is this idea of regional collaboration. What we know is when we have different opportunities at different schools, some students are able to access those and other students aren't. And the reality is, especially with with enrollment factors being considered, we can't offer every program and every opportunity for every single kid at every one of our schools.
That's never a reality that we're going to able to fill. However, when we work together we may be able to increase access to some of those opportunities that might be existing at a neighborhood school right next door while that student can still maintain their identity with it to the school that they started at. So that is where I'm excited to hand it over, to Kim Keller and John Thinos to talk a little bit more about what this has looked like in the South Region. Thank you so much, to the board. Thank you guys for all you do and your willingness to, serve Jeffco Public Schools. We really appreciate you, and we're excited to be here tonight, miss Keller and myself
and our students, to share a little bit about the South Pilot and the exciting work that we're doing together at Bear Creek, Chatfield, Columbine, and Dakota Ridge. We have taken a major next step, through our work that we've done together over the last year and a half. It'll be two full years by the time we have it implemented. But we have worked to, all be on the same shared bell schedule starting in 2627. We this has been a long process for for us, but something that we see that unlocks so many different opportunities in our region immediately and then, as well as
into the future. So we started, o over a year ago, like I said, close to eighteen months ago, just sharing some dreams and ideas with staff. Spent a lot of time looking at different schedule options, shared different schedule options with our organizational leader teams, alt all leadership teams, and ultimately, we, had a meeting, what I like to call the meeting of the four families, where we had teacher reps and the principal and scheduler from each of the four schools standing sitting around a table, making our final adjustments to what is ultimately our shared bell schedule.
We shared that work with our union partners and have done a ton of collaborative work in that space. We at Chatfield currently have a, seven period day, while the rest of the schools were on a modified block already. And, we've landed on a modified block schedule with seven periods on Monday and then four block days. This modified block schedule will provide students, with the opportunity to access some more comprehensive programming right away, to have more access and opportunity within their day to tap into those work based learning experiences, and to allow, our teachers to engage in the deep
planning that it takes to be able to incorporate durable skills into every single lesson. And those are benefits we'll see at our individual sites. Beyond the individual sites, this collaboration and the shared bell schedule allows us allows for us to do several things that we could not do before. So, one of those things is sharing pathways, and I know Kim's gonna share more on that in a little bit. But we also are just able to share ideas of how we are making High School Reimagined come to life and how we're, able to execute those things, not just
at our school, but then execute them across all of the different buildings. So we've done credit cross walking, so that we're able to provide, students with more opportunities to earn credit in their different core subjects. We've increased opportunities for college credit at every school over the last couple years through concurrent enrollment, AP and IB, by sharing our different processes. We've shared ideas on everything from freshman success to what we do for SAT prep to, our SPED service models. And we can align in a lot of those things because of the opportunities that
we have. Beyond that, we've done a lot to share professional learning. We've had key we've been able to hear from a keynote speaker, Mark C. Perna, with all four of our staffs together in one auditorium to be able to align our work. And, our focus on durable skills. And we've also shared different professional learning that we've done across the different schools, that is career focused and focused on future prep activities. We're excited that we'll have opportunities for teachers that have not had somebody in our building to collaborate with during PLC time to be able to connect with other people
in other buildings that are teaching the same subject, because they'll have that scheduled allotted PLC time happening at the same time. So we each have one calculus teacher. They've never had anybody to partner with, but now we have four calculus teachers that we can partner with and calibrate across our system, which is exciting. We've done things like future planning day, and aligned on a singular day in the South where every school just does future planning focus instead of classes on that day, and have been able to bring that to our different campuses.
We each now have a career hub, which is awesome. Heather alluded to our partner mapping work that we've done. So each school had, like, 25 to 30 industry partners of, close to 90 partners, that are just for the South, and we share with each other when we're tapping into one of them and what the different slots are and how we're doing that internship work so that they have that one point of contact, which is awesome.
Beyond that, we're just scratching the surface of some of the things that we will be able to do. In the future, there's opportunity for us to potentially share personnel so that we could keep programs alive, that may, may not be able to continue in a certain school based on budget restrictions or something else. But between sharing something, we may be able to share, those programs and make sure they exist at both of our schools or as a shared pathway. We can share regional events, things like everything from career fair to potentially doing, something
like Columbine's Day of Service across the entire South instead of just at Columbine. And we just have the opportunity to calibrate in so many different ways across our different courses, through that PLC work and having other partners and anything. And on top of that, while we have, some shared pathways right away, we're just iterating and we'll have the opportunity to share more and more pathways. I think the biggest win from this collaboration, to be honest with you, when I started as a principal in GEFCO five years ago, there was there was a lot of individual planning, and things that we held close to the vest because it was
part of, like, our identity as a school. And now we're in a place where we can meaningfully collaborate, in in we can meaningfully meaningfully collaborate on everything. It used to be an apples to oranges comparison. I can do that in my school, but it's because we have this, this, and this. And now we've aligned in ways where we can do those things at all four schools, which is really awesome and really cool. And, it's awesome to be on the same team. We're we're definitely all grounded in, making sure that and knowing that we wanna make
sure that all students have the opportunity to tap into comprehensive programming regardless of where they want where they go to school or what their home school is or their transportation or circumstance. We want them all to have the access to the different programming that we have. We want them all, and we know that all students matter. And I feel like, I feel like a level of we can help out Dakota Ridge students in the same way that we can help out Chatfield students. And we have a common goal and mission. We we want students to have extraordinary high school experiences, so we share ideas around
that. We want them to have awesome memories of high school, and we want each of them to be connected and feel connected to what they're gonna do after high school. And, beyond that, I I love working with the other principals. Like, we have a blast together. We text in every single day, working together on everything, and it's just, an awesome collaboration across the region. So that's been my experience. I don't have much to say now. John is so right before I talk about our our high quality pathways. We really have the four of us where we might have we're rivals, obviously.
We beat them in football and took state. You beat them by 35 in basketball. Basketball. Yeah. But but and and that's the comfort though is that we still get to keep our school identity. I'm an eagle. John's a charger. Jose is a bear. Right? Yes. And oh, yeah. There's a rebel in there too. But, the the reality of it is is that he's right. We reach out to each other and we talk about, Hey, what are you gonna do here? What are you gonna do there? And we brought our schedulers in towards the end of the semester last semester and
we all spent an entire day as we were finalizing this schedule talking about absolutely everything that we could think of of what if a student's absent in ours but they're going to your school and who how are we gonna let them know? And and what if there's a drill and how are we gonna look out for those kids? I mean, there was so much that we sat and thought about and there is such a camaraderie between all of us and a comfort that we felt like we're gonna be okay.
We really are. We're gonna be okay and and it's just fun. It really truly is. We have five quality, shared pathways that we will be putting in next year. It might sound like we have done a lot of work. Our schedulers are the ones now who are really going to be having to undertake this and schedule kids across the four schools and the different pathways and classes and everything else. Our, pathways are criminal justice.
At Dakota Ridge, we have criminal justice. We have a legal systems one, a legal systems two, and a criminology, plus we have a teacher that teaches forensics. So technically in any one of these pathways when the students start and then complete it, they walk out with some type of certificate, an internship, something like that. And, it's it's exciting. I've had students at Dakota Ridge who've walked out and they've gone straight into college and are working in criminal justice literally in the courts.
One's become a social worker. Beyond just our five that we have up here, I have a student right now who is working at Rose Stein Elementary School two two of our blocks a day then she comes to school. She would set this up with our career hub coordinator and she's already looking and planning. She's going to be a paraprofessional. She's done this with our career hub coordinator. She's going to be a paraprofessional next year in Jefferson County. She can't wait to apply. She wants to do that during the day and go to CU Denver to get
her teaching license. I've got a a junior this year who is working out at Centennial Airport and learning to be a pilot. I know John can speak to many things also. When we have our kids who go through these pathways, Chatfield has cybersecurity. John at at Chatfield has cybersecurity. At, at Columbine, they have digital art.
At Bear Creek, they have education and the pharm tech, the pharmacy tech. That's something that's been building and growing. They've been able to do all of that with all the donations from Lutheran Hospital when they closed and moved to their new facility. I hope that you see our enthusiasm and our excitement about this. It really truly is exciting. These guys, they're they're a testament. If you could see our kids in our schools, those who don't necessarily always want to follow that typical pathway, but this offers them the sky's the limit and we're
gonna do whatever we can to be sure that you get there and are successful. Thank you so much, John and Kim. I can attest to how much fun they have in those meetings. It is really wonderful task to try to keep them moving forward. It is really unbelievably powerful to see the level of collaboration that is happening and how it is spreading across all of our high schools. We have our principals sharing more and more of the great things that they are doing and continually learning that they are not alone in the work that they need to get done and they are not alone in being able to problem solve around
it. One of the things that we wanted to make sure that we could highlight tonight is the fact that our students are continually at the center of this conversation. And oftentimes they are the ones that are asking us, like, are we really reimagining high school or are we just, like, moving some stuff around? Because we kind of have this and we kind of have this. And one of the ways that we've looked at student voice is through not only their data and their feedback from surveys and and their engagement data, but also we've gone to JSLB, our amazing student leadership board, to ask them, really, what should we
be doing and what does this look like? Oftentimes adults plan things and then they make up names for things and then it doesn't quite land with students. And one of the things that we have done as a part of high school, imagine if you saw on that first slide, was really thinking about what was formerly called the seminal experience, like how do we help students bring all of these things together and apply the skills that they have. We realized very quickly that term was not going to be very student friendly, so we actually went to JSLB and said, we need your help.
We said, hey. We have this goal, and we want you to really think about what this might mean for you and help us rename it. So, they're gonna tell you a little bit about that. The goal of High School Reimagined is to have students experience the real world to help shape them into their future paths after high school. This experience will be shaped by their career interests and will have direct industry connections through mentoring, internships, and industry sponsored project or job shadowing. It would also include an opportunity for them to reflect on their experience, finalize a resume, and build a concrete plan after graduation.
In October, Ellen and Mary came to speak with JSLB about High school reimagined, the senior project. We learned about capstone styles, experiences, then worked together to brainstorm possible ideas. Some of the names that were brought up were senior signature, summit project, and senior sign off. My personal favorite was summit project because it didn't feel like it was the end of something. It was the start of a new mountain that you go down and go back up on. But I am so excited to share that when Ellen and Mary came to JSLB
in January, we voted on senior sign off as the name. I'm very thrilled because I helped to create this perfect name. I was initially for the third option, the senior's signature, but I've come to the realization that sign off has more closure and feels more cinematic. Gavin Volley signing off. And it's not necessarily closure on the entire experience, but it's turning a new chapter, a new page into all of these students' experiences and seeing how has high school and the opportunities provided at this high school level going to shape them in their future, and what's the signature going to write.
And when they're telling their kids and their family about it, what is this writing going to be? What is this capstone kind of thing going to be? What's this signature going to look like? You can tell they were really into it, which we were super excited about because this is their this is for them. This is what we want to meet through. And we thought there would be no better way to really round out this time with you tonight than to actually allow our JSLB members to tell you what they would want their senior sign off to look like. So we're gonna kick it off with Salisha. Hi. After graduating in a few weeks, I will do two majors and I'm majoring in
pre law and engineering. If you asked me two years ago what I would have known, no, I wouldn't have. The career hub has helped me get to know myself and what I wanna do for the future. It's also told me that I really like being an ultrasound tech, so that's definitely a side quest that I'm definitely going on if I get the time. It's also helped me meet so many new people. Like, thanks to Janet Acerra, I was able to get a shadow position with the Arvada mayor, so I was really excited about that.
Also, I got to do a shadowing position for the DA's office. So it told me a lot about myself and what I like to be around and new experiences and meeting people. I also got to do a lot of engineering programs and got to do new types of engineering because there's not just one, there's multiple. So that told me a lot about myself thanks to the CareerHub. My goal after high school is to go into mechanical engineering and maybe specialize in propulsion or aerospace. So next year, I'm really focused on pushing myself academically, but actually seeing what those hands on experiences can be to build on not just what is the academic curriculum
or the durable skills I would need to learn, but how do I apply those day to day? Next year, I'm gonna be a full IB senior at Dakota Ridge, but we don't offer a higher physics class than the IBSL level. But at, Columbine High School, they offer AP Physics C and have a wonderful teacher there. And because of the standardized schedule system that was talked about by John and Kim, I'm going to try and be able to take that AP Physics course to be able to take calculus based physics in high school so I'm more prepped for my major. And then the other part of high school we imagined is for other students that
will per per, come after us, they will have a more scheduled opportunity to find this. But just having the support of staff to be able to find actual specific internships and job shadowings to see that day to day experience, to be able to see what those future opportunities could be and to be able to build that comprehensive resume and that comprehensive idea of who I want to be in my future based on my high school experiences. And it's just because of high school reimagine, I'll be able to build weave the academics and the real world experience together to create a good college resume and a good college plan.
Okay. So I'm not gonna be as cool as Gavin over here. I'm interested in becoming either a homicide detective or a forensic psychologist, not an everyday thing you'll hear from a 16 year old girl. I've already had experiences that help me see what this path would look like. We had, like, a career fair earlier this year where I spoke to two officers, and they offered me a ride along with a female officer so I could see what her perspective was as being a woman in a male dominated force. So I definitely plan on doing that soon.
And, I plan on taking forensic science during my junior year. And, one really cool thing I'd the experience this year, outside of school was I got to tour a real homicide department. My bad. And I got to talk to homicide detectives, two female homicide detectives, got to learn the ins and outs of it, all of the paperwork, but also fingerprinting analysis and even gun analytics and how to safely operate them. And I plan on joining the Explorer program next year and hopefully even being part
of WarmTech's criminal justice program my senior year. And I'm definitely interested in the criminal justice and criminology programs that are in the joint schedule. All of these experiences have helped me and will continue to help me understand which path I want to take, whether that's homicide detective, forensic psychologist, or any other little side quest that I may go on. Thank you. Aren't our kids just amazing? We are so grateful, Gavin, Chris, and Alicia. Thank you so much for sharing those hopes and dreams, and our commitment for High
School Imagine is to make this happen for them. We want to ensure that this happens not only for them but for every student that we have across our Jeffco high schools because they deserve to have these experiences so they can, as they said in their own words, really find out who they want to be and what they want to do in the future or find out what they don't want to do in the future. Believe Kim, do you want to add anything else? Okay. Kim's Kim's gonna refrain from crying. A community, member who is anonymous right now in my in my Dakota Ridge community
who is going to work with us to build out our career hub even more and provide us with some money to to just just make it even more welcoming and everything for the kids. And it just what impacted me the most when we were talking today and then I just got weepy. I don't know why. But it's because it's about the kids but it's from my community. It isn't some some bigger company or something like that. It's from my Dakota Ridge community that somebody is seeing the work we are all
doing and willing to come forward and and gift us with this with this money. So it's it's wonderful. It really is. Thank you all for giving your perspectives and sharing your experiences. I believe we have time for questions. Wonderful. Thank you. Alright. Board of directors questions? Anyone? Director Kenworthy. Thank you for being here as a, future Bear parent. I've I've been paying attention to the, work around the Southern Pilot. I've I'm I have a lot written down here. I'm gonna try to dial in now.
Where is the question I wanted to ask? I'll ask this one. How has the parent community responded to the upcoming change? Like, how how has the parent how are the parents responding? Yeah. I think we're I think we're in the stage of, like, and and this is why we always wanna provide a long runway when we do a shift. Right? So we communicated eight months before, like, a schedule shift is gonna happen. I would say mostly in the state of, like, clarification and understanding just because it's outside the box from what they, you know, what they have experienced or what older
siblings experienced and things like that. So we've had info nights around, like, scheduling, and this is when we're doing our course selection right now. And so just a lot of, like, questions about, like, okay. So what's available now? And then, like, freshman parents trying to, like, project out, well, what is going to be available when my kid is a junior or senior because they're excited about that prospect. I know when we were in the period of time when we were doing, shadow days and things like that, I had families being like, you know, my kids' community and friends are coming here, but I know this program exists over here.
And, just the them knowing that there may be an opportunity there to get the best of both worlds, had some initial excitement there. But I'd say overall in the place of clarification and and sense making. Yeah. I think it's also important that Chatfield and Dakota and even Bear Creek to some extent, we've had what we what we what you'd wanna call maybe a career explorer program where we've had kids for the last few years who have who have already kind of set the set the stage for this and there are many parents who've
come to me and have said that program saved my child. My child probably wouldn't have walked across the stage. My child wouldn't have graduated. And because of that program and those opportunities, they're a flourishing adult and and very, very successful. So I think we can say that it's it's gonna be good support definitely. Thank you for that. The block schedule that you have landed on together, was that decision motivated by wanting
to have more time in classes so that there there could be more in in-depth discussion and exploration, Or was there a budgetary reason to do a block schedule? Or what what were some of the factors? Were you all already using block schedules? These are some questions I received from some community members. Yeah. So, yeah. I the us going to a block, for it to be viable for kids to be traveling during a certain portion of the day and to be able to access these different pathways, it's it's the most viable option.
It's for us to have certain blocks of time in the middle of the day in which transportation can support us. And we've been working with transportation throughout the entire process about how they can do, warrant tech like loops and get students to certain places, how we can use, the front end or back end of our lunch periods to create safe travel time and things like that. So that was a huge component. Like, if we're gonna if kids are gonna be traveling, how can we make it where they're only traveling every other day and where they have a substantial block of time in which they are together? The three schools the almost every school in GEFCO was on a modified block schedule
already. One of my schools, one of the will be one of the last adopters of a modified block. And so, that's a piece of it. So in terms of specifically choosing a block, that that was those were the drivers of why is so that they can do that. In terms of, like, wanting to share the schedule, I think we just shared, like, all of the different pieces. And so, those are the different reasons why we knew we needed to share a schedule because we knew we needed to create more access for all students and the block made the most sense for the the logistics of how we can do that.
Thank you for that, very clear explanation. Appreciate it. Finally, I just wanna say the conversation about the sign off, over here. I just wanna tell you the joy that I witnessed, in that discussion, which is signifies the joy of learning and of ownership of their experience, the enthusiasm that there's a reason we get teary. It's because we care a lot. And so I wanna thank our students for being here late on the start of
a long weekend. Yeah. And I also wanna thank all the work and thoughtfulness that's gone into the program. A couple of pieces of feedback. At GEFCON. I was talking to the work based learning table that was there, and a student walked up and just completely uninvited, kind of gave this amazing endorsement. I had a paid internship last year, and it was amazing. And this is the best thing ever. I'm just standing in the middle of a hallway in Bear Creek and, like, you know, just effusive about how wonderful their experience has been, which is amazing because I
have had my eighth grader sign up for culinary nutrition. He's interested in following, the culinary and hospitality pathway. And when I explained to him about the co, concurrent enrollment and industry certifications and job prep and being able to graduate and go into a higher paying career, he gave the most enthusiastic middle school experience, response, which was debt. So all of that to say, I am really excited to see how this continues to develop, and I'm so impressed by our student leaders.
And your plans are just beautiful. I'm thrilled and excited for you, and I'm glad we've been able to support you moving in directions that feel like you're going where you wanna go. Thanks for being here. Other questions? Jack Director Mowenian. So, Gavin, I saw, when Director Kenworthy was asking a couple questions, it looked like you wanted to say something or chime in. So I just wanna give you a chance to do that before I ask my two questions. It was just a chime in, an example of how the Career Explorer program that was alluded to, by, Principal Keller and Principal, Thanos, just about, one of my friends
who is a fantastic, one of my teammates in cross country, he's a fantastic athlete there, and that was kind of his aspiration in that and track. But school was kind of this pass by thing. He knew he wanted to do decent mechanics, and there wasn't a lot of things he wanted to do in school, and school kind of became this thing he just did. And then after school was when he really was passionate about running. But with the career explorer program, I just saw his eyes light up, because he was just waiting for trade school. He was just waiting for this opportunity to change into something else. But with the career explorer program, he's now able to go seek those internships, be
able to do those on hands things. And now that it's been expanded from just not just a one year program to a two year program, this first year and junior year, he gets to explore those internships, and then the second year, he would be going to school every other day, still getting curriculum, and they we've specifically designed career explorer classes to adapt the curriculum to be able to be interconnected and get the academic stuff they need. But then also every other day, they go to that on the job experience, internship, whatever that is, so he can actually be passionate about that. And he's not just going through the motions doing this thing, it's the necessary academics
blended with on hand experience. So it's just amazing to see one of my best friends go from being school as a passerby thing to being one of his favorite things of the day, to go to that career explorer class and to explore those opportunities. So just an example of how those types of programs are kind of giving an example of what high school reimagine could be if we get show those opportunities to all students. And Career Explorer isn't the answer for everybody. I'm more in the more, maybe, academic IB and AP classes stuff, but just being able to have those opportunities to allow students to be passionate in all of those
opportunities. So just an example of how that career explorer has been, like, effective already. I am so sorry that I didn't see that you wanted to participate, and I am so glad that you did and made space for that. Thank you. Yes. Thank you, Gavin, for just uplifting and sharing that story. I mean, yes, school is for learning to read and math and all of those things. But I think it's also about finding the things that make us excited about our lives and make us excited to learn about other things. So thank you for sharing that. Two questions that I had.
Explain to me what the block schedule, what that means and what that looks like exactly. And then my second question is around transportation. Are the students expected to drive themselves, or is their transportation going to be provided? I'll talk block. You can talk. Yeah. Yeah. So our block is, standard, like, one day one day seven period day and then, like an even day, odd day, even day, odd day situation. So, Mondays, we have forty five minute classes. You get to connect with every class to launch the week. And then, Tuesday, we'll have our even classes.
Wednesdays, we'll have our odd classes, and they will be, ninety three minute classes, seven minute passing periods, like a forty nine minute lunch if you add the thirty five minute lunch to the two passing periods. We've learned to say forty nine minutes instead of thirty five minutes for our students. So forty nine minute lunch and then, but it's that's that's the standard. So, seven period day on Monday and then rotating back and forth each day. Late start? Yeah. We will have a late start on Monday. Currently, each of our schools have, different iterations of late start that just allows the
opportunities for, that PLC learning, or that PLC time for collaboration. And, again, because that's on the schedule, that allows the time for us to have different teachers hop on Teams meetings or stop by another school or something like that so that we can collaborate across the system and and different teachers can have different partners, to be able to collaborate with. Just something I kinda wanted to add in a little bit around the the block scheduling kind of component of some of this as well is that it does open up some of those opportunities for our students to go out and have those in-depth experiences in the community.
So the a a block period every other day gives me a large chunk of time to actually go to my internship, be there. Right? And it's consistent. Every Tuesday and Thursday, I'll be here at this time, and I can do this. It also opens up opportunities for students that maybe have even more flexibility in their schedule come their senior year to have experiences like what Gavin described where every other day, like every Tuesday, all day, every Thursday, all day, they may be able to be out doing whatever their industry connected experience might be, receiving credit for internships, earning certifications, and things like that.
And I can speak to the transportation piece. We have worked alongside our operations team. Jeff Gettland's team has been absolutely amazing to say, if you are going to do this, we will commit to making it happen. They have essentially because we have kept them in the loop the entire time, they were able to give us, essentially, John mentioned this, but blocks of time during the day where they could take bus drivers after they finish morning routes and morning drop off and are available to be able to then do some additional routes.
They have created a sample based on what we think is going to happen. We know with registration that will close and we will be able to confirm what that route will look like. But these will be not, like, not just a large loop that maybe students would be on the bus for a very long time, they're actually are going to be able to do some, this bus goes here, here, and there's a third bus, a fourth bus, that all get students within a reasonable time period using our seven minute passing, and because of the block schedule, again, we have more time for students to
be able to be in those courses and get the full opportunity. So transportation has committed to making that happen, which is also why being on a shared schedule is critical because then we are not having students miss potentially an hour of a course every single day to be able to go to that regional opportunity. I'm also glad to hear that we're providing that transportation and that we're not expecting students to, you know, take on that risk of driving from one school to another school. So that really is it's great to hear that. And so when when you guys are talking about, eight eight classes or eight blocks,
right, So that is that over the course of a whole year? When I and for context, when I went to school, my high school was divided up into semesters. So in one semester, you would do four classes, and then the next semester, you did another four classes. So is it different? Yeah. At any given time, students will actually have the opportunity to take seven classes. And then the eighth class time, that ninety three minutes, will be filled by an advisement period, which is, time for students to be together, doing work, sometimes student driven
intervention, sometimes some of our, like, ICAP or career planning, future planning work can take place during that block. Think of, like, a homeroom type situation. And then part of that block will be spent, for what we call study lab or responsive scheduling, where our teachers will provide intervention support to small groups of students. So they'll reach they'll be able to put into Infinite Campus a couple times a week here are students that I would like to connect with and support, or students may be able to request additional support via Infinite Campus, and then they will connect
during that time to be able to have a small group to, have time during the day to make up tasks, quizzes, and all of that built into the time frame. So it's actually seven classes, and then that eighth class looks like that. Yep. But thank you. Which I think is, just a name. I think it's is different than the the example. So we do know that there are some samples of block schedule. Our students would have, like, a double block of English just first semester and then not have it at all second semester, and that's not the model that they're moving forward with. It would be that they would still have all of those classes throughout the entire year. Yeah. The majority of our classes will be year long except for some semester long electives.
Doctor. Ajiveria, go ahead. I just wanna thank you for coming tonight and sharing, what's been happening with your pilot. I love that you even thought of the drills because I would have never even that would have never even crossed my mind. But when you have a fire drill and kids are supposed to follow their teacher out, they don't know where to go. So it's great that you even considered that. That is incredible. My question is I have a few, but can you describe a little bit what's happening happening in the North? Absolutely. So we just this year, as as John mentioned, we've been working in the South
pilot for about a year and a half, a little little over a year and a half because we started before the end of the school year. And it it was it is a it is a long process to build collaboration in a regional way. So the North schools have just come together this year, so we're about six months in, seven months in at this point. The five North schools that we are bringing together in regional collaboration meetings are Arvada, Pomona, Arvada West, Ralston Valley, and Stanley Lake. Those five schools, the leadership comes together monthly in the same way that the South
does and we have just started to be able to build an understanding of what exists across each of the schools, what are our opportunities for collaboration. We have started to talk about what it could look like to do a regional innovation grant to be able to support some of the pathway work that's happening, how we might focus on concurrent enrollment credits for increasing across the board. And in particular, one of the things that we've started to talk about is, in that in those five schools there are only two career hubs. So how do we start to think about expanding some of the career hub support?
We are just very early on in the process of really exploring sort of what are the opportunities that exist, and we will have, by the end of the year, identified some really key steps that we will put into place for next year. Thank you for that. During my school visits, I was in a school at Pomona, actually, and they had both a wood shop, fully functioning, and a welding shop. The principal was describing the the challenges in finding a welding teacher because welders outside of schools make a lot.
So can you tell me how you handle some of those challenges in finding qualified teachers to come in to a fully established welding shop and teach. Yeah. The it is definitely one of and and I'm sure that, Kim and John can talk to this a little bit as well. It is one of the biggest challenges we face with some of these really specialized pathways and programs is making sure that we have credentialed teachers, that are that are sustainable. Right? So that when we have turnover, we're able to maintain those programs. And so the welding program at Pomona is a great example of where that's a
really challenging position to fill. It's also interesting that, right, it's also one of our higher wait list programs at Warren Tech. There's not a lot of spaces where we have the facilities to be able to do that. We have done some really great work alongside our partners with JCEA over the past couple of years that allow our CTE instructors to come in and actually use our industry experience to advance on the salary scale so that they're not coming in from a prior profession and starting at step one in a teacher pay scale. And it's actually been a model where a lot of other, metro area districts are trying to adopt some similar policies in place so that we can attract some some
good talent. We've having some really great conversations, just even this spring about some of the credentialing opportunities for teachers in those pathways where there are some unique opportunities where you could bring somebody in from a career. And if they're teaching just in those courses, they don't have to go back and do a full teacher prep program. There's alternative ways for them to get certified. So some of it is just expanding the way that we're recruiting in those spaces. And when it's a high demand, high wage career that we're preparing students for, it's really hard to find an industry expert to leave that profession and come into the classroom. It it's an absolute challenge, and I know, my partner sitting next to me have
been already talking with us about, like, okay, these are the positions we're going to have to hire for and we have some really strong partnerships with HR to try to do as much outreach as we can in those areas. Thank you. That makes sense. And this is totally a personal question. As a mom, is there a theater track? There is, yes. So there is, I mean, one, all of our arts programs and performing arts programs have really great pathways and opportunities for students that develop a ton of amazing skills. And so hands down no matter what, I think those are great opportunities for students. We do have when we talk about career pathways specifically in career and technical education,
we have some really strong programs in our theater programs especially in things like audio and AV components. And our students are the ones that are then coming in and running the theaters when we when we have outside partners come in to actually use our spaces. Oftentimes, our students will intern to be the ones that are running those soundboards, running the lights, running those programs. I think does Chris have a an example? So I'm actually construction co head for the musical at my high school. Mister Thanos is always there to support us. It's really thrilling when he stops by with his kids.
And we have students running the soundboard. We have students running the lighting, rigging the lighting. We have students running the fly pit. And I myself and my construction team, we run the power tools all under adult supervision and with the proper safety things, following OSHA guidelines as always, and, you know, seeing the students lead and having those, like, safe communities where students are teaching other students, it's one of those experiences that I really hope everyone can have at every
high school. And I always said, if I become a millionaire, I plan on donating all of my money to every high school's arts program in all of CHEMCO. That is amazing. Thank you so much and thank you again. I can't wait to see how this, evolves up in the North. I'm very excited to see this. Thank you so much. Director Givens. So first off, this is a cool program. If it was around for me when I was in high school, my experience would have been a lot better. And if your pathways don't work out, you all have, administrators included, a bright career
as a comedy troupe. A couple of questions. First, I didn't get the opportunity to do internships in high school, but I had a lot of lackluster experiences in higher ed around internships. I'm wondering how you monitor and maintain quality internship experiences, particularly if students are doing them for, you know, what's a relatively short block of time compared to what you might see for internships in higher ed. Yeah. I can, get started on that a little bit. And so our internship programs for students to earn credit for an internship, it's a minimum of sixty hours, that students need to engage in that experience.
We have a lot of really great structures that our, Career Links team, who I believe is the the team that was noted earlier that the the students came up excited to connect with. Our Career Links team has built a lot of systems around goal setting and really identifying what are the skills that you're going to get better at. We usually set up some, mid internship career interviews that they're supposed to have with members that they're interning with of tell me about your pathway, how did you get here. Their supervisor for their internship will do a skills check off and kind of a almost like a check-in eval feedback type cycle, really just meant to be a learning
opportunity. These are the skills I've seen you develop. These are the skills that might be some next steps and some additional goal setting. So really for us, if it's work based learning, it needs to be more than just an hour log. The the learning needs to be tied around that. And that's some work that we've been doing as a system to get a lot stronger with, and I think our community partners are are really excited to see it because if they feel like they have buy in, they're not just signing an hour log sheet, they're really seeing the impact that it has on students. I also wanna say that that's one of the roles of our career help coordinators because I know at Dakota our kids who are doing internships or work based learning
are checking in on a weekly basis with our career hub coordinator and it like like, Heather just said, it isn't just the documentation but she's sitting with these kids and talking with them about what they've accomplished, what they're doing, what the next week looks like, and such. So that's another role of our career hub coordinators that keeps the kids, you know, on track and everything also. Yeah. And the the piece I'll add is so the sixty hours can happen during any time. So we're not we're not saying that that sixty hours is going to take place
within, like, our ninety three minute blocks every other day. Like, we're looking to tie an internship to the back half of a kid's schedule or whatever it may be, and then that that they can leave and they can go out and spend extended amounts of time there. They could start it over the summer and then finish their internship with us in the fall, like, different things like that. Sixty hours is the credit mark. And so, we're just creative depending on what that partnership looks like. And however however that can happen, we'll we'll work through our career hubs and with our partners to make that happen. So one other thing I see in one of the pages in our materials, you
didn't get to it up here, but we see that graduation rate for CTE concentrators is higher, than the overall GEFCO grad rates, which is excellent. I don't know if you could speak though too in terms of if you're seeing any data or trends in terms of just general academic performance. So it's not just in terms of on time graduation, but how are students performing in different academic areas when they're participating in these programs? That's a that is a great question. And so the data that you're looking at comes out of our Perkins metrics, which are federal metrics that get reported as part of our CTE programs.
And absolutely incredibly excited and proud of what we see with the lack of gaps on graduation rates. As we look at academic performance, it's interesting because the the data we get back is is reported totally differently, so I can't give you a direct correlation, right, on what we see. But I will tell you that we definitely do still see some academic gaps with our subgroups and our CTE concentrators. And that's an area that we are purposefully digging into. We're actually required even by our Perkins, to be eligible for our Perkins grant. So we are setting aside funds on a regular basis to start to look at
academic integrations in those pathways. So for example, in a business class, when they are looking at, you know, financial projections, how do we help them also apply concepts of linear algebra so that they're thinking about the right. We're really lifting up some of those academic connections to help our students once they found their passion. They're they're hooked in. They're bought in. How are we making sure that we're also using those opportunities to continue to develop their academic skills? It's a gap that we hope to continue to close, but we haven't closed it all the way yet.
I also wanna just echo, a a sincere appreciation for this work. This has been no easy lift, and, at least two of us have been here for two years, and we've gotten to see kind of the like, when y'all first came to us, and we're like, we're gonna get on the same bell schedule. And we're like, okay. It's really cool to see it come together in a way that's gonna be meaningful and allow this to carry forward. So just first, so much gratitude for the investment here because it it really is exciting. One of my questions is really around career hubs because I wanna make sure I understand it.
They're not all funded the same way. They're not in every school. Sounds pretty critical. So how are we addressing this district wide? I'll I'll get started, and I'll see if if these guys wanna jump in at all. So, yeah, this was definitely this was some work that had started with some industry and community partners talking about how do we increase awareness for our students about the different opportunities that exist, about high wage, high demand careers. And they kind of right? If this was a partnership with the business of workforce center, with the local chambers, to really talk about what what could it look like.
What was born out of that was some grant funding for us to launch launch the career hub work in a few schools. That grant funding has has since ended. And so the career hubs that are in our schools today are funded by by regular SBB budgets. So this is our principals being able to say this is making a big enough difference and we we need to maintain the position. We've been able to track it because with a grant, you're required to to have data and metrics to say whether or not it's making a difference. And what we saw immediately was a significant increase in, partnerships that were available to students.
We saw a significant increase in the number of students that were engaging in internship opportunities as well as job shadows and some some of those more exploratory experiences. But we also saw, significant numbers of engagements with students where they kept coming back over and over again. When we started to poll students about their understanding of career pathways, the work they were doing around durable skills, we saw strong correlations between their engagement in the career hub and positive trends in that data. And so as as our principals continue to look at the data and the impact
that it was having, as we hear stories from students, it started to just become more and more prevalent that this this was a position that was making the difference that we that we hoped maybe it would. Right? So the grant really just gave us a a foundation to say, here, we have this theory. Right? This let's test it out and see if it makes a difference. And then it grew where schools were finding ways to to pull a point five in to support the work through maybe it's a paraeducator that's supporting it primarily and then different teachers that are helping with the the teacher of record and overseeing some of that work. So people have had some different innovative solutions, but we have some some really formalized
processes now on what it can look like. We've learned a lot from from that initial set to identify some best practices. And really, I think it's it's our schools that are now trying to make it a priority. I think that's part of my concern is I know I've talked to several principals who aren't sure they're gonna be able to continue it because of the budget cuts of the district and we are asking them to make. And so Mhmm. I'm really interested in you know, you mentioned your community is stepping up to help. Like, I'm really interested in how we find sustainable ways to fund these because I do believe they're critical. The other piece and then sorry. And then I'll let, mister Thanos jump in.
The other piece, that I think is worth lifting up is with the new legislation that the state has passed around the big three, metrics. There's a couple portions of that. That. So when we look at those career and college readiness indicators, the state's going to be looking at that data, for school performance frameworks going forward. And we'll share more around this when we do our board update around one point four and PWR outcomes. But there's also funding that is tied to that, to the senate bill side of that where there will be outcomes based funding that we receive as a district. And so we're working right now with our school leaders to say what's what's the
thing that's gonna make the biggest difference for you to help students reach these outcomes. And this position continues to be elevated as a potential opportunity for that funding. Mister Thanos, sorry. I cut cut you off. No. We're great. The the one thing that I was gonna add is that our our HR partners have been really flexible and have been incredibly helpful with, coming up with ways for us to keep our career hubs going and with with different positions. So some schools are staffing that position with largely, like, a secretarial role. Other pea and and may in some some cases, like, two secretarial roles.
Some schools have a a counselor, licensed counselor in there. Some schools have a licensed teacher in there. And so, there's different ways that you can keep that space and keep that vision and keep that alive and then support it with different personnel in the building. But as the people that are working in that career hub, there are, like, three different tiers of how you can identify that person and at least have somebody in the career hub. That's helpful. Thank you. I I started with it, but I really am excited to hear of the collaboration because choice almost puts our high schools as competitors.
But the alignment and the ability to work together and I love that you have calculus teachers who can actually collaborate now with another calculus teacher. Right? That's powerful. And I know this is work that you guys have been working towards over time, but I just really wanna say how much I appreciate that because I do think it really builds stronger communities. I'm thrilled to hear the North has I don't wanna call it a pilot, but maybe the next iteration. I'm not going to ask you to say what about schools in the middle because we got north and south. There's a whole bunch in the middle. What if there is a high school? So I know, for example, Wheat Ridge High School is doing a lot in this.
Do they have schools they can partner with if they're not in the North and not in the South, but have a really driven principal who is very focused on it? That and and it's such a great question. Right? Because I think we have some schools that are like, great. Where's where's my group? I'm ready to go. And so we are working on continuing to create those opportunities, not just in those smaller regions, but our monthly executive leadership meetings, have been creating more space for our principals to share some of the best practices that are coming out. Our principal at Wheat Ridge is a great example where she's able to share, like, here's what I did. And then, they're able to connect with each other on what some of those best
practices are and where to go from there. We've also been fortunate enough to be able to bring, our middle school and high school leaders on an annual retreat for the last couple three years now, I believe, to be able to to think deeply about this work together. And that's having that dedicated time to really do this work and dig in and hear what what are you doing, how are you making this happen, the number of ideas that come out of there that that we see in action immediately when folks get back has been phenomenal. And so we are working on creating spaces because also we want our middle our our Central Area schools and our North Area schools to hear about the work coming
out of the South, and the South wants to hear about the best practices that are happening at those schools as well. So we don't wanna be overly isolated in regional collaborations. We need to create opportunities for for full cross district collaboration. I appreciate that. Before we started high school reimagine, reimagine, our career explorer program and is with Christy Watts Gephardt. She's just the heart and soul of it all, but she still continues to work with Wheat Ridge and we send students there for our CNA training because they have
they've got a great program at Wheat Ridge. So we when we can't within our area, we collaborate with different programs and it's great. We still send kids up there. That's wonderful. Thank you. I just wanna end with our students. Really appreciate you guys coming out late in the evening, sharing your stories. We're all volunteers, and we all actually have day jobs. And you've got an engineer and a lawyer up here as well as many other technical experts. So I think both of us were pretty excited to hear those to come out and, really encourage that.
But also, I love, Chris, what you said about the side quests because the path is never straight, and it's awesome that you can learn the things you love and things that you don't. But I would always keep open new opportunities and opportunities to learn because, man, I think everyone up here, everyone in the cabinet, everyone in the room could probably be like, man, I thought I was going this way and then I I hit a wall or a left turn or life changed. So I just love hearing your stories. It's so, it lifts my heart up in a world where a lot of kind
of the things we talk about are pretty heavy. This is a really positive story, and I'm we're so proud of you, and best of luck to our seniors. And come back and tell us all the amazing things that you do. So thank you guys for taking the time tonight. We really appreciate it. Thank you all so much. Alright. Our final item this evening. The board will receive a presentation outlining school level accountability committee survey trends and results. Presenting are Tara Pena, our chief of family and community partnerships, Therese Rednore, our DAC chair, and Evie Hudak, our FSCP subcommittee chair. Thank you all for joining us so late in the evening.
We're gonna start allowing slippers and bedtime stories soon. We appreciate you being here. And, please, we have allotted forty five minutes. Please do allow some time at the end of that for board questions. We really value your time and appreciate you coming to see us. Before I turn it over to our presenters, doctor Coleman, would you like to add anything? Thank you so much. You know what? I I won't belabor us, but I'm excited for this presentation to really be able to share some data with us. So I'm gonna turn it over to our presenters, so that they can get started. Thank you all for being here tonight.
There we go. Good evening, board. It is an honor to be here with you, this evening. I am Tara Pena, chief of Family Community Partnerships. I also serve as the DAC district liaison and so have, the privilege of, working in community, with, a little over 60 engaged parents who show up on their free time, to provide advocacy and perspective and voice, to help make recommendations, that improve our
org our organization as a whole. And so it it it truly is an honor to serve in that capacity. Joining me this evening, I have, two of our esteemed DAC leaders. I'll let them introduce themselves here in this evening, but we're really excited to share, the recent feedback that we gathered, from our SACS and our schools in our recent SACS survey. And should we move it? Yes. Oh, I guess I'm introducing myself. My name is Therese Redner. I'm the chair of, the District Accountability Committee. And I'm Evie Hudak, chair of Family School Community Partnerships, FSEP.
So little late. We're probably a little loopy, but, adding the third microphone, I feel like we should be harmonizing, so which we kind of do. We kind of do. So the role and purpose of the District Accountability Committee is to serve as an advisory role to the Jefferson County Board of Education, you esteemed leaders up on the dais. The DAC advises the, Board of Education on matters related to budget, improvement priorities, student
achievement, and family engagement. So I think it's really important we continually uplift those key areas of priority. We spent a lot of time at the beginning of the year, training our incoming DAC members to help them really understand the function of their role and the overall purpose of us as an accountability committee. A lot of members will join or seek interest in joining on DAC, with a lot of intended outcomes or a lot of things that they want to, us to prioritize, as a district.
And as you all know better than anybody, the needs of our community and the urgencies in our community are really vast. And so really keeping the DAC focused on these, four areas of priority has allowed us to be really productive, and function really well as as an overall committee. So I'm really thankful for the leadership of Trace and of our executive committee for helping to be sense makers, for our DAC members and and to allow us, to to be maintained on on the priorities that you see here. So our objectives for this evening, are to to do three things.
One, to provide you an update on some recent DAC business. So we were here, before the winter break and, are delighted to be here again. We've been busy and so have some updates for you. We are going to share the survey results, that we administered to our SAC, for the twenty five-twenty six school year, and then we'll make certain to save time for questions. Alright. So turning it over to Therese. First, I wanna say that, listening to the students was really impressive, and I was particularly grateful none of them wanted to get into alcohol beverage distribution because I was a little nervous.
I was like, wait a minute. You guys are are really exceptional. No. It was really it was fun. It was fun to hear. And also I really appreciate that Tara mentioned the four areas in which we, operate because it is important for us to ground our work. A lot of our incoming members and, you know, those are engaged students. We have a lot of engaged parents. And, they come from a variety of backgrounds. I remember I heard somebody say, Well, when I went to high school and we always have to try and remind ourselves not to say that. I say that all the time.
And that was a really long time ago when I went to high school, and it's very, very different. But we always have to ground ourselves in the work that we're doing so that we create the right structure so that our parents can be involved, and our parents can be engaged, and that voice can be heard. Some things that we've been doing is, well, we onboarded four new DAC members mid year. It's exciting to see more people, emailing throughout the year. When can we when can I apply for DAC? Our next we will be opening up our DAC, application period in April.
We are working on the bylaws. That's been a very exciting and robust conversation, and I think it's really important because bylaw work is very important. It helps us, not just set a strong organization of a current DAC, but we're also forward thinking to future DACs. And future DACs will do their own bylaw work, but we really want to be respectful and brave as we look at what does the DAC comprise of and how do we operate as a really robust community.
So that's been some really amazing work. And I think it's important for us to keep those structures in place so that we can be an effective group and an effective advisory group for the Board of Education. We've done a lot of work. Oh, well, everyone's done a lot of work on the budget reduction blueprint, and Crystal Marine, who heads up our budget subcommittee, has done an amazing job. We also this year, we've had an advisory board. As you can see in the cell phone policy along with the JSLB students, I recognized a few of them. That was some really robust conversation as well.
Interesting to hear what the students think about cell phones. And, well, when I went to school, we didn't have them. So and and, again, one of our biggest things that we always do is always constantly reaching out to our SACs because that is our pipeline to the school, and that is how we can really uplift this, the school voice. So we're so without further ado, we'll talk about the SACs survey. That's one of our really main ways that we communicate and, and learn about what
the, what the schools are thinking. EV put together a great structure, though. We don't just do the SACS survey. There's three structured meetings where we're, with our AAR groups, are communicating with our SACS and then bringing it forward. And we really create space in our agenda to make sure that we are always addressing what the SACS are are are bringing forward. Because if we're not doing that, we're ignoring the school voice. And so we always have to reground ourself back in that. So without further ado, let's talk about the SACs survey. It was very exciting. You can see here what what we we are asking about.
So usually in the past, we asked about budget. We asked about budget priorities, unified improvement plan, and family engagement. Well, I think budget's been a pretty hot topic this year. So instead of just beating that horse, they have plenty of other places to engage with budget. We, just called it down to unified improvement plan and family engagement. Some interesting things that came out of this were if we wanna go to the next one, I guess. Yeah. This is what we what we do. We send out the oh, the SAC survey. One thing we did is really honored the schools and got the SAC survey out
before the October. That was a big request. And is this also me? Okay. Good deal. Excellent. So this was the the purpose of the SACS survey, just to really understand, you know, from a school level, what are they thinking about with family engagement? How what are their bright spots? What are their challenges? What do they need from DAC? What are their bright spots about UIP? What are their challenges? What supports can they have from DAC? And so our responses and this I'm just gonna do some highlights. You guys can see the the survey. So we had about a 70% response rate, which isn't bad, quite frankly.
We had a 103 schools, but then if you kind of add them because some schools are sort of combined campuses, really was like a 100 individual schools. And then we had, 43 schools that didn't respond. And when I was looking at the response rate of those schools that didn't respond, and we'll be addressing that at a very granular level, with within our subcommittees to reach out to those schools who didn't respond. But, from those schools who didn't respond, their average family survey response rate was only 18%. So I'm just finding some interesting correlations there.
Right? Are they just schools that don't like, is survey work just tire tiresome? I mean, it's a really important work. That's how we really get some information, but it's something that maybe we can all kind of think about. Let's see what else did I wanna talk about with response rates. So a 100 schools responded. Yeah. 43 didn't respond. 24 neighborhood schools didn't respond, and 19 option alternative special charter schools didn't respond. Of that nineteen, thirteen were charter schools that didn't respond and that's not unusual. Charter schools really operate, you know, in a very autonomous way.
We certainly have charter school representation but, we're we're we're always we're always trying to think about better ways to engage with our charter school community. We certainly have charter school representation on deck, but how can we hear from the parents at the charter schools too? We wanna make sure that we're listening to their voices. I also before we go to the next slide, wanna make sure to shout out, the articulation areas, Bear Creek, and I believe it was Alameda, that had 100%, participation on the survey. Like, that's and really appreciated. I see doctor Coleman, the partnership of our community superintendents and helping to encourage our
our SACs and our principals, to completing the survey as well. I found out that, apparently charter schools do their own survey of their SACs, and they may have misunderstood why it was important for them to do this the district wide SACs survey. So we we have a little more educating to do of our charter and option schools about that. So we got a lot of data and I really want to do a shout
out to the members of the FSCP subcommittee because they dove into all the responses. And and if you saw the bulk of responses to all the different questions, they they found a way to quantify it into pie charts and bar charts, which is actually pretty amazing. So, you, you can benefit from their skill and you might not even realize how much went into it. Not me.
I'm just a chair. So if you one of the questions we asked is how often do SACS meet? And quarterly and or monthly are the top, answers. Some of them meet a lot more than that. Some of them meet less. Actually the law says they're supposed to meet quarterly. So I'm glad to see that, you know, most of them are meeting at least quarterly. And in what way do they meet? So we ask them if they meet in person, virtually, or hybrid. And you can see it's almost half and half hybrid and in person.
Next slide. So we know, we've heard that sometimes they don't like to use the term school accountability committee. Because it doesn't seem very attractive to a lot of parents to join it, and they kind of don't even know what that means. So here you see a list of all kinds of different names that our, SACs are using. I have my favorites like family school partnership committee because, you know, that's kind of
what it is. But some of them, are a principal's advisory committee. So they go by different names. And the little word map on the right of this slide is the communication. So we ask them, how do you communicate when your SAC meetings are? And you can see that newsletters are probably or emails are the number one and two ways. You can see a little teeny school website.
That's not a very effective means of communication because somebody would have to go to the website to find out. We want to push it out to the parent community in the school. So emails, newsletters and their social media, are much more effective. So we focused on family engagement and we asked them, what did you talk about in your SAC meetings? And you can see number one, we gave them choices and they, they selected which
of these choices they did. There's an other category which I'll get to later. But, you can see that over 87% of them said, they prioritize building a community of belonging. Which is very important for accountability that you have the families of the school feel like they belong to the school. And what they have to say about what goes on in the school is important and honored. And so 82% gathering feedback from families about their experiences.
Just like the DAC is trying to get information from the SACs with our survey, SACs are trying to get information from their families about what, the decisions that are being made, How it affects them. What their experiences are. And this all feeds into the school improvement plan and process. And overall family engagement is the basis for, school accountability committees and the district accountability
committee. Collaborative decision making I noticed came up like half. So, I find that kind of interesting. I would like to see that number be higher. That they feel like they're collaborating in the decision making that goes on in the school. So we ask them, next slide, we ask them, does your SAC have the knowledge and tools you need to assist the school personnel in increasing the level of family engagement? Because that's one of the things that's in the law that they're supposed to do.
And you can see almost all of them agreed or strongly agreed. Very few disagreed with that. So we asked them, well, what are your strengths? What do you do? How do you get this family engagement? And they said they use multiple means of communication, which ultimately is true for every every, entity that operates. You have to use multiple communication channels because some people prefer email, and some people
prefer text messages, and some people prefer phone calls, and some people want a in person meeting, and some people want a virtual meeting. So you have to communicate with people where they're coming from and what they what they like. And then organizing events so that the families can come together and have these discussions. And, obviously the number one thing is creating a welcoming and inclusive atmosphere. So parents and families feel welcome to come to the school and engage in these
conversations. So then we went to, well, what else do you need that maybe we could help you with? And, one of the things that always comes up is 1B. Strategies to increase consistent involvement from families. So we always hear that at the beginning of the year, our meetings have like 20 people. And then in the middle, it's 10. And by the end, when we have to pick our leaders for next year, it's like, it's fewer.
So how do we get these families to be involved consistently? And basically that means they have to feel like their participation is meaningful. You will increase attendance if people feel like the meetings are accessible to my, my, schedule. It meets at times when I can go and it and I can have maybe some childcare if it's in person. So I don't have to worry about finding childcare outside of the situation.
And then under number three, district support and communication. The need for support from DAC. So I I always have to remind the DAC that in smaller school districts, the SAC Chairs, all the SAC Chairs sit on the District Accountability Committee. All of them. But in GEFCO, we could not have a functioning committee if we had a 150 SAC chairs plus all the other people who are supposed to be there.
Right? So that's why we created this, bureaucracy, I guess you could call it in a way, of articulation area representatives. So it it's a tiered structure. So the AARs are the ones who are in contact with the SACs and the SAC chairs, and they bring that back to us. And a couple years ago, we changed the way that we can help them do that to provide this support and communication. We used to say that the AARs should try to go to a meeting of
every one of their SACs. Well, that doesn't always work out logistically. And also some of them said, well, the SAC was busy doing their own business. And so, I mean, I could kinda listen in but I didn't really have good two way communication. So we changed it to where we have articulation area accountability meetings now. So the AARs are supposed to meet with their SAC chairs and others if possible three times a year.
And we gave them some guidelines for how to do that. So that way, the SAC chairs can say, well, I don't understand this or I need help with that. And, I want the district to be aware of such and such. And so the AARs can then bring that to the DAC and then we only have 19 people who are communicating what's happening in the schools rather than 150. And it's actually 19 times two because we have more than one AAR per articulation
area, I just remembered. So it's more than that. But but anyway, but they feel like, hey, they still need more support. And if you look at B under number three, district level assistance with advertising, messaging and overall strategy. So we on the DAC are constantly looking at this and FSCP every few years we come up with this new idea for a marketing campaign. How to help the SACs market what it is to their families to get them
involved. And of course DAC has to market itself too. Because we need people who are willing to be on the DAC. Okay. So the challenges and barriers, you've heard some of them like what is a SAC? Need a lot of help explaining that. And number four a, struggles to represent the diverse student and family population. You know, the law says that the parents on SACS and the DAC are supposed to be representative of the student populations that are significantly represented in the school community
or the district community. Well some of those parents, find it hard to understand what a SAC is or be involved. We have provided in interpretation, translation and interpretation. We had a couple of, DAC members a few years ago who were not English speakers. And the district was glad to provide people, but they came to one or two meetings and then they, disappeared.
And I think at some of the schools, they're doing a better job of being bilingual. But in other schools, they're not. And this is a persistent problem that we struggle with. Yeah. I just want to add that, that, our multilingual families, we will continue to work and find ways to, provide access for our multilingual families and I think, you know, we can all agree that diverse representation means a lot of different things and we
are really fortunate to to be a part of a, you know, a tapestry of perspectives here in Jefferson County and so our SACs have continued just uplift that, ensuring that families, feel a sense of belonging and that their perspectives are welcomed and really appreciate that our SACs are naming that as a continued challenge and they're finding lots of creative ways to ensure that our diverse families and diverse perspectives across the spectrum here in GEFCO, find, find a seat if that is is the avenue in which
they want to engage. And so that, you know, continuing to be creative to find a lot of ways, to welcome families to this to this structure we're talking about this evening. And before we go on to UIP, I just want to say that, you know, the FACP subcommittee pro provided crunched the data for everything that I've talked about so far. And at our last meeting, we went back over these slides and really dug into them and talked about how can we do this? How can we make this better?
And we've come up with a whole bunch of great ideas and we're gonna be working with the DAC to implement them. The SAC survey really helps inform our work throughout the throughout the, year for DAC. So I think that's that's an important thing to sort of lift up is that this survey is not a one and done and never reviewed again. It's something that we and subcommittees continually go back to to help inform our work to support the SACs. So moving on to the, UIP, I think what's what's great is that there's some
really bright spots. And there's two things that I really wanna call out on this particular slide is that parents are still parents in schools are still, really focused on achievement in math and or reading and or math. So reading seems to always be the focus and then the and or math, which is kind of interesting because I know the and or math is the one that we actually need a little bit more help on when it comes to, like, DUIP and we're looking at those sort of greater datasets. But it is something that parents and school leaders are always really focused on is
is that achievement in in those two cores. Another one is that creating and I thought this was so interesting, but this really lends to a very healthy school and in a school that's going to achieve is by creating a culture of safety and belonging. So even in the UIP section, that is something that is very important when they're talking about UIP work. At a SAC level is that they're also, talking about that that culture of creating, safety and belonging. So moving on to the next one. So you can see the, successes. And something interesting here that I think is really important that DAC is going to
be working on and and the UIP subcommittee can engage with the FSCP subcommittee on, is how do we take some of these really, improve really strong strategies of, of SACs that engage really well with the UIP process because there are some challenges there too, which we'll get to. But those schools who engage really well in that UIP process with their school leaders, we want to share that, and we'll be able to see which schools answer that we have a great strategy.
We can share some of those strategies with the schools who have who struggle with, with the UIP process and addressing that in the SACs. So that's an area that DAC's going to be working on. Again, this survey is always informing our work. So some things also to, the collaborative process, I think, is really important in UIP work is to collaborate and feel very comfortable collaborating with the principal. So if we move on to some of the next slide of the challenges, I think one thing that DAC can do, that is just right off the bat is
help clear up some communication, when we present to our SAC chairs how to work with your school leaders and school leaders. We present to the school leaders too how to work together. Let's let's remove some of the education jargon. It's a little intimidating when somebody is like, well, you know, the IEP for the and it's all it's just acronyms, I would sit there. I'm like, I don't even know what we're talking about anymore. So we're going to really take that moment, and I think it's an important moment. Right? Creating a culture of belonging also means that we're communicating together in a way that
we always can understand each other. So I think maybe, you know, removing those acronyms that, like, my student uses with me and I'm like, I have no idea what you're talking about. I don't know what that was. Another challenge and the only way that we can really address this, because the UIP schedule is wonky. Right? We're we're we're putting it together in, like, September and people have just come back, and then it has to move forward to the district and we're talking at a UIP level to the district in, like, October. Right? So we're going to work very closely this spring with our SACs, through our AARs
to remind them, start your UIP work now. Start it now so that when you come back, you're not feeling you know, you'll have some new SAC members that'll be new and getting their feet underneath them, but at least the conversation can be more robust and you can feel more engaged with it, and you can come back feeling more comfortable about that conversation. So, again, the survey informing our work to help support the Saks. Not bad. There you go. Quest oh, yeah. Questions. Thank you. Board members? Director Gibbons. Got a couple of questions or thoughts.
You know, I see on I think it was on '15, Saks needing help with family engagement or excuse me, on '14, family engagement strategies to increase involvement. And I was also thinking about that sort of in conjunction with what you discussed with diversity and reputation on Slide 15 and, topic number four. And I was wondering if there were strategies that were being implemented in maybe some Saks that could be shared with others to maybe get parent involvement from maybe bilingual
parents or, you know, multilingual parents, parents who maybe for socioeconomic reasons. They have work schedules or other things that make it difficult for them to be there, but there may be other ways for them to be communicated with, engaged, and and that might solve both some diversity problems for groups that are really hard to engage, but also general challenges with getting more parents engaged. Like like, for me, before I got here, I could never go to the SAC meeting at my son's school just because of how my schedule was, and it just wasn't something that was in the realm of possibility for me.
I suspect there are a lot of other parents like that who are aware of it and maybe just be looking for other ways to get involved, And that might also solve, if not strictly diversity representation of actual members, but at least diversity engagement. So I'd like to hear thoughts on on those, what I what I just said. No. Absolutely. That was a big part of, why, as as Evie shared a little bit earlier that we've created a more refined structure for how our AAR articulation area representatives are meeting and supporting our SACs on a very regular basis.
And so they're actually meeting with them as an entire articulation area three times a year, and they're able to share strategy and best practice and recruitment strategies and how they're engaging. And we're seeing a lot of success, and our principals are giving us feedback that having a tighter, alignment as an articulation area and a shared value placed on the role of the school accountability committee is actually, encouraging folks to come. They actually see value. Their time, you know, is feeling like it's being really honored.
And then schools are working really hard to then remove barriers like, you know, language access, childcare, flexibility. They're trying, you know, meetings during the day, offering a hybrid model, meetings at night, and then doing a really good job of then closing the loop of communicating out the outcomes of their SAC, so that families at least are informed, If I can't come, at least I know and then they're also inviting ways to share feedback with their SAC, If I can't come, but I want to weigh in on these three important areas. How are they giving feedback?
And so, some articulation areas are sending out QR codes and and are doing some pulse checking and things of of gathering ongoing feedback within their articulation area or their school community to find ways to make certain that a family perspective, and input is being gathered on a very regular basis. And it isn't limited to just the school accountability committee. And so, you know, I think, I think some schools are doing a really good job in that articulation area model is allowing, SACs to learn from one another and
will always, I believe, you know, in my four years in this role, we've made huge strides and we still have a lot of work to do. So I think it'll always be one of those areas of continuous improvement. So one of the tensions here is that, we always did. We have always had the SAC kickoff, and it's pretty much been on the August where we brought the SAC chairs together, all together, in one place. And and that was that was an opportunity for them to learn together and, several
people told us that this one breakout we had this past year, for continuing SAC chairs was a conversation so they could share with one another their challenges and their strategies. And and I keep hearing from people that that was the best workshop we ever did at the SAC kickoff. But now we're thinking about totally changing how we do the SAC kickoff and, and
having each articulation area do its own or each region like school board region. And that's gonna be a topic we're gonna discuss at the DAP meeting next week. Right? It's Tuesday, February. Okay? And so, you know, some people feel like having the big huge one with everybody coming together in one place. We try to make it fairly central, but some it it depends on what high
school we can find that's available. We've done it in the South, we've done it in the North, we've done it in the middle. And some people feel like it might be better to have it more regional so schools that are in the same General area that have many of the same issues and dynamics would be able to, do it. So we might experiment with that this year and see how it goes even though last year we had that special breakout that everybody thought that was the best we
ever did. So, I guess, you know, we always struggle on the deck with engagement. How do we do engagement? How do we do training? How do we provide support? How do we provide education? One thing talking about that proposed, change in the SAC kickoff, there's a pros and cons. Doing a district wide one, you know, is a it's it's a great idea, but there's a lot of travel barriers. There's also back to school night barriers. We can never you know, to try and get a 143 schools together in one
space is, is very challenging. Another thing, thinking about doing it by just thinking for me about articulation area, you're really kind of creating that articulation area community. You're getting, elementary school SACs and the middle school SAC up to the high school and creating that pathway of creating that this is our community and strengthening the articulation area. We all know, I think, Director Applegate, President Applegate, you talked about how schools sort of compete with one another and and they do.
That's what Choice does. It's it's it's not do they. They absolutely do compete with one another. And so, I remember when I started in DAC, you know, I'm from the Wheat Ridge Articulation Area. It's like we want the Stober Stallions to become the, you know, Wheat Ridge farmers, and that's what we want it to to happen. So one way of looking at this is it gives autonomy to each articulation area to choose the to remove the barrier back to school nights. It strengthens an articulation area, gets those elementary parents and students excited about maybe becoming
that future charger or that future, you know, any of those other ones, bear, or farmer if you will. It, it it can allow for more collaboration from the community for other community foundations to be involved in that. It can provide some autonomy with, hey, our articulation area is actually struggling with this particular situation, things of that nature. So, yes, it's all being flushed, you know, flushed out. You can tell that I'm the proponent of this. I'm I'm leading the presentation on this one.
So we'll we'll we're but the whole DAC will be discussing it, but this is one way that DAC is trying to respond to some SAC questions and some some principal, concerns about, you know, it's a lot of just sitting here in a big room. And and even though we're collaborating with somebody from Bear Creek over to Pomona, they might never collaborate really again. Right? So how do we strengthen our community? So But, counterpoint, I'm the mentor for the charter and options schools. And you noticed that we did not have very good, feedback, from the charter schools
or the option schools, I think. Options we had. Options we did. Okay. And, at the SAC kickoff, typically, we have very few charter schools who show up. And the charter schools are spread all over the district. And so are the option schools. And so I'm thinking that how, how do we do a kickoff for them? It would have to be centralized. And I'm just brainstorming to maybe do it in this building. Sure. Yes. You know? And, I'm gonna Yes. And I'm gonna I'm gonna is obviously, this is a topic we're very passionate about.
And and DAC remains agile and responsive to the needs of our SACs and our articulation areas. And I'm gonna move us along because our board has been here for a really long time and so I'm just gonna keep us moving. Thank you. Thank you, miss Pena. But I really appreciate the commentary. Director Gibbons, did you have any other follow-up? Doctor. Echeverria? These are mostly just some thoughts I was having. Having my child in a charter for middle school, I will tell you, I did not know I was supposed to fill out anything from the district. I was under the impression that when I was getting emails because we had different
days for, like, holidays or different PD days. It was completely separate from GEFCO. So as a charter parent, I did not know that I was supposed to fill out any surveys that we were getting from GEFCO. I was filling out surveys from my charter. So that's just maybe some feedback. So I was thinking maybe we have a really amazing charter person, Doctor Adeko, and maybe she can help spread the word because I will just say as a parent, I didn't know. Also, I wanted to say hooray because I was gonna ask you this question, what
types of, like, professional learning are you offering people? And it sounds like you're doing really great work with those articulation areas. And then I just wanted to ask, is the research you're using for family engagement relevant and post COVID? That is an excellent question. And so our, our FSCP subcommittee, has really been, focused on supporting our school accountability committees. That has been their area of focus. And so, they have also been tremendous thought partners in helping to weigh in and give consult on us defining our definition for family engagement here in DefCo as we
build out our academic partnership framework, which is really around strengthening the relationship between educators and families in support of improving student outcomes and strengthening belonging. And so it's grounded in the national PTA standards, which is a tremendous driver of the work and areas of focus for us as as a DAC, primarily most importantly, our FSCP subcommittee. But we also lean in heavily into the dual capacity framework, which is Doctor. Karen Mapp's work. And then finally, we lean a lot on the flamboyant research. And so many of those guiding principles are front and center for the work that
our FSEP subcommittee does, but also resources that we're giving to our SACs in helping to strengthen their, family community partnerships as well. Thank you. I know it's a much different world now than it was twenty years ago. Absolutely. And then just a final thought I was having, I recently went to the PTA meeting, PTSA, at my son's high school. There were, like, five parents. And And I remember back in elementary school we had like 50. And so I know that as kids age, number one, they don't want you to come to their school anymore.
And number two, a lot of parents go back to work full time and they just assume their kids are fine because they're in high school. So I want to just elevate that and lift that because I know it's a challenge and I'm seeing it at my own child's school. One other thing I was thinking about, which, this happened when my kids were in elementary school, but the SAC meetings and the PTA meetings were on different nights. And so that made it really challenging for me to be out two nights a month, away from kids or even bring my kids to childcare and not being able
to get them home to bed until 09:00 at night. So I was just wondering or hoping maybe, that some schools are possibly sharing those resources, getting one childcare person, having both meetings on the same night, those kinds of things. So that was just another thought that kind of popped into my head from my experience with both PTA and SAC. Yep. That's that's great feedback and I know a lot of schools, have shifted and are doing that and it's feedback we can continue to share with our SAC chairs around, just more flexible scheduling for our families.
Thank you. Thank you. Director Mawhinney? So my question is is, the SACS and the DAC, what are some of the steps that you guys have taken to engage the community the greater community, right, folks that might not have a student in the school district in the important work that we're doing? Because I'm sure there's plenty of, community members that are passionate about education and would certainly love to give give up a few hours a month, whatever that might look like, to help support this important work?
Absolutely. So we do have community members at large that do serve, as, appointed DAC members as well. And so we do have community members like like Edie Hudak here who, is is representative of the larger, Jefferson County community. And so we do, with our bylaws work, do allow for diverse representation, which includes, board appointees. We have JCEA representation, JESPA, JCAA. We have school leader reps from every level. And then, in addition, we have community members at large that, represent, different portions of
of the county. And and they're they're really, representing in that community member role. As far as engaging with the larger community around our areas of priority focus, I would say that is a growth opportunity for us because we're locked in all year around budget, family engagement, school improvement, and then supporting our charters. And so we're not, casting a wide net once we're locked in on those four areas, to getting feedback from the larger community. We do really rely heavily on those community members at large that are serving on
DAC. But we'll definitely make note and I think it's a great opportunity for us. And SACs are supposed to have at least one community member. You know, it it that's what the the cons the, membership is supposed to consist of. And when we do the, SAC one zero one training and talk about what the law says, who should be there, A community member is supposed to be at that table. But of course, it it could be a challenge for them to reach out to
those people. And so maybe what we need to do is talk more to community groups about and I've done this because I'm a member of the League of Women Voters and I I have told them, you know, every school has an accountability committee and they're supposed to have a community member. You might look into it. Mhmm. I think it's indefinitely Share with the chamber. Yeah. Share with our our big community partners that they have an opportunity to do school improvement at a their local school.
One thing we've also been really fortunate, is, like similar to me, I serve in this role in Jefferson County but I also live here and my children go to school here so I wear many roles in many of the settings in which I lead, in which I live, and that would be the same for many of our parents on DAC. And so they're business owners in the community, they're community members, they're GEFCO graduates, and so not only are they there serving as the AAR representative, but they, you know, they're also deeply invested in the Jefferson County community. And so they will also name that they're wearing lots of different hats, you know,
in the role that they play on DAC and in, you know, in the Greater Jefferson County, you know, area. Director Kenworthy. Hi. So I'm gonna do a quick straw poll for time. Are you is the deck interested in continuing to have facilitation from Trace? Yes. Have what? Facilitations from Tracy. Facilitator. Yeah. Okay. I had another one that was a straw poll. Was Tracy's visit or fireside chat something that we should repeat? Yes. Great. Are AARs expected to serve on subcommittees? We change the bylaws. We encourage it. People are they everybody is encouraged to serve.
Encouraged. And, a lot of them, maybe not their first year, you know, on DAC, but once they get their feet wet, and they're an essential part of the FSCP subcommittee because we talk about how to help the AARs, and it it's effective when AARs are talking about that. But I I don't know about the other subcommittees because I don't attend them. So I don't know. But Encouraged, but not required. Yeah. Okay. Are AARs still going to individual SAC meetings, or now is the focus just on
the three kind of articulation area gatherings? The three. The three. The focus is on three, but some of them go. And there are some overachievers. Like, they absolutely will go in school. Always gonna be the bottom tier for more years. We don't do we don't deny them. No. We don't have them. Right. Excellent. I just if it's it is the three gatherings, I just wanna say thank you. I feel so absolved of the guilt that I had when I was in AAR for not attending every single SAC meeting at every single school artic in my articulation area. I've felt guilty about that.
I feel so much better. Thank you for changing that. I'm glad that you brought up the SAT kickoff. Clearly, we can have more conversation about this, and it's almost 10:00 at night. Let's do it now. No. No. No. No. We're not going to. No. I'm very interested in doing it by direct or district. Would you try to keep it all on the same time and day, or would you try to vary? It needs to be autonomous. It needs I I I believe it needs to be autonomous. Okay. Alright. Great. Yeah. I look forward to that conversation continuing. Have there been any significant partnerships with any other work groups, like the, fiscal partnership
or the SAC or CAC or any of our advisory groups? I was writing a note about the SAC kickoff by director district. Can you repeat the question? Oh, yeah. Any just sort of collaborative crossover work with any of our other advisory committees or with the partner GEFCO partnership around Blue River? As treat I was gonna just say not formally with DAC. It's not as though, like, we are inviting them into our DAC meetings. Quite frankly, we have really robust agendas. And as you can see, we have some pretty passionate viewpoints about some certain things, and it takes up a lot of time. But our folks are participating so we have, DAC members that are on the partnership,
for fiscal sustainability. They've, attended. We're looking at having somebody, TDPAC from DAC. We have, some you know, we've weighed in on the cell phone policy. So DAC folks stay really busy and engaged, across the district and and always look for other leadership opportunities. If there's different ways that you want to tap folks in, please just let us know. Yeah. I appreciate it. I do wanna lift up that our EAC is having a community conversation on April 28, which is EAC? EAC, our equity accountability committee.
Okay. Yes. I'm like, and what would that be? What what what does that say to you? Well, I'm just I'm just dropping the information Okay. To you so that you know that this is work that another one of our advisory committees is doing that I think there could be some good crossover with our especially with our family school, community partnership. We'll provide an update on our next executive meeting. Yeah. Tara knows all about it. I also wanted to let you know we have now set aside time in our study sessions to share out about our committees. And so I would like to have a conversation about how we can communicate and use that opportunity to be strategic in lifting up, DAC work or specific DAC events
or questions. I I wanted to give you that lens so that maybe the executive committee can begin to, you know, month by month, know that I will have the opportunity as your liaison to then talk about what has been happening at the deck. So if there's something that you want me to lift up and inform my fellow board members about specifically, that opportunity now exists. Alright. That's all I have. Thank you for being here, Sali. Thank you for having us and for your continued support of DAC. Thank you. I wanna recognize Director Kenworthy for her, for her ongoing support of DAC and her
commitment to that organization. I just think it's, it's really awesome and admirable. And I wanna thank you all for your passion and for being here because it is wonderful and it is obvious. And I really appreciate the accessibility and how we are really trying to be thoughtful about how we include cross sections of our entire community, because I I have kids in an elementary school where the principal's like, if you wanna talk about this, you gotta come to the PIE meeting. We go by PIE. If you we're not talking about that at PTA, so you better show up to PIE because I'm not doing this twice.
And so it's it's it's really we have trained people to come to them, and they are really helpful and valuable. So I just I just wanna say thank you. We really appreciate that you all are volunteers, and you do this out of the goodness of your heart to better our district, and it means a lot. So thank you for staying here with us late, and we appreciate the work you do. Absolutely. Thank you so much. Get home safely. Thank you. This brings us to the end of our agenda. Thank you for everyone who participated. Our next scheduled meeting of the board is a retreat on Friday, February 27.
And with that, we stand adjourned. Good night.