Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N.
Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. N. Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N.
down. Down. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat.
Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down
down down down Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Hey, Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Hey, Heat. Heat. Heat.
Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Down down down down. Good evening. The board has completed our executive session and will now
continue with the remainder of this meeting. On behalf of the board of education, welcome again to tonight's meeting. We welcome all attendees, those joining us live in the audience and those connecting virtually. Please note that we plan to take a 15-minute break at approximately 7:05 this evening.
We will begin with honors and recognitions. Every month, the board of education has the pleasure of recognizing students, staff, schools, and community members for their achievements and contributions in Jeffco schools. For our first recognition of the evening, we would like to honor our
athletic winter state champions with the Our Learners, our future recognition. Will the following athletes please come to the front of the boardroom and our board members will meet you up front. Laya Pets, senior from Arvvada West High School on winning the class 5A diving state championship.
Elsa Sun, freshman at Golden High School on winning the class 4A 100 meter freestyle state championship. Isaiah Gyos, senior from Jefferson Junior Senior High on winning the class 3A 150 lb individual state wrestling championship. McKenna Hston, senior at Coline High School on winning the class
5A 135-lb individual state wrestling championship. Ryan Hickeyi, senior at Chatfield Senior High School on winning the class 5A 145lb individual state wrestling championship. Valencia Bentrot, junior from Evergreen High School on winning the class 4A 190lb
individual state wrestling championship. Justice Gutierrez, junior from Pomona Junior Senior High School on winning the class 5A 100 pound individual state wrestling championship. Timarie Condet, freshman at Pimono Junior Senior High School on winning the class 5A 110lb
individual state wrestling championship. Lincoln Valdez, sophomore from Pomona Junior Senior High School on winning the 106B individual state wrestling championship. Logan Delo, junior from Pomona Junior Senior High School on winning the 120lb individual state
wrestling championship. Angel Serrano, senior from Pomona Junior Senior High School on winning the 138-lb individual state wrestling championship. Derek Barrow, senior from Pomona Junior Senior High School on winning the 150 lb individual state wrestling championship.
Donovan Donovan Somalia, freshman from Pomona Junior High on winning the 157 individual state wrestling championship. EMTT Mson, senior from Pomona Junior Senior High School on winning the 165 individual state wrestling championship. Caleb Yavara, senior from Pomona Junior
Senior High on winning the 175-lb individual state wrestling championship. Emerson Clays, senior from Pomona Junior Senior High School on winning the 190 lb individual state wrestling championship. Medex Naha, senior from Pomona Junior Senior High School on winning the 215
individual state wrestling championship. and the entire wrestling team from Pomona Junior Senior High School on winning the eighth straight class 5A team state championship. Congratulations to all of these exceptional athletes. As stated in priority one, our learners are future.
Our goal in Jeffco is for all students to have an extraordinary student experience that recognizes their strengths, challenges them to improve, and supports them to succeed. These students are evidence of extraordinary student experiences. Congratulations to each one of you.
Next, the board would like to honor John Carter from transportation services with the oper with operations our foundation award. Will Mr. Carter please make his way to the front of the boardroom? The board of education proudly recognizes John Carter, a dedicated
member of our transportation services team, for his exceptional bravery and swift action. While attending a track and field meet, Mr. Carter went far beyond the scope of his professional duties to provide critical aid to an injured student. His selfless willingness to intervene during an
emergency reflects the highest level of character and community spirit. Thank you, Mr. Carter, for your bravery, your expertise, and your swift action. We are proud that you're part of team Jeffco. Next, the board would like to recognize registered nurses Simode Medina from
Patterson International Elementary and Audrey Brown from Aden Brook Classical Academy. Will both Simone and Audrey make their way to the front of the boardroom? These two exceptional registered nurses championed their schools to receive the Colorado Asthma Friendly School
Recognition Awards for the 2025 2026 school year. Colorado Asthma Friendly Schools recognition demonstrates comprehensive evidence-based asthma management. When students receive highquality asthma care, they attend school more consistently and engage more fully in learning. These nurses
completed a comprehensive self- assessment documenting asthma management policies, protocols, and environmental strategies. This achievement reflects exceptional collaboration among school nurses, principles, staff, and families committed to health equity, and removing barriers to learning for students with
asthma. Their efforts directly support student health, reduce health disparities, and improve academic outcomes. On behalf of the board of education, thank you for your leadership, efforts, and care for JECO students. Next, the board would like to recognize
faculty adviserss from Key Club International. Will the following staff members please join us in the front of the boardroom? Christy Deire, Golden High School. Kristen De Fior, Jefferson Academy. Kayn Foster, Weight, Wheatidge
High School. Deanna Mackie, Bear Creek High School. Katrina Cable, Chapfield Senior High School. Megan Kelly, Coline High School. Kyle Smoker, Dakota Ridge High School. Aaron
Maniscalo, Evergreen High School. Key Club International is a student-led organization across Jeffco that fosters leadership, character, and service. Guided by dedicated faculty adviserss, the program significantly enhances the high school experience by providing
students with a sense of belonging and meaningful opportunities to contribute to their communities. Aligned with the Our People, our strength initiative, we are committed to providing an extraordinary student experience, a goal brought to life through programs like
Key Club. Thank you to each of these dedicated faculty adviserss. For the next recognition, the board would like to recognize Carrie Horst and Charlie Marorrow from Scouting America. Will you join us at the front of the boardroom?
As defined in the our community, our legacy goal in Jeffco, we strive to foster positive, mutually respectful connections with Jeffco families and our community partners to support student success. Scouting America is a long-standing trusted partner that
directly supports multiple troops throughout Jeffo, providing a structured environment where students can thrive outside the classroom. On behalf of the board of education, thank you for your unwavering commitment to our youth and for providing opportunities that empower our students to reach their full
potential. We are proud to have you as part of the JECO legacy. Thank you. For our next recognition, under the priority of our people, our strength, the board is honored to recognize Theres Redner for her exceptional leadership and dedicated partic participation
within the district accountability committee. Theres, please join us at the front of the room. The DAC is an advisory committee that informs our budget priorities, improvement plans, and student achievement goals. Teresa's involvement is a testament to the power of communitydriven leadership. She has
consistently volunteered her time and expertise to ensure that the DAC remains a vibrant, productive space for collaborative problem solving. By championing the voices of parents, staff, and community members, she ensures that our district's strength truly comes from its people. On behalf of the board of education, we thank you
for your tireless service to the DAC. Your leadership ensures that our accountability processes are not just a requirement, but a genuine reflection of our community's high standards for excellence. For for the final recognition of the evening, the board would like to
recognize Risa Lisa Ru, the outgoing chief of staff. Will Lisa please make her way to the for front of the boardroom. Lisa Ru has been a cornerstone in building the very culture our district strives for. One rooted in collaboration, inclusivity, and the
highest expectations for all. Through her leadership, she championed a team environment where excellence could thrive. Anchored by her unwavering steadiness and a consistent focus on our shared mission, she never wavered in her relentless push for excellence,
constantly challenging us to elevate our work because she understood that our staff and students deserve nothing less than our best. Her belief that extraordinary student experiences start with a supported, empowered, and high-erforming staff has left an indelible mark on our community. Lisa's
legacy is found in the strength of our connections and the elevated standard of excellence she brought to Jeffco every single day. Thank you, Lisa, for your disciplined guidance and for proving that we must that when we invest in our people with consistency and care, we
secure a brighter future for our students. We wish you nothing but the best in your next chapter. Thank you for indulging in that. This is often one of the um brightest spots of our meetings and it's really wonderful to recognize our people and our
students. So, I appreciate that. Moving forward with board proclamations. The board publicly recognizes the special events and significant issues by issuing proclamations in the month of May. We are commemorating mental health awareness month, national school principal day, May 1st, national school
hero n sorry school lunch hero day May 1st, national teacher appreciation week May 4th through 8th, national school nurse day May 6th and national speech pathologist day on May 18th. We encourage you to read the Jeffco School Board's proclamations in board docs.
Items 4.01 through 4.06 06 are presented in board docs as proposed proclamations for the month of May. Do I have a motion regarding the approval of the proclamations? >> I move to approve items 4.01 through 4.06 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 May proclamations as presented in board docs. Roll call, please. Miss Harper. >> Miss Applegate. >> Yes. >> Dr. Etaria. >> Yes. >> Mr. Gibbons. >> Yes. >> Miss Kenworthy. >> Yes.
>> Miss Minian. Yes. >> Thank you. We will now move on to the 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. 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 to the podium. We listen with respect and ask those of you in our boardroom to do the same. Due to the amount of public comment this
evening, the board will be following public policy GP-17, which states that if more than 20 individuals sign up to speak, individual speakers will be given two minutes to speak and groups will be given five minutes to speak. If you cannot complete your remarks within the allotted time, we encourage you to email
your full comments to the board directly. As part of the collaborative agreement we've reached with JCEA during the bargaining negotiations, the board reserves the first 10 minutes of public comment for JCA to address the board on issues related to contract negotiations.
With that, we will begin with JCA followed by presenter number two. Please join us at the podium. Welcome. Hi, I'm An Anderson, the current JCA secretary and the president-elect for
JCA. >> My name is Whitney Newman. I am the political action chair for JCA and I teach third grade. >> Good evening, board. I'm here to give a bargaining update and to let you know where we stand.
We have a few topics we want to share. The first is our post incident response language. Educators from Evergreen High School joined JCA and district bargaining team members to engage in a straw design to create a new article in the aftermath of the tragedy from the
fall. We want to thank thank Amanda Parazzio, Amanda Van Riper, Jen Christensen, and Jennifer Kimson for the truly collaborative and meaningful dialogue that occurred in creating this article. They came to the conversations with thoughtfulness and care to ensure
that if we ever face this type of tragedy again, we will have guidelines to help us support and care for the educators who care for our students. They brought the advice they wish they had that they wished had existed for them and listened deeply to evergreen educators as they shared what worked
well and what supports they needed both immediately and as they returned to instruction. Thank you for working with us on this important language. special education. Our straw design sessions with spee director and our
special educators were genuinely collaborative and we want to acknowledge that both sides came to the table in good faith, but there are three areas where we haven't reached agreement yet. First, center-based programs need to be staffed when paras or educators are out.
These students rely on consistency and trained adults who know them. Uncovered absences are more than just an inconvenience. they can be unsafe and undo real progress with impacted students. Second, new special educators need a meaningful induction program. We
are losing good people because we're not setting them up to succeed from day one. That's bad for staff and bad for students. Third, learning specialists need uninterrupted planning time. Real protected planning time, not time that
disappears into coverage or meetings. Currently, they are managing case loads, IEPs, and direct instruction. They need the space to do that as well. Finally, compensation. As we look at settlements across the
state, we are finding that other districts are providing a cost of living adjustment. That's the standard and we expect the same here. We will not accept a cola tied to a milly passing. That is a promise contingent on a ballot outcome. Educators cannot budget their
lives around that. We need guaranteed compensation, not conditional compensation. And we need to be honest, no COLA means a pay cut. Health care costs for our members have doubled or tripled. When premiums go up and paychecks stay flat, people take home
less money than last year, regardless of what the salary schedule says. Jefferson County is an expensive place to live. The people educating your students are being priced out. How are they supposed to afford to stay?
>> That is why the message from the district that the only pathway forward for educators is a pay freeze is painful. A pay freeze does not communicate that we matter or that long-term planning prioritizes the very work we do and the frontline staff who
do it. To be told that if an MLO does not pass, there will be a pay freeze feels more like a threat than a partnership. We struggle with being asked to spend hours of our limited unpaid free time when we have not seen planning from Jeffco's
leadership and prioritizes those of us working in schools every day to meet our students intellectual, physical, and emotional needs. You, the school board, have received several emails from us making clear why this planning
matters. This district expects educators to devote substantial volunteer time to support a ballot measure, but has not planned to truly partner with us. Being in a room with 130 people does not mean our suggestions or our concerns have
been taken seriously. The presentation of a pay freeze makes that clear. Moving forward, we need to we need real collaboration that make takes real planning. Teachers are expected to plan ahead because our students deserve it. Educators deserve leadership that plans
ahead for them, too. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. >> Number two, please join us. Welcome. I'm Dr. Jess Bridges and I will email
you my experience. >> I'm Michael Frank. I'm a socialized teacher uh organizing action team chair elect. >> Hey everybody, I'm Benjamin Wells. I'm a world language and a science teacher at Stanley Lake High School. I'm uh on the
bargaining team as well and I'm also a year-round organizer for CA. >> My name is Whitney Newman. I teach third grade. I'm political action chair for JCA and here speaking as an educator in the district. I became an educator because I know what
it's like to grow up poor, to fail a grade level, and to feel disconnected from my teachers. I wanted to make sure that didn't happen to others. And to do that, I have a I have to plan ahead for my students. As an educator, I do not walk into the classroom hoping things
will somehow work themselves out. I build lesson plans weeks and months in advance. I analyze standards, prepare materials, anticipate challenges, and create systems to help my students succeed. I do this because my students deserve a high quality education.
We do not have equitable resources across Jeffco. And I've worked hard to provide as much equity as I can. If I fail to plan for my students, I would rightly be told I was not meeting my professional responsibility because I'd be setting my students up for failure.
I'm told that I am important and that I build confidence, spark curiosity, and steady, supportive presence in my students who walk through my door every day. I make Jeffco public schools a place where students can achieve their biggest dreams. But Jeffco has already
fallen behind neighboring districts and compensation and is forcing me to question the things I've thought I never would have to, including whether I can afford to start my own family. That is an incredibly painful reality I share with many educators. I've dedicated my
life to caring for and investing in children every single day. Yet, I do do not know if I will ever have the financial stability to raise a child of my own. For many of us, this is not just about numbers on the salary scale. It's about our lives. It's about whether we
can afford health care, housing, transportation, or food on the table. As an educator, I'm told to think ahead for my students. And I expected to prepare early interventions, long-term learning goals, and detailed plans for success. That e same expectation should exist at
every level of Jeep schools. The other day at the uh end of our senior's last orchestra concert, they lined up to share their plans for uh their plans after high school and how much they valued the performing arts. Every single student had very impressive ambitions. There are a lot of engineers,
biochemistry majors, majors I cannot pronounce, and a dentist. As I was listening, I realized a theme. These careers not only are interesting, but they pay well. Then one student said that they wanted to double major in theater and education. And I quote, "Because apparently I want to be poor."
And the crowd laughed. They laughed. My career salary is a punchline to a joke. I was hurt not by the student but I feel that sentiment that students dream job is one that that they know is important but it but while celebrated it
is often not valued. I am a social studies teacher and I teach government. One of the messages I was taught as a kid and still teach to this day is that government local government is extremely important. And guess what? This is local government. We can help grow public education. I teach economics and
understand that we have a budget and that education is underfunded. That is why we need to make sure that we as a district make good, safe investments with our money. And that most important resource our district needs to invest in is in our educators. Teachers stay if they feel valued. They
don't they leave if they don't. 44% of teachers leave the profession by their fifth year. I almost did. When asked at bargaining whether the district truly uh thinks that we will accept any language that includes a pay freeze, the district representation said no. So why is that
our first offer? It is insulting. How do I decide to walk for the MLO, let alone encourage my colleagues to do the same when the first offer we hear from the district implies that we are not valued? We are asking you to work with the district leadership to invest in
teacher retention and compensation now and stand with us to rebuild the trust and transparency in our community. Thank you. >> All right. Tonight I want to add something hopeful. I am hopeful that SB 26135 which could add millions to the
district budget and the Milvy override will pass. I believe that with strong partnership and real engagement from all of us they can be successful. But hope is not a strategy strategy organizing is. Successful campaigns do not happen because people suddenly start caring six
months before an election. They happen because people spend years building relationships, trust, communication, and investment in their communities. And respectfully, that work cannot fall entirely on exhausted, underpaid educators. We are being asked to help
organize around the MLO effort. But that effort has to be a real partnership, especially when the same cost of living pressures we are organizing to address are the ones stretching educators thin in the first place. So tonight, I'm asking this board not only to support these future funding efforts, but to
help build them alongside us. Recent events offer an opportunity for a reset in our relationship. Now is the time for the district leadership and this board to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with educators and families as we fight for the future of our schools together. Thank you.
>> Thank you. number three. Um, I appreciate the enthusiasm, but I would ask that we do not applaud after we're going to have a lot of different voices tonight. Thank you. Welcome.
>> Hi, my name is Jenny Irwin. I'm from Golden. Um, and I wanted to talk about the cell phone policy. So, I graduated high school in 2006, um, before cell phones were an issue. Fast forward 20 years. Um, I've got two kids. I'll be in
Jeffco schools for the next 23 years. So, I really care about what your choices are on this. And I would strongly um strongly advise an all day away policy. It's simple. It's straightforward. It's best for the kids.
It's best for the teachers. And we've seen really really compelling research over the last 20 years that it's better for student outcomes. So, that's all I have to say. Thank you. Number four.
Okay. >> Welcome. >> Okay. Hi, my name is Katherine Levan. I'm uh Jeffco parent uh to a twice exceptional scholar. You want to introduce yourself? >> My name is Corbin.
>> Okay, great. You want to sit here? I'm gonna say my thing and then you're going to say your thing. Okay. Ready? All right. Stick with me. Uh good evening board members. Tonight I ask you to invest in special education
infrastructure because prior budget cuts went too far. Protecting sped supports builds a community that is kinder, more capable, and the sort of place we all want to live in. And so I have two stories for you tonight. My son has attended two
elementary school districts or two elementary schools in this district. At Stevens, he thrives. Staff treat individual difference um as facets of the human experience. They meet kids where they are, and it's one of the best schools in the district.
The year before at another school, his teacher complained that she shouldn't have to teach special education students or update her teaching child teaching style to accommodate of a mandatory disability training. She wrote, "We would like some clarity as to why we're
doing this training. Nothing that took place this year was in the realm of reality for a Jened classroom, and we are not at fault." She dodged any personal accountability and argued these students should be segregated elsewhere for her convenience. I'm happy to report she was wrong. At Stevens, my son has
had an amazing year in a Jed classroom with sped supports. But in a district where one in seven students receive special education services, her intolerance was unacceptable and unnecessary. I've seen the alternative at Stevens and it can be replicated if
we fund it. When you decide next year's budget, know that the choice isn't whether to pay more for these students. you are already paying. The question is whether you pay smart in our schools, in our community, or pay a premium to send kids elsewhere.
You may not be aware, but in the last few years, the special ed program was cut salaries and benefits by over 16 million and cuts of 21 FTEEs were planned for next year. These cuts are in spite of nearly 1300 more students receiving
legally required services post pandemic. When students needs grow and funding dwindles past a certain point, the result isn't savings. And so it shouldn't surprise us that out of district placement costs have doubled from 6 million two years ago to almost
12 million last year. And we're on track for that same this year. In practical terms, we have newly opened a third Fletcher Miller school to send kids at a district who until recently were served by neighborhood schools and center programs. So cutting this budget doesn't
save money. It pays a premium for more restrictive settings by removing the supports that kept kids in community. And it makes every student's education worse when some teachers feel certain kids aren't their problem. Stevens shows what's possible when a school genuinely
commits to belonging for all students. I urge you not to affirm the attitude of that misguided teacher by defunding the very classroom supports that make the difference. Please protect special education funding next year. Thank you. Now it is your turn. This side.
>> I'm going to read my part of the speech right now. Ready? I'm going to go. This is a lesson about what makes a good school. I like Stevens because it has
good teachers. It is fun and they have good lessons. Number one, I love Mrs. MCI. He is my favorite teacher because he is patient and kind.
Number two, Stevens is fun. I like our I like labs, our two lesses, one time three, and the bird projects. Number three, the lessons are great. We
learn to make high quality work using our habits of character like initiative, perseverance
and empathy. We also make sure to celebrate during our ring of fire top eagle and celebration of learning events. This is why I like Stevens where we are crew.
Thank you. >> All right. Uhhuh. All right. Here's ours. >> Thank you. Number five. >> Hi, I'm Jen Norris. I am a resident and parent from Littleton. Um, and I'm here to talk about the Mesa K8 um, charter
authorization. Jeffco's mission is to provide a world-class education that prepares all students for bright and successful futures locally and globally. That's a mission I believe deeply in and one that has guided in the development of Mesa K8. As you consider this decision, it's
worth reflecting on whether that mission is consistently experienced in every student across Jeffco. This moment presents an opportunity not only to sustain what's working, but to also expand access and consider what may better serve communities that have been historically underserved. As Mesa's
founder, I haven't had the opportunity to engage with you outside of public comment. So, I want to ground the proposal in facts. Mesa is prepared to open with a signed facility lease and $2 million in secured startup funding. It reflects input from more than 600
community members, including over 200 prospective parents and 30 folks who showed up in person for Mesa at our community forum. The model includes transportation enrichment for all students before and after school care and a longer school year designed in
direct response to family needs. Our team brings experience in title one schools with a track record of improving outcomes in academics, attendance, and family engagement. It is important to note that the district accountability committee committee meeting materials for the April 21st DAC meeting state
that according to the DAC's formal charter application rubric, the overall score of the committee for Mesa's charter application was good and received an overall positive score of over two. For reasons Mesa is not aware of, the DAC's draft recommendation for the approval for our charter according
to their rubric scoring process was not submitted to this board. Instead, the DAC reviewed and approved a denial draft recommendation that did not mention their own rubric scores in favor of Mesa. I encourage you to weigh not only the formal evaluations, but also the
broader community voice and the opportunity to expand high-quality options in Two Creeks and District 2. At its core, Mesa is about partnership, building on the strong foundation Jeff Cory has in place while offering an additional quality pathway for students and families. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Number six. >> Welcome. >> We're just going to introduce ourselves quick. I'm Xander Kosub, uh, just the president and food service worker in Jeffco. >> Hi, I'm Olive Robertson. I uh work at Oh
gosh. I work at Fletcher Miller School uh with our SSD students. A PAR educator. >> Hi, I'm Karine Almana. I'm a PAR educator at Deer Creek Middle School. >> Good evening. Sarah Smith, preschool, 28 years in Jeffco and a proud member of
Jespa. >> Hi, I'm Jaden Bush. I'm the campus security specialist at Bear Creek K8. Hi, I'm Shaquille Galvan, a kindergarten par professional at Dean Elementary. >> I'm Jen Wilson, a kitchen worker at West
Jeff Middle in Conifer. >> I'm Joe Archeletta in the Mountain Area Schools. Okay. Uh we are here to demand guardrail language for the mil levy override uh because our community is tired of watching frontline school workers be told to do more with less. While central
administration spending has more than doubled since 2016. If taxpayers are being asked to invest more money in Jeffco schools, then that money must be protected for students and the workers who actually serve them every day, ESPs and teachers. Our schools don't function without us. Students can't learn in
dirty buildings. They can't succeed in overcrowded classrooms without enough support staff. Families cannot fully participate when there are not enough bilingual educators to communicate with them. Children can't focus when schools are stretched so thin that basic needs are treated like luxuries. Meanwhile,
many ESPs are still struggling to survive. Some workers are piecing together multiple jobs just to pay rent. Some are losing health care while workloads continue to increase. Some are being pushed past the breaking point while positions are cut and students need needs rise. We're done accepting a
system where the people closest to students are treated as as expendable while decisions are made further and further away from classrooms. If this district wants public trust, then put it in writing. New money must go to studentf facing staff, not administration expansion.
I demand guard guard rail language in the MLO so that new money is allocated to ESPs and teachers, not central administration staff because we deserve more staff to support rising student needs. This is important to me because
every day I see my co-workers physically, mentally, and emotionally battered with no rest in sight. I demand guardrail language in the MLO so that new money is allocated to ESBs and teachers, not central staff or not
central administration staff because we deserve bilingual educators who can include our non-English-speaking students. This is important to me because every kid in our country has a constitutional right to access public education regardless of their language barrier. I demand guardrail language in the MLO
so that new money is allocated to ESPs and teachers, not central administration staff, because we deserve more than four hours of pay per day at a livable wage. One job should be enough. It is important to me to ensure that our
people that want to be here in Jeffco are able to stay in Jeffco. I demand guard rail wing guardrail language in the MLO so that new money is allocated to ESPs and teachers not central administration staff because we
deserve affordable health insurance. This is important to me because healthc care costs are going up 30% next year. No one deserves to live paycheck to paycheck. I demand guardrail language in the MLO so that new money is allocated to ESPs teachers
not central administration staff because we deserve reasonable workloads and not being forced to do more with less and less resources because our students deserve a great education and our full attention. Additionally, my co-workers
and I deserve a sustainable career in which we are enabled to do our best for our students. I demand guardrail language in the MLO so that new money is allocated to ESPs and teachers, not central administration staff, because we deserve healthy meals.
I think our district can do better with for our kids with the funding that is available to them. I demand gradual language, excuse me, in the ML so that new money is allocated to ESPs and teachers, not central
administration staff because we deserve clean, safe buildings. This is important to me because I am currently the locksmith in the mountain area and you are eliminating my position and I know
these schools will be will will not be as secure with my position being eliminated. Thank you. I have a letter that I would like every board member to read.
>> Please hand it to our Thank you. This moment is about accountability. You can't stand in front of the public and say students are the priority while cutting frontline positions, increasing workloads, and asking exhausted workers to carry even more on their backs. We know what students need. They need
enough adults in schools. They need clean buildings, safe staffing, healthy food, emotional support, language access, and workers who are respected enough to stay in this profession. Without guardrails, this becomes another promise workers are expected to believe while schools continue to lose
resources. That's why this matters. We are demanding protections because we have watched what happens when there are none. If you want workers, families, and voters to support this mill, then prove the money will go where it belongs. Into classrooms, into school sites, and into the people doing the work every single
day. Not more bureaucracy, not more central office growth. Students deserve better, and so do the workers who hold this district together. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate the endorsement of what the speakers are saying, but this is my last time I will ask. Please do not applaud
after speakers. We have a variety of speakers tonight who all have different opinions. You may snap as we've discussed before, but please do not applaud. Up next, we have number seven. Thank you. I'm Katie Gar. I give my time to Jeremy
Gar. >> I'm Kimberly Russell. I yield my time to Jeremy Gar. >> Kathy Shad. I give my time to Jeremy Garst. >> I'm Gary Shed. I'm here with Jeremy Garst.
>> Jessica Geeseman. I yield my time to Jeremy Gar. >> Gina Steedman. I give my time to Jeremy Gar. >> Hello board members. My name is Jeremy Garst, founder of Rocky Mountain Conservative Alliance. I'm here tonight because the Jefferson County School District continues to operate without
transparency and without regard for parents rights to be informed. The district has eroded trust among this community to such a level that people are withdrawing their children from the education system in record numbers. Not because of rumors or policies, not because of misinformation or
conspiracies. Trust has been lost because of district's one word own words, their own actions and their own decisions. And now is more clear than ever in the recent uncovering of the safety audit that this district is h has had in its possession since May of last year, just
a few months prior to the shooting at Evergreen High School last September. Last year, the Jefferson County School District had a third-party audit conducted to assess the overall safety of Jeffco students. This thirdparty safety audit was conducted from February 25th or February 2025 to April 2025
covering a 75day period that reviewed nearly n 19 million student emails and documents throughout the Jefco school district. The safety audit was performed by a company called Gaggle Safety Management and the goal of the audit was intended to provide a foundational understanding of student safety in real
time and provide a reporting method to inform the schools when an imminent threat was flagged. It identified students in crisis early through ad advanced monitoring and al all alerting systems enabling schools to intervene before issues escalated. The whole purpose of this audit was to identify
suspicious items and flag them and categorize them into two categories. Questionable content or immense threats. Violence towards others, harassment, self harm, drugs and alcohol, nudity, sexual content were found in communications between Jeffco students
through the 75day period. The safety audit identified the following. 36,300 suspicious items were found. Of those suspicious items, 3,241 were identified as questionable content. And out of those incidents, 153 of them
were flagged as imminent threats. Not over a year, not across an entire state, in just 75 days, and in one school district here in Jeff Jefferson County. To put this into perspective, Jeffco schools had 35% more reports than the average school district over the same
period of time and with equal number of students. This report showed that Jeffco schools has a huge problem. It was a third party auditor's policy to not only report an imminent threat to the school, but also receive confirmation from the school that an imminent threat was reported and the
situation is being handled. Here are just a few questions I have that I think many others would also like to hear the answers to. Were the parents of these students informed when one of these 153 imminent threats was reported to the school? Were law enforcement or mental health
professionals contacted when an imminent threat was flagged? Did school personnel and/or the district work with parents of these students to help and care for the child after being flagged as a threat? Why did the district deny having the reports after a core request was
initially issued? And how did the district magically find the report only after push back from the community? What actions did the board and district take after receiving this audit? They sure made it a point not to tell the public. Was the Evergreen High School shooter listed in this report? Was he
flagged as an imminent threat? Not once was this audit mentioned by the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department during their investigation into the shooting. Not once was this audit mentioned in the nearly the newly released 800page investigation report as a source of information. Did the district inform the sheriff's office of
this safety audit at any time during the sheriff's investigation into the shooting at Evergreen High School? If I were the sheriff's office, I sure would like to see the details of this report during my investigation to see if there was talk between EHS students about potential threats or content from the shooter himself.
Do you see now board members why transparency is so important? Do you see now why we the people lose trust in you when you decide to keep information about our children's safety from us? Do you see that we are forced to ask tough questions like these and contemplate the
whatifs and the how comes? On top of that, board member Aaron Kinworthy did not hesitate to lecture our community on how school safety is a privilege and not a right immediately following the shooting. Aaron, you did not hesitate to describe school safety
as a community problem. You lectured our community on school safety and community engagement while the district was withholding the safety audit from us the whole time. Did you know about this audit? Were you aware of the district holding this back from critical information? Did the board know about
this audit while the community was being lectured? Either way, and for more reasons than I can explain today since our time was cut in half, you have no business representing our community. and I call for you to resign along with the resignation of all those who kept this community in the dark about the safety
audit. How do you expect us to trust you moving forward? How do you expect us to continue to send our kids to school? Building trust, building back this trust may never happen, but if you want to repair the trust of this community, you'll need to make significant changes, starting with being transparent and
honest with the people you serve. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. Thank you. Number eight. >> Welcome. >> Thank you. I'm Jen Wilson um from Conifer.
>> Montana Stevenson, mother of a student at Edgewater. >> Michelle Creeks, >> Andrea Hernandez, Kraton Middle School. >> So, my name is Jen Wilson. I'm an hourly worker at the West Jeff Middle School kitchen and I serve on the board of the
Jefferson County Schools Food Service Association within Jessa. I am also mom to two Jeffco kids who often eat school lunches. I am joined tonight by co-workers and fellow parents to elevate concerns about the implementation of healthy school
meals for all in Jeffco schools. In 2022 and 2025, Colorado voters said yes to providing healthy school meals to all Colorado kids. Beyond providing free meals, the new law includes funding for local food procurement, wage staff
wages, community outreach and engagement, and technical assistance to buy or upgrade equipment needed to enable scratch cooking to truly make healthy meals available to all. Unfortunately, Jeffco public schools food and nutrition services immediate
plans do not go far enough towards meeting this demand. With new funding available and a strong community interest in better meals for our kids, why is our staffing situation so grim and our menu uh so lacking?
Uh parent Montana Stevenson's will now show her. Hi, my name is Montana Stevenson. I have two children. My oldest is currently a preschooler at Edgewater Elementary. I'm here today because serving kids healthy meals at school is something that is really important to me. I believe that kids who
are wellnourished are better able to focus and less likely to act out. I'm concerned about what kids eat because I believe the eating habit habits they develop now as kids will follow them into adulthood affecting their long-term health. I want to feel like what is being offered at school is healthy and right now I don't feel that way. I know
I'm not alone in caring about what my kids eat based on other moms I've talked to in my daughter's class and the moms who advocated for a school food pilot program in my daughter's school. I would really like to see our district develop a vision of how to truly make healthy meals available to all that includes
adequate time for kids to eat, serving a wider variety of foods, incorporating more scratch cooking, more local ingredients, and ensuring adequate staffing levels and wages for the people preparing and serving the meals. I know this will take time and money to implement, but I believe our kids are worth the investment. And now I will
turn it over to Michelle Barbaro. My name is Michelle. I'm a kitchen manager at Three Creeks. My school has been the second busiest school in the district for the last three years. Every day we serve 800 meals and sell over $400 worth of alocart items. Our
kitchen has been short of 4-hour position, and next year we're losing another hour. So, a total of five hours are going to be missing from my kitchen next year. When I asked why, all I was told was MAQs would be evaluated, but no
timeline or clear answers were provided. The reality is that staffing shortages not only affect employees, but most importantly, they affect our students. We are asked to do more work every day
with less time. We barely have enough time to prepare the heavy processed food that we serve already. Our students deserve fresh and healthy meals. At the same time, our students are only getting 25 minutes to eat lunch.
What is extremely frustrating is that focus is more on selling alocart items and making a profit than providing quality meals our students deserve. Even on the days that we are extremely short-handed, choosing not to sell
alakar items is not an option for us. Not only is this about labor hours, this is about students receiving healthy meals that they deserve and our kitchen staff being given more hours so we can provide for
our students. My name is Andrea Hernandez. This is my 12th year with Jeffco public schools food service and nutrition. I currently work at Kraton Middle School and I love what I do. Feeding all the students for free has changed our lunch program. Since HSMA was passed, we all see the
need is out there. As our lunch lines grow every day, this is this was this was to be an amazing future for our students and staff. Providing free healthy meals for all actually fresh and healthy food and increase wages for workers. It hurts to see what is
happening to our students and staff as a result of Riv's budget cuts. Kitchens have lost our staffing while the demand increases. We do not understand how the district cannot see the importance of our jobs. It is not just the staffing.
It is the quality of food that we are serving. Have you seen our menus for next year? This is not what our voters wanted. How can we make the program successful successful without the support of the district and you, our school board members? We ask that you
stand with our students, parents, and staff to bring the HSMA for less processed food to reality this coming school year. Our students deserve a healthy future and not one hindered by damaging processed food. Thank you.
Please no applause. Thank you. Thank you for the snapping. And thank you very much speakers for your words. Up next, number eight. >> Nine. I'm sorry. Thank you. >> Hi, my name is Darby West. I live in Denver and I'm here in support of Mesa
K8. I am speaking to you first as a parent who lives on the Sheridan corridor. I have a fourth grader in DPS and a daughter entering preK in Jeffco soon. When my wife and I consider a school for our kids, we do so based on the school and its fit for our child,
not just on the district. Parents like me who live along the Jeffco DPS border are ready to choose Mesa. Jeffco will draw in more families from other districts by authorizing Mesa K8. In my 20 years in education, I have been part
of five founding Title One schools. I've led schools where over 90% of students qualify for free and reduced lunch, where almost 25% of students have IEPs, and where almost 70% of students were multilingual learners. Of the 17 charter schools in Jeffco, only two have FRL
percentages above 50. None of them provide transportation. We will. Our team intentionally chose this location in Two Creeks and now we are asking you to give us this opportunity to bring a high demand model and increase school
choice to a community that has largely been ignored. When I ask you to authorize Mesa K8 School, I'm asking you to say yes to more opportunity, more access, and more trust in families to choose the right school for their
children. Thank you. >> Thank you. number 10. >> Welcome. >> Thank you. >> Good evening, members of the board, and thank you for your time tonight. My name is Annie Carlin, and I serve as
treasurer for the founding board of Mesa K8. I've spent my career working alongside founders and boards to build financially sound organizations. And I approached this role with one responsibility above all, protecting the long-term stewardship of public dollars.
After the capacity interview, we did not simply tweak the budget. We rebuilt it with rigor. In partnership with the Minga Education Group, an experienced charter network CFO, and through my own oversight as treasurer, we stress tested every assumption. We tightened non-staff
expenditures, clarified facilities and maintenance obligations and ensured that professional development enrichment core to the Mesa model are fully and responsibly funded. This is not a hopeful budget. This is a disciplined one. We also heard your concerns about
facilities. That is a real risk area for any new school and we treated it as such. What gives me confidence is not just the supportive landlord relationship, but the fact that our plan accounts for the true cost of occupancy and operations from day one without deferring or minimizing these
obligations. And importantly, as of May 5th, Mesa pending authorization has secured 2 million funding in uh at in grant funding. That's a strong financial position for a school at this stage and it provides the meaningful buffer to
ensure stability as we launch and grow. I want to be clear, this board is not asking you to approve Mesa based on vision alone. We are asking you to approve a school that has demonstrated the ability to respond to scrutiny, to revise under pressure, and to build a
financially viable plan grounded in reality. That is what strong governance looks like. As treasurer, I would not support this application if I believed it placed students, families, or taxpayer dollars at risk. I support it because I believe Mesa K8 has the financial discipline, oversight, and
leadership to openly and responsibly sustain itself over time. Thank you for your diligence, and your service to Jeffco students. I respectfully ask for your approval. >> Thank you. Number 11.
Welcome. >> Thank you. Lindsay Dco from Arvvada. >> Lesie Reynolds Arvvada. >> Lauren Snow Golden. >> Ashley Reynolds Arvvada.
Nol Datco Arvvada >> Ellison Lindsay Littleton. >> In November 2024, I locked eyes with a Jefferson County mom in a parking lot. One month after she discovered a trusted Jeco school social worker had sexually
sexually abused her son. Beside her sat her teenage son in a hoodie covering his face, shoulders collapsed, eyes on the floor. The grief was crushing and my every instinct demanded justice. Last April, we stood here and presented 26
egregious cases of abuse and misconduct. Media reported Jeffco first kids first as the most prominent student safety group in Colorado. We took that attribution seriously and intensified our efforts. Despite obtaining all documentation through Jeffco's own open
records, the district challenged us, created barriers, and most board members have remained disengaged and entirely unresponsive. Jeffco Kids First has now documented over 40 cases of sexual abuse involving students, many compounded by serious
lapses in HR practices and oversight. A few recent examples include an employee was charged with 50 felony counts, including 40 counts of child exploitation. Jeffco hired him shortly after he was pushed out of St. Vin despite HR notes urging more questions
about his departure. He was hired with a record of three DUIs, a two two-year probation, and failed domestic violence treatment. While teaching at Arvvada High, he wore an ankle monitor for 90 days on work release waiting for a bed at a halfway house. A bus driver was
recently charged with sexual abuse after grooming a special needs child with money. Another groomed a female student by calling himself Hades and her Pphanie, inviting her on late night walks and texting, "You know you like older men." Text provided ironclad
proof. Transportation admin had to insist he not drive another route. Disturbingly, multiple employees with misconduct histories have been reassigned or rehired at schools with the most at risk students. One such school currently employs three
investigated employees. One charged with child sex crimes, one previously investigated for grooming, and one with recommended child sexual assault charges that can still be reopened. To continue, Jeffco has declared students as unaccompanied youth at more
than 2.5 times the rate of Denver public schools. a much larger district with double the free and reduced lunch rate. The McKini Vento Act has been misused to sever families and grant unaccompanied youth status and FAFSA benefits to students who were
never without a fixed home. The same liaison has repeatedly left parents in the dark, failed to verify homeless status, and signed off on cases that have been under criminal analysis and current state review. In a recorded call, she admitted she does not verify
the safety of the students new home. Despite promises of correction, the deceptive practices continue and have drawn FBI attention. A devastating school safety audit was delivered to district leaders, including board president Michelle Applegate, about 30
days before the Evergreen shooting. Jeffco worked hard to keep it from public view. Despite the TDPAC committee expecting it for months, any reference to the report suddenly vanished from meeting minutes, Jeffco initially denied our open records quest, falsely claiming
they were told to destroy all hard copies. We knew differently and finally obtained the unredacted electronic version. Why was this critical report withheld? In just 75 days, as mentioned before, a reputable reputable thirdparty
contracted with Jeffco and reviewed nearly 19 million items from Jeffco student accounts, flagged 3,241 incidents, including 153 imminent threats or crises. These involved suicide, self harm, violence,
harassment, drugs and alcohol, sexual content, and a hit list naming 15 students. For perspective, this matches the annual total of imminent threats this company typically sees in Florida districts, three times the size of Jeffco. Benchmark suggested roughly 10
such incidents in 75 days, but Jeffco had 153, over 15 times the expected number. Tonight, with thousands standing behind us and thousands of pages of documentation, we call for the resignation of Chief of Legal Julie
Tolison. We also call on this board to take immediate and decisive action. Publish the full safety audit and explain why it was hidden. Launch a transparent third-party investigation into the sexual abuse cases and HR failures. End
the Mckin Vento abuses and fraud. Require the legal department to prior prioritize children above the institution. We remain ready to work with you for that boy in the hoodie and every child like him. Thank you.
>> Thank you. >> Number 12. >> Welcome. >> Hi, my name is Maria. Sorry for my voice. I'm losing my voice. Um I'm in support of MESA K through8. Good afternoon. My name is Yurani and my children's are
10, six, and five. I'm currently there currently attending a DPS and I approve MESA because we need more charter K through8 schools for our children's to support them with a better educational and opportunity being being able to stay in one school and better opportunity for
parents with multiple children. The board wants to deny us because they are scared we are going to take kids away from Jeffco. We are here to show we would actually pull in families from DPS including mine. Thank you for your time.
>> Thank you. >> Number 13. If there's not a number 13, we can come back. number. Oh, is 13 online? >> My name is Brian Eshbacher. Am I 13? >> I think you must be. Please continue. Welcome.
>> Great. Good afternoon. My name is Brian Eshbacher. I'm a K12 uh enrollment consultant who led the planning office in Denver public schools for seven years and have consulted with school districts and uh charter organizations around the country for the last eight years, including Jeffco. And for transparency,
I have consulted for Mesa um with analyzing this specific location, and I do believe that this is favorable to their long-term enrollment outlook for several reasons. The first is the large number of K8 students that live within a 10-minute drive time that stretches into Denver, which can help Jeffco recruit
more students from Denver and from other places because of this program model. I think Mesa's transportation plan supports them also recruiting from a wider area. Another reason is area demographics. Mesa serves or seeks to serve um the students that look like the communities around this even though many
of the schools in the area do not reflect that entire student population. It's usually just a portion of it. And I think one of the biggest reasons is the level at school choice is already happening in this part of Jeffco. Um, using the FCB dashboards that the district publishes, 2500 elementary
students or more than half of the children that live in the school boundaries around the Mesa location already participate in choice to go to another Jeffco school. Not to mention students going to private school, Denver or another. And an example of that is the Stevens boundary. 374 children who
live in the Stevens boundary choice out to somewhere else in JCO, showing that families are seeking other options. So, I think the model diversity that Mesa has, uh, it's it's unique. I I know it was cited that some of the schools are located 5 miles away. 5 miles is a really long distance when you're thinking about elementary students, but
I think Mesa can attract many of the families back to a school in this community. So, for those reasons, in my professional opinion, I think Mesa has a path towards long-term sustainability while minimizing the impact on any specific schools in the area. Thank you for your time.
>> Thank you. Number 14, Elise, if you can hear us. I think you're up. >> Welcome. Go ahead, Elise. >> Hi. Um, >> if you can hear us, I think you're >> Yes. Can you guys hear me?
>> Yes. >> Okay. Um, hi, my name is >> My name is Elise Harrison. I live in Littleton and we are expecting our first child in October. My kid won't even be in the public school system for another 5 years. But I think this topic is so important that I'm here today to
advocate for the bell-to-bell no cell phone policy in schools, also called um away all day. Um I teach at the university level, so I have firsthand experience fighting for students attention in the classroom and observing them move through the hallways, making zero eye contact, completely glued to
their devices. I'm 33 years old, and I assume with some exceptions that most people in this room are around my age or older, and that means that most of us grew up without cell phones and without social media. I personally got a cell phone in high school with only calls and limited text message. We survived and I
even think we thrived. I currently have no social media because I saw how negatively it impacted my fully formed frame in my 20s. Self- judgment and shortened attention span had direct impacts to my mental well-being. All I'm really asking for is that our kids get
the same opportunity that we did to actually be kids, form close relationships, and learn how to fill time without staring at a screen. I assume the arguments against um and no phone policy are security related. In the case of emergencies, every teacher, staff member, security officer will have
access to cell phones to contact emergency services. If that is not enough, I'm sure a future security protocol can be constructed that address these concerns. But these concerns should not be outweighed should not outweigh the negative impacts of kids being fully consumed by their devices all day missing out on some of the best
years of their lives. I urge the school board to adopt the no cell phone bell to bell policy for K12 to give our kids a chance to be kids without the constant distraction of phones and social media. Thank you so much. >> Thank you.
Number 15. Is there a number 15 in the room? I'm going to move to 16 and we will come back to 15. Is there 16? Is there anyone else in the room that signed up to speak?
Okay, we'll do a check on the virtual side and make sure we're not missing anyone. No. Okay. Thank you to those who participated in public comment tonight. Um, and I appreciate everyone's patience as we got
through that. Next, we will move forward with the consent agenda. Items 6.01 01 through 6.15 are presented in board docs as proposed consent agenda. As a reminder to our listening public, the board received a preview of these items at our May 6th study session. Do I have a
motion regarding the approval of the consent agenda as presented in Board Docs? >> I move to approve items 6.01 through 6.15 on the consent agenda as published in Board Docs. >> Is there a second? >> I second. Any discussion?
It has been moved and seconded to approve the consent agenda items 6.01 through 6.15 as presented in board docs. Roll call, please. Miss Harper. >> Miss Applegate. >> Yes. >> Dr. Cheria. >> Yes. >> Mr. Gibbons. >> Yes. >> Miss Kenworthy. >> Yes.
>> Miss Moinian. >> Yes. >> Thank you. Next on the agenda is for the board to vote on the proposed resolution denying the charter application of the Mesa K8 school. In February 2026, the district received a charter application
from Mesa K8. After a thorough review by multidisciplinary teams, the DAC and the superintendent have recommended denial of the application based on the grounds that approving it would be contrary to the best interest of students, the district, and the community. I will open the floor
for the board for comments before we take an official vote on the resolution. Board of directors, Mr. Given. Yes. Um, first I do want to acknowledge what was unquestionably a lot of work
that went into this school for its supporters and I applaud that level of engagement and hope that the individuals that supported it continue to be that engaged with students education and bettering Jeco schools. But I I wanted to speak up on this issue
because my own experiences with charter schools is part of why I chose to run for this office. I am the parent of a child who was a student at Great Burke Monastery when it catastrophically failed in the middle of a school year. The impacts on my child were
significant, significantly negative and it was well over a year before he had recovered both academically and emotionally. Um, and what I find have found concerning as I've looked at the application and the recommendations, and I would add that the materials that we
have been able to review, including the superintendent's recommendation, were incredibly detailed. I see many of the same problems and deficiencies with this application that were present with great work many years ago. And is it is really for that reason and that experience that I think that it is
important that at this time we not approve the charter and that we do approve the resolution denying it. Um it's just simply the stakes are too high and allowing something to proceed and the hopes that'll work that it will work out in my view are not good enough.
Certainly nothing is for certain but there are certainly many problems with this application that um make it impossible for me to support. Thank you, Mr. Given. Other board members, um I would just add that I um am really
quite proud of the relationship that Jeffco has with our charter schools in our district. Our charters um offer an amazing opportunity and and choice for parents and students um that don't always align with maybe what a traditional um comprehensive school
might look like. As board members, we often get to go and visit our charters. We represent them as much as we represent um neighborhood schools. My concerns are are really around the fact that we've shown declining enrollment in the Two Creeks area, including schools that have been closed
as part of Roughs. Um while I do also really appreciate the amount of effort and work and value those that have come and shared with us, um it is it is truly the voice that um we appreciate hearing. Um,
I am concerned that we have schools with open seats and a future of declining enrollment as presented to us by our state demographer. And those are um those are concerns that I um am struggling to move past
any others. Seeing that there are not any additional comments, we will move forward with a vote. Is there a motion regarding the approval of the resolution denying the Mesa K8 school application charter? >> I move to approve the resolution denying the Mesa K8 charter school application.
>> Is there a second? >> I second. >> Is there any additional discussion? It has been moved and seconded to approve the resolution denying the Mesa K8 Charter School application. Roll call, please. Miss Harper. >> Miss Applegate. >> Yes. >> Dr.
>> Yes. >> Mr. Gibbons. Yes, >> Miss Kenworthy. >> Yes, >> Miss Moian. >> Yes. >> The time is now 6:28. Um, and I would like to call for a 15minute break. We will be on recess until then. Thank you.
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hey, hey. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Down down down down down down. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. Next on our agenda are our leadership
reports. First, the board will hear from Superintendent Dorland, followed by reports from the board. Superintendent Dorland, the time is now yours. Thank you very much, President Applegate. Um, I am looking forward to uh
reiterating some messaging that went out last week. Um, and just uh want to start by saying um that tonight uh I want to share with our Jeffco community that I have made the decision to step down as superintendent of Jeffco public schools
where I will be departing Jeffco on July 5th to pursue a new opportunity beginning later this summer. Uh this decision does not come lightly given my deep commitment and care for this community. Serving as superintendent of Jeffco has been the great one of the greatest honors of my career. Five years
ago, in April of 2021, in the midst of a pandemic, I came home to serve this district. The district where I grew up, where I'm raising my children, and where my family story has always been intertwined. From the outset, my commitment was to bring stability to a system that had experienced significant
turnover and disruption, and to position Jeffco for a stronger, more sustainable future. Over the past 5 years, I'm incredibly proud of the progress we have made together as a community. Jeffco students are achieving at high levels, demonstrating meaningful academic growth, outperforming state averages,
and graduating at the highest rate since the state began tracking. We have also seen real progress in expanding career connected learning and closing opportunity gaps, particularly through our career and technical education pathways. We established a strong academic foundation by implementing
highquality evidence-based literacy and math curriculum across our schools, creating greater consistency and rigor for every student. At the same time, we brought clarity and focus to the system through our strategic plan, Jeffco Thrives, strengthening transparency,
accountability, and alignment across the district. I am also proud of the work we did to thoughtfully address long-term sustainability. Through our school consolidation efforts, we made difficult but necessary decisions to better align resources and ensure that all students have access to robust programming and
support. And in the process saved the district approximately $20 million annually. And importantly, we began to reimagine the student experience through initiatives like a strong start in elementary school with quality reading curriculum in all schools, the magic of
middle school and high school reimagined. We focused on foundational skills, engagement, agency, and preparing students for success beyond graduation. None of this work happens alone. It reflects the dedication of our educators, staff, leadership team, and
the broader Jeffco community. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to serve this district and proud of the foundation we've built for the future of Jeffco public schools. Thank you. >> Thank you, Superintendent Dorland. Um we extend our sincere gratitude to you um
for your service to Jeffco. Um over the last five years, you've led a our district through a period of challenge and change and you've brought stability and focus on students. Under your leadership, we've taken on complex and difficult work and better aligned our resources and strengthened our outcomes.
And we've positioned Jeffco for the future. We appreciate your leadership during this time when consistency and direction were essential and we recognize the impact of your contributions. As we prepare for this transition, the board is committed to ensuring
continuity and stability for our students, our staff, and our families. We will immediately begin the process of identifying an interim superintendent to serve following Superintendent Dorland's departure this summer. The board is also committed to launching a national search for a strong and innovative superintendent with a commitment to
engaging our community throughout the process. Jeffco public schools is a strong district and this board is committed with a team running working us alongside us a team of leaders, educators and staff. And as a board we remain committed to the current
direction of the district focused on students supporting our schools and continuing the important work underway. Thank you, Superintendent Dorland, for your leadership over the years, and we wish you the very best in your next chapter. Other directors,
would you like to share? Thank you, Director Moian. All right. So, on April 20th, I participated in Coline's Day of Service. So, I joined the uh students from Coline High School and we painted a hallway at Governor's Ranch Elementary. It was
really an honor to just be part of that with them and and to to serve the community. Um, I also had an opportunity uh just before our board retreat a couple weeks ago to stop by Warren Tech South as they celebrated their 5-year anniversary. So, congratulations to
them. Um, also held my town hall this past month and it was very helpful. I was joined uh by uh former president Mary Parker and uh director Kenworthy. So, thank you, Erin, for coming out and supporting. Um, we had some very helpful
conversations, I would say. Um, and then finally, a couple weeks ago, I had an opportunity to, uh, visit Coline High School, and I I just so happened to come across one of their posters where they were having a school play that very evening. So, I got to watch 12 Angry
Jurors. It was amazing. The students were incredibly talented. So, uh, you know, just want to thank them for that amazing experience. And that's all I have. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Gibbons. Um, I don't have much to
report since our last meeting in particularly because instead of watching a play called 12 Angry Jurors, I was presenting a case in federal court to nine angry jurors. Um, don't ask me how it ended. and since last week was happy to have had some meetings with um different
members of the cabinet on various issues for the district. Um coming up I am very excited. I've got Friday night um Green Mountain High School's graduation Saturday morning Lakewood. Um I am also looking forward
to the MLAN adult program Jeffco open school. Um, a week from Friday will be Golden uh, High School at at School of Minds. And I appreciate the message that they left for me up here. I'm looking forward to that. Um, I do want to extend my gratitude to Superintendent Dorland.
Um, you will be missed. And I think it's um, important to note as those of us who are sifting through the many challenges that we face, they would be far more challenging were it not for many difficult decisions that you had to make. And I think that that needs to be
acknowledged um regularly and often as we continue to go through the different challenges we have to address. And that is all I have. >> Thank you, >> Dr. Cheria. >> All right. Um, this month I I visited
Jefferson County Open School alongside Principal Melissa Dominguez during the school's day of celebration. Um, as Jeffo's original option school serving preK through 12th grade, uh, Jefferson County Open School continues to highlight the value of a student-driven
experiential learning and strong student relationships. Um, as I walked through the classrooms, I had some students uh showcase projects. They shared with me their presentations. They were very excited to share. Um, this school
demonstrates learning that was hands-on, creative, and deeply rooted in student voice. Um this month I also was honored to attend the health tech appreciation breakfast which was especially meaningful to me personally.
Uh my son was diagnosed with epilepsy when he was four years old and the Jeco health techs and nurses helped keep him safe each day. They trained the staff on his emergency seizure medication and provided me with a tremendous amount of peace of mind until he outgrew his
condition. Um my both my mother and my sister are serving as nurses and I have a deep appreciation for the compassion and care healthc care professionals bring to our students and families. Um I remain incredibly grateful for the essential
role Jeffco health techs and nurses play in supporting student health and safety. I also attended this month the world language honors and awards night at Stanley Lake High School. It was an evening celebrating language, learning,
culture, and student achievement. The event featured cultural performances, musical numbers, and student recognitions along with food representing multiple language programs. Um, the German club made schnitle, the French club made crepes, and the Spanish
club made a nacho bar. So, it was lots of yummy food. Um, I was honored to serve as their guest speaker, share my own language learning journey, and lead a multilingual song activity to open up the evening. Congratulations to the outstanding students and educators whose
dedication made this event so memorable. And finally, um, I attended the Jeffco retiree banquet, uh, where Superintendent Dorland gave us the best gift ever, a snow day in the middle of
the week. So, that was so much fun to hear the retirees literally chanting snow day like a bunch of middle schoolers. It was so much fun. Um, and I loved it. So, thank you for that invite. Um, this month I also attended the 2026
board symposium at the University of Denver as part of uh my continued commitment to learning and thoughtful leadership on behalf of the Jefco students and family. Two sessions stood out to me. Um there was a session or there was a session discussing
declining enrollment and the grow and also another session about the growing role of AI in education. Both conversations reinforce the importance of thoughtful student- centered decision-making as schools navigate changing enrollment trends, technology,
equity, and the future of teaching and learning. This month's uh constituent communication reflected continued community engagement on several district-wide topics. I appreciate the many families, staff members, and students and community members who continue reaching out with questions and
concerns. Notably, I received more than 400 emails in support of distraction-free schools and a district-wide cell phone policy. I also received over 70 emails regarding the proposed mail levy override partnership
discussions with JCA. I wanted to provide some clarification regarding my support for an away all day cell phone policy in response to the many advocates who've reached out. I do not support taking phones away from students entirely or preventing them
from bringing phones to school. As a parent myself, I understand the importance of communication and safety. For example, I personally use Life 360 with my son to help ensure he safely gets where he needs to each day. My support is specifically for zones to be phones to be silenced and kept out of
sight during the school day, including passing periods and lunch in order to reduce distractions and improve learning environments for students and staff. After hearing concerns from Director Kinworthy regarding the unique needs of night schools and adult learners, as well as additional discussions with
President Applegate, I'm open to considering a less restrictive approach for those specialized settings. However, at our comprehensive high schools serving the general student population, I will continue to support an away all day policy. I also want to note that recently that a recently released study
found significant decreases in student depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts along with overall improvements in mental health after three years of implementing an away all day policy. At this time when we are facing budget cuts and reducing social emotional
professionals, this represents a cost-effective way to positively impact student mental health and well-being. Finally, I want to acknowledge that after speaking with many high school teachers this past week, they've shared support for stronger district guidance
around cell phone use. Um, during my school visits and conversations with educators, I consistently hear concerns about the daily challenges phones create in classrooms. As a lifelong educator myself, I believe limiting cell phone distractions can meaningfully support both teaching and learning.
So, as I close out my report, I want to share just some personal um a personal story. Uh I had the opportunity to celebrate two well, I will have the opportunity to celebrate two very special milestones in my family. Um my niece graduated from the University of
North Florida with a bachelor's in science and will pursue a master's in psychology last weekend. This weekend, I will be attending my daughter's graduation from Forom University where she's earning a bachelor's of arts or sorry, a bachelor in English with a
minor in business before returning home to Colorado to begin her career in marketing on June 15th. Both young women are 2022 graduates of Stanley Lake High School and participants in the IB program. and seeing them pursue their goals with confidence has reminded me
how grateful I am for the education and opportunities they received in Jeffco public schools. As graduation season approaches, I want to congratulate all of our graduating students and thank the educators, staff, and families who helped support them along the way. No matter where no matter the where the
path ahead leads, this moment marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter into adulthood. And I wish every graduate continued success in the future. Thank you. Thank you, Director Kenworthy. >> Thank you. Um, so as we close out
another school year or we approach the close of another school year, I just want to say uh that board service thus far has been a true education. Um, and I'd like to extend my gratitude to Superintendent Dorland for her patience and her service. The superintendent role is a high impact and hardship
assignment. Along with running a district, you also have had the additional role of working alongside several newly minted elected officials. I want to extend my personal thanks for your patience and your engagement with me as a new elected official and as
I continue to learn um I have I have learned quite a lot in this role and in no small part to the way that you've led the district. Um so I just am personally incredibly grateful for your patience and your engagement. I also attended the
retirement dinner from the second year. I feel like my hand has now shaken thousands of years of educational experience um at that event. It is um also a really special treat to be there with an educator who has worked with both of my children and is retiring after 33 years
of educ time in a classroom. Um I've thoroughly enjoyed getting to sit and eat dinner with her and celebrate during that event and I think it's a really special event that Jeff co-hosts every year. Um, I also want to mention that this week at
the legislature is sinai. So, the legislature is getting ready to wrap up. And I want to extend extreme gratitude to our legislators for continuing to protect public education funding at the state level in an incredibly challenging
ongoing budgetary constraint situation. And finally, um I would like to thank the partnership and specifically Kimberly Mayhew for her leadership. Our um fiscal partnership has done an incredible job of taking up
and owning some of the financial restraints that we are currently facing ourselves in Jeffco as a result of state um budget constraints. And it was heartening to see so many presenters in front of that room who are not district
staff but our community members, educators who are picking this up and holding this as um something that our entire community needs to be attentive to. And I am thrilled to see that um developing in this effort as we look towards a ballot initiative this
November. Uh and now I will finally say graduations this month are going to be stellar. I've been to one. and I have 12 more to go to. Uh, and I certainly want to say that this month has underscored that the only constant is change. Uh, as we continue to hold
spaces, all of us, um, supporting our students and as they continue to grow and change, so does the district and so does, uh, the education profession as a whole. Thank you everybody for continuing to show up even as change continues to show up alongside us. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Director Kenworthy. Um, I always get to start graduations off with two really special ones. We have a lot of really special ones across the district. Um, Project Search is something that not many people know that we do. So, Project Search is actually an
applicationbased program. So, students apply in our in our sped and special needs areas and they apply for a program that helps them become independent, helps them find jobs, gives them internships in hospital settings. We partner with Children's Hospital. We
partner with UC Health. And at graduation, you get to learn about the work that these students have done for the last year. Um, part of this is they have to navigate public transportation on their own, which even for me is can be a little intimidating at times when
you're trying to navigate. Um, but the thing that I am often most proud of is that Jeffco is the host district for these students across the whole state. So, it's not just Jeffco kids, it's kids from all across the state. And there is something really, really inspiring to
hear their stories. Um, so one, I got to see that and hear what they plan to continue to do after graduation. And then also Jeffco Transition Services, which can be up to a three-year program where our graduates can go and learn the skills and tools
that help them be independent after high school. Um, we often focus and I often focus on academics, but the impact that we make in lives across this district is also something that I am reminded of this time of year.
Um, I was also able to attend, um, Golden Rotary does an annual business and ethics award and they invite a lot of the Golden Artic area principles. Um, and we got to go attend that which was very, um, fun. Um, and always really wonderful to see what our what our
community is doing in the Golden Area. And, um, probably most notable, I was able to judge the Tamalei throwdown at Foster K8, which was an amazing experience. and a sincere thank you to principal Lee Heistister who is retiring after many years with our district. And I want to also welcome our new principal
that's coming in. Um I also want to highlight that we have the governor's distinguish improvement award has come out and we have several schools that are on that list. Bergen Elementary, Fairmount, Governor's Ranch, Keifin, Michl John, Parmaly, Rston, Red Rocks,
Stober and Sto. and it's just a constant reminder, many of these schools have been on this list for years, um that we have really good things happening across our district. I also want to lift up again, um principal appreciation and teacher
appreciation weeks. Um it is always it is always one of those moments to see um our educators and our staff are so important and it's really wonderful to see them get the praise and uh love from
the students that they so willingly deserve and so nec so so absolutely deserve. Um so that is always a really uh fun week. It's a little stressful as a parent when you have to figure out how to make your kids dress like their teachers. We did it. Um, but it it's
it's really fun. I want to end on a note. Um, I, you know, I appreciate Superintendent Derland's service to this district and just say we have a really proud and strong history in this district. Um, we have not shied away from hard things and we have really
amazing academics and impacts that we can celebrate this year. I really want to ensure our community that this board is willing and prepared to lead us into the next chapter of Jeffco. Um, you have my commitment as well as I know that of this board that we will continue to keep students first.
We will focus on collaboration and transparency and we will continue to build trust alongside our community and our stakeholders. We are in a season of change and change can be scary and change can be good and um the only way the only way through it is to embrace it
and welcome it. Um the future of Jeffco is bright based on a lot of work that's been done and we will stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our educators, our staff, our students, families, and our community as we move forward in this season. So with that, I'm really excited for the coming graduations, the
celebrations that happen, and the business that we have to tend to before the end of this year. Thank you. All right. Moving forward with the study portion of this evening, the board will receive an end ofear update from the district accountability committee. This update will be presented by Chief Family
and Community Partnerships, Crystal Marine, and Theres Rednor, both DAC committee members. Come on up. and Trace. Welcome, Trace. Presenters, welcome. Thank you for your patience tonight. We have a loted 30 minutes for your presentation. Please do
include time at the end for questions from the board. And before I turn it over, Superintendent Dorland, is there anything you would like to add? >> I just want to extend a warm welcome and thank you for all of the service that you've provided on our DACK. I know this is your last year. Um and I I really
appreciate um what you've done and what all of you guys do. So, excuse me. Uh so, thank you. Thank you very much. Yeah. >> Um I am not Chief Pñena, Tara Pñena. Um she is actually Oh, thank you. Uh just
texted us. She's celebrating her daughter getting a really lovely scholarship this evening. Um and wishes she could be here, but I offered to be here so she could be with her family. So, thanks for understanding. Um, I'm Trace Faustst, a facilitator for the DAC. I've been working I know I've met or know a number of you, but also for
the new board members. Have I don't think I've had the opportunity to be in front of you yet here. So, um, nice to meet you all. And, uh, I serve as kind of a neutral facilitator for the deck and helping. You'll kind of hear a little bit more about my role in that from from you all. Um, the other elephant I want to name is that I'm
wearing bright green pants and very casual shoes because I've never seen this board be 30 minutes ahead of schedule. So, congratulations. I was hanging out with my kid and my neighbors very casually and they said get to the boardroom. So, um, so yeah, the pancers bright as
the future of Jeff Co. Just wanted to like pull that through line. >> Thought you'd appreciate that. So, I'm excited to to be up here today with these two. Uh, it's been a great year for DAC. Um, I've been with the DAX supporting as a facilitator for the past
two years. Um and I actually have opportunity to to be before you all in June to talk a little bit more about the committees uh uh your advisory committees across um all of them. So you'll hear more about that later. Uh but yeah, just standing in tonight to to celebrate what you all have accomplished
this year and to answer your questions and supported. But with that, I'm going to hand it over to you. Okay. >> Get going. >> That sounds great. >> Okay. All right. Thank you for the time tonight. Uh my name is Theres Rednor. I'm the district accountability um committee chairperson and I as you look
at our but um what we're going to be doing tonight I just wanted to also take a moment to assure the board that we have met nine times uh this year so that we've taken care of some of those things that are written in our bylaws and in statute. Um and I think that is important to recognize. So we meet um we
met every month except for December. Our next last meeting is this May. Um all of the the executive committee as well met regularly throughout the year. Uh we have posted all of the agendas. We have posted minutes online so that they are
accessible to um to the community. Um and we our four subcommittees have been active throughout the year and uh so we have taken care of those important details to make sure that the committee runs smoothly.
So here are some just harder, you know, just just basic things that we have accomplished or some very straightforward things that we have accomplished throughout this year. One thing that I want to sort of highlight is that
we've done bylaw work this year and we have um we have introduced and we have established member term limits so that this committee, this district accountability committee can encourage um other community members to know that
there are always spaces for those voices to be heard and for them to apply. And we want um we want this district accountability committee to reflect that uh we are stronger when more voices are at the table. So I'm very proud that we
were able to establish term limits. Um and we're obviously we need to keep this this accountability committee primarily a parentled committee, right? And that's that's actually what it says in statute as well. Uh but it doesn't and in our bylaws it doesn't indicate like what is
majority parentled right 5149 right now it's set up as an 8020 uh 80% parents obviously 20% positions that are not considered parent um positions. Something I would like the board to consider is guiding us as your advisory
committee. What do you think those guidelines look like when we are because we're in application period right now and our application period, you know, it looks really different. Like we sometimes we have a lot of community members that apply and not as many parent members. Sometimes we have a lot
of parent members and it just changes every year. That's that's the the nature of of this committee and we want to keep it as strong as possible and as the best advisory committee, you know, with the strongest parent voice as we can to the board. So I I would welcome some
guidance. I know that DAC would welcome some guidance from from the board giving us sort of what feels right to you as far as percentage of parent voices versus and percentage of voices that do not operate in the parent way. Um,
another one to consider is we do have, you know, an advocacy group that has representation, uh, PTA and then we also have JCA and we have Jespa and we have JCAA. Another thing to think about as we're reimagining, right, we're doing a lot of reimagining tonight. Let's reimagine
this. Uh are there any other advocacy groups that you as um as our board and we as your as your advisory committee are there any other advocacy groups that you would want to maybe think about having a space for on deck? Um, another really exciting thing that
we've done is Terrapena has come up with um, so uh, SAC training like a kickoff training just for new principles and first year principles to ensure that we're providing the right information to our principles so that they can partner with their SAC chairs to make SAC a
really robust and engaged experience. So that's happening this summer. That's the first time that this is happening. So that's great. with some more reimagining. We're reimagining our um sack kickoff model. Instead of doing a one-stop district-wide boy, we've done this every year the same way every
single year. We're now shifting that focus to help build community and do that um by articulation area. It'll give an opportunity, I think, for better, more um specific agendas to be created that might speak more specifically to that
articulation area, as well as still providing that basic information that everyone needs to know on how to best engage and and run a SAC and uh and what that looks like throughout the year. Um, and let's see. One thing that I'm
particularly grateful for is uh the fireside chats that uh Superintendent Dorland has made herself available to not just this past year, but in previous years as well. That's been something that um Superintendent Dorland has given
quite a bit of time to doc for us to ask questions and um and hear those answers from district leadership. And as you seek and search for and find a new superintendent, keep that in mind that that was something that um you know, I just want
to amplify and elevate and thank specifically thank you for uh superintendent Dorland. Let's see. Oh, and we conducted our survey and we we continue to use our SAC survey to better inform our work throughout the year. We want that that's a living and breathing survey. We're
always constantly trying to to elevate it and make it make it stronger. Um I'm pushing like wrong things. I'm pushing wrong buttons. Okay. So some things that we we definitely learned is yes stakeholder engagement is just very
critical and also stakeholder transparency for stakeholders is incredibly critical as well. Um student safety as we know remains a top concern from all of our families. that was um um very clear throughout SAC surveys and
just other stakeholder parent engagement. Um as it relates to the DUIP, we can see clearly that um math achievement is improving. Uh but it continues to lag behind our reading improvement. And I just don't know what that magic I don't I mean obviously no
one here knows what the magic formula is. And I would encourage though that we continue to seek that magic formula to really in increase those math scores especially in that middle school in those middle school years. The DUIP subcommittee has has sort of always amplified and elevated that and I know
that the district is constantly working on that but I think that's something that needs to be a priority. And um last but not least is uh the we would appreciate and we have appreciated a new rubric that came through as it relates
to charter school review. Um, and I think we can improve on that with some guidance from the board of education and in order for the DAC when we're reviewing especially new charter schools um if we could have some guidance on
maybe a more robust rubric but also to um know how to communicate very clearly like what that process looks like transparently to all of the stakeholders. So, we received many um many letters from families as well regarding this most recent charter
school application and certainly we you know um Aaron gave us some guidance with that, but I think we can formalize that a little bit more so that stakeholders particularly families know that their voices are being heard and know that they're just not uh being passed over.
So, that's what we learned. And now I'm going to let Crystal talk more about what we learned as it relates to the budget work. Good evening. My name is Crystal Marine and I am the budget subcommittee chair. This is my second year in that role. Um, and I've enjoyed it immensely, so I
appreciate the time. Um, last year the budget subcommittee was tasked by the existing board on how the district might improve public perspective with regards to how taxpayer funds are used. The communicated assumption being that the district was not a good steward of taxpayer funds. Over the course of this year, our subcommittee reviewed district
financial information, enrollment trends, community feedback, comparative district information, and existing engagement structures with a focus on identifying opportunities to strengthen transparency, governance clarity, and long-term sustainability. This was not simply just a review of
numbers. We intentionally approached this work through a both a fiscal and human lens because budget decisions do not exist in a vacuum. They directly impact student experience, staffing stability, school programming, community trust, and ultimately the long-term health of the district. Throughout this process, several interconnected themes
consistently emerged. Jeffco is navigating enrollment decline, ongoing budget pressure, and continued community demand for transparency and trust building. These issues influence one another in meaningful ways. Budget stability is affected by enrollment. Enrollment is
influenced by family experience, programming, communication, and trust. And trust is influenced by transparency, consistency, and visible follow-through. One of the strongest themes we heard reported repeatedly from stakeholders was that many people no longer just want opportunities to provide input. They want to understand how decisions are
made, what their feedback influences, and how the district closes the loop after engagement occurs. People are not asking simply to just be heard. They're asking for clarity, accountability, and visible connection between engagement and action. As a result, many of our recommendations focus not only on financial systems themselves, but also
on the governance structure and communication systems that support public understanding and institutional trust. Another major takeaway from this work is that enrollment decline should not be viewed solely as a demographic inevitability. Families are actively making choices based on school experience, climate, programming,
reputation, access, communication, and logistics. That means enrollment stability is directly connected to retention strategy, community trust, and long-term financial sustainability. In many ways, enrollment has become both an operational issue and a relationship issue. When families leave, funding
leaves. When funding leaves, staffing becomes reactive, programs destabilize, and budget pressures intensify further. For that reason, the subcommittee believes enrollment should be treated not only as a demographic issue but also as a core budget strategy. Thank you.
One of the reoccurring themes in community conversations was that po people often feel engagement process lacks clarity. Families and staff expressed frustration when they did not fully understand what type of engagement was incurring, what decisions were open for influence, what constraints existed, or how feedback would ultimately be
used. That does not necessarily mean disagreement with every finan final decision. In many cases, it reflects confusion around expectations, process, and follow-through. Because of that, one of our primary recommendations is the development of a more standardized engagement framework across district processes. We recommend that engagement
efforts more clearly define whether they are intended to inform, consult, collaborate, or co-create. Equally important, engagement efforts should communicate upfront what input will influence and what it will not. Clarity at the beginning reduces frustration at the end. We also re recommend expanding
beyond traditional large public meetings as the primary engagement tool. Different formats reach different voices. Some families participate comfortably in large public settings while others do not. We recommend utilizing a broader range of engagement methods including focus groups, targeted surveys, small groupoup discussions, and
more structured independently facilitated listening opportunities. The goal is not simply to just collect more feedback. The goal is to gather more meaningful and representative information that can better support decision-making. However, the most important part of engagement is not simply listening. It is follow-th
through. Throughout this process, many stakeholders express frustration that they often do not see what happens after feedback is gathered. Because of that, the committee strongly recommends visible what we heard versus what we're doing reporting structures that communicate what themes emerged, what actions are being taken, what feedback
influenced, and in some cases why certain recommendations were not adopted. Without closure, engagement can feel performative. Another mo major focus area of this report is financial transparency. The subcommittee believes transparency should not be viewed simply as a communications function. Transparency is
a stability strategy. When financial systems are difficult for the public to understand, when reporting feels inconsistent, or when audit findings repeat without clear public explanation, trust weakens and confusion grows. Transparency helps stabilize systems because it improves understanding, reduces uncertainty, and strengthens
confidence in decision-making. For that reason, we recommend continued work around plain plain language budget summaries, clear explanations of major year-over-year changes, more accessible financial reporting, and stronger documentation practices surrounding forecasting assumptions and variance explanations. Many families and staff do
not expect to agree with every budget decision, but they do want to understand why decisions are being made, what trade-offs exist, what constraints are driving decisions, and how district leadership arrived at those conclusions. Transparency should reduce confusion, not require interpretation. Our report
also focuses heavily on governance alignment and role clarity. One of the reoccurring challenges identified throughout this work is that many community members do not clearly understand who owns decisions, where authority sits, how escalation occurs, or what role different groups play in the district governance. That lack of
clarity contributes to frustration, mistrust, and misaligned expectations. Because of that, we recommend clearer communication around decision-making structures that governance roles across the and governance roles across the district. That includes greater clarity regarding the role of the board of education, superintendent, district
administration, school leadership, advisory committees, and community stakeholders. When roles are unclear, confusion increases, and accountability weekends. We also recommend more consistent communication tools and expectations at the school level. Schools and communities are different and flexibility matters. However, there
should still be a coherent district-wide communication framework that supports consistency and reduces unnecessary confusion for families. Another important component of this work involves enrollment analysis and retention intelligence. The committee believes the district would benefit from deeper understanding of why families leave, why families stay, and what
factors most strongly influence enrollment decisions. The current data tells us where students go and does not always tell us why. That distinction matters if the district hopes to strengthen retention and long-term stability. For that reason, we recommend stronger enrollment and exit surveys, stay surveys for families who considered
leaving but remained, and more consistent reporting around root causes and retention trends. Retention is often more cost-effective than recruit recruitment. Understanding why families remain in Jeffco may be just as valuable as understanding why others leave. The committee also believes it is important
to acknowledge that past school closures while undertaken in response to financial pressures created unintended consequences and ongoing impacts for some communities. As future planning occurs, those lessons and impact should remain part of the broader conversation around enrollment stability, trust, and long-term district planning. More
broadly, the recommendations in this report are ultimately about systems. Systems that improve clarity, improve transparency, improve communication, and improve accountability. In summary, the DAC budget subcommittee respectfully asks the broad the board to consider three primary actions. First, endorse
clearer engagement framework principles that define purpose, influence, and follow-through. Second, continue strengthening financial transparency and reporting systems with accessibility, consistency, and accountability as foundational priorities. And third, commit to deeper enrollment, root cause analysis that directly informs future
budget strategy and long-term planning efforts. These recommendations are not about adding process for the sake of process. They are about strengthening institutional stability and improving the district's ability to navigate increasingly complex challenges moving forward. Strong systems create clarity, clear rules reduce confusion, and
visible follow-through builds trust. The full report compiled by the budget subcommittee was shared earlier tonight with you via email and we look forward to continued partnership and helping JECO thrive for all students and families. >> Thank you, Crystal. All right, we're just wrapping up here. So,
going on to the next one. Okay. Um, you've heard from Crystal about the budget subcommittee and and what they're looking for. Uh just to recap or to add, I guess maybe to add a little bit, I know that the board uh and the district
certainly help um by reaching out and trying and uh advertising uh for applications for board advisory applica applicants and we're just going to continue to ask for that support. But I like to put numbers around things. So
right now we have a uh I think 14 applications and really you know 25 to 30 feels really healthy. So we're a little bit shy on that. Um so that was one thing that we will continue to need from the board of education and from the district more help getting more applicants to apply to DAC. Another one
that um I want to bring up uh to continue. So, and really this was a driving um Superintendent Dorland, you really drove this initiative is having a facilitator for the board advisory groups and I just cannot thank you enough because we've learned a lot from
trace. We've leaned on trace a lot and so to this board I would um encourage that the DAC particularly but really all board advisory groups uh will really benefit from having a facilitator helps keep us informed and moving forward on
our work and keeps the conversation moving forward. So thank you Trace very much for everything for this year. Um, another thing that DAC we've sort of expressed whether we have any role or voice in the mill levy work that might be coming up
or that is coming up. Uh, whether we have some or don't have some, we just rely on the board to instruct us how you want us to engage in that if at all because I do know that there's other advisory committees that you have uh put forward that are doing a lot of that work. But if you want DAC to engage in
some of that work, a piece of that work, a part of that work, just we would need some really clear guidance on that and what you would expect for that because it's a that's a really big topic. That's it's big. Um, and finally, any direction from from this board that we advise if
you have any sort of special projects or special uh considerations that you want the DACK to focus on for the 26 27 school year, but my son is a 2026 graduate. Go farmers. So,
uh, with with that, we'll turn it over to you all. I would love to I I don't know how much time we have left officially. 8 minutes >> about. >> Yeah. I would love to would love to answer some questions, be in dialogue, and just have a conversation. >> Well, thank you all very much. Um board
directors questions. Dr. Ataria. Okay. Um, is there are you noticing a trend in certain districts that have more or less representation? And do you have any ideas why those
districts might have more or less representation based on the applications you have coming in and your current um numbers? >> Are you talking your representation on deck? >> Yeah. Um, so like district one is the north, district 5 is the south, like
>> Yeah. >> Within Jeffco are certain schools more certain school loc locations. Yeah. >> Mhm. >> Yeah. >> I I'll Well, I was going to say y'all go first and then I I have some some
context uh beyond like Yeah, >> maybe some Yeah. greater context. It seems as though we struggle to get um consistent amount of applications from like the mountain schools, although we do have I think three, two from
Evergreen and one from Conifer so far this this goround which is fantastic. We tend to have a lot of strong uh um a lot of applications from Arvvada and Wheatidge area and like the Golden and
Dakota Coline where we also tend to struggle a little bit would be like in the Alama articulation area, Jefferson articulation area as far as numbers of applicants. Arvvada I think kind of leads with the most coming from Arvvada.
So it seems to be um yeah like Arvvada it's spotty but I can tell you consistently Alama Jefferson Lakewood uh those articulation areas specifically we tend to not have
very many or if any applicants. So we struggle in those areas. If anybody wants to add Oh, yeah. Hi, I'm Elizabeth Armstrong. Sorry, it's Mayber. I've got kids with stuff, so sorry to be late. Um,
yeah, we have option and charter schools where we tend to to struggle. Um yeah, we we tend to have, you know, one of three slots or or one of two slots um filled at any given time for those roles as well.
>> I'll just add um you know as a not like thinking uh this is work I do in a lot of different spaces around task forces, committees, coalitions, uh doing quite a bit of work, you know, in a lot of different spaces, rural and urban. And this is just a this is just a
challenge broadly. I was not I will say like even more so I mean people are tired and I think a job of this board moving forward too and I'm looking forward to our conversation in June more broadly is for you all first and foremost to truly understand the value of these committees because I think
there is a lot of value uh in these committees for for a variety of reasons. DAC is the only one that's legislated to actually that you have to have, right? Um, but two, for you all to be able to to to um to voice the value you see to
your constituents so that folks understand what their roles are and that we get more applicants. So, I'm not putting that by any means, but I I just we've seen this across the board in so many different spaces. Um, and I think there's always a good scan for like the equity of how accessible are these
meetings. And I think that's something that we can continue to support as well, looking at where do these gaps exist. Um, and I think we can come in June and talk about that a little bit more specifically on the process side um, around how we can take a more holistic approach of that sort of recruitment. But it's a it's a challenge and I
appreciate you naming that. um and would love to continue the conversation around how you know the board, the district, um how I the folks in the room, but also to get that diversity of representation is not just like asking the same people, right? As you know, like over and over like how can we get more of the people
that have the same in the same neighborhoods? Uh we we got to keep trying. So, I appreciate the question. >> Thank you. Um, the other question I had is you were talking about an 8020 split where 80% of your members are parents
and about 20% are not. Um, I guess my question to you is what concerns do you have with that split or do you envision a better outcome with a different split and what that might look like for your team?
Well, concerns. I think we want to make sure that we are a strong, you know, parent voice. I think we want DAC to be a strong parent voice advisory committee. I think that's a really vital piece of DACK. Um, and I wouldn't say so
much concerns, but I do know that, and Trace, you just named it, people are tired, right? So, parents have a lot of jobs. It's Maycember our you know there's lots going on. Um so we also do have a lot of applicants who are you
know retired you know maybe retired teachers come from Jeffco would be are going to be great voices but sometimes we'll have seven or eight of those applications and right now we just carve out like three spots for that type of applicant which keeps us to that 8020.
Well, that also does prevent us from having those voices because we only have three slots. So, do we open that up a little bit? But do we want to open it up so far that we are diluting the parent voice and it's more of a retiree voice? Because really then there's that disconnect because well, when I went to
school, this is how things were. And that's not that's not the parent experience. That's not what's happening, right? Um the parents know more about what's going on in schools at that time. But the retiree, the retired teacher voice or the community voice is vital as
well. It's just how do we find that just right balance to use some terminology from superintendent Dorland and how do we make sure that we're honoring what this uh committee is really meant to help advise the board on and from what perspective. Right? So that's where I
wouldn't say concern, but I would certainly say let's not keep our eye off of uh you know, let's not take our eye off of that. And perhaps putting around some guard rails or some parameters might help um might help inform how each deck looks sort of moving forward,
right? Does that make sense? Okay, >> I think that's all that I have. Thank you so much for all your hard work. Thank you. >> Thank you. other board members. Director Kenworthy, >> uh, thank you for your presentation tonight. Always good to hear from you
all. Um, I really want to thank you for the what we need questions at the end of your presentation. Um, because we now have space as a board to talk about some of these things. During our study sessions, we have set aside committed time for the board to have conversations
about what we would need from our advisory committees, which did not exist previously. And so now we have a space, I'm very excited, where I can show up at our next study session and say, "Hey, here's three questions from the DAC that we need to answer and we can use that time effectively and also get you what
you need." Isn't that exciting? Um I think um we will have some lively conversations about these three things. Um particularly about the DAC role in the MLO and um priority focus or projects. I just want
to throw this out for my fellow uh board members that the DAC is a huge committee, one the largest one that we have that operates in this capacity. Um and it's that is different than some of our fellow school districts because of the size of our county and the size of
our district. We end up having a very large deck where other smaller districts do not have a committee of the same size. Um, and so we do have an excellent cross-section of people who are engaged, paying attention, who can um, weigh in
on some of the things that we're going to face in the next 12 months. And I would encourage us to think strategically about how we can use their participation and their voice and provide them with some additional um, assignments. Is that the right word? Um, so
>> direction, guidance, assignments, >> guidance, assignments. Yeah. Uh, so that we can engage that voice more than I think we have in the past. So, thank you. Um, I'm excited that we have now a structure where we can field these questions, deliberate, and then close
the circle, come back, give you answers to the questions that you've asked, and continue to move forward that way. I think it's um incredibly valuable that we have just structure and time in place to be able to have these conversations. Otherwise, it feels like we're asking you to do things. It's kind of in a vacuum. We don't have a way to close the
loop. Uh, and I think in the last I'll just say five years since I've been engaged with the DAC before I was on the board, I've seen just tremendous um procedural um focus and clarity about how these groups can interact with the board, how
the board can interact with your um with our advisory committees. So, thank you so much for being patient and continuing to walk through and ask clarifying questions how we can um tighten up the functioning of these advisory committees. I think the DAC has done a huge job in in helping make these uh
much more functional um in real time. So, thank you. We will answer your questions at our next study session. >> Fantastic. >> Other board members, >> Mr. given. >> I'm having a hard time formulating the
question, so I'll just kind of kind of get my general thoughts here. I was first off, this was an excellent presentation and very helpful. I'm particularly I think all of us are are concerned about or figuring out better ways to communicate with the community. One of the things I've learned in this role is
like there's actually a lot of really smart people doing a lot of really great work. Um but we do still I think kind of fail to really fully communicate to the community about what's working um what's being done about of different issues. So I would just welcome if you have more
thoughts um you know any particular critiques of where you you know particular ideas or examples of like where there's been an issue it was communicated in a particular way and ways in which you think it could have been better because I think really from our point of view especially with all the information that
we have you know there's times we're going like well what's where's the disconnect what's the problem but it's it becomes really hard once you step into this seat to understand how things are received from the community's seat. >> Yeah, that's really
>> I do have a little bit of input just from our work on the budget subcommittee. Um, and I would highlight that there's probably not enough diversity in the communication, um, and that we're missing some audiences, um, for different perspectives and that
would be meaningfully um, that don't feel equipped to meaningfully contribute in in the capacities that exist and the structures that exist for communication. I'll just say I think that'd be a great thing to to put on the agenda like as as
they um that's something that Dak has long wanted to be able to weigh in on and I think it' be helpful for you all to know you know where there might be blind spots from DAC and where there might be blind spots within your own but kind of to your point but I think uh and we can talk about this more in the study session in June but that might be a
great thing to add to the um to the agenda of the work plan next year for Dak to actually spend some like real time with um because we have you know Again to your point of the diversity of you know uh communications is also from the diversity of experiences of how those communications go out because some
people would say wow thank you you got it right this time and other people might not feel that way and what's what's the gap there what is that is that where you live is that how old your kids are is that right like what are those those challenges there so it would be fun to kind of dig into that with the
deck appreciate that >> um I just want to extend appreciation I know It's It's May and May is insane. Um, so thank you for being here. Theres, thank you for your service. Um, I know you've been um really leading this ship
for for quite a while and it's greatly appreciated by this board and and thank you um, Miss Marine, that was an excellent report out. Um, those are real recommendations that we can take action on and I know that sounds silly, but having something you can take action on is often really helpful. um from this
seat. Um especially appreciated the follow-through aspect. How do we get better at the follow-through? I think that's a a critical critical point. Um so great appreciation to the budget committee. Thank you for putting the work in and the effort. Um this is
meaningful to me and um really got me scribbling a bunch of notes. So I'm excited to have some more conversations because I think this is um quite frankly the work we must do. Dr. Kenworthy, go right ahead. as we move into conversations because
we're all getting through Mayber and headed into a summer where we can have some maybe some more thoughtful conversation without um schedule uh pressures. What does the summer um
schedule look like for either either for DAC or for DAC leadership so that we can um engage maybe in some conversation? Well, um I can just go off of history. So, and then the, you know, continuing
leaders can communicate more, but I historically, so we'll have um elections are May 19th, and then the executive committee meets throughout the summer, the first Thursday, so throughout the summer. Um
the FCP subcommittee meets the first Tuesday of every month throughout the summer. We already have on the schedule um new members that are designated articulation area representatives, voices,
uh will have their training the fourth Tuesday of July. Um in order to help this kickoff come to fruition, um I've just extended that I'll be here to help support that. Not in any formal way on DAC, but just as
you know, like I can send the email, that's perfectly fine. Um, so there will be lots of I think engagement opportunities. So right after elections on May 19th and I think you'll probably be at the meeting, you'll know who the new executive committee is and hopefully
Tara will stay on as liaison and Trace will stay on as facilitator so that there's a lot of engagement opportunities. Typically, we do a retreat or two as executive um leadership during the the summer as well for planning for the next
year and and that'll be up to whomever. Yeah. Yeah. Typically, there's at least one, possibly two retreat meetings, which we're happy to invite you to if you'd like to join us. I would I would encourage us maybe at our retreat coming up in June to think about um assigning
two board members to maybe join and partner with the DAC so that there's a little bit more um Thank you. robust engagement. Good words. Good words at a late hour. Um I also want to just add that I think there's absolutely a role for DAC in the middle of the override. Um I think we
are absolutely shortsighted if we don't consider how important this organization is. um on advice to us, honest advice to us in a way that's meaningful as well as um going out into the community and and really being a part of that. So, let us
take that and figure out what what the board guidance is. But I I you know, as one person up here, I think the DAC must have a role. I think we're silly not to. >> Um Go ahead, Trace. >> Can I say two things or you're wrapping us up?
>> I'm w You can go, but go fast, my I had two things I wanted to say. Uh one one I'm going to say again in June, but I want to say it with my my friends here as well. Um when and this is like both for the board, but also for Superintendent Dorland and who whoever will be her
successor. Um y'all know that I I work a lot with elected officials with with leaders that have different governing bodies, etc. And the one thing that I think has gone really well this year, particularly with Dak, is having
gratitude because it truly did mean a lot. Like we just kind of put her on the spot and we're like, you know, a lot of times we end meetings with questions and I'm like leazing with like board and superintendent, whatever. And so I just said to superintendent like, why don't you just come and let's just like talk for like an hour and I'm not going to
like prep you like 60 minutes style. we're just gonna go and you know generally speaking be ready to answer like obviously people want to talk about budget obviously people right like we know the headlines um and again the reason I'm saying that I work with a lot of like elected officials and leaders of
big systems is because you got that right like you just sat down and you like kicked up your feet a little bit and they were not as they didn't your shoes were a little nicer than mine tonight uh and you you crushed it and not because you were doing performative
talking points or whatever you were just really real and you answered questions and it was like a little sticky and it wasn't this like really polished conversation and that's sometimes what communities just need. Um, and I saw director Kinderworthy I saw you do that time and time again
where I'd say hey can you just jump in right now and then superintendent Dorland doing that. So when you can get a little messy with community, like it's always going to pay off because oftentimes it's just like are you there to listen and genuinely be in dialogue and I think this year we had real moments of that. And so um I'll just say
from a process side and a facilitation side, thank you. And I hope to see from this board that continued kind of engagement and transparency and also from superintendent successors. So thank you for letting me just share that from my my little piece of the pie. Appreciate that. >> No, thank you. Um we appreciate it very
much. I have no further questions. That was a lovely way to end it. So also our gratitude reflected back to you all. Thank you for the work that you do and the effort and the time. We know it's not small and we are grateful for it. So thank you all. >> Thanks y'all. >> For our final item of study this
evening, the board will receive a presentation from the Partnership for Fiscal Sustainability. Please come on up and join us at the front. Um, we have allotted 45 minutes for this presentation. As you join us, we hope you'll introduce yourselves
and included in your time, please allow for questions from the board. Kimberly, we can get a chair for you if you want to come on up. >> She's here in case in case she needs We need >> Well, thank you all for being here. Um
before I turn it over to our presenter, Superintendent Dorland, is there anything you'd like to add? >> Um I I have to say that last Thursday when this group uh presented to the partnership, I felt um a sense of calm and confidence.
um knowing that I was planning to leave the district um and knowing how important a Millvy override would be to not only the financial stability of the organization but also just our opportunity to invest in our students.
Um, it gave me a real sense of calm and confidence uh, hearing this group of community leaders present and own uh, what I think is a a a very very strong recommendation to the board related to a
MVI override in November. Um, I it's stronger than I even imagined it would be. Um, and so I just have a tremendous amount of gratitude for all of the work that you've put into this, how seriously you've taken it. Um, and how much you've owned it. Uh, I feel like we've built a lot of capacity. Um, that's going to,
and I know, you know, the partnership was a big group. Um, we need a big group. You don't just pass these things with a tiny group, right? And so these guys have been incredible leaders within that larger group. Um, and I'm just
incredibly grateful. So, thank you. Devin, am I handing this to you? >> Oh, there we go. Mike probably helps for the record. Um, Randy, you want to lead off with >> Introduce yourself? >> Yeah, let's do intros first. You want to go first, Deon?
>> Ping pong. >> All right. Uh, I'm Deon Mills. Uh, I was fortunate enough to present to you guys uh last week as a member of the FAC. Uh, I've got two children at Parmaly Elementary School. Uh, I also own a engineering consulting firm uh out of
Evergreen. >> Hi, I am Mallerie Hamilton. I work here in Jeffco. I'm at Free Horizon Monosur. We are currently an option school transitioning to a charter next year. I have two students who also go to Free
Horizon and um that's what the plan is going to be for the foreseeable future. I am Angie Anderson, a 20-year social studies educator in Jeffco and a Jeep resident, have a student who graduated
from Jeffco schools and I am the JCA president-elect and current secretary. >> Good evening. Thanks for uh staying up late for us. We appreciate it. My name is Randy England. I have a daughter who's in Coline Hills Elementary. I am a
uh director of program management and marketing operations in the private sector. I've been receiving a thorough education about your world, which was very foreign to me and still kind of is, but we appreciate the opportunity for us to come together. And Mallerie, you'll
get us started. >> Good evening and again, thank you um for being here and listening to our presentation. So, who we represent? We're the Jeffco County Partnership for Fiscal Sustainability. We are collective
of parents, community members, staff, and association partners. Our purpose is to collaborate with Jeffco staff to develop a revenue generation recommendation for you, the Jeffco board of education.
So, I just want to level set a little bit. Excuse me. We do represent a community. It wasn't the four of us that came up with this plan. Um, we represent people that showed up to the partnership which was very diverse from associations
to people in the community, uh, a lot of parents. Uh we also took in input from a ton of sources be it board meetings, district meetings, DAC SAC meetings, uh different association meetings, um the general public, uh our our good
friends on nextdoor.com and all the lovely things they like to share with things. But as you'll see here in a minute, there is a saying, perception is reality. And those realities are headwinds that we have to address. So what we're going to share with you first is the landscape as this partnership
sees it and based on the input we've collected. We'll talk about our recommendation, the ballot language that supports that recommendation, the solutions and the rationale behind those decisions and then we'll bring it home with the community impact which is
probably like the real cornerstone slide of this entire presentation. Uh and then the key next steps that are required in order to have that be implemented. sound fair because the presentation builds on itself a little bit if it's okay with you. We'd like to hold questions till
the end um and also to keep us on track a little bit. So um these are six big buckets of current challenges in the landscape. These are a collection of facts and perceptions.
These are not uh this is not an opportunity for fingerpointing. This is not someone taking aim at anyone. These are genuine concerns that come up over and over again that hopefully our recommendation can help to
mitigate in the end. The number one at the top being the budget deficit. A lot of great work has been done already with the blueprint program to try to mitigate that for next year requiring a $40 million cut. This is information this board is very well aware of and attuned
to what's happening. The ongoing challenge of student enrollment being on the decline, that's not going to go away anytime soon. We're hoping for a plateau at some point. That's really not a great way to plan for the future if you count on headcount for your primary revenue
source. Uh and then uh understanding where we sit in relation to other schools in the front range. Individual student headcount is $2 to $3,000 behind other front range schools or districts. Uh so within that, you have some serious challenges. The number one contributor
to the budget as a line item is compensation. And that ties to the second bucket of teachers being teacher and staff, I'm sorry, uh being underpaid. Uh so you have a challenge of the second largest district in the state being nine out of 10 in the front range.
Yes, I realize that's a mixed measurement comparing state to front range, but it still sets the table uh about an underpaid staff. And what is the repercussion of that? you have a real challenge with retention, with acquisition of qualified educators. Uh,
and ideally, we'd love to see educators and staff live in the communities where they're teaching so they're invested in what's happening with these kids. Anybody that's ever owned a home knows the second you signed the mortgage, you realized everything that's wrong with
said home. That is no different from the challenges we have with maintaining properties as a school district. Uh we ran into challenges with 10 days this year. 10 days where children were not able to learn either because of a school closure or an early dismissal due to
some kind of challenge with the property, HVAC, water systems, what have you. Uh you have ongoing issues to abate and mitigate existing uh challenges within the school from how things were constructed in the past. Uh and then you
have temporary buildings that were set up a long time ago that were never intended to be used for 40 years. And at some point you have to figure out what is an ideal environment for the for the students uh and the staff to be able to communicate the curriculum properly.
Three last big buckets here. Uh again a hot topic this board is very aware of. Uh the vacant properties, right? Uh so to date uh currently there is 12 properties for sale. They are estimated to generate between 20 and $40 million depending on what the value ends up
going for the sale. Uh they require $150,000 each of maintenance. So the longer you hold the property, the more it costs the district. You're continually having to offset uh with funds to cover those
costs. The perception challenge, again, you can sit up there understanding the ins and outs of these nuances, but if the public doesn't understand the nuance, it is a real challenge. Is that the seven schools already sold went for way under market value, and we're
essentially giving them away. And that by selling these vacant properties, we can fix all of our deficit problems. those once you get under the hood, you realize those are not accurate perceptions, but they are how the public feels nonetheless.
This is the one that I hope no one takes personally. But the next bucket is a mistrust of the administration and the school board in front of us and past school boards. The biggest buckets are tied back to 2008 legislation that was
passed to gain more revenue for the district. Great. But there was a reporting contingent that never happened. Now I'm also aware that's a work in progress and hopefully any day now we'll have a dashboard to support that. Great. There was a challenge where the past board had approved compensation for
staff. This is not a question of the merit whether the staff deserve the compensation. It's not having a long-term plan to pay for the compensation. So now you end up in a deficit. The other perceptions of challenge here are tie back to what we talked about. there's been poor
transparency or understanding of the real situation of the vacant property situation. Uh Jeff Gaitlin came to the partnership and really laid it out to us and it wasn't until that meeting that I understood what was really happening with these properties and really gave a good understanding of the true impact
not only to the budget but the true valuation of the properties. And then there's the perception that the administrative administration is bloated because when they look at reporting that comes out of the school district, it shows admin roles are increased. School teacher roles are decreased. Now there's
an understanding that admin roles can float from schools and don't necessarily hit the line item of a school budget which is to the benefit of the school when they're doing their individual budgeting. But again, the public perception does not grasp that. Lastly, you have a program that's
incredibly successful with a very high graduation rate and you have over a thousand kids that can't get into it. So, we have something that's working really well. It's not all horrible horrible, but working really well. Yet, the challenge there is we have kids that are not meeting the potential they could
going through an alternate route to say what a standard education would be within uh the CTE program. Make sense? That was rhetorical. I'm not supposed to ask questions. Okay, this partnership got together and
we identified those challenges because that's how create accountability is built. If you don't know what you're being measured against, then you don't have any accountability. Now, we do. The group also spent a lot of time in the early days finding a lens on which to look at this project. And at first, we were going to do just values, but we did
a full-blown mission, vision, value exercise. Our north star is at the top. We want to make sure that these students have the resources they need to be successful. Our mission is right here, right now. Part one, come to this table with a
recommendation that we can prioritize high student impact, but one that will garner support in November from the public and can get through an election because if we don't get through November, this was all pointless on one hand, and also then
have the accountability to provide clear, understandable reporting that isn't hidden away, but is very public facing. to do that. With all of the things you're going to see in this recommendation, we held true to these five values. First and foremost, it is
the student above all else and their needs. There needs to be accountability. People need to stand up and say, "Mistakes have been made, but we are in a position now to move forward and this is how we're going to do it." It has to have a degree of adaptability as nothing
is incredibly binary in the sense of how to best utilize funds in the future when we don't even know what the future will bring. There needs to be a sense of collaboration which this partnership is a good starting point within that bringing in people from all different
walks of life within the community. And lastly, we have to build back some community trust. It is hard to move anything down the field if people don't trust the people at the helm. So, this is a great opportunity to do that allin-one.
Turn it over to Devin. So, this is the core of what we're asking for. Uh we believe that a single ballot initiative should be put forward and that ballot initiative should have two parts. one uh general MLO for $75 million
uh to go into the general fund uh primarily for salary and benefits uh for current staff as well as increasing FT as needed uh but also funding for career technical education and then also a special purpose mill levy uh dedicated
to capital and technology funding uh to help deal with some of the maintenance needs that we have going forward. uh this needs to be a single ballot initiative. There is polling that the district has currently done that says there's a much
better chance of passing if we only put forward an MLO. Uh this is in my opinion because teachers are really cool. Everybody likes teachers. They have a face. They have a story. You can relate
to a teacher. It's really hard to relate to a pothole. And so we see that in the polling. We have 52% pass rate for the special purpose ML or mil levy.
I think that if people knew that we had massive issues in our schools, that number would be higher. But we do see it goes higher by combining it with the teachers. The teachers union and the
paras are willing to go out and tell people their story. And that story is incredibly important. The people who take care of our kids every day are what all of the voters are going to relate to. And I think it's unfortunate, but I
do think it's a reality that the capital, given all the other competing needs on the ballot this fall, may not pass if we could if we can't leverage the relatability of our
teachers. Um, so because of that, this is the ballot language uh that we're recommending. So in black here is from uh the bond council for the district. Uh we haven't really done a whole lot to
it. The sections highlighted are again what we were just talking about and then Angie is going to talk a little bit about what the purposes uh of this section are. >> So thank you. So, we looked at language
from historical um mills around the state, around the metro area, um especially those that have passed both here and in other districts. And um a lot of this was
inspired by what we read or very much copied by what we read because we thought it was really hitting the mark. So this first one is attracting and keeping highquality staff by raising salaries and staffing levels closer to
the market average for teachers, education support professionals, support staff and school leaders in surrounding diff districts. And the reason we phrased it as raising salaries to get
closer is we know that even with this amount that we are recommending, we're not going to reach the market average. We're going to get a little closer, hopefully a lot closer, but we're not going to reach it. And so we want to
emphasize that um we are below market average. We want to move towards market average, but this is not a, you know, a magic solution that is going to solve all of our problems. It is going to help a lot and it is going to get us closer.
Um, and we modeled this actually off of Adam's 12's last mill. So, um, the second one is focused around our CTE. So providing students with the instruction skills and hands-on learning
necessary for success in college and the workplace by expanding career and technical education programs. When we looked at the polling data, the two highest things were teacher pay and CTE. And we know that for the public a lot of
times teacher pay is kind of the like we are the face of our staff. We know that there are much more than teachers who are supporting us. We can't do our job in the classroom without all of our
mental health providers, our cafeteria workers, our custodians. So, we know that in the polling teachers often rise to the top because we have that face that our parents identify with and our community identifies with. Um, and then
we saw that the CTE was very much a priority for the community. So that's where both of those come from is straight from our polling data and what our community said they prioritized. >> So the second half of this is the
special purpose mill levy. Uh and again, the $60 million amount here is based on a budget uh that the district has put forward that basically allows us to balance the flows into uh the capital fund over the next 5 years. Uh it's not
a full budget, it's just a projection of potential spending uh with somewhere in the neighborhood and we'll show it there uh later on. Um the big thing here is the purposes. Uh these were selected for
two reasons. One, they're real, and two, there is a large emotional reaction to many of the items on this list. Uh there was an article published in the Golden Transcript about a month ago, and I'm
sure most people in this room saw it. Uh, as part of that article, it was talking about deficient HVAC systems and clean drinking water in our elementary schools. Uh, we've had teachers tell us
about the inability to put paper towel holders up on the walls of their classrooms because the walls of their classrooms are built of fryable asbestous material. So, they get to set one on the counter instead. Um, it's not dangerous, you know, every day and the
kids, they're not punching holes in the walls, but it's not ideal either. And by listing these things, it gives us, first of all, the an ability to elevate their awareness in the public. Uh, and
secondly, it gives us a punch list of things that we can actually solve. We talked earlier about those portable temporary uh classrooms that in some cases have been there for 30 or 40 years. Um that golden transcript article
laid out that 18% of the classrooms at Dennis Elementary are currently temporary classrooms. U and some of those temporary classrooms have been there since the early 90s. So, we're pushing 40 years on a temporary fix for 18% of the classrooms at an
overstaffed or an over uh levered school. That's a challenge. When we talk about replacement and capital expenditure with this money, it's trying to build classrooms. We're not talking about building schools, particularly after
we've gone through and closed a bunch of schools. Uh it's certainly contentious to talk about spending capital on replacing. Uh people start thinking we're talking about building new schools. $60 million is not intended to build new schools, but it can do
largecale capital improvement to our schools as they are. We also need to fix our roofs. We need to fix plumbing leaks. There's many problems with an aging infrastructure. And so we wanted to have that listed
specifically. There are concerns that this list could be a liability for the district. Uh I believe that anything listed here is real and is already known by the
public and because of that there should not be any additional liability because all this stuff like the asbestous is already tracked by a reporting system internal to the school district. >> And building on that our educators
definitely know these problems exist. Um, I know that as I do building visits, I am very careful about can I drink the water in this building and where's the filtered water where I can fill up my water bottle because we know that we've had I mean we have reports, we have the
information, we know that we have some challenges there and we've done some work to make that better. But we know those exist. We know that we've had to have those days where we couldn't have school because of whatever issues were
happening in the building. Um, we know when we have leaky roofs and we have to put buckets out to make sure that the water is being collected. We know these things. None of these are surprises to the educators. They're not surprises to students. They're not
surprises to parents. Um, it's a little bit like shocking to put it all in a list like this, but the problems are known. >> Um, and then the most important part, accountability.
So, the final highlighted section on here uh refers back to accountability measures uh for the entire ballot issue. Um this is structured in two parts. Uh primarily because in the 2018 mill levy
uh it was said that we would audit the funds that went into the general fund and there is no ability to audit those funds. That was an overpromise that was made at the time. And so we have been cognizant of past mistakes and tried to
structure this language as something that is both the strictest language that we could find on any past ballot measures, but also cognizant of the ability to actually carry out this this transparency to issue a report on where
the funds go and the benefits that the students see as well as auditing the funds that can be audited. uh which luckily are also required to be audited by uh the act that allows for the special milly. So this is not meant to
be an additional requirement. This is meant to again be transparent in what will be done with these funds. So here's the story. This is where we are as a district. You can see uh on the
left Jeffco today uh with about $13,000 per student in funding. Out of the seven front range districts that are comparable in size and demographics, we're dead last. We have the least
funding per student. to then take that money and try to offer average funding for our support professionals, our teachers, our administration is guaranteed to cause a budget budget problem. What we are proposing is
bringing in these additional funds. It sounds like a lot of money. We're talking about $135 million. If we take that money based on the population of kids who are in our schools today, it gets us to average for
the seven front range districts. And I say that average today. Uh once Jeffco stops dragging down the average, it will go up and we will still not actually be at average for these seven districts once these funds are passed.
We won't be last anymore. But this is not actually enough money to get us to average. To be average, we actually need 104 or sorry, 1,416 per student in the capital. Uh the
special mill levy would get us to where average would be once Jeff Co stops dragging it down. Uh that is substantially more money than we're at today. What we're asking for is just enough to get us where we would hope to
be and be competitive with these other districts. Let's talk about the components of the general mill levy override. The big bucket this fills is compensation. Based on the information that we have
assessed, the majority of the funding would go to compensation that would go through the steps, lanes, and cost of living adjustment channels that go to the staff and the teachers. Uh we would look at the 11% based on current student enrollment in charter schools of about 8
and a4 million. 75% is projected to go to compensation with that funding as well. So, the majority is clearly in catching up with again that 84% budget line item of compensation uh and trying to get an average closer
to average for our teachers and staff. The CTE component is our growth play. You have a successful program that should be supported and allow more students to channel through that program to see high graduation rates and
success. This is not intended to build brand new buildings which we have extra buildings as it is right now. Uh it is about how to fund the current program to allow more students to go through the program. If you look at the solutions at the top, imagine a big scoreboard. Now
those challenges I outlined in the beginning of the presentation. As we go through these slides, you'll start to see us start checking those boxes. Oh, hey, that addresses that challenge. That addresses that challenge. That addresses that challenge. Now that'll culminate in a couple slides when we have it in one
place. But we have the ability with a compensation increase to maintain the existing staff and teachers which is to the benefit again of the student high student impact students first. That's our core value. Uh and looking at trying
to grow that CTE program. If we look then at the special mill, this is where we look to offset some of the funds that are coming in from the general fund by half in fact based on the projections we got. So 60 million
would be in here. We would only require 15 instead of 30 which is the current state. It would allow 10 million and the the amount actually is baked into a 4-year run. understanding, as you all well know, the properties we've already
sold, we haven't even seen the money for some of those properties. That will continue as this process goes. But again, as we know that that is not some holy grail to fix our budget problem. It is a supplement to the existing uh fund, the capital fund, so that we
can continue to progress forward, but it is not the backbone of the solution. Uh, and then as we go through, there's inevitably other uh, interest in fees in how we figure this out. Right now, the way the budget sits, we can't fix a roof in two years. I would
call that critical. This solution allows us to be able to address that as well as the other items we talked about in the beginning of the presentation. I'll turn it over to Mallerie, excuse me, and she'll give you the full rundown.
>> So, what is the community impact? Earlier we listed the challenges. Here are the solutions for our 60 million budget deficit. With this mill and special mill, it allows us to have an incremental $3.58
or $100,000 actual home value per month in property tax. So, what that actually translates to for the average district home in Jeffco, that's about $280 a year in additional taxes.
It's going to improve our home property market values. It is finally going to allow us to have a a healthy boost into our salaries for our staff and teacher compensation,
which is our is our largest um expenditure in our budget. It is going to strengthen our community with graduates who will live and work in the district. For our underpaid staff, the staff
compensation will again be closer to market average. This is going to help with retention. This is going to allow our staff and teachers to live in the community where we work.
This is going to have a direct impact on our students. The continuity of staff and teachers is going to have the immediate effect of higher student test scores, better mental health and social
emotional well-being and graduation rates for the school maintenance. It's going to allow allow Jeffco to maintain those aging buildings. Um, which I will say, I'm sure you all know
this already, but over 66% of our buildings in the district were built between 1950 and 1989. That's a lot of maintenance and upkeep. It's going to offset or help supplement the cut from the general fund transfer
that happens annually. It's going to help us transition those our aged temporary buildings into permanent classrooms and it will help us continue to mitigate asbestous
and provide safe drinking water and a safe, warm, healthy environment for our students, for our vacant buildings. This has been mentioned many times now. This is not a quick fix. It is a one-time infusion of
funds over the next four years, maybe could be longer to address the mistrust that the the community has as a whole of the board
and of the district admin. This is going to allow the opportunity to rebuild that trust through accountability, education, and reporting with clear and transparent reporting on fund use. Now, it can be a general
dashboard. It can be an annual report. It can be very high level. The point is the effort is being made to provide that to make it accessible and easy to access for all community members.
We're going to have improved public ed education on the vacant properties. There does need to be a lot of education surrounding these opportunity and our community wants to know and they're willing to sit down and hear this
and the education on our admin versus teachers in the school budgets understanding how that works at the admin level. say some of our sped roles, our sped roles um and our other occupational therapy roles,
other roles such as that that support schools, mental health roles that can be focused as the admin. It's good for our communities to understand that they are helping students directly and that part that part is coming from the bigger budget
and unmet student needs and opportunities. This is going to help our students graduate ready for the workforce, higher education, and careers. Especially in a day and age when AI is taking over everything. Our
students, it's our responsibility to give them the skills they need to succeed, not just right now, but in the years to come. and it's going to increase participation um in our CTE programs and reduce our
weightless students. That is where our demand is. That is what's going to draw new families in. That is what's going to retain them and that is where we will help students thrive and meet them where they are. So what are the next steps?
We would ask the board for the an approval of our recommendation with your adjustments and your finalization. We ask that you amend policy GP-07 to include the mill levy override
committee. We ask that you develop public reporting on fund use and impact in perpetuity. We ask that you also do a follow-up poll to pressure test the recommendations
that we have made. The union negotiations hopefully are drawing to a completion between May and July. And we ask that the board and the administration as a whole address the
public relation and perception headwinds that we have all faced. We have faced this in our own committee meetings. We had questions for not only Miss Doran, Superintendent Dorland, but also many of the cabinet members sitting over here
with us. They were able to give us clarity, education, insight, and our community is eager to learn this as well. And then we ask that you launch an exploration for the committee to market
this ballot measure for the fall. Thank you. >> Any questions? >> I'm sure we do. >> That's not a rhetorical question for >> Okay. I was just checking. I was just checking. >> Thank you all for the presentation,
board directors, Mr. Gibbons. >> So, um, thank you very much for the presentation. It was very thorough. Um, and I particularly appreciate the next steps, um, of giving us just sort of concrete things that that you think are suitable for us to do next. And along those lines, I want to jump down to the
board and the administration to address public relations perception headwinds. Um, I appreciate you pointing out that perception often is reality, even if the perception doesn't match the facts. Um, this is also something I discussed when I campaigned and I've noticed I've not been in this role very long and I've
already I I mean the emails I get, some of the messages I've gotten. Um, it didn't take long for me to become part of this kind of otherred entity, right, that's separate from the community and and and so I already have challenges and trust when I talk to neighbors that I wouldn't have had, say, nine months ago.
So, I really would like to hear your thoughts on what you think would be some of the best, most effective ways for us to address these public relations issues because I think that's one of the biggest challenges we have is figuring out how to address those and um yeah, so
any any thoughts on how best to do that? >> So, first transparency, transparency, transparency. um the more transparent you are around the budget, the more transparent you are around how now that we have the committee going, how the last
um MLO and bond were used. I think that is huge and um we talked about this at our last meeting last week that you know there was a failure to create that committee. It was none of
you who failed to create that committee initially. Some of you maybe failed to create that committee more recently. However, as community, we also, and I say this from a very personal place as a leader in JCA, um we didn't push you to form that
committee until we started we're ready to start talking about running another one. Right? So, these are conversations that we all could have been having sooner. we could have pushed back in 21 or 20 before any
of this was a new thing. So, um I think the fact that you have started creating you have started the process to have that accountability now is big. I would emphasize that. I would say you know we are going to be open. Um hopefully there
will be a way to that people can see that. I know there's been conversations around a dashboard. I think that would be really really helpful so that we can show our community look we are committed to doing this moving forward and um we
are we're opening it up. people when people have questions and they can't find the answers then they start to um have that mistrust of what the answers are right and so the more transparent you can be in providing that
information especially something like a dashboard that people can access without having to look really hard for it I think is super important. Um I know for our members um you know many of them
feel the same way right many of them don't have a lot of trust and so I think a big thing that can be done to help with the trust for our employee groups is really
helping us feel like we have had a really strong voice and I know I've been part of this group and it's been amazing but you know something that we were trying to do early on was have that MLO so that or theou around the MLO the MLOU
memorandum of understanding um so that we would see here's how we're going to benefit and I think that could still be useful um I think that because your employee groups are the
ones who are going to do a lot of the walking and knocking and talking to people about why we need this. We need to be able to know here's how we're going to benefit from it. And um we need to be
able to trust that. And even though I have been part of this process and it's been a really amazing opportunity that the having thatou would be more concrete. It would be a
promise to us that is in writing and that would go a long way for our members. >> I support what's uh being said by anchor. You have a communication problem. That
is the root of the issue here. You are not getting the right information out into the public. I can't speak to the the staff side as well, the teacher side, because that's not my world. But I can tell you as
someone on the outside as a parent, I have had to seek out this information. And even when I was seeking it out, I wasn't able to find it. In fact, I thanked Brena and Jeff in our last meeting, our executive committee meeting, because there was two key
meetings. one with Brena to really finally grasp the numbers and one with Jeff to understand the maintenance and the vacant property issue that finally the light bulb went off and I could connect all the dots. That took a lot of time and effort as an individual to find
that. So the gap is not that the information is there which is the good news because that would be a lot harder to fix. The gap is communication. You have to be able to get centralized consistent information. When we were building this proposal, we had to lean
on Kimberly to go back and help us fact check because we would get conflicting numbers. Well, it's a $100,000 to maintain each property every year. No, no, it's $150,000. No, no, it's a h 100,000. That's a problem. That is a problem you can remedy by collecting all
the information, getting the information centralized in one place so you're all talking from the same talking point. And I don't mean just the board, I mean everyone. And that would address your past communication gap. Now, before you have a gap, you have to then think what is
your communication strategy going forward as you go to market how to campaign and try to get this approval from the voters. You got to make up ground with the people from the past discrepancies before you can get forward. But you need to build that into
your plan moving forward. Did that answer your question? Well, be before I >> go ahead. Sorry. I >> I've got a slightly different perspective. Uh, so I I joined the FAC a year ago and it is absolutely like drinking through a fire hose trying to
understand how the finances of a large public school district are put together. Uh, I thought I was prepared after spending a year learning how the budgeting for Jefferson County works on their budget advisory committee. It's not similar. Uh it has nothing to do
with my 20 years of corporate finance. It has been a struggle to understand the nuances and even as simple as trying to understand the difference between the special mill levy that we're doing for capital and technology and the mill levy
override that we're proposing for general funds is a challenge. One thing I can say is that the staff has been amazing. They don't necessarily have all of the
questions or the answers ready when I ask the questions, but they've been very available. Uh Brian and her staff have been super helpful in trying to get me to understand what's going on,
but it is really complicated. And to kind of bring it back around to what everybody else has been saying, having a single source of information where the numbers don't conflict and are
easily available. I was trying to pull together a presentation on reporting actually for this and I went back to look at the minutes to an FAC meeting from the fall and I clicked the link to look at the presentation and it said you
don't have the rights to look at this document. Uh that's a challenge from a public perspective. If somebody actually wanted to come in and audit the presentations that we've been receiving as the FAC, those are dead links and even as a
member, I can't access them. We do have an information problem and a problem getting that information out to the public. We have problems with it not necessarily agreeing depending on the source. And some of that is related to I'm sure you saw that article where Doug
Co was pointing out that oh Jeffco teachers are some of the highest paid around. It depends on how you look at the information. And so there are some challenges coming up with a single FAQ of this is the truth as the district
sees it. getting it in a single location and having it so that people can actually find it and then have that message repeated is going to be really important moving forward. >> Add one more thing. He's teaching me to press the button. Um, engage in those
hard conversations with people. Put yourself out there. Be vulnerable. And it's not easy. I know I'm in a position sometimes where I also get to have those hard conversations with unhappy people. But if it's people who really want to
support this, who understand the need, but they have these questions and these concerns, have the hard conversations, and have that vulnerability, which doesn't always feel good, but it goes a long way whenever people see that you're willing
to. So, in terms of like centralizing information, like I've had similar experiences and I I've got multiple degrees. I consider myself good at getting up to speed quickly. That hasn't been the case for me on budgets and school finance.
What do you have a picture of like what that looks like? And in particular, you know, I think there's a struggle of finding this right mix where it's accessible, but it's sufficiently detailed to where people can trust it. So, I get concerned that if it's just like a if it's just simply an FAQ,
people are going to be like, "Well, whatever, right? That's just they're just throwing their numbers out there." But, of course, at the same time, we don't want people getting stuck in the weeds, which I think we've all experienced as a very real issue um in terms of understanding in particular some of these numbers. >> I I I will say I've been really
impressed with the staff's ability to actually back up all of their numbers. uh we have reporting and sometimes it's you know multiple pages deep to find what the proof is that I'm looking for but in every time that I've gone digging
there's been a report with detailed information. Uh my suggestion would be to start high level with an FAQ or using uh the mill levy override committee's report to level set where we are today and then have it structured such that
when there is a desire for the next level of information, there's a link that goes to the report that supports the data and it's all there and the links actually work. Um, from what I can tell, they the staff absolutely has the
answers to all the questions. It's just a matter of digging it out of the correct database, which takes a lot of effort and presenting it in a way that is easy to consume. >> We also want to acknowledge that we know that these these decision these
decisions are not unilateral. They're not made in a vacuum. We know that there are many people compiling many reports digging into this data every day. We're just asking maybe for the broader community remove the mystery a little
bit. Make it easily accessible for people. Um maybe com compile some new policies that are for this type of reporting. um have a direct point of contact possibly for people who want to reach out like how do I get information
on this? This is who I go to. This is where I go to ask and maybe a dedicated website on the Jeffco homepage or a tab or you can select that and you you can then do a deeper dive. Other board members,
>> Dr. Atraveria, >> you just have some questions on how the the mills work. Um in on slide 10 and 11 uh says the mill levy may be imposed
without limitation of rate to raise such dollar amount annually. Is there any um situation that would occur that would cause the increase to go above 75 million?
>> Uh yes, in the sense that that amount is set basically by statute whatever the the maximum is. uh there is a level of funding that is provided by the state and then basically by statute there's an
additional collection amount uh for the year uh going forward with this mill levy at 75 in some years it will be less in some years it will be more depending on what happens with other funding the current MLO is not indexed to inflation and so it
practically shrinks every year which gives an opportunity for this mill levy to then fill that gap uh to ensure that funding remains at the statutory maximum. It this is conceptually similar to trying to index it to inflation. Uh
but just with the way the laws are set up uh we this is the the most practical way of doing it. >> Dr. Could I add to your question really quick? Thank you. Um, so I did notice in the language for the special purpose there is language that suggests tracking
inflation, but in the general purpose it does not >> and I am loosely understanding that that is because we're maxing out the mills. >> But should we also not have that inflation language? >> It it generally isn't practical. Uh so
because of the way my understanding of how the statute is written uh the max is the max and whether inflation goes crazy or not does not change what the maximum we can collect is >> uh so it's not useful to have that in
the special mill levy is different uh and that's why it is indexed to inflation. >> Is that because the general purpose is tied to the value of the property tax? No, >> I don't have that. It's actually tied to the legislative limit of what how many mills we can
collect uh for an override, a general purpose override. >> Okay. >> 28 for a minute and then it's going to go back down. But like for example, the statute contemplates it goes back down to 27
>> in three years, something like that. So it it's written to be aligned to the statute and the maximum allowable in the statute. Um and that's why it's not an inflation index. >> So this is written to where if it
increases then we increase past 75 but if it decreases it decreases. Is that am I asking Brena to jump in? >> Thank you. >> Add or change some things that we've shared. I I'm pretty sure we're on the right track but >> absolutely. Um I'm going to just throw
out a couple rough numbers to help hopefully not hurt. Uh we currently collect somewhere around 150 million um across our district and charter schools for our mill levy overrides. Um we could be collecting I'm going to use round
numbers 225. That's the 75, right? That 225 is defined as 29% of each year's total program. total program is always that simple equation
of number of kiddos funded count not actual count funded count times amount per kiddo $11,500 roughly. Okay. So 29% of that aggregate amount sets the dollar amount we can we
can collect. What's happening to us right now is funded count is going down by 2,000 kiddos next year which means total program is actually going down next year. Uh which means this piece which is the last piece up to our limit
that we can collect will probably be a little bit less than 75 in a future. Let's imagine that enrollment is level. We're not losing funding count per pupil goes up by inflation. total program goes up by inflation. And this maximum
amount, which is simply 29% of total program, goes up by inflation. And this mill, because it's defined as up to the max, backfills for all the other mills that don't adjust with inflation. It ensures we
collect the maximum amount for the kids we're serving in the current dollar terms forever. So then if there is a crazy recession and property values
decrease 30%, what does that mean? We're looking at 30% or 29%. >> So this is allowing us to collect up to a dollar amount. The dollar amount is true regardless of property values. So
if property values decline by 30% the millillage increases so that we collect the dollar amount. If property values increase which historically has been true um our mills go down because again we're
collecting a dollar amount. This is not defined as a set rate. A rate is a mill right? This is not a set rate. It's a dollar amount and it's a dollar amount that happens to be defined as 29% of the then current total program and that will
be true forever and this mill will expand and contract hopefully mostly expand but it will contract in the first couple years it's actually going to contract um but it will expand and contract over time right alongside our funded count
and our per pupil amounts. Thank you for explaining that. >> You bet. >> Um I have a few questions about the wording or the language in the second one as well. Um for the second one,
you talk about the mill levy override committee and is that committee just looking at technology capital and maintenance? >> No. Uh the idea is that committee currently was stood up to do a review
for the 2018 mill levy and we would ask that you add under their purview or at least the ballot language adds under their purview uh all of the future mill levies both the mill levy override as well as the spe special mill levy. Uh this section this paragraph at the
bottom applies to both one and two. This is where if you stand up the new dashboard that's been in development from the 2018, you then show in good faith with the community that reporting does exist and they will fall under this
purview so that they can have faith and trust that it will continue because you're using a process that already exists. >> It's also why we ask uh for the mill levy override committee to become one of the official committees by policy.
>> Thank you. Um, I see in the language it says the Denver Boulder Consumer Price Index. Can you explain if if >> it's just what it's called? >> It's just and that and that's all the
front range. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Um, sorry, I had a few more questions. If you look at slide see uh it's actually the next slide down.
Do we have per pupil revenue for um like Aurora, Littleton, any of the other ones that are kind of order? >> So this slide uh came from a presentation that was given to the FAC
as well as I believe the board in the fall uh prior to this board uh being sat. And I believe specifically these six districts were selected because they're similar uh to Jeffco schools based on per pupil demographics
uh and socioeconomic blend. I do not believe that that report uh had any additional local data. It did have national uh districts that again were demographically similar. Uh and I believe it had six uh national
comparisons. I I'm not aware of any data uh that we have for outside of that report. >> Thank you. Um give me one maybe somebody else can ask
questions. I need to process some of this. Thank >> Absolutely. Other directors Director Kenworthy, >> I don't have any questions. I just have a lot of gratitude for the presentation that you've put together tonight. I'm
not going to lie. um sitting up here uh halfway through a four-year term and trying to grapple with some of the trust conversation um is is fascinating experience
um and I don't want to get too far into the weeds here but I am grateful that you've voiced u support for the data and the numbers that you have received from district staff. I think that is incredibly important and I want to make
sure that our staff hear that confidence coming from people who are not currently elected and serving but who have chosen to undertake the financial learning curve that goes with understanding how schools in Colorado, particularly
Jefferson County are funded. Thank you for speaking that into the public record tonight. Um, I think it is more valuable than any one of us could actually fully describe. Um,
I hope we can continue to work on restoring and building trust. My struggle right now is with narratives that are informed by old
no longer functioning issues, circumstances that continue to be promulgated by people who are in positions of leadership or influence in this community. And I see that as one of the variables that is part of the headwinds
that we need to address. Um, it is my hope that some of those communities will start to understand the harm that they cause when they continue to uplift old narratives that are no longer
current, that are not backed by the data that has been widely shared, at least in the last two years that I've been serving. Um because it has ended up harming not just our district staff, not just the people who are serving in the
community but our students ultimately when we come to conversation about increasing resources so that we can support them in achieving their dreams and their aspirations and getting the education that they deserve. Um it is something that um I have
struggled with understanding why there are voices in our community that continue to persist with um basically self harm in communication uh because it does not further what we say our stated goals and our values and
our mission is as a school district. It is incredibly frustrating, especially as somebody who was elected by a majority of the people because of the trust that I garnered during my campaign. Um, and I want to I just want to name that
difficulty for not just for myself, but for folks who have served in this capacity recently and also for people who might consider in the future sitting in these chairs. Um, it is difficult to ask people to serve
in this capacity when they are volunteers and they are not paid and they do a deep dive into the finances of this district and then are constantly questioned, challenged, not trusted,
and thrown basically under a bus because of things that happened 10, 15 years ago in the district. Um, some people may disagree with me, but I just feel like it's incredibly important to name that that is treatment that I have uh experienced in my time,
short time in this role, and I don't think is helpful for our whole district and our whole community. Thank you for naming that there is trust, that there are valuable numbers that our district presents on the regular. I would say
anybody who wants to do the deep dive into these finances has the exact same opportunity that any of us who have served up here especially for the last two years. The amount of financial presentations and numbers adjustments that have been given based on how we have asked to receive the information um
I think the staff has been incredibly receptive and that information is public and anybody can go and look at that. um for the last two years, four years,
eight years, it is there for anybody who wants to go through it. Um and I encourage folks to do so. My father worked for the federal government for 32 years. and to quote him, "The people who are working in these positions have too much going on, too much at stake to be
making up fake numbers and and building a conspiracy theory uh in the way that it gets presented by the public. Um, I really wish we would stop harming ourselves with that with those types of conspiracy theory ideas uh because it's a distraction from the work that we
actually need to do. I will end there. Thank you so much for the indepth presentation you have given here. I do think you've given us a straightforward and clear uh slide deck that we can use to help educate um other community members. So, thank you very much for the work that you've taken under in this
process. Thanks. >> I just wanted to make one comment. I appreciate the challenge that you're in getting attacked from all different angles, especially for things that preceded you, but from my perspective, it is the burden of this board to fix
this communication gap. You say, "Oh, it's there for everyone to look at." It's not. It's extremely hard to find information. I've been on this journey for months now just to get to this point. Very challenging. So, I would put the burden back on this board. You fix
that communication gap and you're going to quiet a lot of opposition with facts and rational thinking that then circumvents all the other noise. Director Moanian, I just want to clarify
what what you were just sharing. So are I can and I can appreciate right that it's been incredibly challenging, maybe even frustrating to try to locate the information that you're trying to to locate to inform yourself. What I would
like to understand though is is is the challenge that that you're facing and a solution potential solution to it. Would that look something like having the documentation more accessible or are you referring to and speaking to more
specifically a dashboard one-stop shop location for information? Help me understand what would be an appropriate solution. >> You have a communication gap. We've established that. I don't think this is the forum to solution how to fix that.
That's going to require some more work. What I would recommend is you find a solution that creates single sources of truth that very plainly and simply address the headwinds that are being
presented. Many of the which we had in the presentation today that explain to people the reality of the situation supported by fact. I don't sit here and presume to know the best way to get that out to the public. Again, that would require some lift to
figure out a really outline all your challenges. Get all the answers first of all, sort it out and figured and supported with data and then find brand ambassadors or spokespeople. Brand ambassadors, sorry, it's private sector talk. find spokespeople within this
space to uh be your advocate and talk to people and welcome those opponents, welcome those voices that um are carrying a dated narrative to the table uh to to what Ann said earlier like
bring on the challengers air out all the concerns but I don't know as if now is the time to say oh we have this solution we identified the gap and the challenge and we we would recommend you find a solution, but we did not have the bandwidth to go down the road far enough
yet to tell you what that would be. >> I I would jump in real quick uh with an antidote, not necessarily a solution. So, when I first joined the FAC in the fall, uh we were focusing on the budget cuts. And one of the questions I asked
was, do we need to cut this much from the budget? Can we cut a lesser amount with the goal of skimming our statutory minimums and then hopefully having this MLO come through to then gain the the money we
need to continue funding at that higher level. Did we need to cut 40 million or 45 million in the fall? Uh I went back through five years of financial reports from the district. uh this is what I do for a living and tried to reconstruct a
cash flow timing of when funds were coming in when funds were going out to say well we are going to reach zero in this month or in this quarter of the school year I was unable to do it on my
own going through the reports that are exist uh I'm trained in doing this I'm not the best in the world but I can figure it out most of the time. I couldn't track the cash to say this is when zero day occurs. Um I was able to
sit down with Brrena and her staff and she was able to explain what I was missing, but it was not available in the public record with knowledge to construct that data myself. Uh and that was after I'd sat in on some FAC
meetings. I knew what I was looking for specifically. So there is a gap in what is publicly available for people to say, well, do we actually need to cut 40 million? Is this the truth? Can I verify
it myself with numbers that are audited and published? And I have to say the answer was no. Now that's not to say the number was wrong or that it was inaccurate, but I was not able to do the work myself. that causes a trust issue when then I
have to go back to the people that generated the numbers and say, "Okay, explain to me why I'm stupid and this doesn't work." Um, so there are things like that that just republishing the
same reports is not going to close that gap. Uh, so just an antidote for you. >> And could I also add, I am the financial coordinator at my school. I do nothing like what Brena does. I do it on a very
baby level, but I spend a lot of time in reports. I The reports are there. They're accessible for me. I present them. My board does not understand them. My community does not understand them.
it's up to me to then basic I have to translate what this means and I have to make it accessible and understandable for them where they are with their knowledge. So I think something along those lines would go a long way for our community.
I would also say whatever you come up with, get some input from groups like the FAC, from the MLO um monitoring committee, even from the associations and see like is this giving you is this giving you the information that you
want, right? Um is it is it letting you know? The other thing that someone mentioned, it might have been some of what Erin was saying, I don't remember now, but just really saying really
telling the community that yeah, we inherited this. We're upset about it, too. So, let's find some solutions, and it's okay that you inherited it as long as you're doing something about it.
Um, other directors, other questions. >> One last thing, I just really want to thank every one of you for the feedback and and perspectives. I really appreciate it. It is helpful. So, thank you. >> Anything else? Okay, I figured out my other questions. If you go to the next
slide, I just want to clarify the 50% cut to general fund contribution. That means that the capital assets will be fully funded. Is that correct? >> What we're specifically referring to is
the transfer to the capital asset front fund from the general fund >> decreasing it from let's call it the aspirational 30 uh down to 15. >> So if we fully funded obviously Miss
Copeland can correct me capital ideally would be 100 million a year. Right now what we're transferring have been except for last year and maybe this year is 30. What the hope would be that if we could bring in the 60 we would definitely hit
the 30 and could even go up some. >> Okay. >> The other way actually you would not need to transfer the 30 anymore. You would only need to transfer the 15 uh going forward. But if we had a need to transfer the 30 with the 60, we would be
much closer to that is my point. >> Thank you. Um and then for the special purpose, do we have percentages that we're allocating to technology capital maintenance already? >> So this forecast uh was put together by
staff. Uh it actually goes out uh for five years. I believe it's in the appendix uh to this deck and shows kind of an idea of what uh the fund spread could be uh as well as sources over the next 5 years. >> I did see that and my question on that
was why our technology is decreasing almost in half by 2030. I would think that would be an increase. Uh yeah. >> Hi. Um so if I might recommend um your
questions as to capital budgeting um in the multi-year are great budget questions. Remember we're talking about two sources of funding. One would be this. One would be the rest of the capital reserve fund. We have provided this multi-year. I'm happy to answer
questions about what's fluctuating over time. The capital budget in general is grounded in a 14-year retro analysis of how we've spent money in general as well as the current needs and the current needs are fluctuating between these different categories and and will
continue to do so. So, there's a reason this group has not provided the same analogous um pie chart because it's just not as consistent as our operating funds. >> Thank you.
That's all I have. Thank you so much for all of your hard work and thank you for being so um blunt with us and what we need to do. So I appreciate >> what I do. >> Yeah, I know we've been talking about it together and we've also asked for something similar. So we appreciate it
coming from somewhere else. Thank you. >> Um I appreciate the work that's been done. I know this has been um a group and a committee that's put a lot of hours in for the betterment of this district and it means a lot to this board. Um I have good news and I have
bad news. Um the good news is we know a lot of the things that you've shared with us. The bad news is is we haven't quite cracked it. And I think if I can emp emphasize what director Kenworthy was saying, um we go to a lot of places and talk to a lot of people
and say, you know what, you're right. this is not good. There's things we could have done better, should have done better. And that message is not broad enough. It's not big enough to impact the half a million 500,000 people in
this district, 60% who don't have a connection to a school. So, when I look at this, um the other good news is we are in the process of hiring a new leader in our communications team. We all acknowledge we have a massive communication problem.
Hands down. Roger that. Know it. Where I struggle is I'm I'm an engineer. Numbers are my gig. I love them. I've been in this role two years and Brena has had to school me so
many times on this. It is complicated. And I know um through a lot of the leadership of this board, we've gotten more visuals into our budget documents. We're looking at things pictorially. We're trying to find ways to communicate to a broader audience. And so that's it's good feedback. I appreciate an
let's get that feedback. There is a website for the last mill. It's up. It's only got slides on it right now. It's not a dashboard, but it's there. Right. I'm trying really hard not to cuss you guys. It's late and I'm really tired and it's been a really long day. Trying real hard. No fbombs at the
school board meeting. I'm not going to do it. How do we um and I don't expect y'all to have the answers board. Superintendent Dorland, cabinet, we must fix this.
And I know our leaders and communications are going to help us do that. And I know we have partners that are helping us do that. Um, y'all have been in deep education on this for a year now to get to this point. I've been in deep education on this for two years now to get to this
point. We don't have that time. Candidly, we just don't. And so, um, I love the suggestion to make the Mill Levy Override Committee part of GPO7. It's excellent. Um, we do have a website. We'll figure out how to get it
out there. Right now it's only slides, but it is something. And we have been working with Kimberly and Superintendent Dorland on how does the board start basically a communication campaign that includes media that includes every organization up and down the county to start having
these conversations, but it's still not enough. So my question to you all is how do we now take the partnership who has made a great recommendation and say okay how do you join us in this in this walk um we desperately need this
mill um I'm doing more talking than asking so I will ask you one question of the feedback I've gotten it's that 135 is the highest mill Jeffco's ever gone after and are you effing crazy literal words but they use the wrong
word the Ward, >> what's your response? >> I struggled with this number. Randy struggled with this number. The two of us have been
by far the most negative people on the executive committee, hammering staff on a regular basis on what is actually the minimum amount of money to
keep us afloat. We probably are not at dead minimum no benefits because obviously we're talking about funding CTE and the district could float without CTE. Um
but there's no room to go down on the capital. Quite honestly, my recommendation is to go up $40 million to 105. That's actually what we need and that's actually what would put us at true average funding per pupil.
It's not possible. People are going to freak out. And so we're asking for a minimum today to show good stewardship of these funds and allow us to build trust with what we need to just keep the roofs
over these kids' heads. I don't believe there's room to go down on capital. I don't believe we should go down on the general. Sure, you could cut CTE and
>> it's just 10 million. >> I mean, that that's what I'm going to say. And okay, we're going to be back in 5 years asking for a $10 million mill because hey, maybe we should actually help these kids. The data behind CTE is fantastic and what it does for
graduation rates. Um, but once we get below that CTE number 10 and a half, there's really not a lot left to cut. Once we talk about a $15 million deficit today, once we talk about actually giving the teachers their steps and
colas in some of the highest inflation environments we've been in, we've spent the money. We've we've gone through this multiple times trying to figure out how could we ask for less. >> I will tell you this board of education knows that
and this cabinet knows it and the superintendent knows it and it scares the hell out of me to put this on a ballot, but I believe personally that we must. >> Um, can I jump in? I'm also terrified and they still haven't convinced me
except that I know we need it. >> We need it. Devin and I were just talking about it earlier tonight. Um, so when he says they were more negative, I don't know. Um, I am terrified too. And one of the reasons that one of our
recommendations is more polling is we do need to make sure we need to have some really we need to have polling that is like >> that's the other good news. We are planning to do that >> and I I know that that's on the thing, but that polling needs to be like tight.
It needs to >> really test can we pass this because we want something to pass more than we want 135. We want something >> money in the door. >> And so um that that was that's a we
didn't talk about it much, but that's a huge hugely important part of that recommendation is to do that polling to do it in a way that we make sure that they're not just telling us what we want to hear. that we're they're telling us what we need to hear.
>> Know that this board also knows that that benefits no one to be told what you need to hear. Um when I want that polling, I I need to know I'm going to speak on me, not on the behalf of the board at this point. I need to know that we have a shot at this. And um
please, no one has ever cared so much to not hurt our feelings, Randy. I want you to know that that was very kind of you. And this is not meant to hurt any of the feelings or the effort. There is no sugar coating at this point. >> The ramifications, and this is not for y'all, this is for the public. If
anyone's still listening at 9:30 at night, doubt it. Um, the ramifications of a failed mill are devastating for this district. And so, I'm not going to be a fear-mongerer. I'm going to try not to be. Um, but that is the balancing act,
the just right balance that we have to figure out. So, please note that the board supports you and understands and does know the situation we're in and we desperately need the help of our stakeholders and our community. >> The fact that you're scared is a good
sign. The reality that you just eloquently spoke about and that you know that you're willing to say it publicly is a good sign. Can you go one more slide, please?
Let me give you a glimmer of hope. When this information was presented in the initial survey for the special meal at 60 million by itself, we had a 52% approval rate. >> Yes. when we presented one slide of
education the percentage went up in the combination with the um the other the special mil override meaning one slide of education saw a 3% hike in the acceptance rate. So what that tells me
in this one use case is that you have to get better at what you're really bad at really fast. >> Bad you're bad at No. I know, you know. I'm just You asked the question, so I'm just trying to frame an answer for you. You're not going to win this by ballot
language. You're going to win this through a campaign. >> Yep. >> And the campaign has to be authentic. It has to be based in fact and data. You have to make up for a lot of past mistakes, even though they're not your
fault, to build that credibility back. And you're going to have to do it in a whirlwind because this political cycle is going to be insane. Let alone the media cost and all the other things that are going to come with it. Any business that's operating in
market during September and October of this year is already preparing for that whirlwind because it in fact impacts everyone. This is a real challenge. Here's one of those gaps. In fact, we were told 70% of people in the district don't have a
direct affiliation with the school. Your number was in the 60s. We fixed that number. Either way, that's a huge number of people. You need to convince that retired person on a fixed income that if
their home is worth $620,000, they got to give up eating at McDonald's once a month to save that $22 so that we can make sure these kids have a future. And the payoff is that if we can get these kids the best opportunity to
succeed, they are going to have a higher chance of staying in the community and it self-perpetuates to everyone's benefit. There's no doubt it is a massive challenge. This is the starting line, not the finish line.
>> Well, here's the last bit of good news and then we'll I'll let us all go home. Um is that I have no doubt that this board is up for the challenge. and we know what we have to do. So, with that, I really appreciate your time tonight. Oh,
>> I just wanted to recognize Brena for all of her support. Jeff Gayen was amazing as well. Superintendent Dorland and Kimberly was our rock star who uh made all of this happen. She should be recognized. >> Wonderful. Thank you all very much for
coming tonight. We look forward to working with you further as we go down this path. Not for you, friend. If I'm not out of it, you're not out of it. All right. Thanks, guys. Have a good night. And this brings us to the end of today's agenda. With that, thank you for
everyone who's participated. Our next scheduled meeting of the board is a study session on June 3rd here at the Ed Center. And with that, we stand adjourned. Good night. Heat. Hey, Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down down
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