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Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. N. Down. Hey. Hey. Heat. Heat. N. I'd like to call this April 16th meeting
to order. I'm Aaron Kenworthy, first vice president of the board, and I'll be presiding over tonight's meeting. President Applegate sends her regrets as she is away for a previously scheduled engagement. On behalf of the board of education, welcome to tonight's meeting. We welcome all attendees, those joining us live in the audience and those
connecting virtually. We also wish to express our appreciation to the live simultaneous Spanish interpreters for facilitating access this evening. Roll call, please. Miss Harper. >> Miss Applegate, >> here. Dr. Edaria >> here.
>> Mr. Gibbons, Miss Kenworthy >> here, >> Miss Moinian >> here. >> We invite you to please stand and join us in the pledge of allegiance. We are going to have some minor adjustments tonight from our published agenda. Because our executive session
will now be limited to one issue instead of two, it will be about 45 minutes briefer than anticipated. To maximize efficiency, we'll go ahead prior to the executive session and handle three pieces of business from our published agenda. Item 5.0 0 proclamations, item
7.0, consent agenda, and item 8.0, leadership reports. Is there a motion to amend today's agenda to address items 5, 7, and 8 as published in board docs prior to our noticed executive session? >> I move to amend today's meeting agenda
by addressing items five, 7, and 8 as published in board docs prior to our noticed executive session. >> Is there a second? I second. Any discussion? It has been moved and seconded to amend the agenda for today's meeting of April
16th, 2026 as presented in board docs. Roll call, please. Miss Harper. >> Miss Applegate. >> Yes. >> Dr. Edaria. >> Here. >> Mr. Gibbons. >> Miss Kenworthy. >> Yes. >> Miss Minian. >> Yes.
>> Is there a motion to approve today's amended agenda? I move to approve today's amended agenda. Is there a second? >> I second. >> Is there any discussion? >> It has been moved and seconded to
approve the amended agenda for today's meeting of April 16th, 2026 as presented in board docs. Roll call, please. Miss Harper. >> Miss Applelegate. >> Yes. >> Dr. Etcheria. >> Yes. >> Mr. Gibbons. Miss Kenworthy. Yes, >> Miss Moian.
>> Yes. >> Moving forward with our amended agenda, we will begin with board proclamations. The board publicly recognizes special events and significant issues by issuing proclamations. In the month of April, we are commemorating World Autism Day, which was April 2nd. National School
Librarian Day, which was April 4th. National Student Athlete Day, which was April 6th, Coline Day of Service on April 20th, A Day Without Hate on April 24th, Public School Volunteer Week, April 20th through 24th, and Child Abuse Prevention Month. We encourage you to
read the Jeffco School Board's proclamations and board docs. Items 5.01 through 5.07 are presented in board docs as proposed proclamations for the month of April. Do I have a motion regarding the approval of the proclamations?
>> I move to approve items 5.01 through 5.07 on the proclamation section as published in board docs. Is there a second? >> I second. >> Is there any discussion? It has been moved and seconded to
approve the April proclamations as presented in board docs. Roll call, please. Miss Harper. >> Miss Applegate. Yes, >> Dr. Etcheria. >> Yes, >> Mr. Gibbons. Miss Kenworthy. >> Yes, >> Miss Moian. >> Yes.
>> Next, we will move forward with the consent agenda. Items 7.01 through 7.13 are presented in board docs as a proposed consent agenda. As a reminder to our listening public, the board received a preview of these items at our April 8th study session. Do I have a
motion regarding the approval of the consent agenda as presented in board docs? I move to approve items 7.01 through 7.13 on the consent agenda as published in board docs. >> Is there a second?
>> I second. >> Is there any discussion? Seeing none, it has been moved and seconded to approve the consent agenda items 7.01 through 713 as presented in board docs. Roll call, please. Miss Harper.
>> Miss Applegate. >> Yes. >> Dr. Etcheria. >> Yes. >> Mr. Gibbons. Miss Kenworthy. >> Yes. >> Miss Moinian. >> Yes. >> Next on the agenda are leadership reports. First, the board will hear from Superintendent Dorland, followed by
reports from the board. Superintendent Dorland. >> Thank you, Vice President Kenworthy. It's nice to see everyone this afternoon and uh look forward to spending some time into the evening with all of you. Uh over the past several weeks, I've had the opportunity to engage in events and
conversations that really reflect the strength of our schools and the strength of the broader Jeffco community. Together, they reinforce that public education is one of our community's greatest shared investments and one that continues to create opportunities for every student. First, I'd like to start
with some exciting news about our Jeffco educators. This year, 69 of our Jeffco teachers were nominated for Colorado Teacher of the Year, which is awesome. That level of recognition speaks to the talent, dedication, and
impact of our educators across the schools um in our district. In addition, our schools will also be recognized at the state level through the Colorado Department of Education state award um that the uh awards of distinction that occur in the springtime. And this is
also something we're very proud of as a district. I do want to just personally say to all 69 of our teachers who were nominated, congratulations on your nominations. It's um really impressive that we had 69 educators nominated for that special award. I had the chance also to attend the middle school art
show at the um uh Red Rocks Community College and the uh elementary arts uh elementary art show at Red Rocks and the middle school art show at Lakewood Cultural Center. So, thank you to both of those venues for supporting our art shows. Thank you also to uh the Arvvada
Center for supporting our high school art show. Um my daughter Olivia was able to attend the elementary art show with me. She was home uh for spring break. Um, and it was special to share the incredible talents of our young artists with Olivia. All of our art shows are a
powerful reminder that students success is not just academic. It's also about expression, identity, and belonging. I also joined the Never Summer Awards. Um, thank you, Director Kenworthy, for going with me to that. That was fun. Uh, and this is where Warren Tech students
designed and presented original snowboard graphics alongside industry professionals um from Never Summer. Experiences like this show what's possible when we connect learning to real world application and help our students see a clear path to their
future. It's one of my favorite events of the year. And a true highlight for me that I want to high I think I highlighted it in April, but I'm going to highlight again um was attending the ribbon cutting for the new Fletcher Miller School. This building was intentionally designed to support students with significant needs and it
reflects our commitment to ensuring every student has access to environments that honor their dignity and support their growth. It was also meaningful to see former board members Mary Parker, Stephanie Skoolie, and Susan Miller, whose leadership helped bring this vision to life.
And thank you to all of you also board members who attended that special. Oh, and Paula Reid was with us, too. Thank you. Thank you for making sure that I I acknowledged her as well. It was really special to see former board members there alongside current board members celebrating our special um Fletcher Miller community. Across our community,
partnerships play an important role in supporting students. Board President Applegate and I recently met Arvvada's mayor Simpson to continue strengthening our collaboration with um that that city of Arvvada. And it's also something that our COO Jeff Gatlin and I do regularly
with many municipalities in Jeffco. In fact, Jeff and I were able to have lunch with Cath Kathy Hodson from the city of Lakewood who serves as the city manager and has for many years. She's announced her retirement rec recently. So, we were able to congratulate um city manager
Hodson on her upcoming retirement. Um, and also in these meetings, we speak about mutual interests, which of course include Jeffco's pursuit of our local funding uh, this fall and the work of exploring additional revenue that's happening alongside the efforts of the
partnership. Uh, the partnership is working with district leaders to help shape a plan for our long-term financial sustainability that will protect what matters most, instructional excellence through highquality educators and employees and extraordinary student experiences. Next month on May 11th, the
partnership will present a formal recommendation to the board of education related to a possible Milwaukee override in November of 2026. Together, these efforts reflect our commitment to working alongside our community to support students and families, strengthen transparency, and consider
the long-term sustainability of our schools. And of course, at the state level, we continue to monitor legislative developments and recognize that difficult decisions are being made. We appreciate the continued focus at the state level on education funding and
will remain engaged as these decisions evolve, always with a focus on what is best for students and advocacy for adequate funding for K12 public education, which by has been woefully underfunded for decades in the state of
Colorado. And finally, I want to thank our board and our community for your continued engagement and partnership. The work in front of us is complex, but it is grounded in a shared commitment to students that remains our northstar. Thank you. >> Thank you, Superintendent Dorland, for
that information. Board members, we now have 25 minutes to share our reports. I'm going to ask um President Applegate, since you are remote, would you be interested in going first? >> I'll take that as a no. >> Thank you. >> Go ahead. Now you go
>> here. Sorry, little bit of a delay. Um, no, I just wanted to um also share um my excitement for being able to attend the Fletcher Miller ribbon cutting. Um, it's something that I will take especially um near and dear to my heart um probably
for the rest of my life, but really I'm thrilled to be able to honor some of our most effective students and the educators and staff that work with them every day. Um, for me it's been a lot of working in the community. As Superintendent Derlin mentioned, in addition to the meeting she highlighted,
um, I also was able to present to the city of Wheatidge. They, um, invited the board to come just share an update with them, round of questions, really thoughtful and, um, really emphasized to me how important it is to work with our municipal leaders. Um, also got to
attend the art shows and was really blown away by the talent of our students. um and really have just been focused on diving in and preparing for um a lot of the work that we're doing around the millia override and the budget. And so I'm going to keep it
short since I'm virtual, but um really excited next month to look forward to graduations. I know our students are going through SEMAS last week and this week and so just um a heartfelt thank you to all of our educators and our students who are putting in the really hard work when it comes to to going
through CMSS. So, um, I appreciate the opportunity. Thank you. >> Thank you, President Applegate. Other board members, director Melindian. All right. So, yesterday I was here at the ED center attending an FAC meeting. They're preparing uh to present their
recommendations to us soon in consideration of uh approving next year's budget. So, that's going to be exciting. I also attended the partnership for fiscal responsibility meeting which I think was last week. Very interesting conversations that were
being had there. Very fruitful. Um they were presented with the polling information. So I think that uh helped some of the members. Also completed some school visits. Uh I went to Governor's Ranch Elementary where I got thrown into a wrestling class. Lots of fun.
I also visited uh Mount Carbon Elementary. uh Blue Heron and Blue Heron Elementary. Um and I also had the opportunity uh to drive and visit West Jefferson Middle School and Warren Techch South. So I just want to say across um our district, our educators
are doing amazing work with our students. So I want to elevate and raise that message. And so I just really enjoy the schools giving and I want to thank the schools for giving me the opportunity to visit with them. and I really appreciate uh them taking the time with me and I look
forward to returning. I also plan on volunteering during a Coline Day of Service that will be on April 20th. I encourage other board members if they'd also like to participate to please come out. I also
attended a uh local DACK and sack meeting where um where Mike Freeman, the community superintendent for uh the Coline uh area, shared that there is a presentation being offered on April the
24th from 7:45 to 9. Um and there's going to be a keynote speaker uh Daryl Bellamy in the um auditorium. And so I would encourage anybody who has an opportunity to check it out to please go and check it out.
And that's all I have. So thank you everyone. >> Thank you Director Melennia and Director Javaria. >> All right. So my school visits are slowing down. I think I'm down to my last five. Miss Harper is trying to
schedule those for me. Um this month I was able to attend the Fletcher Miller um ribbon cutting which was amazing. Uh Fletcher Miller is a special school which serves students with significant support needs. Um that school had so
many different areas for students and for their needs. Um the pride among the staff and families was evident. They've got a great new space with the community room for families. um to be part of the school and it just shows it reflects a
meaningful investment in meeting the diverse and complex needs of our students here in Jeffco. I also um was able to visit all of the schools under the Jefferson Academy Charter Schools Network with executive director Tim
Matlick. We first visited Jefferson Academy Elementary School, the Jaguars, the Jags, um, with assistant principal Mark Abling and community engagement specialist Tiffany Flores. Um, at this school, one of the things that surprised
me was that this school gives their teachers two back-to-back planning periods, which um, they use to have professional learning community time. And the students uh have the opportunity
to have two two electives or specials. Uh they've got STEM, they've got band, choir, orchestra, and they also have interventions for kids uh that are needing that additional support during that time. Um this school s serves more
than 150 students with IEPs and 504 plans. uh they've got a clear and intentional focus on intervention supports for to meet those diverse learning needs. Uh from there we hopped over to Jefferson Academy Secondary School which is their 7th through 12th
grade. Um at that school I was able to uh meet with principal Dr. Anne Schultz. Uh this school emphasizes rigorous uh coursework and preparation for post-secary success. One of the things that was really intriguing to me over at
Jefferson Academy Secondary is their um partnership with the city and county of Broomfield. Um Jefferson County does have schools in Broomfield County and JA is one of those schools. They recently partnered with the city of Broomfield to
complete their new athletic field and track field. They have they were explaining in detail the um the rubber that had to go underneath the truck so that it didn't crack or have any kind of uh
like melting into the ground I guess uh sink holes. So they I guess the city of Brimfield partnered heavily with this project and now this uh field can be used in the community and not just at the school. And then the second thing that the city of Broomfield has uh
partnered with JA on is their public art gallery. They've got an art gallery that's specified with lighting to be able to host uh public art shows not just for the school but for the broader community. And then their final school under this uh charter is Summit Academy
uh which is their mascot is the Mountain Lions. And I met uh principal Stephanie Scarado. This school is attracts a significant number of outofd district students. It is uh it's basically a school where
students can come in you know once a week and work with teachers. They serve a lot of different school different students including uh national and Olympic level athletes who really need to train all week long and don't have uh
traditional time I guess for school. So this school allows those students to train uh for those national Olympic level sports and teams that they're on. And additionally, one of the great things about the school, they are one of our three schools in Jeffco that had
100% graduation rate last year. Uh, collectively, their students last year earned over 1,700 college credits. Uh, some other events that I attended this month, uh, we had several key initiatives, uh, meetings. Um,
do director Kenworthy and I were able to go to the Jefferson or the Jeff Go student leadership um, board and go to their Q&A session which was intense. They had some good questions. I also was able to attend the school
musical at Stanley Lake High School, Catch Me If You Can. Uh, I went over to Wayne Carl Middle School for their adopted athletics basketball games. Those were always really fun to to go to. Uh Stanley Lake also had a choir
concert that I attended uh called Journey Onwards and it was actually really heartwarming because the kids who were on their way to graduation were kind of tearing up because this is their last choir concert and they realize they're starting to realize they only have a few weeks of school left and then
they're off to bigger better adventures and they were getting pretty teareyed at the end. Um and then this month I went I attended the capital assets uh committee. I also had a meeting with DI distraction-free
schools. Uh another choir concert at Stanley Lake, this choir slam. Uh this is where they had all the articulation schools. So all the elementary schools and middle schools that feed into Stanley Lake and they all kind of did presented together. This was super fun
because the elementary school kids had the higher voices. So, they did some of the songs that were higher and then they brought in some of the high school boys to do some of the baritone and it was just super neat to see the really like high voices of the elementary school kids mixed with the high school kids.
Uh, and then finally, I had the opportunity to uh present with the JCA retired um representatives on our um MLO process and what we're needing for for future um funding and revenue for the
district. And then finally, just trends in my email this month included a lot of conversation about the budget reduction blueprint, fiscal responsibility, um the free horizon monator school. I had a lot of emails coming in uh
regarding charter um charter school that's coming that's we're we'll be talking about in May. And then um the student safety and sexual misconduct information is still hitting
the email quite a bit. Uh additional topics that came through were the cell phone policy. Um and then still immigration related concerns. So that's kind of what I've been seeing in the email coming through from our community. Um, and as always, I
encourage the community to reach out uh with concerns so that we can at least elevate them here at our meetings. Thank you. >> Thank you, director. I will go next. Um, I also wanted to start off my director report with the
JSLB discussion. I thoroughly enjoy meeting with our students and their questions are always on point and incredibly clear. Um, I appreciate the time that we get to spend with them. Uh we also had another legislative check-in on April 10th with our legislators. It
had been a very late night in the house um the evening prior and so we saw one of our house members and met more of our senators for this last one um which no blame it was an incredibly late night. Um they are talking about the long bill
um next week they'll be talking about education finance. Um, I also wanted to let our community know that Michelle Applegate and I have had the opportunity to participate in first 100 days CASBY board leadership lab where uh board leadership from across the state is able
to get together and have conversations about leadership challenges and successes that are happening in different districts. Um, different approaches to similar problems that we face in Colorado. Um, and that's been incredibly illuminating for me. the conversations that I've been able to
participate in. I want to give some thanks to Carrie Olsen and Stephanie Skoolie, one of our former board members, for their leadership and continued presence in the CASBY space. I think um sometimes board membership might be once you're in then it's hard to leave even if you've left your
specific district location. There's lots of other ways that you can continue to support public education. Um I wanted to lift up that since our last uh public meeting we had spring break and I hope everybody had some connection and renewal theirs as we face the end of the school year. I've met with our association leaison. I got a chance to
visit with a student group at Golden um and had they had made an entire presentation just for me. Um I felt very special and we had a fantastic conversation about um ways that students can advocate for policies and um practices that they feel are necessary.
Um, I also got to attend the Never Summer presentation. I did have to leave though because I had other things on my schedule. So, I think I missed probably the best part of the afternoon. But it was enlightening to see um the origins of Warren Tech, how long it's been
around, and how carefully our community partners are working alongside us to support our students in um incredibly meaningful and transformative experiences. Uh I had an opportunity to have a town hall on Monday of this week. Fascinating
conversations. I was also um blessed by the presence of Mary Parker and Paula Reid, two of our former board members, and was grateful for their presence along with other community members. I think we had a really good and lively conversation. Um I also what else is on here? We had a
discussion today with district board and association leadership that I think is the beginning of some good conversation and relationship building. I'm looking forward to that continuing. Uh I also wanted to share upcoming that I'm excited to attend the good news
breakfast which is always fun every year. Um the JSLB conference is on April 24th and the EAC community meeting coming up on April 28th. So, there's a lot happening here at the end of April and into May. Um, I'm looking forward to continued convos with our community and
electeds and especially for the 13 graduations that I'll be honored to attend between May 7th and May 29th. 13, y'all. It's going to be amazing. Um, I want to follow that with gratitude to my partner Jason, my children Owen and
Brace for their ongoing support of my own board service. moving into a collaborative leadership model has meant an increase in my time and effort um towards schoolboard endeavors and they have been incredibly supportive um and
very understanding and I just wanted to give them a little bit of the credit. Um I don't do this work by myself. It takes my whole family and my community to make sure that I'm able to be present in this way. Board service continues to be a
privilege and an honor. It is a profound education in many directions and it is an honor to serve with my fellow directors with gratitude for those who served before and those who still have yet to serve in this way. That will conclude my board report and once uh
director Gibbons joins us, I may make an allowance for him to provide his board report later on in the meeting. >> Director Kenworthy, can I ask a question? Sure. >> Did you ever get numbers for the Grub Club?
>> I did not. I have not asked and and actually uh because we're in negotiation season, I felt like maybe just not poking at them until after we get towards the summer to get some of that data back. But if anybody has it and they want to share it with us, I welcome the results whenever they're available.
Thank you for the question. All right. Our next item of business is an executive session. The board has noticed an executive session pursuant to CRS24-6-42 parents for parents a to discuss
purchase, acquisition, lease, transfer, or sale of any real personal or other property interests, specifically the possible sale of Bergen Elementary School and/or Pyer Elementary School. Is there a motion for the board of education to convene into executive session?
I move to convene into executive session CRS24-6-424A to discuss purchase, acquisition, lease, transfer, or sale of any real personal or other property interest, specifically the possible sale of Bergen Elementary School andor Piper Elementary School.
>> Is there a second? >> I second. Is there any discussion? It has been moved and seconded that the board of education will convene into executive session. Roll call, please. Miss Harper. >> Miss Applegate. >> Yes. >> Dr. Edaria.
>> Here. >> Mr. Gibbons. >> Miss Kenworthy. >> Yes. >> Miss Moian. >> Yes. >> The board will move to the seminar room for the executive session which is closed to the public. The board will reconvene in the boardroom at approximately 5:00 pm.
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Heat. Heat. The time is now 508. The board has completed our executive session and will continue with the remainder of this meeting. Please note that we will take a 20-minut break at approximately 7:25 p.m. this evening. Before we begin, I'd like to highlight the structure of tonight's
agenda. First, the board will receive an update from Dr. Skyler Artes and PR who is principal of Evergreen High School and Maline Hornnecker, Evergreen High School assistant principal. Following this special update from EV Evergreen, the board will move into honors and recognitions. After honors and
recognitions, the board will hear public comment. And with that, we will begin also with a reminder. I am Aaron Kenworthy, the first vice president of the school board. Our president, Michelle Applegate, is unable to be with us tonight and so I will be the person sitting at the head of this meeting. Thank you very much. And now we will
start our study session. The board of education extends our sincere gratitude to Evergreen High School for providing an update this evening. Dr. Artees, principal, and Maline Hornnecker, assistant principal of Evergreen High School, will be presenting this update. We have scheduled 30 minutes for this
update and we ask that you please reserve a few minutes at the end of your remarks for board questions. Before turning the time over to our presenters, would you like to add anything, Superintendent Dorland? >> Thank you, Director Kenworthy. Um, welcome.
We're inviting you up to the front now. Thank you, Dr. Artes and Miss Horner. We are very excited to see you tonight. And we also have another special guest which I'll allow them to introduce. I won't take away the thunder. Um I want
to just recognize also that Mr. Burns is sitting in the um audience and has been an incredible leader alongside um these these two who are here presenting for our board tonight. Um yeah.
I just want to tell you how proud I am of both of you for the work and the courage that you've had this year in your leadership. And I'm so grateful that you wanted to come and talk with our board about your journey and your amazing, incredible
community. >> Thank you for being here. >> Thank you. Thanks. We may be asking for Kleenex just so I can say that. That helps me. Okay. All right. First, thank you to the board for granting us some time to shine
some light on Evergreen High School. We're going to introduce ourselves. Um I've had the pleasure of meeting some of the board members, but just so that we have that piece and then we'll get going. Perfect. Um so I'm Mattie Horniker. Um, I am a proud uh Relson
Valley graduate actually. So, I graduated from Relson Valley High School and in Jeffco public schools. Um, I began teaching at Evergreen High School um right out of college teaching math coaching and then made my way to this position here. So, thank you again for giving us some time to speak with you
all and just share how awesome and uh amazing our community is. My name is Skyler Artist. I'm principal of Evergreen High School. This is my seventh year in the building. I'm also a Jeffco grad. I grew up down the street. I went to Maple Grove Everett and I am a
farmer. Okay. But also a cougar. Okay. Um before we begin, I I wanted to say that it is important to note that this update is not all-incclusive of the work that's taking place up at the
school and it's not meant to answer all of the questions that people might have about the work that's happening and the challenges associated with September 10th that we're working through. We've learned a lot about trauma and trauma recovery. And one of the largest
takeaways is that recovery is not linear. And um we've also learned from our local, state, and national partners that this is going to be a multi-year ongoing experience as we work through emotional recovery, trauma recovery, and
academic recovery for the community. Uh as a whole, we are committed and undaunted really. We are committed to the community. We're committed to our students. We're committed to our school and this update covers some important snapshots of the gathering strength
that's apparent as we work through the recovery process. And we do so with the most important of goals, which is connecting our students uh to their goals, their dreams, and making sure they're as prepared as we
possibly can have them be for what comes after high school, no matter what. So starting with academic recovery, there's some snapshots there. Something that we're very proud of is our MAP data, our benchmark data. Every single subgroup
for 9th and 10th grade, English and math met or exceeded expectations for growth. every subgroup is on track to make at least one year growth uh in those early grades which is critical for remaining on track to graduate and making sure
that students are prepared for the next level as they're working toward their post-secary dreams. Uh the progress that you see reflects students resilience and then it also represents the unrelenting commitment and strength of our educators
and our staff within the building. They have uh maintained very high expectations. They've maintained a commitment to meaningful instruction and they have demonstrated extreme care for every single student and student group within the building.
Um so I'm going to talk a little bit about our student and staff wellness support that has um you know from started from um September 10th on. Um overall our students and staff are are doing well. Um we have participated in
some in school mental health sessions that our students were able to be a part of. Um the feedback from that has been encouraging and our students are really reporting that they are doing okay. Um the majority of students also expressed
to us that they've feel that they feel supported, grounded, and ready to focus their energy on the remainder of the school year and their academics. Um the many times that we had these sessions for students, um we kept seeing this message over and over that our students
want to um move forward and focus on their academics. Um also through those groups we have all we were able to identify students that might need some more support than the uh remainder of their peers. And so there
were many people that helped us find those students and we were able to provide some supports extra supports for those students and are still providing those extra supports as well. Um the addition of our social emotional learning uh and mental health counselor
has really been key for that in uh and helping our students and just having another space in our main office where students can take time if they need a tiny break or just want somebody to talk to. Um we've also added a employee assistant uh program staff person that
is dedicated to Evergreen High School and Wilmont. um that has been critical for our staff just to have a a voice in the um at our school that they can go talk to and lean into. Um she's provided many outlets for our teachers, whether
that's going on a hike after school. Um they did mountain biking one time. Um she's also organized ear acupuncture for our uh teachers which helps with the trauma recovery process. Um, our teachers have been pretty
instrumental in all of this. Um, they, you know, nobody goes into teaching knowing about how to teach through trauma. Um, and so it's really been a learn as you go process. We've definitely had people come and talk to us about trauma informed approaches to
academic recovery. Um but our teachers have really uh take taken ownership of that and figured out how is it going to be best for our kids and what what can they do um so that our kids can meet their goals and feel success and be
prepared for after high school. Okay, this is a this is a small thing, but it's been pretty wonderful for some of our students who have uh in those moments where words aren't going to work sometimes having access to a dog or uh just some
other outlet to connect with where there doesn't need to be a type of communication. And there can just be comfort and there can be some opportunity for calm and joy. K9 Companions has connected us with a dog Norine who's under the table. Uh she's
professionally trained. She knows 40 commands and the ones that matter most right now is really just sitting and being calm, affectionate, and a positive outlet for students to connect with coming into the building. Uh for some
coming into the building remains a challenge. Uh we've done a great deal of work in trying to make that entry as warm, as welcoming, as predictable, as safe, as friendly as possible. And Norin has helped with with this. Uh we also have Scarlet who is a great Pyrenees who
supports within the EAP program supporting our staff um for budget and staffing for that update. So so far um we have a very low attrition um for our predicted next school year. Um and that really is part
of our staff is evergreen. They love Evergreen. they want to be there and they have a commitment to to our kids and our community. Um that also would not be possible just without the support that we've received from all sorts of groups um the district and people
flooding resources to us um just so that teachers know that they are appreciated. Um we did survey our community um when the uh before the budget was due. And so um our priorities across the board, so
community, parents, students, um our AP courses, college and career readiness, and athletics. Um, and so that really kind of ties back into students desire to move forward and focus on their future, but also still do activities and
athletics and things that are healthy for them to participate in. Um, we are predicting uh a lower enrollment. Our enrollment is declining. So, um, that is not the best news. Um, but we are uh
keeping all of our staffing and programs intact. thanks to um the support from the district and are really looking forward to teachers being back in our building that are familiar faces to our students um for all you know we want to
keep school as a familiar place as possible and so um that has been really helpful. Okay, we have we're in the middle of prom week. We have a spirit week. Uh today was anything but a backpack day. There were tires, there were uh science
skeleton rib cages, there were uh landscaping buckets, there were a lot of celebrations. And these are small things, but what they represent is a return to beloved traditions and joy and happiness and student culture that is
celebratory, a little silly, but really based in happiness and friendship and being together and being part of a school and a school community where there can be joy and there can be laughter and there can be smiles throughout the day. Um, we have some pictures up here that show some of these
traditions. individual joy and successes and community movement together. Uh giving back through Wish Week, we reached almost $20,000 uh in fundraising. That's more than we've ever raised, double what our last uh record was uh for Wish Week
fundraising. And those are real triumphs. We have individual achievements in athletics, in the arts. We have a school that is full of diverse dreams and skills and talents. and to see these shine and be celebrated
through just regular activities. Signing day, all state jazz, all state choir, all state um band. These are successes that we're very happy about, proud of, and show the resiliency and care that's
uh gone into our community. Um, so as we continue to strengthen safety at Evergreen High School, um, we are really remained focused on the physical safety of our building, um, as well as the psychological safety of our building. Um, through the planning of
everything that we've been through this year, we've realized how connected those two things are. Um and the effective safety measures um must protect against risk while also supporting a sense of belonging, calm and trust. Um especially at the stage of recovery that we are at
right now. Um students and staff are still working on building some of the routines um and feeling confident and connected to our building. We have partnered with um national experts including the na na national
mass violence center um and they have assured us that safety is not a one-sizefits-all thing and we've really taken that to heart and made sure that we've involved the voices of our community and our students and our parents and what is going to make them feel the best when they walk through the
doors of Evergreen High School. um the actions we take um and at the pace we must take them, it's really important that they align with our community and what they want and what they think is valued um for their kids and our students. Um as we move forward through
this um we want to continue to place an emphasis on evaluating safety measures um through the lens of everybody's uh everybody in our community and through the partners that we have now have. Um and so engaging our community, our students and our staff will remain a top
priority. Um and so we want to make sure that we are focusing back on belonging and trust when we are talking about the safety of our building and making sure we all are safe at Evergreen High School. So some of the um things that we have
implemented this year or um have helped us with this safety thing are listed here. So our school accountability committee was instrumental in uh being an advisory group for us to what what do parents want to feel safe? What do students want to feel safe at Evergreen
High School? Um they met many more times than they would be required to meet in a normal school year. And so that was uh that was instrumental in that. Our full-time um school resource officer from Jefferson County Sheriff's Office. Um he is on campus every day armed. That
is Deputy OD Tucker and he is fantastic. Uh we also have a full-time armed Jeffco safety and security officer, Merced. She has been amazing for our community. It's a familiar face for our students and she's been great at uh building
relationships with students. We also have dedicated Jeffco safety and security protocol uh or uh patrol coverage in the Evergreen area. They are taking care of all of our neighboring schools as well. Um this incident just just didn't affect Evergreen High
School, it was the surrounding area. And so to have extra patrol coverage up there has been really helpful. Um we have four full-time campus supervisors um plus a part-time one. um having those faces. They were there at the start of the school year and are still there. Um
they have been amazing to help to help our students. Uh our building recently went through a safety audit and risk assessment. So we were able to figure out places that maybe we could do a little bit more to help make our building feel safer. Um but through that we also realized that
our building is really safe. Um we have the stuff that we need to uh physically protect. Um and so that was good news coming from the safety audit. There will be some things that we are looking to uh work through this summer. Um but for the most part there was good news from that.
Um we just installed our emergency alert system over the past spring break. Our staff went through training for that. Um there are some growing pains. Uh but we know that it works and so we will keep working through that process. Um we also
have our K9's weapon detection program. Um K2 is the company that is providing that for us and they have just um fit into our community wonderfully. Um they are kids know the dogs names and so they it's just another measure of safety for
for our students. Um behavior detection and recognition training was something that came out of the um SAC advisory committee. Um and so that is something that uh our teachers will probably go through I believe in the fall. Um, we
have extra radios on our campus now. Um, more cameras. We just picked up our stop thebleleed kits and so those will be put into our classrooms um, this week hopefully. And then our staff has gone through training with that as well. We also have ongoing mental health and wellness supports and opportunities for
our students um, sometimes at school, sometimes at the Evergreen Resiliency Center, and we also have those um, opportunities for our staff as well. >> Okay. Looking ahead, we've started some very thoughtful planning for our eighth grade
transition. One piece of learning that we had from the National of Mass Violence Center is we're planning for this year, of course, but then also looking at how we're integrating in our future Cougars. We partnered with Evergreen Middle School to do some thoughtful planning
around what the eighth grade transition into their ninth grade year at Evergreen High School would look like. Evergreen Middle interviewed students. They went through um an empathy interview process with random group of students and we put together a panel of a variety of
upperassmen, sophomores to try to help answer some of the questions that the eighth graders had about coming to Evergreen High School. What were their questions? What were their largest concerns? How were they going to connect? One of the biggest pieces of advice that came out of that was get
involved, ask questions, and don't be too concerned to follow one single path. Try everything. Um, there was positive feedback from the Evergreen Middle School community. We also invited our private and charter school partners so that we crossed the full uh range of
students that wind up coming to Evergreen High School. We are really happy that our enrollment next year, even though we're part of declining enrollment trends uh that Jeffco is experiencing and the state of Colorado is experiencing, we're right now
projected to be 20 students higher than our initial projection, which speaks to some of those students who might be planning on going elsewhere, but have instead decided to register and enroll at Evergreen High School, which makes us feel good about our outreach, our planning, and the thoughtful
registration processes and activities we've had for eighth graders at Evergreen High School in a couple of weeks. Evergreen Middle Rocky Mountain Academy students are invited to attend a matinea for our musical. So they'll be bust in and have that opportunity to be in the theater. And that's one more
touch point for families, for students, and for staff to be in the building to see activities and connect with their future peers. All right, our next part is Oh, >> got one more thing. I've got one more thing to say and then the next part we might need some Kleenex. Um the
collective like where we are this collective trauma recovery that we are going through and the academic recovery process that we're going through we know isn't going to be uh linear. We're in this multi-year process. But where we are now feels incredible and it feels
strong and it doesn't mean that everything is set and everything is stable. But where we are, the success that we've had, where our students are to have um students from HOSA, from STEM, from uh engineering science fair competitions, from DECA, our state
champion wrestler, uh the community support that we have here, all state band, all state choir. All of these little bits and pieces coming together is the result of community and the community support that we've had. The love that our teachers have felt, the
support that our teachers have felt, the support that our students feel and continue to feel, the individualized care that our educators are offering their students comes from families who are caring, communities that are caring, and from the district that is taking
such good care of us. And so this presentation, the desire to be here grew out of um we wanted to come to public comments and just say thank you and then it grew into something a little bit uh larger. So we do have a list of
individual thank yous and I need to say that this is not inclusive. we are aware that there are people that we are not aware of who have been working behind the scenes who we don't know who have helped problem solve connect us with resources and we're very grateful for
them and there are people I mean this could just take hours and hours and hours um but we're limited in time we did want to say some very specific thank yous to those who have been very close to us through this process and we will try to make it kind of quick but it's
there's some okay thank you. Uh, but first, Tom Burns, thank you for being with us at at Evergreen High School on the 10th. He was he's been there every single day uh giving his time. He has a full-time job
and he has given so much of his time before school, after school, weekends to the school staff and community. Thank you, Tom. The next one is Sam Holman, associate chief of schools. She was also with Tom. Um she was the first person that Skyler
and I saw um along with Tom getting off the bus at Bergen. Um they were there every day caring for us, our students and our staff. OD Tucker, SRO, he allowed me to be at the front of the
building on the 10th. He let me stay there until every student and staff member had exited the building. uh Dave Warner. Um he was our uh SRO that was covering our school. Um he was
one of the first sheriffs at the school um and has been a constant support for us since. Terrapena, chief of family school partnerships for being a consistent presence and guide for us if we as we started our collective movement through
community recovery and healing for facilitating meetings where our community shaped the type of response that we've had and the vision for how we want our school to be moving forward. She walked alongside of us in our grief and she was there to see the return of
joy and light. Patrick Simpson, uh, district athletic director. He picked up the phone anytime I called him. Um, he helped me come up with a plan so our students had outlets to participate in sports, to practice
um, as soon as they could. Um, and just his genuine care about our, uh, school and our community. Um, I would also like to thank the athletic directors in Jeffco who opened up their buildings, their gyms, their fields for our uh, teams just to give them a place to
practice. Um, they accommodated our game schedules. They hosted games for us and they were real support for me. To the district activity directors, our activity director couldn't be here. He's supporting the school right now. Um, thank you to the activity directors and
principles who released them to help plan our homecoming. Uh, the 10th disrupted our homecoming and all activity directors came to help make sure that our students had what you see behind which is our homecoming game and
a homecoming dance that was functional and offsite to our PTSA, our sack, our booster clubs. There were so many parent groups and alumni groups. Thank you. Thank you for the volunteer efforts, the care, the
donations, the meals, the student activities, and everything you've done to return students to athletics activities, events outside of school, and so much more. Drew Coleman, thank you for giving the administration the space to focus solely on our school
community. You allowed us to put our students and our recovery first this year. You allowed us as administrators to give space and time to our educators so that they could move through this year and feel supported and take care of
the immediate needs of our students and return to their classroom. Connected to this is Amanda Parzio. Thank you for helping our licensed and classified staff. Thank you also to Trisha Postelle Hicks and Ranata Rlli for connecting our
staff to supports workers compensation therapeutic I mean everything. Thank you. Thank you for helping them. Um our campus supervisors Ellie Baros Stacy Law MJ Enos and David Gunther. Um,
two of them were brand new that uh this year to our school and have stuck by um stuck with us and have become a really great team. Um, their consistency, their thoughtfulness and their care of our students has not gone unnoticed and we're very grateful for them. Thank you
to Matt Freeman for working on grants. This is a new world for me and my gosh, it's complicated. He has been on a few calls with us and is >> so organized. >> They've been long and involved and I he's been wonderful. Thank you, Matt.
>> Um Michelle Gonzalez, director of psychological safety and student services. Michelle has been an amazing resource and advocate for our administration team and our students. Uh she has valued us as people from the second we met her and has proved to be
somebody that we can really count on. and I don't really know if we would be here without her. So, thank you to Michelle >> to the whole of EAP and Jenny Mills who is our dedicated Evergreen High School and Wilmont um support for staff. She
has given time to staff during the day, opportunities to step out to um regulate to talk through some skills and then be able to return to the classroom. And what she does is she dusts us all off so that we can get back in the game and
take care of what matters most, which is the students who are in front of us every single day. Deb Gobstein, the coordinator with student services. Her work to help us create systems to support our students um has not gone unnoticed. The amount of
work that she put into us to help our community and help our kids um is invaluable. and she made sure that we did not have to lift a finger to do some of those things while we were still recovering. >> To all of our peers and administration in the Mountain Area and throughout
Jeffco, they've lifted us up through text, through emails, and that's really stayed with us. So, thank you. >> Um, Tara Kes, thank you for donating your time to provide extra staff support through ear acupuncture. Um she's provided us a safe space for uh being
calm and support. Um and our that's something our staff uses every single Thursday when she's there. To Jeff Gatlin and Mark Streilo, thank you for restoring our building with such speed. You helped us come home to a place we
love. Thank you to Brena Copeland, chief financial officer, um, for trusting us to know what resources our students most needed to support their academic recovery and trauma healing.
Matt Polo, thank you for helping the dog come to Evergreen High School. Um, and thank you also to Matt and Brena. You supervised football with us and it was so cold and you stayed the whole night. Thank you. Thank you for showing up in a
way that cabinet really doesn't have to, which is supervising games up at 8,000 ft when it's so cold. Thank you. Um Basher and Jeremy are one um night coverage people. They've been at all of our night events. Um and just to our for
our community to have a familiar face every um evening at our afterchool events, whether that be activities, concerts, or sporting events. Um, thank you. Mercedes Heel is our um our one officer that is with us during the day. She has
created some unbelievable relationships with our students that makes our students feel safe and our staff feel safe as well. Um, Jacob is by her side mostly, especially in the mornings. Uh, he was one of the first R1 officers to respond on the day of the 10th. Um, so
thank you for your presence, Jacob. Jim Ellis and Brian Conroy are two retired Jeffco principles who've been in the building providing care, knowledgeable support, community centered, student centered support to the building and to us.
Courtney Hill um is one of the victim advocates for Jefferson County Sheriff's Office. Um and to all the victim advocates, they gave us a firm ground, steady care and support. They've been a phone call away at all times and have supported our staff and students in such
a thoughtful and caring way. Christy Koken is our communications support in times where we were completely overwhelmed and working easily seven days a week, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 hours a day. She was the calm, loving, centered
voice that helped make sure that families were heard, that communications went out in a timely manner, and that we were able to connect our community and come together at a time where at times we just did not have the words.
Superintendent Dorland, thank you for supporting every individual in their work at Evergreen High School. This leadership and this care has made our recovery process strong and possible. It has provided relief and
comfort during the most challenging and painful of circumstances. Thank you for funneling all of the resources that you could to our school and for being a steady source of encouragement and trust. Um you dispersing people to be at our building is really great. Thank you.
and under the most difficult of circumstances. Thank you to the entire Evergreen High School faculty and staff. While doing the utmost to care for themselves and recover, this staff have been tireless and stalwart advocates for
our students and for our school. They have done everything in their power to preserve and protect and to bring back um into view and reach our students dreams. Um, our teachers are the real heroes in all of this and so they deserve them the
biggest thank you. >> Thank you to the board. Thank you for your support and thank you for the time. and we'll answer whatever questions you >> um yeah uh again our sincere gratitude for joining us this evening and sharing the
progress and recovery of Evergreen High School. Um, as much as I wish with every fiber of my being, uh, that you were not touched by this violence and your community was not and we didn't need to receive this report.
Um, I'm overwhelmed by my personal reaction to the leadership and love, resiliency, vision, and deep care that has been abundant in response to this unfortunate tragedy. The heart in me honors the heart in you and for all
of us who have been impacted by the presence of violence in our community. Um, thank you for being here and for bringing us real authentic gratitude and also some
joy and celebration following heartache. Thank you for being here. I know it's not easy, but I appreciate you board members. Um, I want to commend you
for how you've handled this tragedy. And I think we should all take a moment and appreciate you and the leadership you've offered your community and acknowledge that you deserve as much credit as the credit you so graciously just gave others.
Thank you. >> Yeah. Thank you. And I think for um for you and for everyone in the Evergreen community when tragedy strikes, as it strikes all of us in different ways, it is so incredibly important but
difficult to maintain the balance of taking the time and space to grieve, to feel pain, but also getting up every day and doing the work that must be done. and you are an example for us all in your ability to do that through an
incredibly difficult tragedy that you did not deserve to have to experience. And if there is anything this board can continue to do for that community, for your school in the future, I'm certain you will let us know and look forward to hearing from you.
>> Thank you. I just want to uplift the message that you had at the beginning, right? Recovery is not linear. Sometimes we take a step forward, half a step back. Um, but at the end of the day, sometimes it's taking that half a step back that
allows us to leap forward. And I just want to echo the sentiments of my fellow board members. I'm sorry that this happened, but if there's anything that this board can do, let us know.
We are incredibly grateful and I believe that we're going to move into some additional gratitude following your presentation. So, thank you for being with us. Um, our honors and recognitions period is up
next. So, every month the board of education has the pleasure of recognizing students, staff, schools, and community members for their achievements and contributions to our community. This month, the board would like to recognize both staff and community members who have been instrumental in the restoration, recovery, and healing of Evergreen High
School. You don't have to leave the front because I think you're going to have to be up here again. Just hang out. Um, I'll say it again. Um, the board would like to recognize both staff and community members who have been instrumental in the restoration,
recovery, and healing of Evergreen High School. For our first recognition of the evening, the board of education would like to honor the following operational staff members who spent countless hours restoring Evergreen High School. We want to acknowledge that many hands were
involved in this process and while we are only able to recognize a few this evening, we are deeply grateful for every single person involved in the restoration process. Will the following individuals please make your way to the front of the boardroom. Jeff Gatlin,
chief operating officer. Mark Strio, executive director of Phil facilities and construction management. Greg Avdikian, project manager. Laura Freeling, structural support.
Joe Archeletta, Locksmith West Shop. Cody Evans, structural support. John Duran, electrician. Rodney Casados, group leader, west area. Justin Souder, custodial supervisor.
Isaac Pizaro Robas, custodial supervisor. Jordan Martinez, custodial field coordinator. Adrien Tolantino, custodial field coordinator.
Josh Dowet, custodial field coordinator. Travis Russell, Small Engines Tech. Jacob Chapa, Small Engines Tech. Mike Shaw, Small Engines Tech.
Dave Barnard, floating facility manager. Gerald Bill, Floating Facility Manager. Mark Olsen, floating facility manager. While the healing of a community is often measured in words and gestures, it
is also measured in the quiet, tireless labor of those who ensure our students have a safe place to return to. These individuals worked behind the scenes, often late into the night and through the weekends to restore Evergreen. is defined in priority three of Jeffco
thrives. Quote, "Physical environments and operational services in Jeffco contribute to instructional excellence and extraordinary student experiences. Because of the efforts of these employees and so many others, Evergreen students were able to return to a school
where they could continue to receive instructional excellence and extraordinary student experiences. To this team, you are a vital part of our district. You turned a sight of tragedy back into a sight of possibility. You ensured that when Evergreen's doors
reopened, they opened to a fa space that felt cared for, secure, and ready for learning. Thank you again for your service and dedication to both Evergreen and the entire Jeffco community.
For our next recognition this evening, the board of education is honored to recognize the following community partners who generously donated time, supplies, and support aiding in the restoration of Evergreen High school. As
defined in priority 4 of Jeffco Thrives, our goal is to build positive, mutually respectful, and trusting connections with Jeffco families and our community partners to support student success. Will the following community partners please join Director Kenworthy at the
front of the boardroom? Felicia Barnes of Trillo Painting, Linda Kirkpatre of the Evergreen Strong Fund, the team of resilience 1220.
Felicia Barnes of Trillo Painting. When our walls needed more than just a quot of paint, when they needed to be restored as a sanctuary for learning, Trillo Painting answered the call. Their expertise and tireless work help transform the physical environment back
into a space where students feel safe, seen, and ready to learn. Linda Kirkpatrick of the Evergreen Strong Fund. In the immediate aftermath, the Evergreen Strong Fund became a beacon of organized compassion. Under Le
L Linda's leadership, the fund ensured that generosity was channeled where it was needed most, providing a critical safety net for Evergreen families and staff. Her and her team's dedication to the strong to the long-term resilience
of this community is a testament to the power of local advocacy. The team of resilience, is it 1220 or one? Okay, 1220. Healing from trauma is a marathon, not a sprint. The mental
health professionals at Resilience 1220 have been steadfast partners in this journey. By providing accessible, specialized support to our youth during their most vulnerable moments, they have empowered our students to navigate their grief and begin the process of
reclaiming their futures. To these partners, you didn't just help us restore a building, you helped us sustain a community. We are profoundly grateful for your partnership and your heart from the board of education. Thank you. Before moving to public comment, we will
take a brief pause for those who joined us for recognitions to depart if they so wish Hey. Hey. Hey. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. N.
Oh, down. Good evening. I am Aaron Kenworthy, first vice president of the board, and I will be presiding over tonight's meeting. President Applegate sends her regrets as she's away for a previously scheduled engagement just to catch all of you up um from earlier in our board
meeting when we shared that information just in case you're confused about why I'm sitting in this chair and not President Applegate. We will now move to the public comment portion of the meeting. Before we begin, I invite you to review the covenants which we hold as a board and honor them
during your time at the podium. They are listed on the wall over there. If you've not had a chance to look at them, please do review them. We ask that everybody who enters this room during board time adheres to those covenants so that we may learn from one
another, grow with each other, and maintain decorum. 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 or respond to individuals.
Each speaker or group has been given a number. The board invites you to come up in that order when asked. When the person before you completes their comments, you may step up to the podium. We listen with respect and ask those who address the board to do the same. There is a threeminut time limit per
individual speaker and a 10-minute time limit per group. As part of the collaborative agreement we reach with JCA during collective bargaining negotiations, the board reserves the first 10 minutes of public comment for JCA to address the board on issues related to contract negotiations. Before
we begin, I just want to level set that we do not allow for clapping or response. And since I am the person presiding over this meeting, I also ask for us not to engage in any other type
of disruptive behavior, snapping included, that may uh derail what we are trying to do with our public comment. And with that, we will invite JCE up to come up and then they will be followed by presenter 2. Thank you.
Hi, we'll start with introductions. So, I'm Michelle Mis, Spanish teacher at Green Mountain High School and JCA Bargaining Chair. >> My name is Anthia Justice. I'm a learning specialist at Ryan Elementary and on the JCA bargaining team. >> Rob Cassidy. I'm as a science teacher at
Stanley Lake High School and also on the JCA bargaining team. >> Hey everybody, I'm Benjamin Wells. I am a world language and science teacher at Stanley Lake High School, also on the bargaining team. >> All right. Good evening, directors of
the board. We once again thank you for this time to give you an update on bargaining. And I'd like to um begin tonight by acknowledging the very powerful presentation um by Skyler and Maddie of Green or Evergreen High School um and sharing the updates on how that progress is going and echo the gratitude
um for all of those that helped to support that community in in a time of need. Um and I also want to share that one thing that did come out of that um was um some new contract language which we're going to be presenting at our next bargaining session next Thursday. Um it
was an honor to work with educators from Evergreen High School and also uh members of the district team and and our bargaining team in a truly collaborative way to develop this language. So I did want to give that update. Um also I'm going to talk a little bit about
something that I've talked about the last couple of board meetings which is the the memor memorandum of understanding for the M um mevy override. And um this continues to be an issue for our members and like we I we talked about today in our meeting um the
issue comes down to trust. And so I just want to remind everybody that as part of our negotiated agreement last July um we agreed that we would work together on anou to direct possible millvy override language. Um and that that should have been considered um as part of the
partnership for fiscal sustainability. um that group as they looked at language for a possible mill and bond and discussed how that money would be spent. This is something that our members have been very concerned about and without a written uh guarantee that has been um signed off on by both associations and
the district, they may not have faith that a mill levy money um would go where we would like to see it go. Um and one of those things was compensation along with CTE training and lowering class sizes. Um what's been most frustrating for us is that much of the language that
we requested lined up with what polling suggests were also interests of the community. Um we had also asked for an oversight committee which has begun but as I stated today I don't think that twice a year is sufficient and would ask for quarterly meetings and I think that would also be an interest of the
community. Um and additionally I I think I would like to see more intentional representation of of Jespa and JCA representatives on that committee. Um we were told that our numbers were limited but did notice um a large number of of other entities in the room and and so that would be another stated interest.
Um so so stalling out on thisou to us feels like a missed opportunity to build um back up the trust between district leadership and associations. Um especially since the associations will undoubtedly be doing the lion share of the work to get it passed. Um, I I hope I think that all parties understand how
high the stakes are and that um it's really important that we use what little time remains to produce something tangible for our members that helps assure them of how this process will work, how the dollars will be used, provides real accountability, and reflects their voices authentically. Um,
lastly, I want to uplift the work we've been doing on our article 13 leaves language. We believe that opting into family would benefit our members, but we've also heard the district's opposition at this time. That being said, there are still some major issues um with how our district is handling
members that have opted into family and how our leaves department is interfacing with our employees. And whether that comes down to a lack of capacity or a lack of knowledge, something has to change. When we have two members who email the leaves department and get radically different responses to the
same question, that is a problem. When we have a leaves department that doesn't approve leaves a leave until after the leave should have started, that is a problem. When we have members who make major life decisions based on incorrect information provided by the leaves department, that is a problem. And when
we have members who have opted into family and as a result are getting overpaid um due to us not working with family um and told that they just need to figure that out, that is also a problem. And fixing these problems should be a mutual interest.
Good evening. I'm here tonight to update you on Article 18 special education. For five years, we've fought to define language and provisions for our special education providers. While I'm proud of what we've written so far, the path forward has been defined by roadblocks, and a lack of consistent collaboration.
The biggest barrier is simple. We do not have enough people to meet the needs of our diverse learners. As the district's financial data shows, our sped student counts are rising. In my 10 years as a learning specialist, the role has fundamentally shifted. It's no longer just teaching. It's a constant cycle of
adapting curriculum, managing mounting paperwork, and supporting students's effective needs. My workload hasn't just grown. It has consumed my early mornings, my late nights, and my weekends. The impact of this workload creep is visible across the district. Center programs are struggling to stay
staffed. Mental health providers are stretched thin. Learning specialists are moving back into the classroom or leaving the profession entirely. In fact, due to this insurmountable workload and the need to prioritize my own mental health, I will be making a return back into the classroom next year
as a kindergarten teacher. However, there is a path forward. This year, our work with sped district leadership has finally felt colleial and solutionoriented. When we work jointly with students at the forefront, everyone wins. But we must be honest, we cannot solve these systemic issues without
funding. Passing a mill levy is critical. Historically, specifically in 2016, it has shown us that if JCA and Jespa are not integral parts of the planning process, we will lose. To ensure our SP educators, as I like to call us, and all our students have what they need to thrive, the district must
make us a partner in this process. For the sake of our students and all the educators who serve them, I ask that you see us as more than just staff, but as vital partners in the mill levy planning process. True collaboration is the only path to a district-wide election win. So, let's learn from past failures and
win the election so we can fund the future our students deserve. On April 2nd, JCA presented the district with a financial proposal that included a steps and lanes and a change in lane six of the salary schedule. However, the district stated financial position
concerns us. In the first bargaining session, we were told by district leadership, quote, there is little to no funding available prior to the passage of a mill levy override. Furthermore, quote, our financial power is not just stagnant, it's shrinking. However, revenue increased $62 million between
2023 and 2024 and nearly another 20 million last year. So, clearly, there have been new revenues and yet we went from a balanced budget to a $45 million deficit over the same period. Where did this revenue go? A partial answer was given last Thursday when Amanda Parzio
stated during bargaining once the ESRE funds quote once the E esser funds stopped there were certain programs that we'd started that we wanted to continue and that were good for students in schools and so some of these required additional dollar um general fund dollars to be dedicated to them end of
quote furthermore discussing reserves she noted that quote they were healthy more than healthy which I think we could all agree to which is why we've been spending them down As we have said, JCA's concerns. Why did general administration cost increase 43%
between 2023 and 25? Why have managers and supervisors increased 49% in the last decade with declining enrollment? Why were 48 FTEEs added to the administrative services last year alone? Why after 23% increase in directors over the past several years of declining
enrollment is the only director position that we've seen being cut next year vacant while 136 um teaching positions are lost. Is this really what is best for our students? If 90 of 141 FTEEs being cut within um department budgets are vacant, should they really be
included in the cost savings? Information given to us shows only 16 central administration positions filled are ending next year while over 160 educators and 70 Jespa employee um unit FTEEs are lost to the schools. Is the
district really keeping cuts away from the kids? District leaders claim that JCA unit steps and lane increases will cost $5.7 million next year. We believe this simply is not true. Last year's claim was 6.9 million, but the year-over-year um cost increase for this
was less than a million dollars. If this seems outrageous to you, then please consider attending our bargaining session on May 4th at 4:30 when we discuss this in more detail. So, let's circle back to the big picture. As the state seems poised to give districts a about a 2.5% cola in per pupil funding
for next fiscal year, much of the district's financial situation was done by design to intentionally spend down reserves and ask voters for a mill levy override while increasing spending for multiple programs. The district is ending this spendown by cutting employees and using the state cola to
backfill this shortfall. JCA argues that the cost of living increases needed by employees to pay their bills should not be held hostage by a mill levy override. The district has made massive increases in spending to central administration, outsource services from for-profit entities entities and other needs in the
past 3 years that have outstripped the significant increases seen in revenues. Shouldn't the district be justifying the spending to voters rather than reducing buying power of the employees? >> Here's our reality as educators. As the cost of living increases in an already expensive district, what qualifies as a
living wage is rising accordingly. Health care costs are up, child care costs are absolutely astronomical, and housing, groceries, and nearly every essential expense have all increased faster than any step advancement. Even when we account for raises we are received a few years ago, we are still falling further behind each year. For
many of us in this bargaining unit, especially those with children, we do not even learn earn a living wage. This creates a gap that is simply not sustainable and is pushing educators either to leave the district for better pay or to leave the profession altogether. This is why any cost of living adjustment from the state should
go directly to address these deficits. Can I keep going? I got like am I done? Yeah. Uh it is furthermore my opinion that community members will not support a mill without our backing and without clear specific commitments about how those funds will be used. It is difficult to understand why district administration is dragging their feet in
delaying meaningful engagement with us unless the intent is to tie future cost of living adjustments to a mill in their counter. That does not reflect good faith bargaining and is not a path that will be wellreceived by educators or the broader community. I would like to invite you all to attend the May 4th bargaining session so that you can hear
us explain in detail how our bargaining stance is informed by this reality. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. Do we have speaker number two? >> Thank you. >> Uh we are the Krug family. Uh my name is
Tim. My wife Yumo. children, Joseph, Eddie, and Mia. Uh we live in Evergreen. Uh though we are part of the Conifer High School articulation area. Just want to say as a resident of Evergreen, uh everyone there is very very proud of how the administration and faculty and
students have uh handled the uh recent challenges. Uh good evening board members. Excuse me for that. A uh a member of the first team told me that last year only three formal complaints were filed against the district. Only three in a district of
70,000 plus students. So considering how rare our experience is, we thought it would be helpful to share what we've observed and the effects your decision will have on policy and student safety. The first thing you should know is the chief of schools chose not to reach out to us for any input or clarification
after we filed our formal complaint. This was unsurprising because the initial investigation was completed without interviewing Eddie. Conifer administration completed that investigation before Eddie had even returned to school following his concussion. He was still lying on his
bed staring at the ceiling and was in no condition to be formally interviewed when we were suddenly told the investigation was complete. To the best of our knowledge, the assistant coach, the only other adult on the field, has never been interviewed or provided a statement either. if he has, it was never shared with us and it's important
because he is equally responsible under the Jake Snakenberg Youth Concussion Act. There is also a player who was on the field and can be seen on the video standing next to Eddie and the coaches as they respond to his injury. And what he reported to us directly conflicts
with statements the head coach made. Perhaps most importantly, this student is willing to testify under oath that he heard Eddie tell the coach his head hurt and his ears were ringing. We have made the district aware of this student's testimony many times and they refuse to interview him. My wife and I
believe this administration's MMO is to selectively investigate in order to only gather evidence that they find favorable. We believe this because we know it isn't the first time they've done it. Uh I don't know if you read Susie Glman's article about Rston Valley High School where a principal uh
prevented or delayed a health technician from calling an ambulance for a student uh for a student's head injury. I read in the article how the district investigators didn't interview the nurse involved. There were only four people involved in the entire incident. The student, the health technician, the
principal, and the nurse. The nurse was waiting in the next room to be interviewed, and the investigators left without talking to them. I suppose they didn't want to hear what that nurse had to say, just like they didn't want to hear what the player had to say about our incident. In the conclusion of his response to our
complaint, your chief of schools states, "Coach Hartman performed a concussion assessment, checking for both physical and cognitive indicators. Coach Hartman assessed that Eddie was not showing signs of a possible concussion. Had Eddie exhibited signs of a concussion,
he would not have been allowed to return. First of all, this is flatout untrue. Eddie was showing signs of a possible concussion. And we know this because the coach admitted to it in the original investigation. The original investigation that the school staff
conducted states, "Coach Matt Harbin acknowledged that Eddie complained of a headache. Headache is the most common sign of a concussion following a blow to the head. Headache is literally at the top of any list of signs of concussion. So when your chief of schools tells us
Eddie was not showing signs of a concussion, it's false. And we know it's false because of a document your own district produced. We wonder if Mr. Coleman bothered to read the initial investigation before he reached his conclusion. So Eddie told the coach his head hurt
and his ears were ringing. Another player confirms that. But those weren't the only signs. You can see on the video when Eddie tried to sit on the ground, he flopped like a rag doll onto his back and lay unmoving for two minutes. These
are major red flags for a concussion. And your chief of schools described these as no signs of concussion. Let's not forget, board members, there was a third adult who saw Eddie at Conifer High School that night, someone who has no medical training and hadn't completed the concussion awareness
course the coaches had. That adult was me. Within 30 seconds of Eddie getting in my car, I suspected a concussion and took him to the emergency room immediately. I am the only adult of the three who admits to suspecting a
concussion. And coincidentally, I am the only one of the three who didn't potentially violate a state law designed to protect kids. If Thank you. If these coaches truly did not suspect a concussion, then they are a danger to any athletes they are
currently coaching. Paraphrasing the Jake Snickenberg law, if a coach suspects an athlete has sustained a concussion, they are supposed to pull the player from play until evaluated by a qualified medical provider and inform the parents of a potential concussion.
Your chief of schools wrote, quote, "Coach Hartman performed a concussion assessment. Why is a coach performing a concussion assessment? And why is he performing a concussion assessment if he doesn't suspect a concussion? He didn't test Eddie's ankles for a sprain because
he didn't suspect a sprained ankle. He didn't check his knees because he didn't suspect a torn ACL. The other player involved in the same collision, he didn't perform a concussion test on that player because he didn't suspect that player had a concussion. He only
performed this test on Eddie because he suspected Eddie sustained a concussion. I couldn't find the concussion assessment he used in any of your training materials. So, I asked Eddie's doctor at the Children's Hospital concussion unit about this test. This is
a doctor who diagnoses and treats pediatric concussions every day of her working life. And she told us that she is unaware of any test that could be performed in less than 30 seconds that could accurately diagnose the absence of
a concussion. It was a junk test that wasn't based in science or medicine and it is being presented by your chief of schools as quote a good faith effort. Elephant in the room coach got it wrong. Three medical doctors from three
independent clinics diagnosed Eddie with a concussion within a week of this practice. The only dissenting diagnosis came from a lacrosse coach. These coaches did exactly what the law is trying to prevent. They decided they weren't going to wait for a qualified
medical provider. The head coach decided he was going to perform a medical exam despite having absolutely no medical expertise. Conifer has an athletic trainer, but they made no attempt to contact him. If you uphold the district's decision, you will be
creating a new precedent that Jeffco coaches can invent and administer junk science concussion tests to determine if a student is concussion free. Jake Snikenberg died following a mild hit a week after his initial concussion.
At the end of practice, Eddie is in ongoing danger to his life, but these two coaches made no effort to inform us. In his statement to the district, the head coach says he was unable to inform us because another player distracted him. The video doesn't support that
statement, but let's put that aside. What about the assistant coach? We don't know why he didn't inform us because they never asked him any questions. The coaches have our email and phone number. They could call, text, or email, but they make absolutely no effort to tell us that they witnessed our son get
trucked. They both saw his head slam into the ground. They pulled him from practice because of it. They were concerned enough that they conducted a concussion test. They admit he complained of a headache. And they saw him flop like a rag doll onto the ground and lay motionless for 2 minutes. And
they didn't tell us after all of that that they allowed Eddie back into a full contact scrimmage, putting him in danger of permanent disability and death. These coaches disregarded state law, disregarded policies you approved to
keep our kids safe, and they ignored the training this district provides. They ignored every safeguard designed to protect our kids. And the district describes this as quote, "a faith effort." Board members, if you uphold the
district's decision, you will be on record agreeing that ignoring your own policies is a good faith effort. But also, you will agree that no effort to inform parents their child may have been seriously injured on school property
while under the supervision of district employees can be described as a good faith effort. Thank you for your time and commitment to our community. >> Thank you. I mean it. I mean it.
Our speakers are perfectly capable of making their points without needing other people weighing in. Please stop. If you continue, I'm going to ask that you be removed. I don't want to do that, but I will if I have to. You've given you've been given a warning and I'm looking directly at you. If I
have to do it again, you will leave. Thank you. Can we have our next speaker, please? Number three. I don't >> Thank you. Go ahead. >> Uh hello board directors. My name is
Ander Kashub. I'm the president of JESPA. I'm here with my co-workers. Uh you know our position on the MLO. No new admin spending increased funding for ESPs and teachers. Now that I got that out of the way, uh, stories you're about
to hear from me and my co-workers, uh, are why funding studentf facing staff, treating ESPs with respect, and listening to our community members, uh, matters. >> Hello, my name is Matt. I'm a parent educator at Sebeski and a proud Jespa
member. This year, my co-workers have been retaliated against for raising concerns about being left alone with students, teaching in classes without a licensed teacher, not having breaks, and being told to stop reporting safe details. That retaliation caused us to file a petition to ensure our concerns
are taken seriously. As a result, Brenda Carlson, community superintendent, disrespected and dismissed our concern concerns as a staff. She expected that we meet with her outside of our contracted hours. And when we told her that was inappropriate and not well planned, she was upset about the fact
that she just drove an hour here from Colin by her job is to meet with staff and to take us seriously and to treat us with respect and that did not happen. Just yesterday, our principal met with us to take our concerns seriously and there was positive things happening from
that. While we appreciate our principal treating us with the respect we deserve, Brenda Carlson's disrespect did not should not go unmentioned. My concern is that uh me and my co-workers concerns is that our principal is leaving Sebesci this year which means that incoming principal will have to be brought up to
speed and we want to make sure that this does not happen moving forward. Our goal is a safe and respectable uh learning environment for all staff and students at Sebeski and please honor our petition that we started with our principal. ESPs deserve to be treated with dignity and
respect. Hello. Um, first of all, thank you. I would like you to look around the room and see how many people of my color are here. How many families who speak Spanish are here? Not many.
Um, I am the voice for those people today. I never come to these meetings. I don't protest. I don't do all the things. Why? Because we live in the shadows. I am a worker here at Jeffco. I'm going to read my statement.
My name is Eva Pinedo. I'm an instructional tutor and I have been with Jeffco for 15 years, nine of them at Alamita. The only ESL tutor that serves over 400 students, 100 of them being non-English
speakers, some of them with little to no English. I also run a free volunteer program. I have run and built this program on my back for nine years with no help, no budget. My girls were in tears yesterday at a performance is
giving free publicity to Jeffco, promoting Jeffco and they're going to get rid of it. My program is free of charge. My program brings pride and community to a school where students have little to look forward to. Alama International. You
never hear of us because we don't speak up because our community doesn't have a voice. I thought twice about coming here. I really did. I said, "What for? Nobody's going to listen. Nobody cares. There's few of us brown people here. few of us Spanish speakers.
When I spoke up simply to continue doing my job and advocating for students, I was targeted by my administration and removed from my position under budget reductions. That was the cover they gave. I served too many students to have this
let go, to have this looked over. Please listen to my story. If there isn't another story that you listen to today, make it be mine. These kids deserve more. My girls have little to look forward to at the school. They were in tears. Like I say, yesterday we
performed. We gave free publicity to a place that's getting rid of the one person that helps them. I have students in classrooms every day saying, "Where were you miss?" Well, I was put in ISS.
That is not my job. My job is to support my my community, my kids, my families. I was one of these students. This is why I feel the need to stay there. Alamita is a tough school. Nobody wants to work there. The people
who apply there leave. There is high t turnover there. Nobody cares about us. I was removed from my position on Thursday. The right thing to do would have been to inform me on March 15th. I deserve
respect as anyone else. I was targeted and there are many more staff who feel the same way I do. There have been complaints of discrimination, including a formal speak complaint that was filed and documented and has had no resolution.
I have a video of the girls who performed yesterday. Please watch my video. You do not want to get rid of this. You do not want to get rid of this program. We are the only program in Jeffco who provides pride, community, culture for our students. And I know that is not
something people want right now, but it's the only thing we need. I stand here knowing that this will not restore my job. I am here because somebody has to speak up for our kids, our families, and students.
They go unseen and unheard. They live in the shadows where nobody cares. Look around. I'm not lying. Look around. They deserve access. They deserve equity. If this is not inequity, then I
don't know what is. What's happening at Alama must be acknowledged and addressed. Thank you for listening to me. I have a beautiful video and many more of them to show you the nine years that I have done
this program without charging. This is a free program that I run for the girls for the students at my school because they need to look forward to something. There isn't much to look forward to at Alama. I'm not going to lie. You guys know it better than I do. And it is a
disgrace to get rid of this program to remove me from my position of helping all of our non-English-speaking students because for many years I I've done this by myself. I know there is budget cuts. I know there is budget reductions. I know
people say things they shouldn't say. But if you're a leader in our building, you do not address yourself to a community. You do not generalize. I'm sorry for being emotional,
but again, nobody will speak on this. I have never done this before. I hope you can hear my story. I hope you listen to this story and I hope you watch these videos
and I am in tears because I am mad. I am mad about what's going on. This is not fair. This is not right. Yes, there are reductions, but you need to look around and you need to see what people bring to the table before you decide who needs to be cut and who
doesn't. Our translator was also cut. Who's going to communicate with our families? Nobody. I do not want to leave you guys on a bad note. I'm not here to fight. I'm not here to say bad things about Jeffco. I love Jeffco. I love my community. I love
my kids. My kids are hard. It's difficult. Please watch my video. Please look at the things we provide and all of the positive that you could be receiving and you're not. Because nobody
even knew this program was around. We are the only program offering this dance club for chlorico that provides for our girls, for our boys, for our young men, so they could have something to look forward to, so
they could have pride and culture. Thank you. I'm going to share a statement from another worker who can't be here tonight uh because she's going through cancer treatment. Uh, my name is Cynthia Mayor Sealman. I'm a kitchen manager at UT Elementary School. I was diagnosed with
ER positive HER2 negative infiltration ductal carcinoma stage three. I had a mistctomy done and 13 lymph node lymph nodes removed from my upper arm. My first chemo done and had many reactions to chemo infusions, my hands and feet peeling several times, rashes several
times, infusion site infection, losing my fingernails, and several other infections that needed antibiotics. I had to wait six weeks after each treatment before I could proceed to the next stage. She applied for ADA accommodations. She's been out since September. She was supposed to come back in April. She uh
her doctor requested an extension through May 31st. Uh she started radiation March 23rd, lasted for four weeks. Radiologist wrote a letter. Like I just said, I'm going fast because I don't have enough time. Uh I so I can get through all the
radiation rashes, fatigue, and confusion for what my body has just gone through. I feel that Jeffco public schools is not understanding what a traumatic event this is for a female to go through. Losing part of your body and having to wait for plastic surgery, losing all of your hair, not feeling like a woman, and
the pressure and stress of being forced to go back to work as an ESP when you're not healthy, you're not in healthy mental and physical physically ready. Think that Jeffco public schools can respect the directive of my radiologist and grant me leave until the 31st of May and give me the summer to work through all of my mental and physical
challenges. Her request was denied. She expects to lose her job. >> Thank you. Our next speaker is number four. Good evening, directors and superintendent Dorland. My name is Annie Contractor and I'm here on behalf of
Engaged Jeffco. I have two kids at Lucas Elementary School. We are here because we believe in this district and we want to see it fully live up to the strength and diversity of the community that it serves. We want to be clear. Engaged Jeffco stands alongside JCA, Jespa, and
the sales professionals who serve our schools every day and believing that budget cuts should be made as far away from students as possible. Today, we are sharing experiences on behalf of sales professionals who do not feel comfortable speaking publicly. That in
and of itself is telling and raises concerns about the level of support, trust, and respect they are experiencing within this school system. That is a standard that our community expects and right now we are concerned that we're not meeting it. The district has
communicated that the cuts are focused on central office, but that framing does not reflect the full reality. As shared publicly, approximately 53% of these so-called central office cuts are positions held by people who work directly in schools with students. Many
of them vital sales professionals. These are the people our students rely on for safety, belonging, and mental health support. Just like we heard from our evergreen community leaders tonight, we also want to raise concerns about transparency. Jeffco staff should not have to file core requests to access
survey results that inform district priorities. If we are serious about trust, that information should be readily available. Cells were asked to share their stories and many were hesitant to speak publicly out of concern for reprisal. They agreed
to let us share some of their words tonight. One, safety and security starts with cells, not with SRO's. We are the first line of support for students. Two, cutting mental health is cutting safety.
When we do suicide risk assessments, threat assessments, and crisis response, it doesn't get more about safety than this. Three, our community was told cuts would be as far away from students as possible. That is not what is happening. Four, without cells, the programs that
help our most vulnerable students feel safe and want to come to school simply disappear. Five. A student said, "We don't need photography. We need you." Every time the district surveys students, families, and staff, mental
health supports rise to the top as the number one priority. Cells are on the front lines supporting students and families, navigating fear related to ICE, stepping in where systemwide supports are not yet consistently in place. This is not just a support issue.
It is a safety issue. Following the tragic shooting in Evergreen this fall, our community is still healing. In moments like this, proactive and visible mental health support is essential. Again, we have heard that reinforced in these meetings month after month. Cell's
professionals deescalate crises, support students experiencing trauma, and create the conditions where students feel safe enough to learn. When we remove these roles, we are cutting into the core of student success. We also want to be clear about what has been lost.
Seven cells coaches have been eliminated. These coaches work in buildings every day supporting principles, educators, and sales teams. Removing them weakens the entire system. At the same time, new district level positions were created even as the
district was aware of the budget crisis. This raises concerns about alignment with the goal of keeping cuts away from students. It is also important to remember that cell's positions were established through the 2018 mill levy override. These are positions that
taxpayers explicitly voted to fund. The removal of these roles undermines public investment and the commitments made to this community. From an equity lens, these cuts are especially concerning. Students facing the greatest challenges rely most on
these supports. When we reduce access, we widen the gaps. As we move forward, authentic stakeholder engagement must be at the center, including the educators and staff we keep who keep our schools running. Our families and students have been clear. Mental health, transparency,
and authentic engagement are at the top of the priority list because our students need more than academics to s to succeed. They need to feel safe. They need to feel supported and they need to feel like they belong. Thank you.
>> Good evening. My name is Paige Orund. I'm a member of Engaged Jeffco and I'm a parent of a student at Vanderhof Elementary School. We also want to speak to process as we move through budget reductions and the framing of a mill levy override. Authentic stakeholder
engagement is critical. We appreciate efforts like the partnership for fiscal sustainability. At the same time, there is a growing concern that engagement is not yet translating into alignment with community priorities, including the priorities of families and the teachers
and staff who keep our schools running every day. We are concerned about the lack of visible progress in partnership with JCA and Jespa. These are trusted voices in our community and their absence from meaningful collaboration
undermines both trust and the likelihood of success moving forward. Working with the unions is aligning with what the community has consistently asked for. Keeping cuts as far away from students as possible and prioritizing funds in
the ways most beneficial to students. If there is one area that you can find agreement across the community, it is this. Teachers, staff, parents, the community as the whole want and have been asking that additional mill levy funds be earmarked for specific things
such as compensation, staffing, mental health, and safety. The community wanted similar limitations in 2016 when the prop the proposed MLO had none and was voted down. They wanted them in 2018
when there were limitations to how the funds could be used and the MLO passed. Since 2018 when an accountability community and method for tracking use of MIL funds were promised but not delivered. When enrollment in the district consistently dropped but
central administration grew by 40%. Public trust in the district has diminished with respect to finances, budget, and keeping its promises of making budget cuts that land as far from students as possible. This trust must be rebuilt by the
district and working with the unions is the way to do this. We are also concerned that the district is running quickly toward failure to pass a mill levy override due to hasty and uninformed decisions. I' I'd like to talk about my recent personal
experience. I was one of the lucky few who received the survey from the district regarding a future MLO and one of the 900 who responded. I understand from the fiscal responsibility meetings that my response that I would probably
maybe support one or more of the le mill levy override options was treated as a yes response. This surprised me because the survey contained little to no detail regarding MLO language and no nuance intended to
determine and meet the priorities and concerns of the community. In other words, there were no tangible facts from which I could actually discern whether or not I would support the different MLO options. To break it down plainly, the probably part of my response comes from
a deep desperation that my child's education be fully funded with access to what he and his peers need to succeed in life. Colorado is one of the worst states for funding students in public education. And now the district is threatening huge cuts that directly
affect our children. We are desperate. But that does not mean that you can disregard the maybe part of our responses. My vote for or against an MLO will depend on the mill language, the limitations on what those funds can be
used for, and a level of trust that the funds that we ultimately will be responsible for paying into are used responsibly and in the best interests of our children. All of this is made more urgent given signal that the district appears to be prepared to move forward
with a very large MLO, much larger in the past, entirely based on responses to one survey with 900 responses and the assumptions that the probably may be crowd can be counted on. Time is short.
As we look ahead, we at Engaged Jeffco want to be clear about what is needed to move forward successfully. The district must dig in and work in true partnership with JCA and Jespa to develop mil levy override language and a strategy for accountability that will win over
voters. They must move from surface level engagement to authentic listening and robust well-thoughtout polling to ensure that community priorities especially mental health are reflected in both budget decisions and mil levy planning. They must pro protect mental
health supports including sales positions as essential to student sa success and safety. They must ensure that all budget reductions in a budget that this board is asked to sign off on are made as far away from students as possible. And they must put in place a
collaborative system of accountability for how mill levy funds are used. This is an opportunity for the district to align actions with values, to stensor students, to build trust, and to move forward together in a way that reflects
the needs of our community. Thank you. All right, we are on to our next speaker which would be number hang on number five. Hello, my name is Jennifer Vambbershot.
I am an Evergreen parent to an 11th grade daughter and um who's attending Evergreen High School and to an eighth grade daughter who's attending Evergreen Middle School. I'm here to talk about a couple of things. The safety and security progress that we've been making at Evergreen, the
myriad of paths to healing, and also gratitude for support. First, I want to pause and recognize the upcoming anniversary of Coline High School. They were one of the first schools to experience mass violence, and they were one of the first schools to
come to our side as we experienced mass violence ourselves. After the September 10th shooting, our Evergreen High School school accountability committee bloomed from just a couple of parents and staff to dozens of parents, students, staff,
security officers, and experts from the National Mass Violence Center and district representation, too. Our goal has been to build a physical and psychological safety approach focused on prevention, detection, and response. We
listen to reports and research. We review survey data from families and students. We share ideas and we vote on recommendations. This feedback helps Evergreen staff and administration make community informed decisions based on best practices. And
yet, we need to move forward with detailed planning. As we've learned these past couple of weeks, false alarms cause feelings of panic and reintroduce trauma into our community. Second, everyone in the Evergreen
community is experiencing different paths to healing. Here we are more than seven months after that tragic day, and we see small seeds of healing in the Evergreen community. As we heard earlier today, our seniors are making final decisions on what
they're going to do next year. Our eighth graders are deciding that they want to attend Evergreen next year. These events seem so normal and yet they're layered in the heaviness of additional threats that we received just last week.
As you can imagine, students, teachers, families, community members are all in different places. Some families feel supported. Other families are looking for more transparent communication. Some families are ready to move on.
Other families are in daybyday, hourby- hour decision-making. This is a dynamic environment. We know there is no right way to heal. There's no right time to heal and we're doing our best to offer each other grace in this journey. Third and finally, I want
to express gratitude to everyone at Jeffco, particularly the leadership team here tonight who has given the entire mountain community the time, the resources, and the space to heal as a community. We had a team of trauma-informed counselors within 24
hours. We had access to the National Mass Violence Center within days. Your investment in our mountain community is making a difference. I hope you saw that tonight. Adding to that, our Evergreen High School's established administration and
staff has served as a bedrock of healing for our students. Furthermore, support from PTSA and other community organizations that were um recognized this evening have provided healthy doses of joy and healing for our community. In summary, this has been a
hard seven months. This journey is not over. We are on a long path to community healing and part of that comes through identifying systems of protection, detection, and response that make sense in our schools. Once again, thank you
for your support and thank you for your expertise and time. >> Thank you. >> Speaker number six, >> busy night. >> So, I'm Kim Halligan with Stand Evergreen, Evergreen, Colorado.
>> I'm Dan Halligan. Uh resident of Evergreen. Give my time to Kim. >> Brett Whitaker, resident of Evergreen, and I give my time to Kim. >> Emily Whitaker, stand Evergreen. I give my time to Kim. >> Good evening, members of the board, and
thank you for the opportunity once again to speak tonight. My name is Kim Halligan and alongside me, Emily, who have co-founded Stand Evergreen, a grassroots comm community movement rooted here in Evergreen. Our work is grounded in the lives and experiences of students, families, educators, and
community members from all walks of life who care deeply about the safety and well-being of our children and our future. Before anything else, we want to lead with gratitude. Over the past several months, we have seen genuine efforts, responsiveness, and care from the district leadership, staff, and
community partners. from completed risk assessments and subsequent repairs and remediation to the installation of a BDA system and implementation of the Raptor alert system. These actions assure us that our work is being taken seriously
and what truly matters is counting. We would also like to acknowledge the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office for its commitment to providing ongoing training and education for parents and students in a variety of areas. We are deeply grateful for the leadership, steadiness, and partnership as our
community continues to move through this very challenging time. This work is tangible. It reflects progress, and it has turned wish lists into blueprints and into reality. None of this happens without people, and there are so many people to thank.
hardworking and thoughtful educators, students who continue to show up despite fear and loss, parents, volunteers, community members, and this board, who have learned and leaned rather than pulled away. This work is invaluable and we want to clearly acknowledge all of
it. We also appreciate the district's willingness to engage in dialogue and we thank leadership in including Skyler and Maddie who spoke tonight, Stephanie Fritz, the Evergreen High School PTSA, SRO OD Tucker, Tom Burns, and among many
others who have been incredibly difficult who have been incredibly powerful in this difficult time. We also want to acknowledge the academic achievements of Evergreen High School and Wilmont Elementary. The resilience and dedication of students and staff in the face of adversity has been nothing
short of inspiring. It's a really bright light and should be celebrated. We're here today as it has now been 218 days since the shooting at Evergreen High School. While time continues to run forward on the calendar, the urgency has not dimmed for students, family, and
educators. We continue to ask the question, are we moving fast enough and far enough to meet the reality our children are living in now? We recognize and appreciate the visible safety measures that have been implemented from K9 weapon detection, emergency alert
systems, stop thebleleed kits, improved communication, and expanded camera coverage. These measures matter. They help restore a sense of physical safety. They tell students and staff that their lives are being protected. But tonight, we want to gently and firmly expand that
conversation because physical safety, while critical, is only part of what is required for learning to happen. Learning cannot occur without safety. And safety cannot exist without social and emotional well-being. Mental health.
We are now educating children in a post school shooting reality, a postmass violence reality. We cannot return to how education used to be. We must rethink what education requires in this landscape. Social emotional learning is not a
supplemental program. It is not enrichment. It is a foundation upon which learning rests. When students are anxious, grieving, hypervigilant, or disconnected, the conditions needed for learning are simply not there. You cannot test your way out of trauma. You
cannot remediate fear alone with rigor. Even when students, educators, and staff physically survive violent events, we must ask harder questions. Are they truly able to thrive in the environment we are now asking them to endure? Or without meaning to, are we creating
conditions that leave lasting shadows on their emotional landscapes? Shadows that follow them into adulthood, relationships, and in their future communities. This is why we believe social, emotional, and mental health well-being must sit at the center of school safety
planning, not as an extension of work, but as core infrastructure. Programs like sources of strength embody exactly this kind of upstream approach. Strengthening connections, resilience, and help, seeking behaviors before a crisis occurs rather than waiting to
respond after harm is already done. Physical safety measures are more straightforward and they are visible. They're immeasurable. In many ways, they might be easier to implement rather than the deep work of emotional recovery and prevention. But the hard work is the necessary work. It requires us to return
to fundamentals: well-being, belonging, connection, understanding, community, regulation, and healing. This is not soft work. It's survival work. And it's important to acknowledge why this work it's important to acknowledge why this
work cannot end with when headlines fade or timelines move on. Recovery does not happen evenly or on a fixed schedule. For some students, the impact of violence deepens rather than eases over time. When sustained social emotional learning supports are inconsistent or
underresourced, the students most affected most affected can quietly fall out of view. not by decision but by default. Physical surviv survival is not the same as healing. Without long-term care and the continuality of support, we
risk leaving behind the very students this work is meant to protect. We appreciate the district's continued effort around recovery and mental health supports, and we have seen the positive impacts that occur when well-being is truly prioritized. As we look ahead, we
want to explicitly acknowledge and encourage the district's continued commitment to learning programs, including sustained funding in this area. We recognize that budgets are tight and allocation requires very difficult choices. At the same time, we can all agree on this. Preventative
costs are far less than the remediation required to offset the academic and emotional communitywide impacts of a school shooting or mass violence event. When we invest in mental health, we reduce long-term disruptions to learning, mitigate staff burnout, lessen
resilience on crisis-driven interventions, and support a healthier, more resilient school and community. We are grateful for the steps that have been taken and remain committed to the working together. By combining proactive prevention, visible safety measures, and ongoing
dialogue, we can rebuild trust, strengthen our schools, and ensure that every student, in fact, feels safe, supported, and valued. We will continue to advocate for all of our mountain schools. As safety planning moves forward, we ask that any measures considered for Evergreen High School
also be fully included in Wilmont Elementary. As a shared campus, equity and safety, communication, and decision-making is our responsibility and our priority. We respectfully ask the district for continued clarity, resources, transparency, urgency, and
authentic relationships. These are not abstract concepts. These are foundational to whether students feel safe, seen, and connected in schools. Before closing, I'd like to briefly acknowledge House Bill 261255, the social media duty to report and s
search warrant bill, which I had the opportunity to engage in last month. Based on what we now understand, the events leading up to September 10th may have unfolded very differently had legislation been in place when credible warning signs appear. Speed matters,
minutes and time matter. I would like to sincerely thank Representative Chemworthy who attended and spoke on behalf of this measure. Taking meaningful steps towards protecting Colorado's children, educators, and community. So, thank you. Now, speaking from my heart,
in the wake of the last few weeks, it has become unmistakably unmistakably clear that our students and staff need and deserve our continued support as a community. Conversations with my son and others
have been emotional and deeply unsettling. And yet, this is the school we love and he loves. A school that shows up every day determined to do everything possible to keep him and everyone inside of its walls safe.
For that, I am profoundly grateful. But gratitude alone is not enough and the time is now. We must continue this work with urgency and intention. We must prioritize mental health and social emotional learning for both students and staff. Not as an add-on,
not as a response to a crisis, but as a sustained commitment. Our children are watching and they count on us and we can't afford to look away. As always, I thank you for your time. I thank you for your service and your continued commitment to our our students and our
families. Thank you. Speaker number seven. Thank you. >> Hi, good evening board and superintendent Dorland. My name is Megan Matson and I'm the principal of Green Mountain High School and the president-elect of JCAA. Uh thank you for the opportunity to be
here tonight on behalf of the Jefferson County Administrators Association. I want to begin by recognizing the strong results we are seeing across Jeffco. More of our students are meeting and exceeding expectations in math and reading and we continue to see meaningful growth across all of our
systems including walking across the graduation stage. These outcomes matter and they're not happening by accident. These are direct results of students, educators, and families working together every day in our schools. They reflect the commitment of our teachers, the
leadership of our principles and central service teams, and the partnership of families who support learning at home. This is what a strong public school system looks like. At the same time, this year has required our community to navigate difficult decisions. Our principles and department
leaders have stepped forward to help lead through significant budget reductions. Work that has not been easy, but has been necessary to ensure we are living within our means. They have done so with professionalism, transparency, and a deep commitment to minimizing impacts on students. We are grateful for
the board of education for linking arms with our entire community throughout this process. Your willingness to engage, listen, and lead through this complexity has mattered. As we look ahead, we also recognize a clear and urgent need to invest in the people who make these outcomes possible.
To continue delivering for students, we must be able to recruit, retain, and support highly qualified educators and staff. Competitive compensation and sustainable support systems are essential to the work. Without them, it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain the
stability and excellence our students deserve. That is why on behalf of JCAA, we want to be clear. You have our full partnership and support for a successful mily override this fall. We believe this measure is critical to sustaining student progress,
strengthening staff compensation, and ensuring GECO remains a place where talented educators and leaders cues to come and cues to stay. As conversations continue about how future revenue should could support compensation. I also want to be clear that all GECO employees should be
included in those considerations. It is harmful to our culture to suggest otherwise. All 14,000 of our employees work together as one team to serve students. I say this not only as a principal, but as someone whose own family represents
multiple roles in our system. My son Kaden works as a paraprofessional in the ASD center at Fremont Elementary. My husband is a high school science teacher and I serve as a principal. Each of us leads important work in our buildings and each role is essential to student
success. I feel strongly that no group becomes better by pitting one group against another. Moving some groups forward in compensation while ignoring others creates long-term damage to trust, collaboration, and relationships.
Our strength as a district comes from working together, valuing one another, and moving forward as one team. Thank you for your leadership and your partnership. >> Thank you. Number eight. Hello, my name is Cheryl Sakorski. I am
a parent, SAC chair, member of the fiscal fiscal sustainability work group, and regular school volunteer. Hi, my name is Katie Zbeck. I'm the parent of a second grader at Stevens Elementary and a sixth grader at Everett. and I helped lead the sack at
Stevens for six years and also serve as the DAC on the deck. >> Good evening. My name is Antonio Albe. I have a sixth grader at Everett Middle School. I'm currently the SAC chair at Everett Middle Middle School, former SAC co-chair at Stevens and former PTA
president at Stevens Elementary. Uh, Katherine Levan, parent of a twice exceptional student choicing into Stevens Elementary and he wants to introduce himself. >> My name is Orbin. >> Thank you. We are asking the board to deny the Mesa
K8 charter school application from opening in Jefferson County because it does not meet the fundamental requirements of charter schools as indicated in the statute author authorizing such schools. We are talking to you today because we want our feedback to be entered into public record specific to the school's
application. While the submitted application presents their belief in the school, it presents one side of the need. We hope you will find our research and review of their application to present an alternative side. The Colorado Revised Statute title 22 article 30.5 section 3 of the Charter
School Act describes the intent to create an avenue for parents, teachers, and community members to implement new and innovative methods of educating children and to take responsible risks to create new and innovative research-based ways of educating
children within the public school system. This has historically been done really well in Jeffco. Take New America School, which offers an an alternative approach to education, having night courses, 4-day school weeks, and quarterly enrollment. This is a perfect
example of how charters can fill gaps in traditionally provided education. Mesa's application does not meet the foundational goals provided by the statute because it is neither trying a new approach. The proposed curriculum is expeditiary, my god, I knew I was going to get that
wrong. learning which is already offered at Stevens Elementary located only three miles from the proposed location of Mesa 8. Furthermore, because of the aforementioned curriculum, they are not taking a risk in using this structure to try a new or invent or innovative method
in educating children. In add in addition, section 106D of the statute requires that the applicant show evidence of an adequate number of parents and pupils who support the formation of a charter school. In order to attend this school, which is starting
with only two grades, students would have had to have been born in 2021 or later. Based on the support provided with like a very rough review because the text is the text was very small. Um there were 143 instances of support
while only 14 students in the range eligible to attend. That number 14 includes students who are born as recently as 2025, meaning they will not be school aged for another three years. Um, we do not feel that this demonstrates the letters of support
actually show evidence of an adequate number of students. Lastly, section 102 emphasizes that the proposed charter has an obligation to create new employment options and professional opportunities for teachers and principles. However, with open positions within Jeffco School
District, as well as the history of Great Works Monastery, a charter school which closed in the middle of a school year due to a lack of staffing in 2023, we feel this is another area of statute that will not be met with this application. If the proposal for Mesa Charter School
reflected a clear communitydriven need or offered something truly new, I might be here in support of it. But when you look beyond the narrative in the application at district data, community insight, and lived experience, a different picture emerges. The
application sites a potential population of 15,000 students, but includes middle and high school students. Mesa will not serve middle school students until 2032. And that um will never serve high school
students. The actual population is closer to 5,000 students. And that population is declining 9% in the next two years according to the district's estimates and 15% in the next five years according to the district estimates.
Second innovation. Mesa proposes expeditionary learning for underserved students. But there are that already exists right down the street at two schools. Stevens in particular is a credentialed EL school and they get the
outcomes because they implement it to fidelity. None of the leadership of the new school has any experience implementing this model. This isn't a gap, it's duplication. There are multiple education models in
the region. But if students leave those schools and the their enrollment declines, then students will actually lose choices to different education models. Third, who will the schools serve? Weight lists have been cited as evidence
for demand, but weight lists and and the schools that have weight lists are often reflective of parents with greater resources, not those underserved. The district has this data. You should ask for it as you're reviewing this
application. You also need to look at who they have commitment from and whether or not those students show that there is really truly serving historically underserved populations. Ultimately, this proposal risks pulling
students from re and resources away from existing schools, increasing inequity and instability. It doesn't demonstrate clear need, meaningful innovation, or cred a credible plan to serve students. Good evening. As I mentioned, Steven is
not our neighborhood school. We actually choiced in and our child benefits immensely from the expeditionary learning curriculum and we're grateful to have access to great programming in Jeffco public schools today. So, I'm speaking tonight because the Mesa K
through8 charter school application overlooks some key facts about Jeffco and it includes some misstatements. As mentioned earlier, enrollment in Jeffco public schools has declined. We're 12% smaller today than we were 6 years ago. Current schools are going to
be serving fewer students over time. And three years ago, this board responded by closing 16 schools, including Mohome Elementary School. You will say something in a minute at the end. uh including uh Mohomem Elementary School,
a school that is just one mile from the proposed site of Mesa K through8. It's baffling to see Mesa K through8 propose a school that assumes stable future enrollment and asserts with confidence they will surely fill 96 seats this fall
on the basis of so few parents promising to enroll their children. And it is bewildering to see a lower initial utilization rate compared to the 42% um of capacity enrollment that Moh home
was closed at. Second, this school was closed because the remaining schools provide adequate coverage for the student population that's there. In fact, the 13 Jeffco public schools nearest M K through8 already capture
98.6 six of the students within their catchment area. Specifically, there are 11 there are 11 neighborhood schools and two option schools within 3 miles of the proposed charter school site. Last year,
the district estimated 5,30 students reside in the neighborhood school boundaries of one of those 11 schools. And last year 4,961 attended one of those 13 schools. So
capture rate of 98.6% by either the neighborhood school or nearby one. The proposal claims that there's small capture rate of kids at their neighborhood school, but this is super misleading because 48% of students
across the district enrolled outside their neighborhood school, but they're not going very very far away. Somebody is choicing into somebody else's neighborhood school, which is our case. Um,
finally, I believe strongly that the expeditionary learning curriculum at Stevens is wonderful, but I don't see the need to approve additional building capacity for another charter school in an environment of declining enrollment, and I'm skeptical that this charter is
proposed will draw in new students. I'll be speak I'll be speaking tonight in regards to my family's experience with the existing e model at Stevens Elementary. My daughter attended Stevens Elementary during 2019 through 2025. During our six years at Stevens, I was
able to witness our school have a sufficient budget to accommodate our community and provide highquality educational experiences. We were able to hire full-time AMP teachers, a full-time mental health professional. We're also able to add additional reading in
interventionists to support our improving reading scores. Also during at our time at Stevens, I was able to witness and support the implementation of the EAL credential model. Stevens went through years of training and a rigorous process to be EAL
certified and became the only EAL certified school in Jeffco. But the reality is we made these adjustments because of the staff, students and community investment in the EEL model and also because the school merging in the 2023 24 school year which
brought more students and families to our school. The EL model is currently a living example at Everett Middle School with students being praised as kids speaking up, showing their leadership skills and their commitment to their learning.
We're not surprised though because Panorama, our Panorama results at Stevens achieved some of the largest gains that the Pan Panorama survey has ever seen. Even representatives from Panorama came to the came to Stevens to understand what was happening with such
a drastic drastic improvement. We ask of you before you place your vote, please consider the following. Will your vote to open this school be in the best interest of the 74,000 students in our district, which 5,000 of which are elementary
school students enrolled in the area. Another fact to keep in mind is that there is currently 13 Jeffco schools within a 5 to 10 mile drive of the requested Mesa location, all of which are expected to see enrollment declines because there are simply fewer kids in
our area. In closing, we ask the data is clear, the statute is clear. Mesa K through8 as proposed should not be approved. Thank you. Thank you. Speaker number nine.
Tom Coin, Lakewood. At this point, it's obvious both locally and nationally that our $ 1.4 billion school district faces a complex and rapidly worsening worsening crisis. Less wellknown is the poor job your board is doing when it comes to addressing it.
I've spent decades doing corporate turnarounds and working with corporate boards. Let me give you a list of where you're falling short. One of the main causes of Jeco's financial crisis is falling enrollment. It isn't just birth rates. Based on 2025
enrollment data, 12,655 potential Jefco students are either choicing out to other districts or enrolled in homeschool, CSI, charter schools, and private and religious schools located in Jeffco. These students represent 146 million in lost
revenue, far bigger than the budget deficit you're strike you're you're trying to close. But your board is shockingly incurious about why so many families don't send their children to Jeffco schools. Here's another example. Jeffco's last capital program spent 35
million on schools that then closed. It also had cost overruns toting totaling 137 million at 50 district schools. Tellingly, there were no cost overruns at charter schools that managed their own projects. Finally, the recommendations from the independent investigation of the capital program by
Moss Adams have never been fully implemented. As you prepare to ask voters to approve another huge bond issue, you're shockingly incurious about why the 2018 capital program was such a disaster. The list goes on. You're strangely in curious about why child
sexual abuse cases keep getting exposed in Jeffco and why that some of the people involved, say, at Coline High School, have not been fired. You seem uninterested in the results produced by the millions that Jeffco spends on social emotional learning and mental health. National evidence suggests that
they deliver no sustained positive benefits like better academic results, reduced absenteeism, and improved classroom discipline, but they do keep union members employed. Speaking of academic results, you're shockingly incurious about why Jeff goes haven't
improved. Even after our chief academic officer told you that lack of educator engagement was part of the problem, you can't blame poverty. Between 2019 and 2024, the percent of non-free and reduced eligible students in grades 3 to 8 who were not proficient on the
Colorado State math standards remained unchanged at 50%. Despite these terrible results and against the repeated advice of the superintendent, the CFO, and the financial advisory committee, union backed boards have given teachers almost 60% in cumulative payraises over the
past six years, even as revenue fell. This is grossly negligent. Jeffco's academic, sexual assault, and financial crises reflect a lack of accountability at all levels of the district. Your union back board and the ones that preceded you over the past 10
years are ultimately responsible for that. At every turn, these boards have been loyal to what JCA wanted and not to the recommendations of superintendent, CFOs, and chief academic officers. In some, you have miserably failed Jeco's
children and the citizens who are paying for their education. But frankly, I don't think you care. >> Thank you. That concludes our public comment. Unless there's anybody else who has a number and signed up for speaking.
Going once, going twice. Done. All right. Thank you for public comment this evening. We're ready to move on to our next agenda item. The time is now 7:16 and I'd like to call for a 20 minute
break. We do uh we are like 10 minutes ahead of schedule. Looks like go us. We'll be in break until we come back at 7:45. All
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hey, hey. Next, the board will receive an update on the strategic capital master plan. Presenters, we ask you to please introduce yourselves at the table. We have allotted 45 minutes for this presentation. Please include time at the end of your presentation for questions
from the board. Before I turn the time over to the presenters, Superintendent Dorland, is there anything you would like to add? >> Thank you, Vice President Kenworthy. Uh, welcome to our guests. I will let them introduce themselves once we hand this over uh to the presenters. Thank you for
being here this evening. I want to share with the board a little bit of a history story. Um, I arrived in April of 2021 to Jeffco and by uh the next spring um we were doing an emergency closure of an
elementary school. The board also had an emergency closure uh during my contract, my original contract approval in April of 21, which as you know as a as parents and folks who know parents in our community, by April, you know where your kids go in the next year, right? And so
we just had um I did not realize in 21 that we had such dra drastic issues with declining enrollment and a real challenging history uh with school consolidations in Jeffco. And so, um,
the board at the time was very courageous and asked me to put together a comprehensive plan to consolidate, um, schools and sort of rightsize a little bit at the time, which we did. Um, and as you know, we continue to have declining enrollment. That's just a
cautionary tale of one sort of aspect related to what um, this panel is going to present to you about tonight. Um as we were going through the very difficult challenging process of consolidating um 21 schools over two years um I made a
promise to myself that I would somehow come up with our team some sort of vision for a strategic capital master plan that actually um tried to head ever putting the district in that spot again. um and that we really needed a capital
plan that was new, visionary, um took into the um took into context our demographics, the age of our facilities, um the modern facilities that we were hoping for and wanting across the district, not just in newer parts and
expanding parts that you know, most recently for our district. Um, and I really and I really also wanted it to um address not only doors and windows and walls and carpet and roofs and parking lots um and other surfaces. Um, I also
really wanted it to capture the realities of capital investment in a school district in um the 21st century. So, also to include things like safety and technology. Um, and so we put put that vision on the table of like we want
a strategic capital master plan that the word strategic actually means something. Um, and it's not just the FCI score of our buildings across the district. Um, but that it actually contemplates uh a vision uh that takes into account all of
these variables including our changing demographics. Um, as was mentioned this evening, we did invest quite a bit of our CIP funds from the 2018 bond into schools that we then ultimately closed. Um, we figured that out and stopped doing that pretty closely after I got
here. Um, but you know, we just we needed to be smarter today than we were yesterday. And I believe that the work this panel is I'm going to present to you on um I believe this work is smarter today than uh yesterday. Um, and I'm
really excited about the vision that is taking shape and so looking forward to uh having the board hear all about it. Mr. Gatlin. >> Thank you, Superintendent Doran. Uh, thank you, board. I think this is the last presentation of the evening. So, uh, glad we had an opportunity this
evening to to chat with you. I'm joined, uh, to my left by, uh, district staff, Greg Avdikian and Mark Streilo, who I think you all know. Uh, and I want to thank uh Patrick and Da from Perkins Eastman and Doug from RTA who were
actually here this morning at 8:30 uh presenting to our CAC committee and working with CAC. So, they've had a a long day as well. So, uh, appreciate them. And I think Superintendent Dorland, uh, really teed it up nicely. You know, this was, uh, something that
we know is critically important around future planning. uh and being strategic about investments in our facilities, knowing that uh conditions in the district change, evolve, and look very different today than they did 10 years
ago. And because of that, we're not we're not delivering uh the static plan on the shelf that goes in the three- ring binder. We're really working on developing dynamic planning tools that change and evolve as the conditions throughout the district change and
evolve, too. And so with that, I'm excited to turn it over to uh Patrick who will jump in and go through the presentation. And like uh uh Miss Kenworthy, you mentioned, we will have time at the end for questions. So we'll make sure there's an opportunity for the board if there are any.
>> Great. Thank you very much, uh Jeeoff, and thanks for having us. We're excited to uh uh give an update and presentation on on the work. The the word strategic was mentioned at least five times so far, and I think you'll probably hear another 10 times uh because it really is critical. It really is shaping the work that we're doing. We want to make sure
you all have a clear roadmap for decision- making moving forward. As Jeff mentioned, conditions changed not only just over a 10-year period, but even year-toear, right? And we want to create some some tools and resources that allow you to think about uh capital planning in a very sort of dynamic way in a
structured way that allow you to have confidence in in the future recommendations and decisions. So, uh excited to dive into that. We'll give a quick overview of who we are. Um, we're going to breeze through that sort of top part just so we can get to the sort of the meat of the presentation. We'll just again we've shared some of this before, but just to re recap some of the the
sort of core initial findings around some of the data analysis. Um but then really spend the bulk of it thinking about that strategic planning aspect and uh what that means and and these ideas of frameworks and uh really sort of the uh setting the district up for uh success and starting to think about how
do we start to use some of this information uh to inform uh short-term and and long-term decision-m um then we'll talk about some of the next steps and obviously leave time for uh for conversation. Um so just quickly um I'm Patrick Davis. I'm principal with Perkins Eastman. I'm joined by
colleagues >> by Dalo Vivaldink, associate principal at Eastman >> and Doug Abernathy with RTA architects >> and we've got a few other partners um on the team as well that have been integral in uh in the planning process with flow analytics essay
I think you've seen this Perkins Eastman we're a large planning firm uh I think we've introduced ourselves so uh again we're we're able to do this work around uh the country and I can say with pretty strong confidence this is one of our favorite projects just because the people we get to to work with and the leadership that we've been able to uh
engage with, but it's been really rewarding for us and excited to share some of the work. >> Yeah, we're I've had the pleasure of working with Patrick for over five years and so we're the local component that's helped support this process and as Patrick said, it's been a great process and we're really glad to be here.
>> Um so just sort of I mean I think we've shared a little bit of this in the past, but just sort of you know grounding ourselves in some of the overarching uh goals for the for the project. Uh, we wanted this to be comprehensive. I think Superintendent Dorland mentioned oftentimes when capital plans are developed, you may have a spreadsheet
and you may just sort on one column that's what's the facility condition. You go from worst to best and say, "All right, we're going to do this top one and and really think about this being the worst building." The reality is school buildings are a lot more than that. They're they're sort of an ecosystem of of a lot of different things. There's a lot of different uh
conditions and a lot of different ways to look at how well are these buildings supporting our students and staff. So we do look at building conditions, but we also look at utilization. We look at educational adequacy. We look at travel distances, things like that. So we really wanted this to be a holistic planning exercise where all of these
inputs are coming together to inform uh decision-m. Uh as Jeff mentioned, we don't want this to be a static, you know, three- ring binder that just sits on a shelf somewhere or a PDF that sits on some storage drive that you never open. Um so we really want this to be dynamic. And you'll see some of the uh
the outputs from that work um moving uh through the slides where um understanding that conditions change. We want to understand how these inputs inform decision-m but understanding that enrollment is going to change next year. How do we start to incorporate some of these uh realities into these sort of
future ready planning tools? And to that point, uh we don't want to just understand today, right? These plans are, you know, best when they're looking forward. Uh so we want this to be a roadmap that allows the district to make uh not only just short-term decisions but plan for those long-term uh
decisions uh and have a clear roadmap for decision- making. Um you know it's always really important especially when we look at tons of data that you know data point kind of feels cold. We always have to remind ourselves like that that data points a student and they matter and the the staff matter in building. So
really want to make sure that we're prioritizing the impacts on students throughout this effort and understanding uh impacts and those positive impacts that a capital uh plan can make on on students. Uh we want to maximize impact. So you've mentioned, you know, making smart decisions, right, of districts that have lots of needs. We want to make
sure uh money is going to where where they're needed the most, money is being spent wisely uh in a really planful way. Um, and then obviously we want to make sure we're again developing those strategies for a future uh improvement across the district in in a very uh cohesive and and clean way that allows you to have a strong foundation for
future uh decision-m and and return investments and improvements. Um, I won't go through all this. We've had a number of different opportunities to meet with folks like the CAC over over the project period. Uh, had a number of great conversations with district leadership. Um you know we've had some
budget community labs where we uh you know engage with the broader public. Uh we've also done some extensive work with school leaders. Um so one of the things we find is uh when building conditions assessments are done they don't always tell the full story about the condition of a building um staff and and you know
operation staff and school leaders uh may have a different perspective on their lived experience. So a lot of different tools we created to make sure that uh school-based staff could also uh share their experience. you'll actually start to see how that's folding into some of the scoring uh that we're doing. So, we wanted to make sure a lot of
voices came into the uh into the project to inform the work. Um so, I mentioned this idea of sort of a holistic idea of of buildings and and really that the two of the main data points uh which we'll dig into a little bit more um are what we call educational adequacy. Um so,
this is kind of the softer side of a building assessment. It's really trying to understand how well are these buildings and campuses supporting a 21st century or modern uh learning environment. So, they're looking at things like, are classrooms big enough? Do students have access to daylights uh in the classroom? Is furniture adaptable
and flexibility of educational technology um in the room? Are classrooms organized properly so you can actually collaborate with teachers? Um are there pull out spaces? Is the building safe? So, about 240, we'll dig into this a little bit in a few slides, but a really comprehensive understanding
of um are these buildings meeting the needs of a modern learning environment? But we also don't don't want to lose sight of the the sort of condition of that building. So we paired that with sort of the physical condition of of the building. So looking at things like uh facility condition which is looking at
things like the roof and the electrical systems, the mechanical um but we also thought it was important not to sort of just solely focus on that. So we actually came up with a a composite building score which which factors not just that FCI factors in things like the energy use that's that's occurring at
the building the age of the building which you'll see in a little bit the impact of age um you know when the last investments were uh work order so that sort of daily uh maintenance aspect um then also we we started to factor in some of the input from school leaders to have a a comprehensive uh composite
building score. So there's sort of two data points and you'll start to see how they start to uh weave their way into uh there's there's more than this but these are some of the two main building related uh inputs you'll start to see weave into the decision-m um so just to again quickly recap I think we shared a lot of this and
superintendent Dorland mentioned um a good amount of this actually early on but just an acknowledgement that enrollment has been declining and it's projected to continue to decline um so thinking about that new reality for for the district and what that means for uh the capital assets is going to be important Um, like most districts,
Jeffco has an aging building stock, uh, where more than half the buildings were built before 1980. It's scary to think that's almost 50 years ago or 40 over 40 years ago at this point. Um, so, you know, you've got an old building stock, you know, instruction has changed a lot since 1980. There's a lot of different
ways teaching and learning is happening. Buildings aged, harder to maintain. Um, and this idea of conditions are not uniform across the district, right? There's variability around the district, which is very normal. That's a very normal thing. you're not going to have a a even um playing field for every single school, but it's something we need to
think about for planning and understanding that there is variability in terms of utilization and building conditions. Um and then um just an idea of that sort of declining enrollment. Uh one of the sort of downstream um uh sort of impacts of that is sort of this idea
of small schools. Um so less around uh sort of the capital side but just sort of the the idea around uh program delivery in those schools understanding what a small school might mean uh in terms of efficiency across the the portfolio. Um so about 45% of Jeffco
schools uh serve under 40 400 students. Um and then I think as you all know but in a choice environment there's a lot of student mobility and that varies across the district. So, uh, the the plot in the middle is starting to show how many students are actually attending a school in their articulation area versus going
outside. So, as we think about planning, understanding that that students are mobile across uh the district. So, it's not just thinking about who's right next door to the school because they may not be uh going there. And then also this idea of declining enrollment um actually increasing the amount of unused uh seats
in the portfolio. So uh there is a fair amount of open seats in in the district um and unused capacity across the the portfolio. Um just to dive a little bit deeper into the in educational adequacy because it's a little bit of a different uh data point for for a lot of folks on a capital plan. But this is again that
sort of softer side or sort of experiential uh side of the assessment where we're looking at you know the quality of the instructional space again room size, furniture, daylight, technology. Uh there's a number of questions on safety and security both in terms of access and sort of the hardness of a building, but also inside of the
building. Are there uh is there passive observation of of adults? Uh is there visibility where there should be so you're not blind spots? Thinking about things like bullying and harassment uh in buildings. Uh we also think about the arrival experience of schools. Uh you know, do you even know where the main entrance is to where to go? Is it
welcoming for you? How well organized is the campus? Um, so do you have, you know, clusters of classrooms where teachers can collaborate? Do you have pullout spaces for students that may need uh smaller group instruction? Um, where where are those support spaces? Uh, things like environmental quality,
daylight, thermal comforts. Um, and this idea of extended learning of, you know, understanding that the building can be a teaching tool outside of just the traditional classroom, again, small group spaces, common spaces. Um and then you know this idea of community sort of within the school but also can the
community externally support uh the campus and and access uh spaces safely across the the campus. Um and then some questions around u some of the what we call big box spaces or assembly spaces like gyms and cafeterias and um or multi-purpose rooms in some cases. So
all of these give us a really uh good idea of uh what is that experience in the building and are these buildings meeting the needs of of students? They're not all evenly weighted. I won't go through the waiting process, but some categories are more important than the other. But all of these things roll up into an overall building score. And what
we found uh was that actually, you know, you guys have done a lot of great work in terms of uh investing in your buildings. And you've got, you know, a good number of your schools are sort of in that good to to excellent category. Um but you have a fair number of schools that are in the fair to poor um overall category. And as we start thinking about
investment, you know, that may be something that leans towards maybe we need to have more investment in some of those schools that are maybe falling a little bit behind in the educational adequacy. The plots on the right, I won't spend too much time, but um they're box and whisker plots. Essentially, we can see um we can see are there certain categories in the
assessment that are scoring uh worse than others. And we can start to see like extended learning, which again is a fairly new concept in school design, um is a pretty common thing. we see lower scores. But the way to read this is the sort of the longer the spread of the data means there's more variability across the the schools. If if the data
points are very clustered, that means it's kind of uniform across the portfolio. So we can start to see are there particular areas where um there's pretty consistent uh conditions um or are there schools that maybe are doing great in some category and there's some schools are doing um not so great. So
that may inform some more targeted projects where you may want to improve just a particular category um at a school. Um but as I mentioned building age is is important and we started to understand the relationship of building age. So as we look at that composite building score
um on the starting with the right plot building ages on the x-axis. So going from left to right the more right you are the older the building uh and then the composite building scores on the y- axis. And we can see a relationship between uh building age, which is intuitive, but it's important for us to ground ourselves in in real data. Or we
can start to see there is a pretty strong relationship between uh the age of the building and the condition of that building and the sort of composite building score. Older buildings unsurprisingly are sort of scoring worse in terms of that composite building score. A little less of a relationship, but still a relationship in terms of uh
the educational adequacy. So as we think about this this aging building stock, age does play a factor in terms of overall uh conditions in the portfolio. Um so I'm going to go through a few more slides and then turn it to my colleagues here. U but we wanted to make sure that we are you know being as comprehensive
as um as possible and all these things are feeding um each other. So again it's not just looking at one singular thing. We want to make sure all of these things are coming together in a cohesive way. We're looking at the conditions and the adequacy input and also sort of this idea of life cycle replacement needs
across the portfolio into a comprehensive uh plan. So I'm going to turn it to to Doug to walk through actually I'm going to go through this and then two slides and then Doug. So, as we start thinking about the the sort of what we call a framework for decision-m, we're still thinking of a
hope a creative name for for these processes, but um as we think about sort of an onion, um we start out sort of um at the sort of top level and sort of at a high level, but then work our way down very specifically to school level. But starting at the the top, um
understanding sort of what are the conditions, what are the gaps, what are the needs across the district. So, just sort of a gap in sort of needs analysis across the whole portfolio. Then we start to see what are those needs and what are the potyp you know potential types of projects that could address those needs. So as we go a little deeper
u we start thinking about you know maybe utilization's a need maybe there's an addition that's needed in some schools to address overcrowding. So identifying what are the project types and intervention types that could address some of those um needs. Um then we only you know have never worked in a district that has enough money to do everything
at once. Um so how do we start understanding what those needs are and how do we start prioritizing uh those needs across the district um as large as yours. So thinking about um how do we identify where to start first and how to start sequencing uh project and then we get down to the individual school and
you know rather than just understand the district needs we want those very unique needs at each individual school. So in the plan we're developing, every school is going to have a profile page that identifies what are those needs and potential project types um that are needed at that particular school. Um so really clearly getting down to a very
fine uh grain where we can understand at the school level what are those school specific needs. And then um you know we want to make sure again all of this is informed uh by data. We really like to talk about sort of a data informed process rather than a data driven uh process. So, how do we start to to make
sure we're uh using these data the data points and inputs to uh sort of identify investment? Uh but then also uh as we as you all think about sort of broader portfolio planning um how do you start thinking about um you know the the sort of this idea of of being strategic
around the portfolio in the future as well. So I'm going to turn to Doug to to walk through uh a few of the next slides here. So if we dig into the framework a little bit, it really started to manifest itself in three categories. So we have modernized safe student
experiences. So of course, how are we touching students? Like Patrick talked about, how do we make that impact on students? How do we support student programming? And you'll see that we folded some of that information in from the district on how we're going to support students now and in the future
and be able to support that through this process in the programming. And then of course we want to ensure that continuity of operation and address those key facility issues that we have in buildings that we know that we have based on the age of the building stock in the in the district. And so if we
look at those modernized safe and student experiences, of course we have to do some fundamental things around ADA and safety and security when we address those things, but we also want to look at other things that can influence students like playgrounds and outdoor learning. That was part of the bond last
time. there was money spent in those areas that's already impacting students. There's still some pockets in the district where we need to look at those things. One of the other things that's been talked about in the CAC and that is in this list is continue to focus on what can we do from a sustainability
standpoint that makes sense for the district. How do we continue to improve operational efficiency in the buildings and make those investments in key locations so that we can modernize those learning spaces and also create address those safety concerns in those in this
area. If we look at student programming, there's discussions at the district level about reimagining high schools. We of course want to take that into account um from a programming standpoint. CTE was a focus in the last bond will continue to be something that will be a focus in the future and we want to make
sure that that's part of the criteria that we're looking at as we're addressing things. And then the alternative education campuses continue to evolve. We continue to see the evolution of how uh education is delivered. We want to make sure that we're receptive to that and have a framework so that we can support that as
we move forward. And then the continuity of operations. These are those fundamental things like uh both Jeff and and Patrick have talked about. We still have to address these things in those buildings, but we have now have that data that we're going to be able to harness that we can balance
this information as we move forward. Now, if we look at that balanced approach, right, we're we're really looking at trying to balance those three items together to really create a framework for us to make decisions. And you'll see as DAOA moves forward here how this dynamic tool really allows you
to look at those variables differently and start to balance those things in order to make good decisions as a district. I can take this one. Okay. So back to the onion. Um, so now we we have all this information,
right? And and and and as as Doug just mentioned, like we we understand on a high level like all those A levels like high level needs identification, but but bringing all that data together and to bring it like to peel that onion back, that's kind of what I'm going to talk about right right now in the next few uh
in a few slides. Um there are when we think about that onion or when we think about these project categories there there are three categories that kind of naturally come out of this. either you have a building improvement just maintenance up to like may maybe even a building replacement there capacity
increase if there's a lot of enrollment or if there's a school consolidation as as as superintendent Dorland mentions like sometimes you have to to to think about those as well and we want to anticipate them um when possible >> and just to be crystal clear on that the plan's not going to have any sort of
recommendations on consolidation we just know it may be a future uh conversation point in the in the future so we want to make sure the district is prepared prepared to to have those future conversations. >> Yeah, I'm going to jump in um just because I want to be really clear for our board and anybody who is either
listening right now or viewing this later on um this is not a school consolidation plan. Um but I will say um when we went through the school consolidations, the board at the time felt strongly that um we pay attention
to this issue of declining enrollment and have the courage to have open conversation when necessary about consolidation as a possible solution for robustly enrolled schools that can provide robust programming for kids. Um
and to the point where we now have like sections of our FCB policy that require the board to do the study that we do annually with the state demographer. For example, um we have uh considerations that are required in policy. Now if the
district wants to open a new school or program in a certain part of the district, there needs to be impact analysis studies done on neighboring schools. Um that was something else we added to the policy. So this what this
does is just provide a framework for when and if this needs to be part of the district's conversation. There are tools to help us have the conversation in a way that's transparent um and aligned to some metrics that we'll have to
establish at some point. Um so so I want to make sure that that it's really clear this is not a school consolidation plan. I will tell you and you guys have seen from the studies that we've done with the state demographer and our own internal demographic studies that we
continue to see declining enrollment. In the budget presentation that you studied last week, you saw that we are estimating in our revenue projections a decline of 1700 students next year. Um and so it it just is a reality that we have to keep talking about and paying
attention to. But this is in no way um a a school consolidation plan. Um I also just will take a minute since I have the microphone right now and say this is also not a bond or investment plan. So oftentimes districts will go through this process when they're getting ready
to prepare to ask their election uh their uh community for a bond program which is this big infusion of cash dollars and then you have to have the priority list of what's going to get done over the course of three years and all the rules and regulations on taking on that debt service. This is not that
this is a dynamic tool that will allow us to make capital decisions when we have the resources to do so. Right? And how how much we can use this, how far we can go with this will matter depending upon how many resources we
have at the time. So, we're we're going to continue to talk about that because it is a bit of a shift in thinking uh for a lot of districts I think. Um especially Jeffco though who has tended to do these investments in these big like every four to six year four to eight year bond programs. This is this
is just a tool that's different than that. >> Um and the tool can be a bit complicated because there's a lot of data points in there. So, so what you see in front of you that is mentioned that the three big buckets of capacity increase, building
improvement and the school consolidation and how that flows. I will go a little bit into detail. Um, but again, it's it's it's not the school consolidation plan. It's it's how this data could flow. And as Patrick mentioned earlier, it's it's it it's only informing.
There's no decision making here. It is informing to be able to make decisions. Um so if you go to the next slide uh so for example strategy group one capacity increase on the left side it's like every school goes through the through that part it's like what's the
enrollment is there an enrollment growth is there enrollment projection growth if that's so if that's so then we need to think about like what are we going to do with this school that is going to be overpop populated maybe the first thing that you could look at is the attendance area enrollment. So how many people or
how many students are actually coming from that attendance area. If a lot of those students are coming from outside of outside of that attendance area, maybe there's a policy solution that you can think about. But if those students are actually in those this attendance area, then we could look as like is
there, you know, is there space on the property to actually to expand? Um, if that's the case, we could we could look at a composite building score. Is the building score quite well? Um and if the educational adequacy score is also quite well then one could think about the
building addition and again it's a first step that's something that you could think about there always there always um discussions and stakeholder engagement moments around it to to have a different uh different path. Um building improvement works the same. um it it
just it it focuses on do you do you need targeted capital investment or standard maintenance or major capital investment and so forth. Um and the same for the the third flow um the school consolidation. So once you have those if you go to the
next one once you have those those groupings um for example major major renovations let's say you have a number of these schools or 30 schools in those major renovations then you're going to have to decide but which one are we going to do first
um not an easy decision because every school is important but as Patrick mentioned you probably don't have enough money to do them all. Um, so then there's a little bit of a prioritization. We can we can think about is the building condition the most important one or the educational adequacy important. Um, and the problem
is that they're all important, right? So it's a relative thing. Um, but that's the, you know, this tool allows you to to to to place maybe not the right word, but to to to to move those levers and to to come to the best decision or to the
best informed decision um possible. Once you have that uh that level of detail and it's like okay, one school comes to the top. So let's call example A. Um there's a specific list that says okay well HVAC upgrades need to be done. And it's like on the left side you see the
cycle it needs to be done now because if the students is too too hot or too cold or if things HVAC's not working learning is very very difficult. Wheelchair lift replacement very important. Parameter fencing replacement also very important. So that could be potentially in cycle
one. Other things improved drop off pickoff zone yes is important but is it a priority one? Those are decisions that you can make and you can think about like per school about uh the decision flow. Um we have made an uh specifically for
for Jeffco a uh an an bespoke tool where all this information feeds into. So we have we feeding this information and this this information can be fed continuously right if if data gets updated then we can update the data you can update the data and it will have a
different flow as well. So, I know we're we're short on uh gives the ability to um to make sure you're sort of always continuously planning. I I shared this earlier. We want to kind of work ourselves out of the the planning process and allow you guys have the tools and resources to do
that long-range planning. I think some of these frameworks also help with the explanation of why a particular project may be getting that type of investment versus that one and thinking about that transparency with the public. U there are a few sort of overarching sort of policy things that we've also included um in the sort of continuous uh planning
process and sort of in the in the plan. Uh one is obviously a sort of a comprehensive understanding continuing to understand uh conditions of of the building. So uh continuing to advance and invest in uh in those investments. Mark's team uh does a great job of getting out and doing the building
assessments, but uh really sort of continuing to build on that and thinking about multi-year um sort of projections of of needs I think is be critical. We want to make sure that capital planning is happening over you know five to 10 year planning uh period so you're prepared to uh address things uh well
out into the future. Uh safety and security obviously is top of mind for for all of us and certainly you all. Um, one of the things we found in this process was um, you know, funding has been decentralized in many cases for for safety and security. U, we think there's value in actually centralizing um, some
of that fund so that there's, um, a solid foundation for for what safety and security is. I know the district's done a lot of great work to identify those baseline uh, standards. But I think, you know, centralizing some of that funding will be critical in the future capital uh, planning for the district. Um, and
as Superintendent Dora mentioned, sort of this continued evaluation of uh, enrollment, and you all did a great boundary study a few years ago. Uh, so really thinking about the recommendations that were in that uh, plan. It's also really important to have some of those conversations around the
portfolio before you're investing a significant amount of money. And these tools will help you identify those sort of red flags of, hey, should we should we invest $40 million into building that, you know, as we think about the long-term viability of the portfolio? But having those conversations I think will be critical um so that you're
spending your money wisely. Um and then just you know some examples we we have examples from a lot of different departments but just showing we we met with every single department in the district. Um so starting thinking about some of these programmatic initiatives that are that are happening and understanding where food service for example is going. Are there different
models that district is thinking about for food service. So again, aligning capital dollars with sort of broader programmatic um planning food service here as an example, but that could apply to other things of making sure the capital dollars are following uh the programmatic vision so that again you're
spending money wisely. Um so just to preview some of the the next um steps I mean as we're as we're talking about sort of this idea of this sort of living uh planning resource it takes continual sort of updates and maintenance and as new enrollment files come in new
building conditions all these things we want to make sure and you'll have the tools to make sure you're able to do it u but annually update um all information so that the thinking is done in terms of frameworks and process but all of the data is fresh so that you're making decisions on the most um most accurate
and and recent data is going to be critical um as you're thinking about potential um investments in sort of a long-term capital um strategy we're sort of fund type agnostic but um you know there are sort of this idea of like what are those things we need to do now um
you know there are in every district there are some immediate things that just need to happen um so identifying what are those operational concerns are there safety concerns are there things that are really uh getting in the way of a great student experience so as you're going through the priority process and there's some resources to help do that.
Um, but identifying what are those really sort of immediate high priority uh needs, but then also layering in some of those longer term uh longer term sort of strategy things around the portfolio, around the programmatic investments. So really thinking about, you know, what are those long-term solutions. So again,
not just solely focused on on the short term, you need to do them, but layering in some of the long-term thinking as well. So you're developing a a comprehensive and holistic capital uh investment plan. um as you're doing it um again u I sort of mentioned this a little bit ago but you know really
making sure you're you're following uh sort of programmatic and portfolio decisions um capital should be spent wisely there's a limited amount of it so again making sure uh funding is aligned to some of those long-term portfolio decisions um you know again sort of making sure investments are aligned with
academic uh vision um you know make sure when we're doing those those um sort of immediate projects obviously prioritizing health and sort of safety uh projects keeping those buildings safe, warm, and dry. Um and then as you're thinking about sort of major modernizations, um you know, it's very
easy just to do, you know, just HVAC projects all the time, but how do you layer in um some projects are going to really sort of change the 21st century learning expectations as Superintendent Doran was mentioning? So, how do you start to layer in some of these major uh building projects, but also acknowledging that the aging buildings
do have a a strong connection to the experience in the building? So are there are there is there a point in which you should be replacing some of these older buildings with uh more modern uh buildings. Um and then obviously using sort of a life cycle analysis and sort of projecting out useful life of of
systems to to again get get in front of replacement of HVAC for example before it becomes an operational issue. So again doing the long range sort of life cycle planning. Um and then just you know I won't go into details but just high level around this idea as Doug mentioned you know really trying to diversify project types. So they're
addressing a lot of different uh improvement areas operationally, programmatically um and sort of uh sort of from a student experience standpoint. So you're starting to think about whatever the fund type is, start thinking about sequential uh planning where uh you can start to address a lot
of different uh types of project needs over an extended period of time. So I think we are at our slides and I apologize we're a little bit uh over so I went through that quickly but happy to take as many questions as as you all have. Thank you board members. Any questions?
Denine or director at Pavaria. >> Thank you. Um I want to extend gratitude superintendent Dorland for pushing this project forward. Um and to all the gentlemen who are working on this project. I know there is a lot of we
receive a lot of feedback for using outside consultants, but this work I believe truly does provide so much for our community and it's so important. Um,
I'm going to ask a few questions that I asked this morning at our CAC meeting just for our listening public. Uh, so I'm sorry to repeat myself, but I just want to make sure that everybody's hearing the same things that I heard this morning. Um,
I know that this this um this project that you guys have been working on would have probably changed the way that decisions were made when the district decided to
shut down schools. um four or five years ago and I know my community was heavily impacted by the school closures. Um my question is thinking about when we're kind of
releasing this information. um when will this be available to the public so that our communities can see that we're not just, you know, kind of throwing a dart at a at a curtain where we're actually making datainformed
decisions because I think a lot of our communities are feeling still 5 years later the we're questioning what the district was doing and this work right here gives us a plan for for the future and I believe
that we can show this to our communities. Our communities will see that we're not going to let that happen again and we're going to move forward with data. So, can you share please when we will be sharing this with our communities? >> Yeah, I'll take a first shot at this.
Um, a couple things that this initial focus uh really has been around an internal planning tool and you know, you got to see a little bit of a deeper dive into that this morning at CAC. uh Perkins Eastman has developed uh a more more public-f facing versions of the
right information for uh for the public. So that that is something we just started the conversation uh it it was timely that you brought that up this morning. We started that conversation last week around uh what out of all of this great work, what do we what do we
what do we share publicly that makes sense? Uh, and so we know that that's an interest that we want to do that. We do want to be transparent. Uh, and we know that it's an interest of of you for sure. Timing wise, uh, we're working on it. So, uh, we we'll keep working on it
knowing that there's there's benefit and value in our communities and like you mentioned in building trust and being transparent that will drive urgency around it. But we don't have a date set yet to say this is when it's coming. But it's it's it's gonna happen.
>> Thank you. And then if you wouldn't mind for a listening public talking about how um all of this aligns with our decision to reduce our funds to capital assets this year and last year.
Well, I think the nature of the nature of this tool allows us to be flexible with uh and a little bit agnostic to a funding amount. And so, as our resources change over time, this tool will be dynamic and flexible to say you have X
resources to put towards priorities. Here's what you should put those resources towards. Those resources could look like a smaller amount, like a larger amount, could look consistent over time, inconsistent, but the goal is that working within the tool, we're continuing to prioritize and and make
sure that we're still taking a strategic approach around the investments for whatever the level of resources is that we have access to. >> Thank you. Um, thank you for sharing the tool with us this morning. Um, I just wanted our listening public to
understand some of the stuff you were showing us this morning is they're high dollar items and it's very important that we invest in our capital assets because it does impact our students and our staff. So, thank you so much for
sharing tonight, >> Director Gibbons. So this board is in the process of and in particular we'll be getting rolling our sleeves up quite a bit discussing mil levy overrides funding mechanisms and in particular when we think about that in the context of raising revenue
for capital whether that's a bond or a special use mill levy. Can you just talk a little bit about how using this might help us develop priorities that we could then communicate to the voters as we're making the case for why additional funding is needed in in different ways.
Yeah. So I think in a lot of different ways it's going to a first start to identify what are the needs that need to be addressed which is a starting point for for all of this. I mean everybody needs and the public need to have a clear understanding. I think my experience is people know what's happening at their individual school where their kids go or or where they're
working maybe. They don't always have a clear understanding of the broader holistic needs across the district. So I think this a compiles all of that so we understand at that sort of top level of the onion what are all of the needs across uh across the district but then it starts to identify what are those projects to address those needs and then
within the tool we can start to say of all the things that we want to do how do we start prioritizing and maybe that you know if you are looking at an MLO for example you know maybe you think about in sort of you know bite-sized chunks each year and start to sequence projects in a way that get the core things done
but then you also start to build on and start to enhance the learn learn learning experience as you go and start to build a variety of project types. But the tool is going to allow you to understand those needs. But then how do you prioritize them within there and you can start to put some funding constraints to your to your question in terms of maybe we have x million dollars
to do how do we start prioritizing within that amount um over a period of time. And I think the other thing to sort of acknowledge is um we we we mentioned all the time um it's dynamic right so conditions can change. I think some of the challenge with just for a
bond for example is you need a very clear project list and you know five years from now that may be different um based on enrollment changes or building things or whatever it is things are change. This allows you to have the framework to say here are the things we want to be addressing and continually can do that planning. You you want to
project that some so you're not just always reacting but it gives you the ability to do you know forward-looking planning and start to prioritize within those funding amounts that that you have. And then as Jeff mentioned, um I think the anticipation would be to have more of a public facing sort of view of that so the community can understand,
you know, what are those conditions and what are the factors that are determining how projects are developed. Jeeoff, I don't know if you want to >> I would just add that tomorrow we are going to be presenting and discussing with the board as part of your retreat kind of a multi-year
sources and uses summary if if um there was a special purpose meal override for the purpose of capital. Uh it's something we reviewed with the partnership already. It's more of a financial picture and less of a needs picture. I think those two things combined th this and the financial
picture could be uh will be really important for us to share and we can bring in some of this information to tomorrow's conversation as well. >> So in addition to that, so I've I've I don't get to go to as many as Denine does. I've had scheduling conflicts, but
I've been to um Capital Asset Advisory Committee meetings. There's a lot of smart people in those rooms. Jeeoff, you're pretty sharp. you got sharp people working for you. What is this adding that you don't think we already had in place with our just the brains that we have within Jeffco?
>> Yeah, and that's a good point. We we do have we do have brains in Jeffco and and we have a lot of staff that know a lot. Uh this is really allowing us to organize the work and be very intentional about uh about our
investments. Uh we had a comment at KAC today like this this tool would have been great uh years ago. Like I mean the the the reaction around the the planning tools and what this is going to allow how this is going to allow our teams to
organize information and make decisions is like nothing that we've that we've had before. uh where it's bringing in a lot of different data points, a lot of different components uh that I think is just allowing us to really make more
informed, strategic, smarter investments that are going to make sure our our resources are aligned to the need uh in a very sequenced and thoughtful approach. Uh and it's it's it's going to look different. You know, uh we have
immediate needs around our category of continuity of operations. We have HVAC needs that are very real right now. We have plumbing needs that are very real. Roofing needs that are real. Asphalt paving needs that are very real. Um, but how does how does that sequence into and
I I thought Patrick did a nice job pointing out well what about the other things too? You know, you can get lost in a cycle of uh just focusing on continuity of operations items really that the foundational things which are incredibly important, but are we continuing to move other areas ahead?
And I I really believe this is going to allow us to to figure that out better. And then as I understand this right though, so this is a model that we plug data into and then the model depending on the parameters that we set then provides information recommendations.
But obviously for the model to work it requires the data going into it to be complete and accurate. So particularly on the district side, you know, what how are we going to manage this process so that we don't end up in a situation where we're putting garbage in and getting garbage out so that we're actually know and have safeguards around
making sure that we can actually rely on the product because we're relying on the actual data we're using. >> Yeah, that's and that's something that we're starting to to talk about internally around how do we operationalize keeping this data fresh and current and to your point reliable.
um you know that making sure it all snaps into a tool like this is going to be something a little bit new. Um but that's that's a commitment that we're making. We we want to make sure that our condition assessment data is updated every year. We want to make sure that
we're loading in our new years of enrollment projections. Uh, and so that's, you know, that's that is going to be a little bit of a of a change as far as that data informing day-to-day and strategic decisions, but something that we're working on. How do we
operationalize, how do we routinize that in our in our departments to ensure that to your point that the data that that we have is reliable and accurate. >> Any other questions? >> Yeah, sorry, this came up. Um, this actually came up in my town hall, but I
was going to ask you uh because I saw the slide that was talking about those kitchens. Are we is Jeco participating in the healthy meals incentives for schools? The grant that actually helps us upgrade our kitchens.
>> There are uh some new initiatives uh that were part of LL and MM passing. Uh, I'd have to look specifically around what allows us to have access to kitchen upgrades, but we are planning on enrolling in the benefits uh that come with those
programs. So, and we Yeah, we can take that be offline. Yeah. >> All right. My turn. Um, thank you for this presentation. I remember the last time that you came to speak with us and we could have continued that presentation I think for hours and
hours. Um so I appreciate you returning and for the for being here at this late hour. Um my question my first question is um about elasticity with a bespoke tool that you mentioned um for adding or adjusting vectors as we move forward.
you know, after you all have moved on to other amazing projects, um how much ability will our district have to add in additional vectors, things like choice, enrollment, trend shifts, um as we continue to gather data.
>> Yeah. So, all of the the first off, the the tools and the resources are yours. Like we don't we're not a software company. Um they're they're your resources. So, all the code and all that will be uh yours. Um all the data itself is updatable. So, if you have a new enrollment file that comes in, you have the ability to upload a new file. If you
have a new conditions file, you can upload that. If you want to add new features and things like that in terms of, hey, I wish this button did that. We're pretty flexible with that sort of stuff. But if it's a major thing, you know, it would probably be a small little, you know, update type type contract. But, um, I can't imagine it'd
be very significant. Um, but all of the data is yours, all the resources are yours. If there's functionality shifts two years from now, that may be a different little bit of a different conversation, but ultimately it's your your source code and and your data. >> Oh, thank you. I didn't mean to suggest
that you all had overlooked anything. I don't think that you have. >> No, it's a completely >> um but yeah, for our listening public, I want them to know that we have a lot of elasticity in how we will use this tool. Um, I want to also say I'm thankful for
the foresight um to put all of this together into a strategic capital master plan um because it addresses public concerns that we've heard from the 2018 bond expenditures that ended up being made in schools that eventually closed
um because I know that the community has been frustrated by that. that this exact kind of tool is what will allow us to avoid that sort of um loss of fund over time in our existing buildings. So, I
just I really think it's important that our community understands that this isn't a direct this is a direct response to some of the major problems that we had during the 2018 bond. And I think it represents um that the district understands um the responsibility of
stewardship in those funds that we receive from the taxpaying public. Um and so I am excited to see how this gets used. Um one of the questions I have concerns data access as we talked about um you
know inputting who's going to have access to it. I'm wondering if there's a conversation yet with our IT team about having levels of access similar to our other data dashboards that we have where sometimes like a budget owner might have access to looking at their specific
school um investments versus the whole the whole county. >> Yeah, I think that's something we can continue to explore with our IT team. I mean, right now, you know, the the tool is password protected. It's not just an open tool. um and
working in, you know, userbased layers of permission. I think that's something we'd have to have a a deeper conversation about. Uh and making sure that the right people have access to the right level of of information to make the decisions they need to make. >> Yeah. I just I think um data security
for some of the information that will be in here is going to be really important. So, I know that's a that's not the conversation tonight, but down the road. Um, and then, um, the other thing I appreciate about this is that it gives us a longer on-ramp for
major infrastructure shifts that we may have to um, look at in the future. And I really value that on-ramp because I think that is something uh, that our community deserves if if we have to do other shifts in the future. um so that
we can help them come alongside us as we address our shifting population. Um and so I think that's incredibly valuable because ultimately we will also be able to use this tool to build trust and relationships with our larger
community. Um which I don't think you usually get out of a a database or you know a tool like this. So, I just I I really see the value in it and I'm grateful that you've built upon other information that the district has gathered like our boundary study and
some of those other um kind of large ticket consultant items that we've invested in because it informs the work that you've done here. So, um really grateful for the work and for your ability to present it in a really clear
and straightforward way. Um, and I am looking forward to seeing this come on board and start to gather data. Board members, are there any other questions? >> Then I thank you for your time. Thank
you so much for being here tonight. >> Thanks for having us. >> And with that, we have reached the end of our agenda. So, where's the official words? This brings us to the end of today's agenda. Thank you to everyone who participated
this evening. Our next scheduled meeting of the board is a retreat tomorrow, Friday, April 17th, here at the Ed Center. With that, we will stand adjourned. Good night. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N.
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