Oh my gosh. He was in so much trouble. >> I see it. So, I just say >> um we're recording when you're ready. Uh we'll start the meeting now at 6:00 with the pledge of allegiance. >> I aliance to the flag of the United
States of America and to theublic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Deb, can we have a call to order? Maybe. We have five or six board members
available this evening. Dr. Shamway has reported in that he has an absence tonight and so uh he's excused. >> Yeah, he's excused. And uh Lord Dit will be chairing the meeting. Um we are using microphones. We are being broadcast on
YouTube and um we are being recorded. Thank you. >> Oh, and we are using diligent for voting. >> Okay. And I would like to make an announcement that due to the weather, um staff and board members who felt it was
unsafe to travel in um could join by Zoom. And in addition um for anyone who was expecting to come and make a public comment, if you feel it's unsafe to travel, we will accept public comments
350 words or less um by email to um Deborah Ramire uh Deborah Ramsey deb.cortez.k12.co. us. >> Thank you. Um, so I'd like to welcome
everyone who's here in person or um watching virtually. And I'll start the meeting by reading our vision statement. Monizuma Cortez Schools inspire resilience, lifelong learning, and civic purpose by fostering
high expectations, critical thinking, and accountability in a safe and diverse environment. and the Monizuma Cortez School District RE1 mission. As we strive to become a district of choice, we celebrate diversity, build meaningful
relationships, and open doors to personal growth and a world of possibilities for every student. And we'll move on to item number four, uh, set the agenda. I motion to move from the consent
calendar the high school handbook um to be the first action item in order to have our student rep be able to join us. >> I think you can just ask for that to be done. It doesn't have to be a motion. >> Okay. Yeah. >> It should be part of the motion to set
the agenda. >> Okay. I have motion to set the Okay. Yeah. Let me get it all typed out here. And is there a second? >> I second the motion. Item 10.
Online voting is now available. Did you get the popup? >> I didn't, but how do you vote? >> Yay. >> Thank you. >> Show the results if we can. >> Yes, we can. >> Um, motion passes unanimously.
>> Okay. So, we'll move on to presentations. uh education partners presentation. >> Is this We're kind of afraid to break it. >> All right. Uh, thank you everyone. Um, we are Education Partners. Uh, I'm Erica Burns and um, we'll do some
introductions in just a second. We're here today to talk about um our school improvement model and the implementation supports um that we offer with that and then some of our impact data that we've seen through this model. So if you want to go I don't know who's um so we have
Thank you. Um we have our leadership team today. We have Dwight Jones, our founder and president. Um Dwight was actually the commissioner of education for the state of Colorado and um founded our organization uh several years ago. We work with districts across the
country. Um Dwight was also the uh superintendent of Denver public schools, also in Clark County, the superintendent um in the Vegas area. Now he mentors um a lot of superintendents across the country and we work with projects and districts um regionally here in Colorado and also in different states. Um again,
my name is Erica Burns. I uh have been in education my whole career. I started as a teacher, an instructional coach, um moved into principal and uh a district role. Most of that was in Denver public schools. Um I did spend some time in back in the Chicago area as a deputy superintendent before joining Dwight's
team. Um one thing I really love about uh my time with Joyce team is that we do get to work with different districts across um the country. We get to learn what's really going great in other districts and then we get to bring that to um other districts to learn from. And so that's really exactly what we're going to talk about today is what we've
learned from um a model in uh Houston uh Independent School District in Texas and how we've helped other districts implement that model. Um the topics today again is that NEES overview. So I'll talk about what that model is, our implementation um with the NES model, some of that data
and then um briefly about our proposal uh to support you all. So the NES new education systems I understand some of you had the chance to go to Houston last um school year and see some of this model in place. And so
it is more of a complex model that um Houston has had a lot of success turning around um their school district and moving where they had almostund and some schools that were in the failing range to zero and they did that pretty quickly. And so there is a really complex model that is um around this
NEES new education systems but really when you break it down it's about instructional strategies. It's about focusing on instructional leadership and shifting the culture to make sure that all schools and the whole district is an instructional instruction first culture. And then it's about a lot of systems to
make sure all of those go in place. And so the more I have studied and learned about this model, I've really appreciated that at at its core, it's really simple. It's a lot of things that we already know are great practices, but it's a lot of systems that go in place so that we actually can move that work forward and help teachers with best
practices, help principles become instructional leaders in in their buildings, and then help districts really shift their practices to focus on instruction too. All right. Um, so that was an overview of the model. Um, what we are as an implementation partner to help districts
implement this model. And when we go into districts, we the three things that we really focus on is that instructional model. Um we focus on then capacity building. So building the capacity of teachers and especially administrators in the building. And then on um
accountability and support. So what are the support systems that go in place for that? All right. Um and then diving into that a little bit more, the instructional model itself, we have curriculum on one side. Curriculum is really the base the baseline. So, we know that all classrooms, all teachers need to have
really solid curriculum. They need to have materials in place. They need to have assessments. They need to have student activities. And then they need a way to deliver that to make sure that every student is engaged all the time. I think I saw your tagline that said something about every student every day. That's exactly what this is. It's every
student, every classroom, every minute is engaged in learning. And so, if you go to the next one, so oftentimes we use this side by side. So, we have curriculum on one side. It's really the what. And so, like I said, that's that's the absolute baseline. We have to make sure those are rigorous materials in front of students. And then we have the
instructional model. The how how is that delivered to students so that they are engaged all of the time. And so some of the examples you'll hear in the NES model is this multiple response strategy. Excuse me. Um which MRS instead of a single student response.
And so if you walk into an NES classroom, you'll see all students engaged all the time. So there's not one students that that's asked for the answer. it is constantly all students are doing all of the work. And then some other strategies are about teachers learning how to monitor their classrooms and make sure that they are um making
sure that all students are moving forward. So an example of that might be in a math classroom you'll see whiteboards being used where students write down an answer and a teacher might quickly scan the room to see um how many students got that correct. If it's only about 40% the teacher knows like, oh wait, I got to stop. I got to adjust. I
have to do something else because not all my students are moving forward. So um the next one is on capacity building. I'd say this is the most important part of our our support model. Um of course we do the professional learning that's more the traditional model of launching
in the summer with um PD but I have an asterisk next to that embedded um job embedded inerson coaching. I would say that is the most important part of our model to make sure that um we're building the capacity of principles to become instructional leaders in their
classrooms. And so we are constantly in person with principles in classrooms doing observations, going through the observation tool, pointing out instruction and then working with principles to make sure they understand the instruction, but also can coach teachers on how to get better as well.
Um, I've reflected a lot on this because as I was a instructional coach and principal, I had the opportunity to get trained in a really great training that was in New York and I got flown to there all the time and would come back to my um building in Denver and all of those
materials, all that learning that I did out of state, I'd get back to my office and school would happen. And I think all of us know like how busy a school building can get and how you're pulled in different directions when you're a principal. And I've just reflected if I actually had a coach that was with me, I could have implemented all those things
that I learned in a different way instead of just putting those things to the side and going back to my old practices. So then the final one, if you want to go to the next slide, um the final one is the accountability processes. So another part of our implementation model is that we have a
lot of accountability and we have a lot of support. And so we have in the classroom we have observation tools and we have ways to coach teachers. We have rubrics for principles so that they reflect on their own learning but also get evaluated on their coaching and feedback. Um but we're also with them to give to make sure that they know how to
get better. Um we have evaluation processes for um instruction. We do formal evaluations throughout the year to give feedback on here's what instruction looks like in all of your classes at this moment in time. And then we're constantly looking at student data to make sure that we're progressing along.
Okay. side up. Oh, there should be a couple more. Okay. Um, this slide is our team. So, one thing that makes us very, very unique and different from other um, districts that work with maybe the NES model or maybe an improvement model is
that our team actually comes from the origins of the NES model. So whether it's um Houston or the Third Futures Charter School um they were part of this model when Mike Miles was developing it. And so I have that we've helped 30 campuses. I think that's far more. I
think Mr. Gerard himself was a chief in um chief of schools in HISD when this was being developed. So he's helped more than 50 schools improve in Houston. And um I would invite if we do move forward anyone to come do walkthroughs with us. This team is really really impressive in
seeing really solid instruction getting ready getting to the details of it and then really helping principles see that as well. Um moving on to our data from the last year. So this is really a case study of our impact in partnering with a district
last year. So we have some NWA which is a nationally normed assessment. We have some preliminary state data and then we have our instructional evaluations. um this particular um district needed to do a lot of improvement. So they came to
us last year and said we have to improve. We have a lot of schools that are what they say D's or Fs in Colorado that would be orange or red rating and they really needed to improve. And so we set a goal with them and said because you're so far behind. We looked at some of their data. We said you need to move your students more than one year of
growth. They need to move 1.8 years of growth this year on our MAP scores. And so that was the the goal that we set. Um this was after one year. The MAP growth um was two years of math growth for a few of our schools. Other schools met
the met the growth. The one school that didn't it met this is um K8 campuses. So this is a combined elementary and middle school. Um that last school did make it for elementary and the middle school was a little bit um below that. But really incre incredible growth for one year. The students are growing more than two
years of growth. And then reading, this is where I I really really love to see um our reading scores at this school, we set the same goal, move 1.8 years, and all of them blew that out of the water, some moving almost three years of growth. And this
was at schools that really, really, really needed it. And so this is what um this model really does for students. They learned how to find main ideas, find details, make inferences, and those are skills they're not going to forget. Those don't go away. So this was just really lasting growth.
Um the state data then so this was just this is preliminary and almost final. I think it'll be finalized this week. So in the state of Texas they do A throughF ratings. And so again this school district came to us last year and said we really really need your help. We have
to improve. We can't have these scores at our stu at um our score these scores for our students. And we said the same thing. We said your school your students deserve more. And so after one year, this is what they did because they focused on instruction and then
instructional strategies. Um and then instructional evaluations. Uh these were those we do formal evaluations three times throughout the year and we say the goal is that all of your classrooms need to be proficient because your students deserve proficient
lessons and proficient teachers in their classrooms every day. And so we met that goal as the overall but it gave us really good data too to focus on for next year. So next year we know the retach part portion of our lessons needs to be a focus area. We also know that um
there was a dip at the end of year. So this happens a lot. I don't know if all the educators in the room sometimes we take state assessments and then we start to not teach as hard at the rest of the school year. And so this was really good feedback and we had this conversation with the senior leaders that the kids deserve solid instruction the whole year. And so we have to make sure that
we are focused on instruction all the way through, not just after the state state assessments. Um, this slide, I'm not going to read all of these, but these are some quotes that we got from some of the partners. Some that I'll just highlighter. Parents came and said the difference that their
students, they can see in their students and how they look at school differently. They're excited about their assessments. Um we heard from teachers saying that they now know how to get their students engaged that they kept getting the feedback like your students are engaged but they didn't know what to do about
it. And then um we heard from principles that they feel confident in classrooms. You know a lot of principles come from PE or they come from places they weren't expected to be in classrooms or be experts in in instruction. And so just a year with them when we're side by side they become more confident. They know
how to look at instruction. They know how to coach their their teachers. And then finally, um the area superintendent, one of the area superintendents noted, excuse me, um that we they were focusing on the wrong things. They were so busy. Everything was coming in their way. But for a long
time, they were just focusing on all the other things. And now they know what to focus on. And when she said, "When I did, look at the difference that it made in my schools." All right. And then finally, um our full model of support is outlined here. So when we worked with those schools and
saw that difference, we were really doing this. Um but the biggest difference, we did summer trainings. We were with um principles two times a week each week. So two half days a week each week we were in classrooms with principles. Um we did professional development throughout the year. And
then we did those instructional reviews. Um I'll pause for a moment. And so I think you've probably seen the proposal. It's a bit of a modified version but maybe an entry point into starting this support model but we're we are the proposal notes doing summer training for
administrators and teachers and then um one day a month of in-person coaching with your principles. All right. And then I will end just on this quote. We use this a lot in our trainings but the number one variable in raising student achievement is to
improve the quality of instruction. All right. Okay. Are there questions for the presenter? >> I I have a couple. >> Yeah. So with the
when you saw the in increase in better scores, >> how long was that system implemented before you saw that? Cuz you cuz I remember the 1.8 years is is what you needed the students to advance. Mhm.
>> So from that point, how long has that system been in place before you set that goal of the 1.8 years or was that right away? >> Yep. We said right off the bat when we started, we have to we have to make this this year and then next year we're going to say the same thing. Next year we
still have to make 1.8. We're still in turnaround. >> No, I mean the model, how long was the model in place before the test scores changed? Oh. Um, so those were end of year test scores and we started implementing the model with them last August. So it was just the one school
year. >> So it takes about that long to get everybody on board. >> Well, um I would say I mean everyone was getting on boarded throughout the year. We saw big growth at midyear. So we take that midyear assessment with students and there was a big jump then and then um end they were they remained with that
trajectory to through the end of the year. >> I had a question about the 1.8 years. Was that across all students? Was that an average? Or was that just the low performing students? >> That was um that was a that was the
average. So I don't I don't have that broken down, but it was tremendous. The super great growth. Actually, if you want to go back to that slide, there's one school that I had highlighted on the math that I was um so interested in. The school that had Sorry, just the math
one. Math NEA data. That was the chart. One more. One more. >> That one. Okay. So, I put a star next to this school because it was so memorable for me that particular we took the names away for this um presentation, but this
school when we walked into the school last August, it was the was the lowest performing of all of the schools and um it is a school fil most impacted. Um I think 90 something percent is uh free and reduced lunch and um it was it is
majority students of color and I think it had 30% um language learning students and so um their scores were really really low of the schools that we supported their school their scores were the lowest of um the five campuses and the campus had a new principal new
assistant principal um they had had three new principles in the last three years and so there were little very few systems in place the hallways were chaotic. We walked in classrooms and no one was learn, you know, no one was paying attention. There were behavior issues and so we would go home from working with this school and just think,
"Oh my gosh, this one, I don't know about this one." But we stuck to the model. Um, we stuck to the systems that we could put in place. We got the operations, the hallways looking good because that matters. When kids walk into a hallway or walk in from the hallway, it does matter. Um, we got the classrooms in the NES model and we
worked really, really hard with the teachers and we worked really, really hard with the new principal and about the first quarter was the six weeks in, I went back for another visit and it looked like a whole different school. It sure didn't look like a failing school. looked like a school that kids were focused on learning and then by the end of the year those kids made two years of
growth and so um I don't I don't have the data broken down but I know all that entire school as a whole was lower performing. >> I'm hearing a lot of criticism that um this is a Texasbased model and a lot of people are curious to see how it
compares to the Colorado standards. I think that's a big question I'm hearing a lot. >> I think I is your question about the curriculum or about the instru >> I'm kind of not understanding the difference of the two. I apologize. >> Yeah. No, I think that that does get
confusing. So the curriculum is really like the what that is being taught. And so we're not the curriculum writers. We would be agnostic really to a curriculum model. the the nice thing and I know there is some controversy with the the shifts that are happening but the the HISD curriculum is designed to be this
model and so for the grades three through five the model for NES is that they're on a 90minute block um but they take for they do 45 minutes of instruction with the whole class and then they take a 10-minute assessment and then the students break out into if the students scored proficient on that
assessment they go into what's called a team center where they're doing extension or grade level work and if they did not then they get an opportunity to do a retach with the teacher and so the retach materials are created for the teacher in if you use the HIC curriculum the assessments are there and the slide deck and the student
materials for the full lesson is there and so although we do the instructional model and you could do that with any curriculum I think the way it lends itself because the NES the curriculum for Houston is written exactly for this model is where that comes from but like
I said we we actually we're curriculum writers. So we implement the instructional model regardless of curriculum. >> Thank you for clarifying. >> Um so in your explanation you mentioned several things other than the curriculum. Uh could you mention those
again? The things that you help provide. It's based on the model. So there's retach materials, there's uh assessment uh material and so on. What were those? What was that list again? >> So those are all part of the curriculum. So the curriculum that um is separate
from us but what would comes with the HISD it comes with um teacher the teachers have their slide decks the teachers have the student activity books the teachers have the assessments and then the retach materials and then also the students have access to the extension um activities if they are
proficient on that um that day's assessment that's separate and then I'll explain then what we do is um instruct or we coach and train on the instruction models. So when teachers are in front of students, they have all the materials, but how are they going to engage
students in these materials? Because if it was as easy as just having the curriculum, then I think all the curriculum companies in the world would have solved all of our problems. So it's really just about how do we make sure I'm presenting this new standard, this new skill, how do I make sure all of my students are following along, all of my
students are engaged, and those are the um strategies that we coach on. >> Thank you. So, um, if that was part of the curriculum, I this is the first time that I've learned that a curriculum has all those aspects to it. Um, in the
past, I was under the impression that, uh, the curriculum was like a textbook and then the teacher had to develop all those things on their own and it doesn't come with the curriculum. Is that the wrong way to think about it?
>> No, I think you're exactly right. And when I was a teacher and I I think there are other teachers in the room, that's what we had to we just got a book and then we had to go home every night and create the slide deck and the materials and the assessment. Um but what HISD has done is actually remove that from the plate of the teacher and is actually um
ha so the teachers have that have that and they don't have to worry about going home at night and creating that so they can focus on how I'm going to instruct. So Houston >> Houston not us >> put together all that information to support the curriculum and the the model of teaching.
>> Mhm. >> It didn't come with the curriculum. They they put it together to work in their in their model. >> It is. And then they call it their curriculum. So it's all embedded into what the HIS curriculum is. >> Thank you so much. >> Yep. >> Please remind me of the student teacher
ratio. >> This uh >> this model >> that's dependent on the district. So we're separate from that. So um whatever the staffing model is for a school is that's the staff model. >> It's interesting.
>> How many other states have you worked with >> with the Houston model? >> The Houston model. We've only been in the Houston model is very new. So the the this NES model started um with Mike Miles and the schools he started here in
Colorado, third future schools um and then he took it to Houston. And so it is very new and so we've only worked with it in um the Texas area. And so when when offering the support to other districts and other states,
how are you looking at their specific demographics and populations and rural aspects? Especially here we're a rural very rural community um that brings about its own set of challenges >> when it comes to um you know teaching
and implementation and student achievement. So how how is that taken into account when when looking at differences not just in state standards but also in regions and across borders? >> Could you go back to the slide that has
the sideby-side curriculum and instruction? >> Yeah, at the beginning that that one. Um so I do just want to be clear that so if we could wrap our head around curriculum different than the instructional model. And so curriculum really I think is where some
of your questions are laying on if it's if it's best in Texas or if it's best in Colorado. And that is separate than our implementation model. So if you look on the the column with the how that is really what we focus on and so we are focusing on how teachers are instructing
and what what engagement strategies are they using so that all students are engaged. Um, and so that's where you'll see our strategies of, you know, it's const every three minutes. If you go into an NES classroom, it's every three minutes there's some sort of engagement strategy because we know kids and adults
alike um can start to space out after that. And so you'll see if you go into a classroom, you'll see, okay, teacher will talk for a few minutes and then table talk. What did what did what do you think about this one? Or turn and talk. And so that's where the students are also practicing those language skills um constantly throughout a lesson.
Can you please explain to me how you can be so confident that this model works without any idea of what the studenttoteer ratio is? To me, that's weird. I Yeah, I guess I'm not sure. I mean, we're so we're in a classroom where there's a classroom and there's a teacher and I guess I don't know where
what qu I guess could you say more about your question. Where does it come from? What is your what do you >> So the model that you're saying works think back to that one. What is the studenttoteer ratio? >> You know it's just varied. I've been even in the schools that we support some
classes have 22 kids some have 28 kids some have 13 kids and then there's one one teacher. And so that part of it it is um doesn't matter to the instructional model. So I don't know I don't know where that I don't know to answer that. >> It's okay. Do you mind if I
>> Yes. >> Um, so my understanding of the um the appeal of the model and why it can be effective is because students are differentiated very early in the lesson.
You can tell right away because you're testing them who's got it and who doesn't. >> So you don't have students lingering going over material that they may be bored with um >> and then causing problems because they're bored. Yeah. >> Or students who are so lost and we're
just moving along without them. You get the quick intervention. So this is this is my question. Um is it possible for one teacher in a class of 24 kids to do all three of those things at once? And so, you know, I did um hear from some staff who went
down to Houston and um kind of the thing that I heard was gosh, there are there are staff for each, >> you know, you can there's somebody to take it. If there are some discipline issues, there are people who can constructively address that and get that
child back into a learning mode or um children who are ready to move on. There is somebody to do that. And so, um, I agree with Director Mate that, um, you know, having the support in place seems
to be critical because, you know, a teacher can only do so many things at the same time. And yeah, now I see what where so you were on the visit with Houston. Houston does have the luxury of having a lot more staff than most schools. the school that we support does
not have that luxury and so they are operating with a more traditional model and their teachers are doing it. So they do the they walk through the full um lesson and um it does feel like a lot but once you get used to these strategies and it's the turn and talks and it's the you know let's hold up the
whiteboards and see if we got it or let's um they can kind of check some of the responses they are able to say make sure all students are engaged and they are able to say like oh I can tell by what this student this table is saying and what this table is saying that half the half the group doesn't know what's going on so I'm going to go back and put
the whole group together and so those pieces um are accurate When it comes to the team center, so the 45 minutes for third through fifth grade, the for first 45 the teacher is in the classroom by his or herself and doing the full lesson. Then it's the 10-minut um
assessment and then the students break. And so then the teacher would be responsible for only the retach. And so that might be 40% of the class, it might be 10% of the class, whatever um percent didn't quite meet on that um assessment. And so they're with a smaller group. And
the team center is where the group the school that I worked with, we had to get creative with staffing on that. And so they didn't have the luxury of having all those extra people like Houston did. And so sometimes it was if an elective teacher didn't have a full schedule, one of their fill-in times was in the team
center. Um if sometimes the cohorts of um grade levels, so if there were two third grade classes that taught that lesson at the same time, then the teachers can just switch. one teacher can take all of the retach and the other teacher can take all of the um extension group. And so we just have to get
creative. We're in education, we kind of have to get creative with what we what we have sometimes. >> And if I may, Madame President, we're also moving in uh a system where we're increasing personnel for that reason,
but we're also leveraging all the other special programs support staff. And keep in mind that about 66% are not on level based on the third grade results. So we know that the team center is going to be
less in the beginning and more in the core teachers and so we're leveraging more people when they go to tier two. Uh and to answer a question you had earlier uh director mate is the correlation between
the tesa essential knowledge and skills which is a standards in Texas and the Colorado standards for reading and math and science are 90 above 95% correlation. Now our teachers are taking the
curriculum slides from Houston and any slide that needs to be adjusted for us will be adjusted by our teachers. But now they don't have to create they have the luxury of refining which is an easier method as far as preparation and
now they have the release time to think about the data and what instructional decisions they have to to uh decide on. So this is a big move for the increase of the tier one quality and so we're looking at highly qualifi quality type
of materials and the Houston model is uh a right start and this model is also based on daily real time coaching and course correction and I think that's the beauty of it because you don't have to wait till the end of a quarter or the end of a six weeks to say oh well they
didn't get it and they failed and that that time has gone by. So there's not a complete implementation of the Houston model. There's adaptations for our area, for our students, for our numbers and
the staffing that we have. But you are correct. We we have to leverage more staffing and the board gave me the green light to do that and look at that. And so that's why we report to the board and the monthly personnel about the vacancies and you'll see in red those
additional positions for this uh NEES model. Thank you. >> Um I I have a few more just brief questions. Um how how many years have you guys been doing this consulting for NES? >> Um as a collective, so if you look at
our team, we have been doing this for um several years. Some of us have been in it for eight years. Um some of the team members have been in implementing this um for the last four years in Houston. Um last year was our first as an ED partners um team, the first one that we
did under this name, but the team has been doing it for many years. >> And then um there's a lot of talk of accountability for teachers and for students um and for the district. Um how
is your team uh generally evaluated? How do we know that the meetings are happening and how do we know that the staff are getting the support that they need? >> Yeah, we do se surveys um and we share those. We also look at student um improvement and we look at teacher improvement. So if we did our midyear or
our fall um evaluations of instruction and we're not seeing results, then we have to adj have to adjust. So just like we're saying we're collecting data and adjusting, we are doing the same. Um but we do schedule quarterly meetings with our leadership team to make sure that we are meeting um project goals and meeting
expectations. >> And are those generally shared with the board as well? The staff input? >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> And then where um where are you based out of? Will people be here for the twice a week uh sessions that you were
talking about? Yeah, our we are currently um if we did do twice a week, then we would have someone here twice a week um to do those, but currently it's on a one once a month visit as the proposal. >> My understanding is that you're based in Colorado. Is that correct?
>> Yeah, we are based in Colorado and we have um folks who kind of who live all over the country. If there are no other questions, um, any other questions? >> Okay, thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you.
>> And we'll move on to item number six, uh, reports. Uh, starting with celebration reports. >> None for me. No school. school sports >> any celebration reports. Um, is our rep on Zoom?
>> Did our Did our student rep log in? >> Um, Ka, can you hear us? >> Yes, I can. Can you hear me? >> Yes, we can. We are on celebration reports. Did you have anything to talk about? >> Um, I have one or I guess I have two.
Um, I don't have much for either of them, but the first one, um, before the school year ended, I was working with Dr. Bonaface to get senior parking spots back um, as a thing that we do, which will be really fun. Um, I drafted like
an incomplete um, contract so that we could get working on that. And I think we'll meet within the first couple weeks of school to get that going. So that's exciting. And then the other thing is uh
I met with uh Laura Dit with um a Durango school board representative to talk about how they work with their student reps. And it was really interesting to hear about. I didn't take as many notes as Laura did, but um I
they mentioned some things about passion projects, how they use their students to interview or help draft interview questions for the next set of student representatives. Um just the way that they implement the students into each meeting. So that was cool to hear about
as well. >> Awesome. Great. Thank you, Um, are there board reports? >> The hosties will be in August. Any other board reports? Um, if not, I would like to um just give
a little further report. As Kaia mentioned um and I mentioned at our last board meeting, uh Mr. Ramirez was kind enough to arrange um uh introduction to um Andrea who's the
Durango school board member um student liaison. Um I had met her originally at the CASBY conference. Um and I think I had also reported on that um presentation about student board members.
Um and I had sent some information that came out to the meeting to the full board. There was a podcast um that talked about student reps and also um
a uh some of example documents from uh from Durango that they use. Um some of my takeaways were um you know the recommendation is uh
usually before starting a student board program is uh the recommendation is to uh ask why do we want this? What do we expect um to get out of this? Um and then to make sure that you have the
systems and policies um in place. Um there the reasons um that uh student voice can be helpful is uh as board members we are very removed
from the classroom yet students are basically our enduser if you want to think about that model and so they do have some real world um input and then we also have a better feedback loop about um the policies and decisions we make. Um so uh for our board discussion
um I would I would like to have a little further discussion about our student program uh kind of where we are now and uh the board's readiness um if we're happy with uh with how it is or um if there is some improvement we would like
to make and um the Durango board member is also um very uh gracious and has offered to uh come and share information directly with the board um if we would ever like her to. Okay. And if there are no further
reports, uh we'll move on to citizens address the board. Dr. Dit, uh the only one we have is the one that came in. Um and that one has been revised. So, you should have a new email. >> Tonight, we were allowing submission uh
written submission due to the weather. Uh we let people know shortly before and we did get one response. Um so, this comment is from Casey McCain. Um, I have questions about the new
elementary instructional model called NES. I am not clear on what it is, cost, or why a few people are confident it's a magic bullet for student achievement here. Uh, what I do know, NES was presented at the class conference in February by Mike Miles. Um, direct
director Lynch was president of class at the time and our district was a dues paying member. Yet the board was never debriefed about NES or the possibility of adopting it. Despite that, the model has been pushed with urgency and vagueness since March
um by Lynch and two district administrators. Claims of efficacy have been made without supporting data. Miles has a history with Brad Miller and has worked for as a for-profit education consultant in Colorado. While Miller's
class pushes Colorado districts towards NES, Miles and his appointed board face community push back. Since none of them are elected, they've ignored it. I've watched over 40 Houston residents raised concerns in a 1-hour public comment
period only for the board to vote unanimously with no discussion. Now, one board member and a couple of administrators seem to be pushing this through without the transparency you and the community deserve. Questions are met with vagueness and accusations of
overstepping and veiled threats about the superintendent's contract buyout, a provision negotiated by only one remaining board member and prior legal prior legal counsel. Uh why are we obligated to follow Houston's curriculum changes and pay
whatever the cost? This looks like a bait and switch we should have seen coming. The contract approved last meeting was to be signed only by our superintendent and theirs. Does a superintendent have authority to commit district resources without board signature? How can staff be ready to
implement this in under three weeks when no one can clearly explain what it is or what it costs? How does this connect to consultant training and purchase services contracts and at what expense? Has money already gone out the door? Local control is not Houston control. If this program is right for us, we should
feel informed and confident, not confused and railroaded. Thank you. Okay. So then there was no tickets turned in for Okay. So moving on to discussion items. Uh board discussion.
I think the summer must be the slow season. There's nothing to bring for board discussion. And then I'll use this time to um invite my fellow board members to um kind of
tell me um your perspective of why we have a student school board member um and um what um I guess we could just kind of start with that. What are we expecting to get
out of it? And I guess I would start first by inviting um Kaia if you had any comments you wanted to make. >> I don't think I have many. Um I think I I like using my position to voice not
only celebrations but also concerns that might be left unheard just if they're like little or people don't really want to speak much about them. Um, I would say I'm good at public speaking. So, I think it is a good role for me to be
that in between. Um, and there it might be a little helpful to create a more formal guideline around it just so that I make sure I'm doing my role correctly and not
um missteping or doing anything outside of the box. But that's about it. Thanks, Ka. May I go ahead?
>> Yes, please. So, uh, Ka, first of all, thank you so much for agreeing to be our student representative. I strongly believe that you have done a great job. Um, I really believe that you have done
what needs to be done because I really think that the student representative role should be to show us the pulse of the schools, the the pulse of what it means to be a student, what it means to
be that age again, what your concerns and happy moments and safe spaces look like in your schools. Um, so I hope that it is an avenue where
you can bring concerns and celebrations and reports and ideas to the board that will benefit you personally and will benefit your
fellow students as well. So, and that they get to know that you are a good lead, that your fellow students know that you are a good lead to bring issues before the board and that we can send
responses back in that regards. I mean, you have an open channel with the board basically and um you know, you kind of you find your you find your spot in your space within
the board within your you know, conversations with your principal and the superintendent. So there's a lot of levels to look at and I just think you're doing a great job and please just keep it up because that's what I feel
that we need from you. We need, you know, honest we need honest reviews of how you guys are doing at school. So, um I I think uh I can always be wrong, but
it it looks like uh there's not very much um in writing or there there are no expectations, no roles and responsibilities that I know of for the student representatives. And I think
that makes it hard u for them to know what to do, when to do it, how how to navigate that position. Um, I think what has become apparent, at least to me, is that um
the board or the high school, I'm not sure which, but somehow there there ought to be some guidelines set up for the student representatives so that they kind of know what to expect
and um what their guard rails are, what our guard guard rails are. Uh I think that would be very helpful and I I don't I don't see that we have that right now. I think that would it's part of our responsibility to provide these
opportunities to our students because um I think leadership and the way discussion happens and decisions are made are very important just for you know being a member of a community and it really is important to have a student
representative represent their community and be able to present it to us because I I really do appreciate the insight um and some of the conversations that have been had so far. So, I would really support a student representative and to have more
of a have a more um what do I want to say because I think it's been very informed so far, you know. So, I would like to see it continue. I I think that student representative is
a great idea. Um, one thing I think that might be better, especially if it's at the high school level, is to have that representative meet with other students at the high school beforehand. um not just bring her ideas to or
whoever the student I say Ka but her not just her ideas but she should probably meet with other students at the high school and have like a committee or something at the high school to bring those things to us because that would represent more of the high school than
just one person. So um I've never gotten the impression that anybody wanted to get rid of the student representative. So, I am uh assuming that all the board members like the idea of having student representatives uh on the board. I think
it's a good idea, too. Um but uh being a a new board member two years ago, I had no idea what their duty was. I just thought it was like uh bringing the comments from the high school and letting the board know and then sitting
in on the board and seeing how government local government happens and experiencing that. That was my assumption. I don't have any written basis for that. And then uh as people change, different things happen and it's
like well that that didn't that doesn't match the assumptions that I had that it was supposed to be. And so, um, I that's why I kind of think the guidance would help a lot and, um, and and take a lot
of the, uh, misunderstandings away in terms of the representatives themselves and, uh, board members. Uh, myself in particular because I had certain expectations and uh, I was wrong. I those were all assumptions. So,
I think it would be helpful to put put some guidance together um to help the student representatives. >> Yeah. And I I don't want to imply that I thought anyone on this board didn't support the student program. It's just that when I spoke with Andrea, she had recommended starting with the question
of why do we want to start a program? It's like we already have one. So, that was the question that uh that I thought I could bring. Um and um I would say that um the advice both um in the podcast I listened to and in
their presentation and in the meeting that I had with Kaia, she was very clear that if you're going to do this um it is a peer-to-peer relationship that um student is a peer of the board members. They're not voting members. They're not
in executive session. Um but in order to do that you do need to um have policies and procedures in place. Um you need to have onboarding training for them um for governance and um a liaison who can um
help support them because there's a student go coming into this is very um can be very intimidated. Um, and it's you really want them to uh to speak up and to understand how governance works. And um, Durango actually has five
schoolboard members and um, we learned about some amazing things that they have done um, not just for their school but um, at the legislative level for the state as they're um, as they're advocating for for themselves and their
other students. Um and so um I think we have a great resource as a neighbor. Obviously our program would be different but I would recommend that we have that as a future discussion item perhaps at a work session on uh where the gaps are um updating our policies
and procedures um as we move forward. And thank you everybody for for sharing your thoughts and thank you Kaia. Did you have anything else to add Kaia? >> I do um try my best to get a feedback
from a wide variety of students. It is hard when you are one uh or two students trying to reach such a wide audience. Um we've talked with Dr. Bonaface about setting up a more
effective approach to getting everybody's uh feedback because uh a prior student representative did do like a comment box by the office but that hasn't really proved to be super helpful in reaching everybody. Um so we've
talked about doing an online option. Um, so I do I do try my best to reach more opinions than just my own. Um, I don't want to make it seem like I'm just enforcing my opinion. Um, yeah, that's I
I am trying. Sorry, I should have said who was on those. Thank you for asking that. >> I do. >> Yeah. Okay. Um Okay, then. Uh moving on to uh
consent action items. Is there a motion? >> I'm assuming we're just approved. I'm try to approve them all at once. >> Yeah, I need a motion. >> I move to approve the consent action items.
>> A second. Online voting is now available. Director Blair, did you get your popup vote? >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Motion passes unanimously. We'll show the vote.
Maybe Andy, can you update this? Can you refresh? Sorry, wrong word. Then maybe it'll work for the rest of them. You guys okay with moving on as we're waiting for that to load? Okay,
>> that's fine. >> Um, so we'll move on to um is this updated? Was the um agenda item for the high school handbook moved to F? Is that the next one? >> Mine didn't
take that. Wait, didn't mine either. Might be that I need to refresh. >> [laughter] >> a year ago. >> Oh, that's right. [laughter] Oh, there it is. Aha. Student handbook.
Sorry. >> Okay. Is there a motion on action item A? >> No. What? >> That is the um the Monizuma Cortez High School student handbook for 2026
27. >> I move to approve the Monizuma Cortez High School student handbook for 2026 27. I second the motion. >> Okay. >> And Ka, did you have some comments you
wanted to make? >> Yes. Um, I was reading through the handbook a while ago and I thought it might be a little bit of a little bit valuable to hear how a student might um
view the changes to the phone policy. not as any sort of criticism, just as a different perspective. Um, I know this was sort of just talked about about getting a wider variety of inputs from other students, but seeing as it was summer and I just sort of put this
together, this is sort of an informal, you know, initial thoughts coming from a student. Um, I wrote down a couple things starting here. A successful zero phone policy depends on more than simply removing phones. It
requires classrooms to maintain consistently engaging from the first bell to the last. If students are expected to be off their phones for the entire school day, u minus lunch, there must be enough meaningful instruction, discussion, independent work, or
enrichment to keep them actively engaged throughout every class period. Um, a common student experience, including my own, is that direct instruction ends often ends well before the class period does. When students finish assignments early or there is unstructured time
remaining, many are left with little to do, which I believe would likely increase disengagement and frustration rather than improving focus. Um, I do entirely agree that phones can be distracting, but I also think that
policies should recognize the importance of creating engaging classroom environments that naturally reduce the desire to use them. Um, allowing phones to remain accessible within the classroom, such as in a classroom phone caddy, can provide
flexibility when needed. In situations where school issued devices cannot perform a required function, such as camera recordings, specific websites, or other tools, having phones nearby allows teachers to make instructional decisions without students needing to retrieve devices
from another location. Um, further designating an extra five minutes at the beginning or end of the day for students to retrieve phones from a first hour teacher or the office could create significant congestion. This concern is especially relevant for groups with unique schedules such as the
large number of students who begin their day in band. And finally, this policy represents a substantial cultural shift. Many students are entering the school year directly from summer break or phone use has been largely unrestricted. Implementing a highly restrictive policy
immediately may result in unnecessary conflict and resistance. A system that balances accountability with practicality may be more successful in gaining student cooperation over time. Um, a possible suggestion could be to
consider allowing each classroom to use an individual phone caddy, which we already do have those in the classrooms, I believe. I think they just weren't super heavily enforced this past year. Um, but allowing an individual phone caddy for each class period rather than
requiring a centralized phone storage. Um, I think this approach still removes phones from students immediate possession during instruction while keeping them nearby if a teacher determines they are needed for an educational purpose or another legitimate reason. I It also reduces
logistical challenges associated with distributing and collecting phones throughout the school day. Thank you, Ka. >> Madam Chair, I have a point of clarification, please. Um, we just adopted the consent agenda, item
number nine, which had several things in it, and we moved to item number 10, action items. The agenda when it was adopted at the beginning of this meeting removed the high school handbook from the consent agenda and added it to the
action items. I believe that should have been added at the end, but here we are talking about it in the beginning. I don't understand. >> I believe it was part of the >> part of the >> motion that it be at the beginning of the action items. So, when I typed it
out, I'm not sure if that's what you said exactly, but I added that it would be item 10A. >> Okay. I sometimes I can't hear what other board members are saying, especially those with a very soft voice. [laughter]
>> Thank you. >> Do you have anything to say? [laughter] test it and see. >> It's really tall. Um, first I just want to say thank you Kaia. Um, you highlight some really great points. I 100% agree with you about the engagement and
bell-to-bell instruction. Um, we had two district day meetings yesterday and today with leadership admin, um, where we were working on our UIPs and some of our priorities and she hit the nail on the head. We need engaging classrooms,
b-tobell instruction, rigor, and that does help get the phones out of kids' hands. If they're done, if they're bored, if we have advanced students who are done in five minutes, what do we really expect them to do? Um, so I agree, Kaia, thank you for bringing that up and that is something we should
definitely work together on. Um, we also I agree with you on the caddies in the classroom. Every classroom, that was the initial goal. Every teacher has a cell phone caddy. Every teacher collects the phones. The problem is just like sometimes with our students, um
consistency is not always present. And so kids report pretty constantly that certain teachers collect, certain teachers don't. Um or certain teachers will just when admin walks in the room. And it is a daily fight. Even for the teachers who are being very consistent,
it's a fight every day, every period of the day. So instead of doing that in every single class, we took it to first hour, fifth hour, and at the end of the day, less fights. It's locked up. It's out of sight, out of mind. It truly is an addiction for students. If you hear
your phone buzz, they almost can't help but go look at it. Um, and she mentioned, and I I agree again, Kai, I think it's a good point. Sometimes our technology doesn't always work for us. There are websites kids can't access because it's blocked. So, the quick
go-to for a teacher is go ahead and look it up on your phone. But instead of quick, let's look it up on our phone. If we preemptively get with tech and say here are the websites I need for my lesson, they can unblock those. But it takes that pre-planning and the lesson
plan um to be ready so that they can do that with tech and then we don't have the issue. Um our computers have cameras on them. We also have cameras in school. So, I can't really think of a technology we have to have a phone for. Um,
and if we don't have it, we can get it. We have iPads. We have things we can check out. Um, there's really no need for phones for emergencies. We have classroom phones. Um, and I also think we need to do actually more off technology with it's being proven more
and more that kids are losing learning by being stuck on the computers and the technology all the time. So, we don't need it in the classroom. Also, according to our policy, it's um not even in the hallways, and that is a beast to manage. Um it's a beast for
staff who don't know the kids. You know, we have a nurse walking down the hall. Her job is really to say, "Hey, get off your phone. Hand it to me." She doesn't know their name. They don't know her name. It's a It's a battle in the hall. It shouldn't be in the hall at all. It's locked up first hour. You don't see it
till lunch. Eliminate the issue. um kids with special hours. It it's real and true. We have kids with varying schedules, but that's why our office will have a box. So, let's say a student has a work release first and second period, they come in third, they don't
have to go hunt down their first hour teacher. They turn their phone into the office caddy and they collect it back from the same place. Um, so it's not taking up too much time and I think in the long run it'll save all of the time every teacher is fighting with the students every period of the day,
hallways, bathrooms. Um, we have kids who are recording over the stalls while children are trying to go to the bathroom. Um, and we are trying our best to manage that, but the best way to manage it, take away the phones. So, thank you. >> Can I add to that?
>> Yeah. Um, I would just say that the high school handbook policies are completely in alignment with current board policy. Um, and then second, I would say last year some district administration and board members read the book Anxious Generation, which has a lot of really
good information on how cell phone, not just the use of cell phones, but the presence of cell phones within a student's um, access, whether it's in their pocket or their bag, uh, has a dramatic impact on their ability to focus in class. even like the little alerts that happen whether it's a buzz
or a chime has a immediately has the impact of distracting them from what's going on around them and so I just wanted to add that piece so if they're the one thing I always wonder about is how do we hold them accountable because you know they're going to try to get around it that it's
just just human nature so how are we going to hold them accountable >> so our hope is we have students of course, who are going to come into their first hour teacher and say, "I don't have a phone." >> Yeah. >> Well, okay. But if you get caught with it, now you're not just in trouble for having the phone. Now you're in trouble
for being dishonest. So, it's a double penalty. And then we also want to loop in parents early. So, last year we changed it. First, we went from um first time, second time, you just got it taken away. No parent involvement. Third time, parent was involved. Then we went to
after the second time the parent would be involved. We need the parents to be involved right away. They need to know when their kids are pulling out their phones. But we also need to put out the word to parents. We have a lot of parents texting their kids in class. Um, hey, what do you want for lunch? Or, hey, don't forget about your
appointment. And it's really hard than when we say, "Hand me your phone. I was texting my mom. See, it's really sometimes true. So, it needs to be a partnership with families, but it also needs to be pretty firm on, you know, the the consequence. you're not only in
trouble for having the phone, you also just lied about it. So, um, we also put a little chain in there. So, if you get caught with it once and lie, we're going to start keeping the phone the whole day. You're not even going to get it at lunch. You don't have to leave campus.
You can stay on campus and be perfectly safe. >> Oh, one thing. >> Oh, no, no, no. I I this might be something. Um, I went into Alma recently to see, okay, I'm going to send a message to one of Will's teachers asking
him a question because Will called from his teachers classroom saying, "Hey, you need to sign this waiver and he's going to email it to you." And I was going back and forth. Alma doesn't have contacts for teachers. >> It doesn't have the directory at all.
There was one person who agreed to be in the like agreed to be in the directory. So, I don't have names of teachers. I don't have extensions. I don't have classrooms. >> That's tricky. >> So, if I don't have that, then yes, I'm going to ask that somehow. I mean,
unfortunately, I'm one of those, "Hey, Will, remember your appointment tomorrow?" And then he answers me and I was like, "Why are you answering me? Why are you texting me?" >> Right. >> Yeah. >> So, it's a it's a circle. Yeah, >> but I think having uh an effective way to reach an a current extension
>> and an email address and a correct name for that um classroom teacher would be would go miles would gain you a lot. >> Yeah, >> I'm glad to hear that. I didn't know that and that is a huge barrier. I also would like most I think even at the
middle school teachers use Google classroom >> when we have registration nights those parents can be linked on Google classroom and actually also see all the assignments the ch the kids are getting and I don't see any reason why parents aren't directly linked into that same code when they give it to the kid give
it to the parent >> I haven't I haven't received >> I know I've said that I want it to be >> in Google classroom >> we should make it a a rule but I'm just saying >> [laughter] >> and and and I I don't know how many times I have asked my student who knows
nothing about keeping track or have reminders on his brain about what needs to happen and I can't go check it. >> Yeah. >> So, I can't contact the teachers and I don't have a way to check it. >> No, that's really good to know. Um, and the other benefit of being linked into the Google classroom, when students turn
the work in late, you can actually you can opt out, but hopefully parents wouldn't opt in to say, "Give me a weekly status report," and it'll show, you know, your your kid turned in five things late this week. >> I'd like to just keep us on on topic with the cell phone. Yeah.
>> And and I have received that he's missing assignments and then he tells me, "No, I'm not missing that assignment. It's just it hasn't been graded yet." that I get the >> notification that they're missing assignments. >> Yeah, but that would help with parents not texting kids in class. So, thank you.
>> I I think so. That would be helpful. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Any other comments, questions for me on cell phones? >> So, the um the policy says that all personal technical devices shall be kept in designated areas parenthesy as
determined by school administration close parenthesy and turned off. >> Yes. So, it's up to you to determine where that designated area is. And in the high school, the only difference is that they can take um their personal
technical uh device to lunch. >> We purchased these lockable cabinets. Um one of the complaints from students last year was teachers had a box caddy um but kids were messing with each other's phones and they didn't feel their property was safe. So, they were
resistant to hand it over. So, we bought the lockable box and that way students feel comfortable their their phone is locked up. It is safe. Kids can't go mess with it or try to steal it. Um, and yes, the rule is turn off, put it in, and it's locked. >> How how noisy is that box? You know,
those things are going off all the time. >> I'm sure. >> Is there like styrofoam or anything like if they don't turn it off or something like that? >> I don't know to be honest with you. I haven't heard it. What I will say is some of the phones I collect and don't have off,
>> it's hundreds of Snapchats and messages from kids in our school, the middle school, and it's just shocking kids in class, and you're just seeing this. >> Yeah. >> They're not learning when they're doing that. >> Yeah. Correct. >> I think we've heard um different
perspectives. We've heard a student perspective. We've heard it a principal, an administrator, a parent perspective. um we haven't heard a teacher perspective. Um I'm wondering if you
would um be willing to um find a way to incorporate the different perspectives because um >> I think that even students we think they want their phones all day but most of them realize
it's a little bit not great. Yeah. and they don't want their classmates as well. So, um I I think you were about to say that you took everyone's perspective into this one. Um but I wonder if you would be willing to
do a check-in maybe with our student rep if this is what you wanted to go in to see. Well, how are students feeling about it? Do they have suggestions for improvement? Um and work collaboratively with them. I think it's important to do that with teachers and students. So, we
did um work with our leadership team and then our leadership team worked with our staff. We also have talked with the students and the student reps about how they feel. Some kids, you're right, actually want the phones out of the classroom. They want it to be consistent and fair. Um but some also are are bored
and they're like, "This is what I do when I'm done." Um so, yes, I think continually going back and revisiting is it working? What's not working? We've had to revise our cell phone policy several times already. Just finding, okay, that didn't quite work. Let's try
to add this piece or take this piece away. So, I'm sure just like with this, we'll find some flaw. Um or the kids or the teachers will point it out. We'll have to adjust. I think that's that's the beauty of collaboration, right? Yeah. And I I think what I had heard was that the end of the day, you know,
sometimes it may not be that instruction is going, but students work at different paces. So, if you have an assignment and you finish quickly, like a test or something that day, um is there something for that student to do that is constructive um where they're they're
learning and engaged? >> Yeah. And that's one of our big goals with our staff is the engagement bell instruction and that differentiation piece. There shouldn't be a lot of downtime for students. I'm done and I
just sit. That's why a lot of GT kids end up dropping out to be honest is they don't feel like they they can do it at home in 10 minutes and why sit here for an hour. So we need to engage them and make relevance and also tasks that push their
limits not just well I know she can do it in 10 minutes I'm going to give her that task anyway. Give her a different task that pushes her stretches her mind and we're working on that. Do >> students have to I mean students that finish quickly an assignment or something have
access to >> I don't know if I'm trivializing too much but like coloring pages coloring markers. >> When I was a teacher I had drawers full of that stuff. It depends on the teacher but our curriculum does have a lot of resources where the if the teacher sets
different groups they can say okay here's here's my advanced group. Here's my middle of the road group. And there's um extension activities, enrichment activities. Um so even if it's not the drawer full of things, it's in the curriculum if if the teachers will start
using it and the kids will be willing to try it. Um with our advisory, we also are trying to build in some things that target some of those passion areas so they can do some passion projects. So that could also bleed into, okay, I was working in advisory on this passion project. I just finished my math
homework and I have nothing to do. I'm work on my passion project. So, yeah. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. >> And just just one more suggestion like as far as the cell phones go, I think that AirPods and I'm sure you're going to have struggles and it'll be it's all
AirPods, Apple Watches, the all those things. You'll have struggles with those and I'm thinking you're going to have to have a lot of adjustments with that, too. Um >> the AirPods are really, really challenging, but I always say it has
a phone. >> Yeah, correct. >> And I think in just the small amount of time I've spent in the high school, I think that the hoods really higher hide hide the AirPods really well. So I think it like being a little more consistent for everybody to be more consistent with
the hood policy that I think the AirPod policy would fall into it and the cell phone. Yeah. >> Huge. If a kid one staff member says take your hood off the next staff member doesn't the kid know soon as I turn the corner comes we'll watch it on camera >> correct yeah
>> it has to be everybody but it is really challenging to get every staff member on board certain policies trying our best >> ka did you have any other comments after listening to the discussion
>> I think just one um I appreciate all the points that were made. I did hear something about um you know like the quicker pace students maybe should be getting different work or further assignments. I've personally never seen
that happen in any of my classes and if there was any like set plan for that to work or to be implemented. >> That's why it's a goal right now. I wasn't meaning we're doing it now. We're
hoping to make that better. So the engagement the bell to bell the differentiation that's a goal of ours to make sure it's targeted because you're absolutely correct. It's not happening right now. >> Okay. Thank you. >> And I have a question for you Kaya. Are
your peers aware of the dangers of cell phones? Like Mr. Schmidt was mentioning the I don't know somatic psychological damages that it that it can cause. Are your peers aware of that? I'm just curious.
>> Um, like I said, I wasn't able to get like a wide variety of opinions for this. Um, seeing that I only read it a couple days ago and it's summer so it's harder to reach out. I would say there are quite a few students that recognize like that phones can be distracting, but
I think that in this generation specifically, like there's a lot that you would have to do to convince them to not be on their phones regardless if you told them there was a danger with it. Um, I speaking from my opinion, I don't really care about being on my phone. I
think I was just speaking from what I think the general student body would react to this um coming back from summer and knowing or seeing in my classes how many kids are on their phones when there's no instruction, stuff like that.
um just to find that middle ground so that they don't get I I can just see them see the general student body reacting negatively to this in going from zero um enforcement to the
centralized uh phone collection where they don't have access to them even in passing periods and they can't travel with their phones. I can see how that would be have a negative reaction in a large um manner. Thank you,
>> Ka. Do you um like what would your recommendation be if the board votes to approve this handbook? Um like do you like how do you think um what would be your suggestion for
checking in on it um and and evaluating? What what would that process look like from a student inclusive p perspective? Do you think? Um, in terms of evaluating, I think speaking realistically, if you sent out
any sort of survey to the students to ask how they felt about it, everyone would say that they hate it. Um, so I don't really know how it would be regarded in any positive manner if I'm
being honest. I think there would be a few students that would be like, "Yes, I really like this. It's helping me a lot." Um, but with that bell-to-bell instruction, having a lot of free time, I think a lot of students, at least within the first couple weeks, while it
nothing has, as it's still a goal, um, it would be hard to receive a positive um, reaction. >> Can I ask you a question, Ka, just because we had several conversations? >> Can you go to the Can you go to the microphone?
I need to go to the microphone. Sorry. >> We had several conversations in the student council group and you guys pointed out that um need for less task giving and more engagement. Have you guys vocalized that directly to your
teachers? I'm just curious. >> I would say probably not. I think the student student government is such a small sort of it's almost like informal that I would be surprised if any of that actually makes it out most of the time.
>> I think it would be powerful for them to hear it from you guys. Not in a critical way like you need to teach us better. Um but just that you do want more rigor, you do want more projects. um when we say it even through you it sometimes
feels top down like your boss is telling you to do something but if it comes from your students want this from you I think they'll respond but we maybe we can work on how we present that but I think it'd be powerful hearing it from you guys all of you
that's all is there any further discussion before we vote Okay, go ahead. >> Online voting is now available. >> Um, Madame Chair, would you please state the the motion that we're voting on?
Restate the motion so that we know what what what we're voting on. >> Um, >> should pop up >> to approve the Monizuma Cortez High School student handbook for 2026 2027.
There is a typo. Um, >> approve. >> Yes, >> I see it. >> There's approved twice and one of them needs to be removed. >> Thank you. >> Did that correct on your side? >> Going to resend the vote.
>> Thank you for telling me. >> Thank you. Director Dwit, did you get your popup? >> Yes, but the No, but the Okay. Yes, that I have it now.
>> Motion passes unanimously. Okay, moving on to Consolidated Schoolwide Application and Elementary and Secondary Education Act, ESA asurances form. Is there a motion on this item?
>> I make I move to approve the substantial consolidated schoolwide application of pool title one and title two for the 2627 school year and the annual ESA general asurances form dated 72126.
Is there a second? >> I second. >> Okay. Is there discussion? Um, I had um a few things. Um, when I read over the application, as
I understand it, um, this is title title one and title two funds um that are awarded to districts based on certain characteristics. And this is um federal money which comes
with a lot of stipulations which is the um the assurance that we are providing. Um and so one of the stipulations
um is that the um proposals follow or the contracts follow uh federal contracting guidance. And so um one of those depending on the amount
um is that um so the the proposal for uh education partners is for $300,000 for one year and it's below the threshold where it needs to be put out for a full bid but
it is that threshold where you do need to do market research um and get quotes. So um I would like to understand the process of that market research and um the quotes received education partners uh isn't under that
requirement only because it's also a sole source provider. That means that there are certified to proprietary coverage to do this training. And with with that sole source, uh there aren't
any other companies that do that that are entitled to do uh the implementation of the NEES. And also the other consultant that's a lesser amount uh in board policy DJ
and also makes reference to the statute uh exempts instructional consultants and instructional materials and you have that in board polic board policy and can refer to that DJ
uh bidding procedures. But I I understand that the first bullet point that we are stating is that if our policies um that we do have to follow our own policy, but also we have to follow the federal policies since it's federal money. So there's additional
stipulations, >> right? And I'm saying that it's approved by CDE also uh not in education partners but the previous consultant that's repeat for second year Dr. Romero uh as a consultant and that passes also with
uh the federal government with that uh application approval. >> And so when you say the single source justification, is that based on market research or is that based on a actual certificate of soul source?
>> A certificate of soul source. >> Okay. Can you share that with me? >> Yes. I put it in the package right in the contract. It's in your >> Oh, it's in the contract. Okay. >> Which can be found under the attachment. Um, >> I did read through the contract. I did not see that, but I will look for it.
>> It's the one that's listed as the education partners service agreement. >> Okay. And then who wrote the statement of work? Did the district write the statement of work or did education partners write the statement of work? uh it's a mutual proposal where we discuss
the scope of work and what uh in agreement so that we can come up with a quote that's acceptable to us also. >> Okay. And when we had the discussion about the NES implementation at the May meeting, we were told that this would be
less expensive because it is less than benchmark in the curriculum that we were purchasing and there was no mention at that point of um using $300,000 for the implementation. Um so when was that decision made to do
that? you you are correct but uh the district has been very aggressive in having urgency because of the low performance uh historically that has occurred in on the state assessment of CAMASS. Uh and so this became aware
because we were also looking at other contractors and did not even know about education partners at that point. And so just like the federal application uh revenue stream was approved in the regular budget adoption that we did in
May, at that time it was a revenue stream in the expense amount. uh when you approve the general operation and the federal uh grants and now we've come uh in time to know what we wanted the uh
grant to uh fund because as I reported to the board we were not going to do a shotgun approach what the district has done with consultants and providers and licenses and other things that we didn't have focus and we didn't do any of it
well and and you know as I do the board uh the results that that uh produced with the student outcomes on the state assessment. So what I'm trying to explain carefully is that it's been evolving and it's different component
when we said there would be no cost. It was about Houston ISD and the curriculum and that still is no cost. And also in the board agenda, you have theou that are uh law firm was able to uh get in alignment with the lawyers from Houston
ISD in agreement in thatou so that it protects the district's interests as well and uh also at that time it was a 2526 curriculum and Houston ISD decided to uh move on still with one of the
supplemental curriculums the board had approved. move which was Amplify uh the CKLA uh reading uh publisher Amplify Amplify is the publisher. So now that's become the main curriculum but it is
still addresses the Colorado state standards. It's still uh and so that's evolved. It's not like the administration tried to hide it or change or br it in late. It's just how all this process is evolving in this
short three-month period. I hope I didn't confuse the board, but I'm trying to explain how u madam dit about how uh at one point yes there was no cost because there wasn't any part about how
this was going to be implemented. It was more about to get the product the curriculum from HISD. And then uh we got to the point where we got we knew we were going to have to train and how we're going to implement this and to get the expertise. That's when I had a
conversation with the superintendent of Houston, Mike Miles, because I was going to try to contract with them to use their trainers. And he had said no. said that what we're doing with all the schools that we give this free to is education partners is a group that has
been training uh with us for four or five years and with other school districts and summermies that they have with other districts uh besides Houston in Texas and now uh we're the first in Colorado and there's also a school
district in Oregon that's the first for the state of Oregon that's going to be using it as as well. So just just to report that that's how it's evolving and I apologize for any confusion or uh but I I I want to thank
you for the support because it's uh it's trying to improve everything for everyone and involve everyone as much as possible. Thank you. There's also um under the first bullet point it lists various regulations um
and uh one of those um I think it's the first one 8306A1 um it talks about if you're using federal funds you have to have the enforcement of the obligation and so it's not that you sign a contract and you hope that there that there's that
the there's deliverables there's actually a way to track that the items um or the services are being delivered. Um so if there isn't something in place right now um I would suggest that we
have that in place that's about 400 almost $400,000 in fees we're paying um to consultants, >> right? And so it's not um you know I would prefer it not to just
be test scores. Um I would like to know are the meetings happening when they say they're happening and are the people who are meeting with those consultants getting results >> because that is a very large amount of money. >> Yeah. So there's aou
and we'll put that if the board approves uh here tonight then we'll move to the next step with our uh board's council and we have theou that will that our employers vet and make any adjustments
uh to your uh comment about >> yeah the contract and also >> uh the evaluation of it >> and and the reporting of it as it's going along. Yes, ma'am. >> And then I I appreciate you uploading
the actual application. The thing that we are attesting to is correct. >> Um I know I asked for that late. I appreciate it. I didn't have a chance to read it in its entirety. >> Um I was interested in the public comment part of it because that is also
a stipulation. Um and I think that's another area along with the enforcement of the contracts that we have a lot of room for improvement. I've sat in a lot of sack and DAC meetings and I have not seen a lot of constructive input being actually incorporated into it. And so
that is one of the stipulations. Um as we sign this it says the LEA assures that it is or will take action to become in compliance with the following. So, if I am signing that, I'm expecting that um because this
the board wasn't even aware of this until it came on the agenda. So, the substantial public input on the title one and title two funds is to me >> and so we've got a ways to go. I I agree and it has been late because when we did
the regular budget of uh the general op and we had the grants there too that's the time that the application and the and the public input and all that has been completed and uh so where the
district made an effort to accelerate and have the budget adopted in time we still got here late to June because we ran into difficult difficulties in the uh presentation and going back and forth and having several meetings with the
board and so we're getting more sophisticated where come March 2027 all that should be completed. It should not drag on to June because this federal application I had to file a waiver extension so that when the board
approves it tonight and it goes to CDE tomorrow, it allows us to incumber I mean to use expenses starting July 1. Today is July 21st. So we're 21 days late and that's why I had to apply for the waiver. And so it's me pushing my
staff in planning and preparation and involvement of the public and the principles and everyone and the board as we go along and get to the end of approval of all budgets general and grants by uh March and that and I I
assure you that that is going to occur because we've gone through this trial run this first year in my first six months of tenure as superintendent and I see that and I know that I'm trying to accelerate and push it and change and
train and build capacity but you are correct and I understand that >> I I would suggest that we get the input before the application and also you know the board did approve the panorama tool >> you know we can get
>> survey results as very easily >> as in addition to in person um >> and um you know to to phrase it in ways that are meaningful for people because um >> I agree >> people are willing to answer surveys if
they see they see some >> Yep. I want to give both the opportunity face to face but I also want to reach out to everybody with the surveys and we will we will do that for sure >> and I >> thank you
And by the way, there's 28 points in the insurance. just if you're wondering how what you're agreeing to >> and I would check next year um because I believe that federal purchasing money with federal money or
purchasing contracts with federal money has different obligations than general fund. >> Yes. And so, um, >> they do, >> um, to be doing the market research, the statement of work is supposed to be
written by the district, um, so that we are putting out our needs and >> and and usually that's the case, but the district's exempt from that in certain categories. And so, uh, you'll see that in the new procurement policy later today in the agenda as well. And that's,
uh, also DJ. And so you'll see those also in regulations and those specifications. >> Yeah. But we need to make sure that our contracts are meeting our needs and we're not conforming our needs to a prepackaged what's available. >> Right.
Director Dit, are you ready for a vote? >> There's no further comments, please. >> Online voting is now available. Motion passes 4 to two. We'll show those results. Um, sorry. Um, moving on to the next item,
policy first reading. Um, we don't need a motion for this because this is not an action. Correct. Okay. No. >> Is it a regular reading or is it an emergency approval reading?
>> This is just regular. >> Thank you. Just um for the board's information, these policies were um brought up to the policy committee by uh Lisa and she had
several things that she wanted to um see changed in those policies. And so that's why the policy committee took them up and worked with her to get the the edits put in there. Who else did you get input on um like
from who work with students or families? >> Uh there was no need to talk to students or families about this. This is mainly um uh how to follow the law and make it clear in the policies that um the staff
understands what they can and can't do regarding the law. Is that correct, Mr. Ramirez? >> That's correct. And it's also under the advisement of legal and the legal assisted us in the development of it. >> Okay. Thank you. >> There's no further questions. We'll move
on to the next action item. City of Cortez school resource officer. I move that we approve theou with the city of Cortez to have two school resource officers. >> I second.
>> Do we have to read the entire motion? The entire language of the motion? >> That's that's for you to choose. I chose not to. Okay. >> We may we may want to for financial purpose.
>> I'd like the board to know also in the audience we have Chief Knuckles and our city manager Drew Sanders. >> We are waiting on a second. >> I'm sorry. >> Unless I missed it. >> I apologize. >> Thank you. >> We can open it up for discussion.
Can you give us more? [laughter] >> I'm just kidding. >> Is there is there any information you would like to share with the board? >> Good evening, board. Chief Knuckles, Cortez Police Department. Um, not a whole lot. Um, I think it's a great
opportunity to um expand um the law enforcement reach into the schools. Um, I know it's been a struggle for one SRO to to kind of manage both schools. And I think this is a great opportunity. Um,
and when I say law enforcement, I don't mean like law enforcement in the school. I mean, getting law enforcement in with the children, interacting and doing and, you know, and doing what SRO's do. Um, when Mr. Ramirez approached me, I felt
like it was a great idea. Um, city manager um was on board and I think, you know, if you read theou um the terms are are, you know, good for for everybody. So, if you have any specific questions about
what it looks like, you can ask. Other than that, I think um um we look forward to uh this this uh greater partnership. >> I just have one question. Do you bring the firearm into the school or is that
kept off campus? >> Nope. Um firearms are carried um the this SRO will be in full uniform. Um they're a state peace officer and uh yes they will carry their equipment with them and have um
>> Thank you. Thanks. >> Is there any other questions or discussion before the vote? Okay. Online voting is now available. Motion passes unanimously.
>> Thank you. >> Uh moving on. Um the city of Cortez playground days transportation. I move to approve the city of Cortezou for playground transportation for playground days. >> I second.
>> Is there any questions? We do have um Drew Sanders here, the city manager, and um some of the folks from the Playground Days program if you have any questions. >> Is there anything that um the Playground
Days group would like to present? >> Good evening. Jenny Bandai, assistant Parks and Recreation Director. Um the only thing I'll add is that right now our playground days is a thriving program. Um something that we really value both in our department and by the
community. Um we typically have 50 kids and 12 staff that require transportation and we have three vans right now and it can't carry all of those uh kids and our staff. So that's the main reason for the transportation. Um we plan on using it
about three to four times per summer for longer trips. Right now with shorter trips we can use the vans to carry kids back and forth back and forth but for the trips to Durango that are two hours away that would be the main purpose of this. So thank you for your support. Any questions?
Thank you. >> Online voting is now available. Motion passes unanimously. Um, >> thank you. >> Thank you. So, moving on to the next item, the 2026 2027 salary schedule.
uh director zero 178 days a nursing director stipend. >> I move that the board approve the director one comma 178 days salary schedule and director of health services stipend.
>> I second the motion. >> Is there discussion >> for clarity? I'm going to abstain from this the voting of this because it directly affects my wife's salary. >> Um, can you clarify what we're voting on?
>> Yeah, please. That's the next one. This is just >> This is the No, this is the health services stipend only. >> That's what she said. >> Oh, the salary schedule and the stipend, but it's not for the step increases.
It's just the for the nursing director. >> Correct. >> This is Sorry, I lost my place. Um and that was not my place. This is to approve the salary schedule
which has been amended on director zero who is a 178 day employee and is the director of health services. It's only for that one salary schedule change. >> I quickly realized when I was working on it that it was a almost impossible task.
Uh I'm asking in uh uh from the board to have a temporary pay that's listed including a stipen but uh we've already reached out to legal for an HR consultant salary specialist because uh
I would recommend to the board that uh the person involved in this schedule would be paid retroactive if there's more difference than what's being presented tonight. And so right now it's about a 6,800 uh increase from the last time we met,
but I don't feel like comfortable that that is aligned well. It's just more complicated in the private sector in comparison what we talked about last time. And so I'd ask the board to approve this tonight with the understanding that uh I I'll be back
soon next month uh with the final steady depending if they get through with that study. I spoke with a person involved with this on Monday as well and so uh I just wanted to be transparent and let you know that it's not complete and it's
not as easy as uh I once thought when from the last meeting. >> So the outside consultant was that for the entire salary schedule or was that just for the director of nursing that they were going to be reviewing that? I
would recommend that it be the entire uh district because we need to bring that alignment on every everything and we need to know what that uh uh entails you know financially >> and so we can make informed decisions.
>> Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Are there any questions? Uh just out of curiosity, why would why does the health services director is why is it tier zero? >> What's what's the difference?
>> Um Danielle might be available by Zoom to answer that. >> It's not zero. >> It is zero on the new one. >> Oh, but I recommend that it be on the older one at step 20. >> Not the step the title. They titled it
>> the tier. Yeah, >> the tier, >> right? I mean, yeah, >> right. It's a unique position. It's not a 12-month contract and it's a a daily It's based off the daily rate is how
they how they do the tiers is what I was understanding. >> Oh, it's just like there are I'm just looking at numbers. They're 10 months and there's other directors in tier three that are 10 months as well. >> So, it's a change in the daily rate if you look at the daily rate.
>> Okay. Well, I mean I I just want to make sure that they're being compensated >> as they should be. >> I agree. And this is temporary >> and so this is not final. And uh the board can put that in the language that
it requires administration to come back with a sal salary steady and I would recommend that the board approve uh what that is. Once they steady it, it's presented and that it be retroactively paid for this fiscal year as well.
But it was the way I looked at it and the way I calculated by hand, it was going to be at step 20 and then plus the $5,000 uh stipen >> and I believe it was about a little bit over 77800.
>> 77,800. Would that require a different motion then? >> I I would suggest we don't do a different motion. I think everybody on the board can hold Mr. Rome's accountable to what he's promising tonight. Um I think we all understand what he's trying to do. I think it would
be simpler not to amend the motion to include all that you said. >> Yes, sir. >> Okay. Any further questions or discussion? >> No. >> Can I can I point out one thing? The
director zero and the director one, those are supposed to say director one in both places. There was some confusion there, but down below it says one. It should say one above to answer the question from earlier. >> Director one. I don't think that's >> at the top and then down below where it
says director. >> Oh, I see on the motion >> one says register. >> Oh, okay. >> Thank you. >> I do believe that uh it was read as director zero.
>> It was Okay. All right. Um, I'm going to make that correction and send for a vote. >> Director Hall, I believe there's a place for you to fill in. >> Yeah, there is. So is the motion supposed to be director one?
>> It should be director zero >> or director zero. >> Are you seeing it on your screen as director one? >> I see zero. Just make sure >> it should be zero. Okay. Thank you. >> Sorry. Motion passes unanimously with one obstain.
>> Thank you. Um, so it's 8 o'clock. Um, does anyone want to take a break or do we want to keep going? >> Keep going. >> Yeah, it's finished. >> Okay, we'll move on then. Um, to
>> Oh, I might have went. My screen is a little honory this evening. I apologize. There we go. Um, are you ready for me to move on? Okay. Um, to action item H, emergency policy
adoption. >> G >> G, sorry. Move on to emergency uh, action item G, emergency policy adoption. >> No. F. Okay, I
>> think F was the salary schedule. >> F was >> G is the emergency policy adoption. >> F was the salary schedule. >> The A being changed. >> Yeah, bumped everything down to what's
on your paper version. Thank you. So, >> is it FEB-R? >> Yes, it is. Thank you. >> Okay. >> I move that the board approve policy FEB-R
construction procurement and management for 90-day emergency adoption certain 7226. >> I second. So um these four or three uh policies that were um adopting under the
emergency policy uh procedure FEB-R DJ DJA and DJ are all related to um purchasing procedures and large contracts and such and um working with
uh legal counsel and Mr. as they um and the policy committee uh those were edited to the satisfaction of the um legal council. As a matter of fact, FEB-R was written entirely by legal
counsel. >> Uh the policy committee didn't really have uh much input there. It's kind of hard to um go against legal. So um but anyway, that's that's what they cover. And the reason they're under emergency policy uh is because of the urgency that
we need these in regard to large contracts that are coming up or could come up very um quickly and it is namely the HBAC things uh whether whether it's um uh
getting the contractors started or whether it's uh actually getting some things to put in place. Anyway, the the purpose is the the urgency is the um
major uh HBAC situation. Uh and being able to move on a contract sooner than what would it be? Uh se September? No, even later. No, it
would be it would be after September's meeting that we could move if we followed the regular schedule on these. >> This would allow us the the district to be able to move on these right away. And um that's the emergency and the
advantage >> that would come back to the board and not done by me superintendent to start the process. Okay. Are there any questions or discussion before we vote?
>> Okay. Online voting is now available. >> I just want to be clear. Um what we're voting on is we're giving uh Mr. Ramirez the opportunity to without our approval move forward with
large contracts. >> Is that correct? >> No. just a procedure >> in the event that we do need to implement that it's already outlined how it's going to work. Is that what we're voting on? Just the changes >> first. >> Yeah. So, um >> Okay.
>> Without these changes, our district would not be allowed to take advantage of the um state vetting process for certain contractors. Uh that process allows our district to use one of those
contractors without going through the vetting process ourselves. Correct me if I misstate this. Oh, that's correct. It allows us to utilize uh state or federal vetting processes that have already been performed on certain vendors. It it
opens a uh to multiple different construction methods that the district has not had an opportunity because it only had the competitive seal bid. And >> so we're voting on just changing the actual redlinining.
>> Okay. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Just making sure I know what I'm voting on anymore. >> And the reason it's redlined is is like Mr. Lynch said, the lawyer submitted a whole new policy. This policy isn't replacing a policy. It's going to be a new one in our that we haven't had before.
>> Thank you. >> I have resent the vote. Motion passes 5 to one. result up. It'll go up. Can you hit refresh?
Just three of them. Just the fourth one is graduation. >> Did you receive the vote? D is catching up with us. There we go. item H. >> Okay. Are we ready to move on?
>> Thank you. >> Okay. >> Sorry, technology slow tonight. >> Oh, that's okay. Um, so we're uh moving on to action item H, emergency policy adoption.
Uh, DJ DJA. I move that we approve the policy DJ DJA purchasing and purchasing authority for 90-day emergency adoption starting 7:226.
Are there questions or discussion about this one? >> Can I assume that it's kind of falls within the same >> line of what is needed like all all three policies are probably going to be something to that effect. Correct. >> Correct.
>> Yes, that's correct. it. Um, one of the problems with the policy package of over 400 policies we have, um, more than one policy touches on a subject quite often. >> Um, so just a question. It says in this,
however, any single non-budgeted purchase or expenditure greater than $25,000 should require approval. What was that number before? It should be right there. >> Yeah, this one just has red. It doesn't have the red line.
Uh, one of the one of the things we also did is tried to uh carry similar language across uh policies that deal with the same thing. I believe that number uh is also
in one of the other two policies if I remember correctly. And so this is just um that should have been because the black language says greater than. There should have been an amount crossed out there. I don't know why it's not.
>> I'm checking the policy on file. >> Oh, thank you. >> It's DJ DJA. >> Yeah. >> Yeah, >> that's what I think it was too. Is the sentence say however is any single non-budgeted purchase or expenditure greater than 5,000?
>> Is that right above that? I think >> it it used to be 5,000 for the local and 10,000 for the federal. There were two two different policies. >> Okay. >> This one the only thing that's quoted is the 5,000. There's not >> the local. It's not the federal. Yeah.
>> So I guess that's why they added that. So this 125,000 is state and federal amounts of amended state of federal amounts. >> So the federal purchasing is a whole other thing. If you're using federal funds, it you have to follow your
policy, but the federal policy supersedes it and they have very specific thresholds for microurchases and simplified acquisitions >> and full [snorts] bids. So even if our policy says this, a federal if the conditions of the federal money are you
have to follow the the federal >> um um I have a question about um a nonbudgeted purchase. So I'm a little bit confused about why
some items come before the board for approval and some do not. So for example um you know we approved Panorama like when we approved this um title funding some of those had been approved individually by the board and some of
them had not some of them were recurring expenses that we didn't approve and then some were new expenses that we never that we had never approved. >> Right. And so the application for the 26
27th fiscal year for federal, you saw a spreadsheet first that created some questions. And so you're seeing all those things budgeted. So once the board approves that, then it won't come back to the board because it has budget authority to go ahead and expend it for that topic. But when it doesn't have
specificity naming what that is and the and we didn't have the software financial software that the descripture the description on the uh accounting string would have that vendor or that product or whatever you the board approved that the administration
recommended when you approve that uh grant or general budget. So once the general budget or whether it's the general budget operation or the federal and it has that specificity and gets approved then it won't come back to the board for approval because the board has
already seen that and approved that. But when it's not in the budget specified it must come back to the board because the board didn't know about it. So that's the difference of why some come and some don't come to the board
>> is so up until tonight uh everything above 5,000 has come before the board. Correct. >> Correct. >> That was non-budgeted >> unless that it was already communicated when the total budget got approved for that expenditure. Then it doesn't come
back to the board because it's already >> Yeah. >> It's already vetted. So, so the scoreboard came to the board because it wasn't in the budget. >> Uh, but utility bills are in the budget and they're much higher than $5,000, but they don't come to the board because
they're part of the budget. >> Correct. >> Yeah. >> Perfect. How could I have said it better? >> And when I looked at the budget breakdown, it's very general. There are not a lot of specifics. So, I that's that's sort of what it doesn't itemize.
These are the vendors we're using and that's what I've been asking for >> and and where it came comes out from since the board approved that that budget it was kind of loose but now I've made it stricter because I'm putting in
the uh budget in the description specifically you'll see the vendor names or what the product is and so that's evolving and changing. >> Okay. But you are correct, ma'am.
And that's what's confusing because it was just general. And um just to confirm, the 25,000 is consistent with state with state law that was reviewed by legal. >> It's a it's a little bit higher threshold, but it's consistent with law. Yes.
>> Okay. So, is this one also all in red because legal wrote it up pretty much themselves as well? >> The other one was. This one is not. This one, those are significant edits.
>> Suggested by legal. >> Yeah, >> I didn't hear that. >> Were they suggested by legal? All the all the changes in red, were they suggested by the legal team? >> Uh they're either recommended by legal or they're recommended by administration. I sit on the policy
committee as well. >> Our our district's attorney did review all these policies. >> I just I know we're not voting on this, but I Oh, we are voting on this. Never mind. [laughter] Sorry. Long night. Um,
I have a little bit of a hesitation from the jump from 5,000 to 25,000. Um, I I think 5,000 is pretty low. You know, uh, things cost a lot more than they did. Um, I personally,
um, would feel more comfortable if we, um, did a more gradual increase, um, than five times. Is there a reason that we need to go all
the way up to 25,000 in anyone's opinion? >> Uh I believe it's the board's decision. There's no reason, but there's no reason not to. Um uh we I think it was uh the Elizabeth district that we looked at.
Didn't they have the 25,000 as their minimum? >> Yes. Uh most extras will have 25 or 50,000. the district has just been at 5,000. You know, I don't know how that's where the threshold was. >> Yeah. I don't know how long ours has been at five.
>> I think that uh uh Miss Bradford's available by Zoom if you want to ask for her input. >> Yeah. I I I guess my feeling is we do have a lot of things coming to us for approval, but it doesn't seem to be excessive and it doesn't seem to be
taking up a lot of agenda time. Um, however, I understand that there's probably some administrative work that has to go into preparing those. Um, so, you know, my thought is
if it's already not a lot at 5,000 if we raise it to 15,000. Um, you know, we still are more to a scale than 25,000. >> Sure. It's just more of a timing because
uh it has to be at a regular meeting when the >> So I understand it's the board's a decision. I feel comfortable with the 25,000 just because I understand how things come up and sometimes decisions need to be made
and we will find out about it and you know it's >> will we find out about it? >> Yes. >> How do how are we notified? >> Uh monthly when you have the financial report and you'll see the expenditures and you need to see that more in detail
instead of general. So that's how you'll identify it as well. But I'm comfortable either way. I just want the board to be comfortable. >> Is there a way you could notify us um anything above 15,000 so that at least we're aware if the public is to ask us?
>> I could I could put it in I could put it in the weekly superintendent update. >> How many uh items a year above 5,000 are coming before the board? >> Come before the board. It varies. It
just depends on what the issue is and what the purchase is. It's very sporadic. >> Is there any other discussion or a motion to amend? I'd like to amend that number like you recommended.
>> 25 seems kind of high. >> What is What is the motion to amend? Please >> amount. >> What are the amounts? >> 10,000. I make a motion to amend the
minimum purchase price to be 10,000. >> Is there a Is there a second to the amendment? >> I second amendment. Are we discussing? >> You can at this point. Yes. >> So, at this point, we what we would be doing is is just voting on the fact that
we're going to actually amend it to 10,000 from 25,000 to 10,000. So, we're going to vote vote on that. Um if if there's no discussion >> any further discussion on the amendment. >> Okay. Go ahead. >> Okay. We're voting to amend.
Online voting is now available. We have a tie vote. So it falls to the floor. >> Correct. Which means that the amendment did not pass. >> Correct. So the original motion is back on the table. It stands as it was made.
>> So now we vote on that to vote for or against based on the original amount. >> Correct. >> There's no Is there any further discussion before we vote on this? >> No, but I think I just want to kind of highlight um I say no and then I keep
talking. Goodness gracious, it must be after 8:30. Um [laughter] um I really think that given the $5,000 amount and and the rising of inflation over time in just the last eight years
or 10 years, I think it's been a little it's been a very steep incline. And so I can see the validity of the $25,000. One thing when I look at the the way that the voting is going so far, I I just want to make sure that everybody is
aware that this is an e these are an emergency policies that they find urgent enough to to bring to us as an emergency. So, if we're wanting to get it passed, then we probably should have it at a at a
number that everybody agrees on. >> Director Hall, to your point, you also this is only going to be a 90-day emergency policy. So, for it to be permanent, it will have to be resubmitted anyway. And maybe upon the resubmit that could be discussed.
>> Thank you. on and to clarify um after thinking about the emergency policy procedure uh the only way we can ratify it is without change because we are if we adopt it
tonight then we can only ratify it within 90 days without change. We can't change it and then ratify it because it didn't happen when we said it happened. So, I don't know if that makes sense or not, but if if we want a different
number in there and we pass this tonight and decide not to ratify it, we have to um vote again on a on a changed policy, an amended policy. So, if that's going to happen, um we
would need to do it pretty quick under an emergency policy procedure. So, Otherwise, it's going to take a long time. >> I move to amend it to $20,000.
>> I'll second. >> There's no discussion. When you're ready, send the vote. Did you say $20,000? >> Correct. And who was my second? I was >> Justine. >> Justine. Okay. I should have looked up.
Sorry. We are voting to amend online voting is now available. >> I believe that's not correct. >> So the it's uh from 20 policy to 20,000 instead of 25,000.
>> Oh, thank you. Thank you. >> Um I'm going to resend that. Tell me if it it's sort of changed. >> There we go. >> Okay. Thank you for catching that. >> Yes, I need to refresh. >> Can you refresh? >> Well, there's
>> motion ties. That falls to the floor. I move to amend it to to amend the greater sorry I move to amend it to $15,000 instead of $25,000. >> I'll second
>> point of clarification. What was the first amendment? >> 10 10 >> 10. Okay, because we can't do that again. [snorts] >> [laughter] >> We should have just brought >> Who was the second? Justine. Thank you.
We're voting to amend. Online voting is now available. Can you refresh? >> There we go. >> Did you get it? >> Yeah. Uh there's no further discussion. Let's vote on the amended motion. Okay, let me
set that up. >> And you don't need to give the details. You can just say as amended. Okay. >> As amended tonight, not as amended before. just as amended. >> As amended at this meeting?
>> Do I need to have the original wording and then say as amended? >> I don't think Oh, what do you mean >> the original wording that >> of the motion? >> Yeah. >> Yeah. you need to, you know, the motion was to adopt the policy and then as
amended at this meeting. >> Okay, that's not the original. Okay, I'm sorry. I grabbed the wrong original motion. Who was the original second? >> I was you. You made the motion >> on the on the original.
>> Oh, on the original. >> Was it me? Might have been me. >> I have to put it in again. Director Blair. Okay, >> I'll change it later if I'm wrong. Online voting is now available.
>> Sorry. Thank you for your patience. If you could add amend as amended at this meeting. >> Sorry if I vote it. >> No, you're fine. It think I need to resend that. I think it'll show up in the meeting notes that way. Do you want me to res send it?
>> Yes, please. >> Yes, that's correct. Okay, >> thank you. >> Motion passes unanimously. >> Thank you. >> Okay, moving on to um emergency policy adoption DJ bidding
procedures. I move to approve the emergency policy of DJ bidding procedures. >> I second. >> Do we need to change this as well? because it's also referring small purchases procedures with the same
amount >> that talks about getting a bid. >> Yeah. So, this one seems separate. So, the other one was non-budgeted amounts before the board. >> This is when it has to be going through a formal bid process. I see.
>> Yeah. Yeah, >> but but there is a recommendation for competitive quotations. Do we have a second? >> We have a second. >> Is this discussion? >> Yeah, we're discussing.
>> Is this a new or a um modified policy. >> It's a new policy. >> Okay. >> Parameters guardrails to make sure that we follow >> this is this is an edited policy
>> but the regulation is almost completely new. We didn't have that. Let's >> see. >> Yeah, the regulation was new. This one I believe is >> Oh, okay. because this policy is all in red. >> Yeah. Adopted 2022. >> Yeah. So, this one was completely rewritten.
>> Oh, yeah. >> Um, we did that because we made so many edits um that the wording it was completely swapped out. >> Made it more it just made it more clear to redo the whole thing.
>> Yeah. Sorry. Sorry. I >> It's okay. So for this one was uh who was [clears throat] this written by legal as well? >> Yes, >> this one was written by legal. Okay. >> And I see the provision for the
cooperative purchasing. >> Did I see that in this one? Cooperative p purchasing number three. >> Yeah, number three. Okay, >> that's >> okay. Does the previous one have the um provision requirement requiring criminal
background checks for people providing services to children or students? Or is that a new It's under contract terms. >> It's always been around. I I figured and hoped that that was the
case that that wasn't brand new. You ready to vote? Go ahead. >> Online voting's now available. >> Just waiting for Josh. [laughter] >> We can't hear him. >> Oh, sorry. Now online voting is
available. Motion passes unanimously. Okay, moving on to uh emergency policy adoption IKF-E-1 2009 graduation requirements 2009 and beyond. >> I have an error in the motion. I move
that the board approve uh emergency policy adoption IKF-e-1 2029 graduation requirements 2029 and beyond. >> I second.
>> So you may recognize this policy. We >> we discussed it. >> We uh we passed this uh I think at our last meeting as an emergency policy and
it was spotted that uh both the policy committee and the high school administration missed a key point that was supposed to be in there and it had to do with uh is it IAP? >> Yeah.
>> Yeah. So, um, we had to do this all over again with the IAP included. I hope we got it right this time. Did you look at it? >> It looks right to me. Yes. I just want to It's a little small. Come up. Just
make double sure this time. >> Yes. Thank you. There any questions or discussion? Are we ready for the vote? >> Where is that? Online voting's now available. Motion passes unanimously.
Moving on to uh school calendar 2026 2027 revision. >> I move that we approve the school calendar 2026 2027 revision.
There's a calendar cover letter too. >> 2026 2027. Is that what I said? >> There's a cover letter in there, too. >> I think that's just for board information. >> Okay. Yep.
>> Do we have a second? >> A second. >> Is there discussion? We've talked about all these before, correct? These >> We've talked about these changes. >> Yes. >> In the past. It's the six week. >> These are new changes. >> These are new changes compared to the
one we voted on in June. >> They're not adding any additional contract days. We took some full days and made them half days, but it gives the staff an opportunity every six weeks grading period to meet as a staff and
make decisions about going forward for the next six weeks. >> Mr. Schmidt, would you like to add anything? only that the requested changes were were made as a result of one of our campus leadership teams coming to the
superintendent and requesting those changes so that they could have the time after those six week grading periods and after considering that we decided to bring that to the board for for your approval. >> Did the leadership sorry speaking of 8:30 did the leadership team get input
from teachers on that? Was that a recommendation from teachers as well? Go ahead. >> It was it came from that campus principal and their leadership team and in meeting here this year. So
it was campus generated for the request to modify the previously board approved student calendar. So what we're trying to communicate is that we listened, we agreed with it, and we're here before the board to approve it.
>> I There was a calendar that was put forth and student or and teachers were asked for input. Teachers gave input and that calendar this was back in in in the spring that calendar was adjusted according to teacher input. Um
the calendar has changed almost every month since then. We have a full day less than a month out. My personal opinion, we need to draw the line somewhere and be respectful to
staff and cut it off. And I don't think late July is too soon to say we're going to respect staff. You guys have families. You have
travel plans. There are things that you need to do. Um, we are going to stick to the calendar that we just approved last month. Um, I I I think we need to draw the line
somewhere. Otherwise, it seems that the trend is that we, you know, just keep changing the calendar. And I I don't think that's fair. Um the changes that are on this calendar, are they uh for days in the
summer or for days during the school year or it's during the school year? We took uh one full day uh and made it two half days to cover two different six weeks. And then the
14th is a full day because >> that's August 14th. >> August 14th is a full day because of the evolving thing with the NES training and implementation >> and the request came from staff.
>> The request came from the principal and all his leadership team which is composed of teachers. Uh and the 14th came from the district level because of the education partners. We all the elementary teachers need a
training on it. And so they'll while we have uh Thursday and Friday of this week with the elementary principles and their leadership teams, all the rest of the elementary teachers have not had any training on it. And school starts on
the 10th. And so would you to have that for all the elementary school? >> Yeah. So my my impression is um way back in I don't know when it started March um this uh the the concept was uh
at a high level at a 30,000 foot level uh after learning about Mike Miles and the Houston uh school district um that's a model that we should try because we we could get the same benefits and
achievement than them. And it's taking um several iterations to work out the details all that are involved in bringing that model to our district which involve all kinds of changes. And
so um as as things are tweaked as uh for instance the the presentation tonight as those people are going to be brought on and now you have their availability and so on and so forth. those details become more and more solid and um almost
require uh adjusting in order to to make it work. >> Yes, sir. And it's painful. I wish we didn't have to do it, but it's how we're evolving and getting better at it. Uh but the other uh so instead of a couple
of full days of PD that was previously approved with teach all the teacher input all the staff input I hear Dr. Dit and what she's saying as well but it will not for the rest of this year it will not
change but next year when we solicit all the staff again input that it'll be that way and will be changed. >> Yeah. because there will be new initiatives. These initiatives will be in place for a three to five year period to get
unless there needs to be some course correction there that we find out that's not effective. We'll be back to the board. >> I I think it's a pretty significant change for teachers to have two half days instead
of a full day. um if they have travel plans. I think adding a full day less than a month out. We knew we were doing NES back when the board approved it in May. Um you know, I would I would recommend planning ahead um and being
respectful to the staff. Um >> I agree with you, Dr. Dwit. I couldn't see into the future on some of these changes that are coming and they're a reality that I have to address. And uh I I think that I can extend notice to
anybody who has that exception that I can work with them and honor if they need to be off that full day. But there's a trade-off and I'm I'm willing to do that on the teachers. >> Yeah. And the the trade-off I have heard
from many staff both current and re and and retired who've said this is um a consistent thing that keeps happening um over the years. It's not just this past year, not just the past six months
that a calendar is given and being revised. So I think at some point we need to make it final. >> I think it's been the best calendar so far and well accepted by the staff and I agree and They didn't sign up for it to be changed and I didn't either, but uh I
think it's something that I'll communicate with the staff and beg forgiveness, but explain why and then I'll extend that olive branch if they need to have that full day because of previous plans. So, I think that's uh how teams work collaboratively and have
that understanding. And so if they can have what they had already planned, then they're happy and I'm happy and we'll work on how we can catch them up. >> Mr. Mayor, can I add a piece? Uh >> uh one of the things that staff, both
teachers and principles have requested is that when we have initiatives that we're implementing that we provide not just an initial PD but follow-up PDS uh throughout the course of the year to make sure that those things are being implemented correctly that that concerns
or questions are addressed. Um one of the reasons for this requested change is for that very thing. The 14th of August, as an example, um is an opportunity for us to have a full day of training with teachers for the NES implementation. Without that 14th day of August, we're
waiting until we're multiple days into the school year or multiple weeks, I should say, before they receive that training. Um so there's some other initiatives that they would have some ongoing training with like Panorama um as an example. Um some of our assessment
platforms as another example. And so I would say that this change, although it's late and although it's not something that maybe all staff will want to have happen late, it is also serving a need and and it's also addressing a
concern that staff have had. >> This is something that could have been foreseen at the last calendar revision. You knew that you were implementing the NES. Um you would have known that there would have been >> Oh, we wouldn't know. We didn't know about NES. We didn't even have them on
the radar. This just developed. >> We approved NES in May. >> No, no, not NES. I'm sorry. Education Partners. >> But you were going to send staff into the classroom with no training on >> No, we were hustling all summer to try to get all this alignment.
>> So, if there's a new initiative, I would recommend to plan for that. And you don't need to know who's coming, but to plan for that. Um, I think the lack of planning is impacting staff and um, >> I I hear you. I understand what you're
saying, but I respectfully disagree. Thank you. >> Can I add one tidbit? I'm in the audience. >> Um, I I think we're >> Yeah, please do. >> I just want to say one quick thing about
March. Um we rely heavily on training for SAT and PSAT CAMS in March and April and there wasn't a PD day at all um in March. So that was one of the changes that we do need. Um I won't say anything
else about that but that one is a real need. There any other questions or comments? Online voting is now available. We have a tie. The motion fails. Moving on to our last agenda item. L step placement.
Is there a motion? >> I move that the board approve the step placement adjustments as presented. >> I second. Is there board discussion? So what was the change from last time
>> and step placements? >> Yes, >> it says it right. >> I know it's just I thought we approved it. We approved the salary schedule >> for this particular um motion. The the administration is not requesting a
change of the salary schedule. There was I think three maybe four individuals listed there. Three who with the um stratification of the salary schedule and trying to keep the raises consistent
between all staff members that they were not getting an equivalent raise. And so in order to do that we would need to do a step adjustment. And that that raise amount for salaried staff was based on the the raise the daily rate that teachers received and
then it was multiplied by the number of days worked for people that worked more than 163 days. And that's how we applied it to all other staff in the district. We just need to we're asking we can do it for these three as well. So, I'm a little confused because the
staff raises have come strictly from the levy override funds, not from general fund. So, the voters and taxpayers have made it clear that they want a higher compensation for teachers in order to recruit and retain quality educators.
So, um but they did not approve that or wasn't asked for for other employees. um non-classroom employees. So why do uh it's why does that have to be marked
to the teachers uh salary? >> That was the methodology that was used to make the recommendation for the salary increases. Um you're correct. The mill levy doesn't apply to other positions other than paired professionals and teachers. But
as we worked on proposing to the board what we were requesting for other positions, we wanted to make the raise commensurate with what teachers were receiving regardless of the funding source of that raise. Was
that language added at all when requests and increases or passage of the mill levy that if teachers received increases that everybody else would need to receive an increase as well?
I I just don't understand the the need for stratification when the request was for one demographic in the school for the teachers to receive better salaries and that was the mill the purpose of passing the mill levy.
I don't understand why the continued changes in steps and increases in salaries because it would match or produce good stratification. I just don't understand why it has why it has to trickle to
all aspects of salaries when the mill levy was for one purpose. And it wasn't necessarily meant to say that everybody else was going to be I mean I'm not saying that people do not deserve yearly increases. What I mean is that
it seems like it going above and beyond not just focusing on how are providing for these teachers, but that everybody else has to get this. And I respect every single position in this
district. And I also think that we at some point we stop don't necessarily have to do this of increasing everybody's salaries. The teachers are not making that much
money. So, I know this is a lot bigger discussion than, you know, when we talk about raises for teachers, raises for positions. We're not asking for tonight for an adjustment to the salary schedule for other categories. Specifically, all we're asking for tonight is there were
three positions that were not um equally compensated with the raises in the same manner that all other positions in the district were at the time that that was approved. And so the only way to fix that would be a
multiplestep increase because the reason that was caused was out of an attempt to stratify the salary schedule to make it more fair and more comparable to other districts and more comparable to um and to keep up
with market uh changes in in salary. um our directors and our coordinators, for example, um and our enter school administration were far below other districts, much farther below other districts than our teachers were. And that's not to make the I'm not trying to say teachers didn't also need a raise.
I'm just making you know other people need to have a competitive wage as well. Just just going off memory, I know that the two of two two of the three were the starting salary even with the on that salary schedule the the starting
salary was as a daily rate was actually it was about 5% less than a starting teacher salary and both of those are but both of those are the top two on the list.
So, can we just have a salary schedule where we don't have to skip steps for some people? Can we come up with a salary schedule where that's what it is? Um, and it's applied uniformly.
Um, and Mr. Ramirez, I believe, is that what you were alluding to when you said that you're going to get some outside help on that? Yes, because you these uh step double increase or however many steps is
because of the dysfunction of the current salary scales and it needs to be remediated and fixed. It just wasn't this, but we were talking about another uh salary scale earlier in the board meeting tonight. So, those are symptoms
of of things that need to be fixed. Yes, ma'am. >> I'm not sure if it's a policy issue or not, but um I to my understanding there were inconsistencies um in hires um with steps. Um it's been
brought to my attention from multiple staff members. Um that's something that I'd like to us to delve into a little bit more at another time. >> Sure. >> The one thing >> soon. Another time soon. >> Yeah.
Another thing to consider is anytime you move from one salary schedule to another um one type of salary schedule to another it's very difficult when you have so many categories of employees classified certified administrative
um to have that change equally apply across the board without any outliers that happen that happened the another a previous time five years ago when the salary schedule was created. It's it doesn't work perfect for every single employee when a salary
schedule is amended. >> Maybe we need to get some stricter policies just with um just hiring and what the process is at what step they come in and whose discrepancy it is that the step they enter in based on their experience or their education and things
like that. Um apparently or from my understanding there have been discrepancies on hiring um previous staff employees, teachers um and questionable steps when others were hired at a different step. Um I don't
know what the policy is and I'm not sure if the board needs to approve it. I think we need to find some policy stronger policy around that to find fair to bring fairness for the hires. Um, and I think that will help align the what
you'd like to do as well. Everybody, >> we can certainly look into that piece. >> And Director Montate, one of the new things you'll see this month is HR when they submitted the monthly employment list to you guys, they've added a previous step and a current step just so
that that can help you with your monitoring. >> We'd like to know what step they're hired at and why they were hired at that step when they came in. based on their experience and their education. >> You'll definitely know the step.
>> I think it might be on the directors individually if they need further information >> or if they've deviated from the actual policy and when the board approved that particular step increase and things like that. Just want to make sure it's consistent for all staff members and
fair for everyone. >> And I believe Rhonda can correct me. I think the place to go to get that procedure. It's not necessarily a policy, but the procedure is it's written on the salary schedule when you approve it. >> Thank you.
>> Is there any further discussion or are we ready for a vote? >> Okay, go ahead, D. Online voting's now available. motion passes 4 to two. See if we can put those results up.
Oh, it did it and then we ruined it. [laughter] >> Okay. Sometimes it doesn't show me that button. So that's why sometimes I don't show you. Let's see. >> I'll wait for those to come up before we
adjourn. Okay. Uh the time is 9:05. It is July 21st, 2026 and the meeting is adjourned. Thank you for everyone who attended and watched virtually. Did you say it was 900?